“Not Enough Buyers” In Texas
The Star Telegram reports from Texas. “Buying a home? Even in some of Tarrant County’s most-popular neighborhoods, the ball is in your court these days. After years of steady increases, sales of existing homes in North Texas decreased in the first quarter this year. The same trend is happening in these neighborhoods.”
“Woodland West, (a) middle-class Arlington neighborhood of more than 600 homes follows the overall North Texas trend of a rise in sales, then a drop in 2007. Sellers had similar asking prices in the first quarters of 2005 and 2007. But the selling price was a different story. The average homeowner dropped the price $4,000 to make the sale this year. Two years ago, the average seller cut $2,315 off the price.”
“‘There aren’t too many [houses] that go for full price,’ agent Penny Bradshaw said of the North Texas market.”
“Park Glen, near one of the Metroplex’s most-active home-building areas, has faced stiff competition from builders, homes resold after foreclosure, and homes sold to avoid foreclosure, said agent Jo Ann Anderson.”
“Fort Worth: Fairmount. There has been heavier discounting in the first quarter of 2007, the most significant on Lipscomb Street with a $20,500 discount on a $70,000 listing and a $19,500 discount on a $140,000 Adams Street listing.”
“During the same quarter of 2006, it was more likely the exact opposite happened. A $245,000 listing on Adams Street fetched $18,130 more than the asking price after just more than three months on the market, and a $119,000 listing on Sixth Avenue sold for $135,000 in five days.”
“In the first quarter of 2005, six of 11 homes were discounted off their asking price and none sold for more.”
“It’s rare for a home to be so popular that sellers are bidding the price up, real estate agents said. It is not unusual these days for buyers to ask sellers to pay their closing costs as a condition of the sale, said Steve Young, chairman-elect of the Arlington Board of Realtors.”
“A Star-Telegram examination of sales data from several popular Tarrant County neighborhoods shows that a large percentage of homes sell with some kind of seller concession. In more than half or more of the closed listings in most of the areas, the buyer bought the house for less than the list price, the MLS data show.”
“Area real estate agents say buyers have a lot to choose from as the peak home-selling season approaches. For sellers to catch the eye of summer buyers, local real estate agents offer the following tips: Don’t get too aggressive with your price. Not only are homeowners competing against their neighbors for buyers, home builders are trying to unload their inventory.”
“Many neighborhoods also have foreclosures that are back on the market, which are priced for the lender to unload quickly.”
The El Paso Times. “El Paso’s hot real estate market has cooled a bit in the past couple of months, in part due to tighter mortgage financing requirements caused by the growing number of foreclosures nationwide, some in El Paso’s real estate industry reported.”
“‘The inventory (of homes on the market) is increasing significantly across the city,’ said Charles DeWetter, president of one of El Paso’s largest real estate firms. ‘The pace of the last two or three years, you list a home and sell it in a few days, those days are gone.’”
“The number of out-of-town investors coming into the market to buy homes has also slowed, DeWetter and others said.”
“Realtor Elizabeth Leal, said, ‘Last year, I closed on over $10 million (in home sales). It was just crazy. This year, I’ve got houses, but not enough buyers.’ Leal said she’s seen prices dropping this year on home listings as the number of homes on the market increases.”
“‘All the underwriting rules have changed. It’s harder to get a 100 percent loan now,’ said Elena Mata, president of an El Paso mortgage brokerage firm.”
“Last week, 3,264 homes were listed for sale on the El Paso Multiple Listing Service, which includes most existing homes on the El Paso market, and some new homes. DeWetter said probably half that number of homes were on the market a year ago.”
“Yvonne and Owen Corkran expected to have their home sold by now. Instead, they’ve had to drop the price of their four-bedroom, 2,350-square-foot East Side home from $212,000 when they put it on the market in August to $179,900 today. They plan to move to a newly constructed home in May.”
“‘I think if we had done it (put house on the market) sooner, I think it would have gone,’ Yvonne Corkran said. ‘Now, there’s more to choose from. ‘Two new homes just popped up for sale’ near their house, and many new homes are being built on the far East Side, she said. ‘It’s been kind of a nightmare.’”
“‘We buried (a statue of) St. Joseph in the backyard, and blessed the house with holy water,’ she said. ‘We’ve done everything we could think of.’”
