COLLEGE STATION- “It appears we are at the bottom of the housing market in most Texas cities,” said Real Estate Center Director Mark Dotzour after reviewing the state’s latest home sale numbers.

Dotzour mentioned two years ago that new home construction needed to fall dramatically to avoid the level of overbuilding that could damage Texas housing markets. He even picked summer 2009 as the bottom of the housing cycle because bankers would constrain credit to homebuilders and developers.

Apparently he was right on all counts. The Texas inventory of unsold new and existing homes is in good shape.

“I feel now is the time to buy a house in most Texas cities,” he said. “Housing affordability has never been higher, and I never thought I would see 5 percent mortgages in my lifetime. If you plan to live in the house for at least two or three years, now is the time to buy.

“If you are planning to build a home to retire to in the near future, now is a great time to do it. Contractors are plentiful, construction costs are lower and mortgage money is cheap,” he said.

Dotzour said mortgage rates should remain low as long as the federal government continues to purchase almost all residential mortgages. When they stop, rates will move up.

The Center’s chief economist is quick to note, however, that everything hinges on one crucial assumption – “that the federal government doesn’t cause further damage to the U.S. economy with higher levels of intervention in healthcare, taxation, cap and trade and rewriting accounting and legal standards.”

http://recenter.tamu.edu/mnews/newsSearch.asp?MODE=RECON&CID=3745

WASHINGTON (Nation’s Building News) – The Texas Department of Housing and Community Affairs has introduced two loan programs designed to help first-time homebuyers apply the new $8,000 tax credit toward down payments and closing costs.

The 90-Day Down Payment Assistance Program and the Mortgage Advantage Program will allow consumers to receive a short-term loan before filing for and receiving the federal tax credit. Consumers can apply these loans toward down payments and closing costs.

Both programs provide assistance of up to 5 percent on the first lien mortgage, but the 90-day program maxes out at $7,000 while the Mortgage Advantage Program’s limit is $6,000.

Repayment times also vary for the two programs, at 90 days and 120 days, respectively.

More information about these programs is available at the Texas Department of Housing and Community Affairs’ website.

SAN ANTONIO (San Antonio Express-News) – In a sign that the credit crisis might be beginning to thaw in Texas, JPMorgan Chase reported Wednesday that it issued more than 300,000 new loans and lines of credit totaling $6.4 billion during the first three months of 2009.
The bank awarded $2.4 billion for 12,826 home mortgages, up 24 percent from the previous quarter.
JPMorgan Chase also made $182 million worth of loans to 473 small businesses and $1.7 billion in new and renewed credit to midsized businesses, large companies and other agencies.

HOUSTON (Houston Business Journal) – Thirty-year mortgage rates fell to 4.78 percent Friday, hitting their lowest level since Freddie Mac started tracking rates in 1970.
Adjustable-rate mortgages also eased, but one-year, adjustable-rate mortgages are averaging rates nearly the same as 30-year fixed rates, at 4.77 percent.
Freddie Mac officials reported borrowers who refinanced their mortgages in the first quarter reduced their combined mortgage payments by about $2.5 billion over the coming year.

WASHINGTON (U.S. Environmental Protection Agency) – Texas’ four major metros are among the 25 U.S. cities that boasted the most Energy Star-certified buildings last year.
Houston had 145 such buildings, the most of any Texas city, ranking it third on the list, which was compiled by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA). Dallas-Fort Worth ranked fifth with 126 buildlings.
Austin, with 77 buildings, ranked 13th, and San Antonio, with 56, ranked 16th.
In 2008, more than 3,300 commercial buildings and manufacturing plants nationwide earned the Energy Star, representing savings of more than $1 billion in utility bills and more than seven million metric tons of carbon dioxide emissions. These buildings include schools, hospitals, office buildings, courthouses, grocery stores, retail centers and auto assembly plants.
According to the EPA, the energy efficient buildings in Texas’ four large metros resulted in a total savings of $130.7 million. The emissions savings were equivalent to the electricity used by 109,000 households.
The EPA’s complete list is available online.

SANTA ANA, CALIF. (First American CoreLogic) – Texas continues its trend of weathering the recession better than most other states. The state’s major metros top the nation in home price appreciation over the last year.

Austin–Round Rock leads the country’s largest core-based statistical areas (CBSA) in home price appreciation with a 3.7 percent increase in 2008, according to First American CoreLogic.

Houston–Sugar Land–Baytown experienced a price appreciation of 3.3 percent over the last year, putting it right behind Austin–Round Rock.

Dallas-Plano-Irving homes appreciated 1.92 percent and San Antonio’s homes 0.17 percent, putting them third and fourth in the nation.

Only one other major CBSA, Denver-Aurora, Colo., showed an increase in home price, according to CoreLogic.

Of the 958 smaller communities the study observed, College Station–Bryan experienced the sixth highest home price appreciation, with an increase of 6.78 percent.

Overall, Texas homes saw an appreciation of 1.83 percent in 2008, putting the Lone Star State sixth among all state rankings.

TEXAS (Builder) – Five Texas cities swept the top spots on Builder magazine’s list of “Healthiest Housing Markets for 2009.”

Houston ranked first, Austin second, Fort Worth third, San Antonio fourth and Dallas fifth.

Rounding out the top ten were Raleigh, N.C., Seattle, Indianapolis, Ind., Fayetteville, Ark., and Washington D.C.

To compile the list, Builder analyzed the top 75 housing markets in the country, ranking them based on population trends and job growth, perennial drivers of housing demand. They also looked at home prices and the number of building permits.

AUSTIN (Austin American-Statesman) – A third-quarter increase in builder-issued residential permits is a sign of the capital’s new-home market stabilizing, according to Houston-based Bohlke Consulting Group LLC.

The single-family residential permit tracking firm reported that a total of 2,185 permits were issued between July and September, a 9.2 percent increase over the same period last year.

It was the strongest quarter in more than a year, according to the firm’s vice president of consulting services, Gary Bohlke. This was despite a 45.3 decrease in permits in September from the year’s peak in July.

Bohlke expects builders to seek 6,700 to 7,000 permits this year, up from 2008 numbers.

The wait is finally over. The Tax credit has been extended until April 30th, 2010. Click for the full story.