Apr 30
Foreclosures Drop in Texas
The real estate market news remains good for the Austin area, and Texas as a whole. March foreclosure numbers for Texas are down compared to last year – down about 16 percent. The March figures also show a drop of 13 percent from February 2008. When compared to the national trend – 2008 figures show a 57 percent jump in foreclosure filings from 2007 – the Austin market is strong indeed. In fact, the national foreclosure trend continues to climb: up 5 percent in March 2008 from February 2008. Bank repossessions were up a staggering 129 percent.
In Austin, market conditions are holding steady still. Active listings are up, but so are median sales prices – about 5 percent. This makes for a market that is slightly more advantageous to the buyer as the inventory is high and the average price of a single family home has remained steady and, in some cases, actually dropped slightly.
We may be looking at the end of the nationwide slump, also, as prices seem to be bottoming out and the government reports that prices have crept up slightly recently. Inventories are still high, but the buyers have been showing interest again. The major mortgage bankers have been working to keep interest rates under 6 percent, as applications for loans are beginning to rise again. The FHA reports that applications for mortgages have jumped 3.5 percent. Freddie Mac plans to put up to 15 billion dollars into slumping markets.
While Austin has been affected in some small measure by the national real estate slump, things look to be well in hand for an imminent growth period in the next year and beyond.