‘ It’s no secret that Dallas-Fort Worth has become one of the home foreclosure capitals of the universe. Even with the slowdowns, Dallas-Fort Worth’s biggest builders are putting up thousands of houses.’
‘The top builder in the local market – Fort Worth-based D.R. Horton – increased its starts here about 15 percent. Horton began work on 4,840 D-FW homes, according to statistics from Residential Strategies. The No. 2 local builder was Centex, with 3,043 starts.’
“…but we’ve still got a ways to go before we top the housing crunch this area suffered in the late 1980s. Home foreclosures were even worse back in the day.”
Ya’all jes’ be patient now, ya hear?
Some of these big Home Builders will go bankrupt by building into a PR based false bottom. They are executing their plans based on a “strong economy” driven half way decent spring selling season that didn’t and won’t materialize. All those trick loans they were pushing (which drove prices crazy and made them rich) are now biting them is the butt. Some of these Home Builders will pay with their solvency and it serves them right.
in TIXIS I thought moving into a used haouse was poh poohed
You want to try that again in english? (or hell, spanish?)
the 80’s all over again…..just on steroids!!!!!!!
“‘We buried (a statue of) St. Joseph in the backyard, and blessed the house with holy water,’ she said. ‘We’ve done everything we could think of.’”
Maybe they should throw a virgin in a volcano.
I find tribal sacrifices work best for things condo.
I can’t stop laughing about those “buried a statue” and “blessed the house” comments.
I know…. Why don’t you take it off the market and rent it out at $500 a month less than your payments. Then put it back on the market 2 years from now after the market has recoveered… HA HA HA HA HA…. Oh, my side hurts from laughing…
Or you could throw in a “free” car. And a vacation!
They need to think harder…
The engine’s runnin’ but ain’t nobody driving. (Texas slang)
Oh, I don’t think she knows that the statue has to be buried upside down.
That makes complete sense considering most people are upside down in the house.
But saying that St. Jude is the patron saint of impossible situations. Maybe they should bury that one instead?
There is help a phone call away:
1-888-BURY-JOE
Hey that could be a sales incentive!
- Granite counters
- Stainless fridge
- St. Joseph’s statue pre-buried in your front yard
I should patent it before the homebuilders figure it out.
Here is their new street sign.
http://tinyurl.com/33eh34
Not “The Avenue of Saint Joseph?”
The one activity that our esteemed leader and I entusiastically support is clearing brush…
By law, I am required to clear 100 feet from any structures.
I am going to try and extend it to 200 feet this year.
My urgency?
97 degrees on April 28 is so very wrong.
Our hillsides are 75% brown already.
Got Fire!
You may fire when ready, Gridley.
It can only help the flippers!
My urgency? 97 degrees on April 28 is so very wrong.
THIS EXACTLY WHAT SAFE DEPOSIT BOX IS FOR
And a Air conditioned U store it place….
If i lived where you do…..a few dollars a month to protect your valuables, would really be CHEAP insurance.
I keep that junk all over the High Sierra.
A little here, a little there, some at high altitude, some at low altitude.
Banks burned my grandfather in Czechoslovakia in 1939.
But, but, there are realtors on the SDCIA board who insist that Texas is just booming!
TX is booming in certain areas, however I suspect they are just will turn late this year or early next year.
BTW, there are very few REALTORS on that board, it is primarily made up of re investors and sepculators. Most of whom have done well.
booming areas in TX will turn downward late this year, early next year.
Truth is, nearly all of those areas are turning now in 2Q 2007. The subprime meltdown is killing the ability of the specualtor to avoid having skin in the game. The majority of homes being bought by clownaforicans now are for them to actually live in.
Shift happens.
No it isn’t.
They need to refer potential home buyers to this guy LOL. He’s desperate to close your loan today:
http://baltimore.craigslist.org/vol/320500011.html
LMAO. LOL. OH Man my side hurts. That is too funny.
Perhaps he should volunteer to feed the homeless? Hmmm.
Maybe they should throw a virgin in a volcano.
Problem with that idea is virgins are MORE RARE than buyers in todays market.
“…virgins are MORE RARE than buyers in todays market.”
They won’t be rare once thrown into the volcano. They will be well-done in a matter of minutes.
I purposely burried a bottle of st. joseph’s children aspirin in the backyard of our house in RPV that we sold in aug’ 05′…
Might come in handy for the fb that bought it.
