North Texas Real Estate Blog

Southlake real estate, Colleyville real estate, and Grapevine real estate are faring pretty well, considering the 2006 Texas real estate market in general. In case you are not aware, some areas of North Texas real estate have been hit hard with decreasing home values and Texas ranked #1 nationally in numbers of foreclosures. But there is hope.

Banks and mortgage companies must have learned a hard lesson in all of this. Consequently, we see that lenders for Southlake real estate, Colleyville real estate, and Grapevine real estate are tightening requirements and being more careful to match clients with loans for their Tarrant County real estate that they will be able to handle.

Apparently, our local luxury home market has been more stable than the market for average-sized homes. With 53 beautiful homes in Southlake real estate priced over a million dollars, if we look at dollars alone, our market has been holding its own. Likewise, Grapevine real estate includes some million-dollar homes on the market.

Generally speaking, existing home sales in the United States decreased by the largest amount in nearly two decades in March 2007. Sales in the South dropped only 6.2 percent, but sales in other parts of the country dropped more: 10.9 percent in the Midwest, 9.1 percent in the West, and 8.2 percent in the Northeast.

As we said, the sobering news is that 2006 ended with an alarming 1.2+ million foreclosures in the United States, putting the riskier adjustable-rate and sub-prime mortgages under the microscope. After the initial easy monthly payment when the interest rates swing up, coupled with late payments, more people making minimum payments, and then actually ending up with a higher principal. Nothing like being swept downstream! Speaking of water, the Texas floods are also being blamed for keeping people from buying houses during the regular springtime busy season.

The increased rate of foreclosures (42 percent over 2005) may not be slowing down either. In March 2006, there were 149,000 foreclosure filings, up from February. According to Jim Gaines, a research economist at Texas A& M University’s Real Estate Center, as the mortgage industry adjusts its requirements, ebbing the tide of foreclosures may take another year or so to correct. He also pointed out the value of the option-ARM. Ninety-five percent of option-ARM buyers who may not have been able to buy using other avenues are now homeowners. Only 5 percent of the option-ARM buyers have gone to foreclosure.

All in all the market in our area is stable. Even average-priced homes are still selling strong with one caveat: Sellers need to make their houses sparkle and show well to get the attention of serious buyers. Turnkey homes are what people want; not another set of problems.