Housing report

Interesting data on movement of housing prices across the nation...

First American CoreLogic Releases August 2008 LoanPerformance House Price Index

As of August, nominal home prices declined 11.3 percent from a year ago. Our early September view of the data indicates a decline of 11 percent from a year ago. For the third month now, the rate of decline has held steady at around 11 percent.

... “Thirty-four states are experiencing nominal price declines, with California, Arizona, Nevada and Florida leading the category in that order. Texas, South Dakota, Vermont and Mississippi stand out as states with house price appreciation. In particular, the major metropolitan areas of Texas are performing well relative to much of the rest of the country,” added Fleming.

 

Four Texas cities (Houston, San Antonio, Austin, Dallas) have been ranked in the top 10 large cities in the US in terms of job market, housing, education, and so on.

The housing market here didn't have a real bubble to begin with, so prices were not as inflated as elsewhere. I believe that was due in part to the economic slowdown a few years back. But the job market is doing better now compared to other parts of the country. The Texas economy is diversified, with a good mix of high tech, oil/gas, manufacturing, farming, and so forth. Also, there's plenty of land to build out (as opposed to California or the East Coast). So building/land cost is relatively low.

On the other hand, with the current spike in gas prices, houses closer to the city centers are getting more expensive while those farther out in the "boonies" are not selling as fast. But for sure, lots of people are moving to Texas, especially from California and Nevada.