“‘We buried (a statue of) St. Joseph in the backyard, and blessed the house with holy water,’ she said. ‘We’ve done everything we could think of.’”
What they should have done is burned an effigy of David lereah and LAY in front of their home while a Local TV news crew filmed it.
Kurtz: I watched a snail crawl along the edge of a straight razor. That’s my dream. That’s my nightmare. Crawling, slithering, along the edge of a straight… razor… and surviving.
“Buying a home? Even in some of Tarrant County’s most-popular neighborhoods, the ball is in your court these days.”
The ball is in the buyer’s court? I guess that’s one way to look at it. Another way to look at it is that the ball only stays in your court if you don’t buy, at least for several more years. Once you buy you’re the new bagholder with the depreciating asset - congratulations on your purchase, fool.
I pity the fool!
Park Glen Garry Glen Ross?
“‘We buried (a statue of) St. Joseph in the backyard, and blessed the house with holy water,’ she said. ‘We’ve done everything we could think of.’”
How about a molotov cocktail?!
I know St. Joe is a miracle worker, but if you lowered your price it might make his work a little easier.
“Fort Worth: Fairmount. There has been heavier discounting in the first quarter of 2007, the most significant on Lipscomb Street with a $20,500 discount on a $70,000 listing and a $19,500 discount on a $140,000 Adams Street listing.”
Does not a 10 year lease on a new Hummer total out at 140k?
The article does not mention that the Fairmount area is quite a rough area. I had a friend who lived that area and re-habbed a beautiful old house, but got tired of running into her husbands clients at the grocery store. Her husband was a criminal defense lawyer.
The only redeeming quality of the area is that some properties receive a break on property taxes.
“‘We buried (a statue of) St. Joseph in the backyard, and blessed the house with holy water,’ she said. ‘We’ve done everything we could think of.’”
You haven’t tried the trusty ole hang an effigy of David Lereah in your front yard and light it on fire? : )
Hello folks. This is St. Joseph. I’m rather busy right so selling all of your homes is not a priority for me at the moment. Have you tried lowering your price so maybe I can get along with my other saintly duties?
BTW, I’m no too thrilled that millions of you are burying my likeness so could you knock it off? Thank you.
Hello folks. This is St. Anthony. I am the patron saint of lost things, so if you’re an FB who’s lost his mind, you could direct some of your prayers to me.
Thank you.
My wife had a medical residency job interview in El Paso 4 years ago. While she did her 2 day interview I had nothing better to do than drive the rental car around with the kid and look at real estate and neighborhoods. Yikes. How anyone would think El Paso is a hot real estate market is absolutely beyond me. The only remotely nice area of town was the hills northwest of the downtown area and even they were bleak. Of course it is desert landscaping but the bleak part was that all the subdivisions and building had gone in without parks, open space, or even sidewalks. I had to search long and hard to even find a public playground for my kid to play on. It’s like the built a city and forgot to put in any parks.
Las Cruces NM, about an hour away was much nicer. I can see it becoming some sort of retirement meca, but El Paso? Sheesh.
I tracked Las Cruces for months before deciding on TX…..it IS a nice town, but housing is through the roof….for what you get. COL is not bad, but when you factor is how much housing is going for these days, TX is cheaper.
One of the more bizzare stories to come out of the communist block, came from Romania, where in the 70’s and 80’s, the economy ran on the back of Lark cigarettes…
Will a St. Joseph statue economy work for us?
I have to agree. Texas is slowing down. Some homes are up for sale in my neighborhood. But the interesting point is the lack of new construction compared to last year — no one is ordering new homes from the builders.
I got my property assessment too. My property taxes will be down this year by 15%. Think it might have to do with the laws they passed reducing property tax. Still, the property taxes are high and mandatory to pay. I’d rather have a sales tax.
Still, property here is less than California and that means less at risk.
Local newspaper reports my property tax rates for one school taxing district dropped from $1.57/$100 to $1.29/$100
And the article reporting this mentioned that this would save the homeowner of the median house ($240,000) $2000 per year.
Can’t a reporter or an editor just glance at that number and see it’s wrong? (Not even adding in the loss of federal income tax deduction or any under valuation.) I don’t mind saving on taxes, but this is a $600 / yr savings at best. Beats a 10% tax increase, though.