"The good news for Texas so far is that home prices continue to appreciate, unlike in other areas of the country. The National Association of Realtors (NAR) reports that the national median home price in 2007 declined for the first time since the 1960s, when they began tracking the data. By contrast, Texas’ median home price in-creased by 3.1 percent. The Office of Federal Housing Enterprise Oversight (OFHEO) reported an annual increase of 2.5 percent for Texas in first quarter 2008 versus a 3.1 percent national decline in its purchase-only housing index.
Maintaining home values throughout the state has been critical in minimizing the impact of mortgage loan defaults and foreclosures. Other areas of the country with significant home price declines are, not surprisingly, leading the country in foreclo-sures. In Texas, borrowers who experience financial difficulties at least have some chance of refinancing the loan or selling the house before foreclosure rather than finding themselves "upside down" on the value relative to the loan."
Last fall the city council of Austin passed a mandatory energy audit on houses 10 years and older. The mandatory audit is to disclose the energy efficiency of the property. The effective date is July 2009 and the expense will be approximately $100 for the audit. This is the first of what we are told will be the norm of every city and community in the very near future.
5- 10 years from now when the financial crisis has ended and housing prices are up once more, we will look in the rear view mirror and realize that we missed the golden age for buying the dream home or being the "first time home buyer".
Smart people say, that moment of knowing we have hit rock bottom is only indicated by the time when everyone is the most pessimistic. That moment is certainly getting closer.
Identity theft is one of the fastest growing crimes in the U.S. It occurs when someone steals your personal information, which can include your social security, driver's license and credit card numbers and so on. Entities that have had their databases compromised include the Department of Veteran's Affairs and University of Texas School of Business. The common fear among victims is that these thieves will use their personal data to access bank accounts, open new credit cards, obtain long distance calling accounts or take out loans.
Compliance is now the buzzword when it comes to the mortgage lending industry. The industry, after the huge fall-out, is now going back to the way it used to do business. Proof of income, proof of assets and good to excellent credit scores are once again the benchmarks by which consumers are able to obtain loans. Gone are the days where you just had to have a pulse (in some states a pulse was not even needed) to qualify for a loan. 560 credit scores, stated income, stated assets and 100% financing are no longer viable. People who never should have qualified to begin with will no longer qualify. The market needed a correction and lenders have tightened their purse strings. The sub-prime market is gone and dead….for now.
What started out as a blog post on ActiveRain, by Stefan Swanepoel, asking readers to nominate women they thought were influential in the real estate industry quickly turned into a hot topic that attracted over 11,000 views and spilled over into other real estate networks such as RealTown and Inman Community.
The Texas State Chapter of Women's Council of Realtors held their annual installation in San Antonio, Texas at the Hyatt Regency on September 7, 2008. Sandra Hunt, long time Champions School of Real Estate Instructor, was installed as the new 2009 Texas WCR State President at this event. The Women’s Council of Realtors is a network of successful REALTORS® empowering women to exercise their potential as entrepreneurs and industry leaders.
