Forbes Top-10 Best Performing Housing Markets

As anybody who has ever sold real estate knows, there are no national markets, only local markets.

The adage holds true when you look at the condition of the real estate business nationwide. Business may be tough in many places, but it’s not tough all over.

In Salt Lake City, Charlotte, N.C., and San Jose, Calif., prices have climbed relentlessly.

In the Northeast, the biggest gainers are the gritty cities of Buffalo, N.Y., Pittsburgh, Pa., and Philadelphia.

In the West, business is brisk in Northern California and the Pacific Northwest.

Here are the top 10 best performing housing markets, according to Forbes magazine, their third quarter median home sale prices and the percentage that prices have risen compared to third quarter 2006.

Salt Lake City; Median Home Sale Price: $246,700; Percent Change: 14.1 percent
Charlotte, N.C., $220,000, 11 percent
San Jose, Calif., $852,500, 9.4 percent
San Francisco, $825,400, 8.6 percent
Raleigh, N.C., $229,500, 7.5 percent
Austin, $188,200, 7.2 percent
Pittsburgh, $127,700, 6.1 percent
Seattle, $394,700, 6 percent
San Antonio, $154,700, 5.7 percent
Portland, Ore., $299,700, 5.2 percent

Read the entire article at Forbes.com

Attention Investors: Now is the time to enter the San Antonio market. If you would like more information or set up a meeting to discuss further options go ahead Contact Me Here.

What Every Mortgage Applicant Should Know

1. Thou shall not change jobs, become self-employed or quit your job.

2. Thou shall not buy a car, truck or van (or you may be living in it.)

3. Thou shall not use charge cards excessively or let your accounts fall behind.

4. Thou shall not spend money you have set aside for closing.

5. Thou shall not omit debts or liabilities from your loan application.

6. Thou shall not buy furniture.

7. Thou shall not originate any inquiries into your credit.

8. Thou shall not make large deposits without first checking with your loan officer.

9. Thou shall not change bank accounts.

10. Thou shall not co-sign on a loan for anyone.

Follow these 10 tips and your home purchase should not encounter any road blocks. Don’t follow these 10 tips and you might still be able to get that house you have always wanted. For more helpful tips visit SearchSAHomes.net where you can also search the local San Antonio MLS.

Affordable Housing

The term affordable housing can mean many things. In Austin, for example, it could mean any single-family home that sells for under $200,000. In other areas of Texas, affordable housing might mean a $75,000 home.

Statewide, Texas REALTORS® help countless fellow Texans experience the benefits of homeownership, regardless of where you live or how much money you make. In addition, many Texas REALTORS® participate in specialized training to better equip themselves for helping first-time homebuyers.

Options abound for Texans who want to own their own home, but who might be strapped for cash or have yet to establish their credit. One is the Texas First Time Home Buyer Program, sponsored by the Texas Department of Housing & Community Affairs (TDHCA). It offers below-market mortgage interest rates for first-time buyers. TDHCA’s new Loan Star program offers special financing regardless of whether you’re a first-time buyer.

The Texas Veterans Land Board has a variety of attractive home-purchase programs for Texas military veterans and their spouses.

Texas REALTORS® believe that knowledge is power for consumers, particularly those who are striving to afford their first home. Here are links to some online resources that can help you achieve your dreams of homeownership.

Texas First Time Homebuyer Program

Fannie Mae Single Family Resources

Texas Veterans Land Board

Local Housing Finance Corporations in Texas

USDA Rural Development

Texas State Affordable Housing Corporation

88% of Public Use Web Sites as Primary Source for Real Estate Information

A new survey finds that 88% of public rely on Web sites as their primary source for the latest real state news and information, with newspapers coming in a distant second at 12%. The poll reinforces the results of a study earlier this month by the National Association of REALTORS(R) concerning the use of the Internet to buy or sell homes.

The latest survey was commissioned by Edward Segal, author of Profit by Publicity (iUniverse, 2007), a how-to PR guide for the real estate industry.

A study released on Nov. 13 by the National Association of REALTORS (R) (NAR) shows a similar reliance on Web sites by people looking to buy or sell residential real estate. According to the 2007 NAR Profile of Home Buyers and Sellers, 84% of recent home buyers used the Internet in their search, up from 80% in 2006.

Segal observed that, “Web sites represent the new level playing fields for real estate agents and brokers who want to promote themselves or their properties. Although real estate professionals know how to promote listings, this latest poll shows that it is essential they also know how to promote themselves to the media.”

The telephone poll of 1,000 adults was conducted Nov. 9-11, 2007 by Synovate, and has a margin of error of plus or minus four percent.

A great place to start your research for a new home is SearchSAHomes.net. Here you could search the San Antonio MLS with over 12,000 listings and also find all New Home Builders for the San Antonio Area. Currently many New Home Builders have some great discounts off inventory homes with some nice buyer incentives.

Order A Home Inspection Prior To Purchasing A Home.

According to the National Association of REALTORS & the American Society of Home Inspectors’ 2001 Home Inspection Study, the majority (77%) of home buyers order a home inspection prior to purchasing their home. Now that you know you can order a home inspection, also know that not all home inspections are created equal. Before you choose a home inspection company, interview several companies, possibly from a list that your REALTOR offered, and then ask them all these 7 questions below. Once you have the answers to these 7 questions from each of the two or three home inspection companies that you’ve interviewed, review the answers you received with your REALTOR, and then choose a company. Keep in mind that there may be a few other questions that are important to you and that you should feel free to ask.

1. Are you a member of the American Society of Home Inspectors or National Association of Home Inspectors?
2. How much do you charge for my type and size house?
3. How much do you charge for a reinspection should I want one after repairs are completed?
4. Can I attend the inspection?
5. What specifically will your inspection cover? You should be looking for the inspection to cover at least all of the following, if present: gas lines, swimming pool, spa, septic system, wells, siding or exterior brick, foundation, insulation, doors and windows, roof, ceilings, walls, moldings, porch and/or deck, electrical, plumbing, water heater, furnace/AC, garage, basement, attic, and driveways/sidewalks.
6. Do you provide any guarantees of your work?
7. What type of report will I receive after the inspection, and when will I receive it?

Once you have chosen a home inspection company, and have received a home inspection report, WATCH OUT for these 7 conditions below that often cost more than typical home repairs.

1. Central air conditioning system problems
2. Insect damage
3. Room additions (that may be unpermitted)
4. Asphalt shingle roof replacement
5. Foundation issues
6. Electrical wiring
7. Swimming pool motor replacement

For more great tips visit www.SearchSAHomes.net for all of your San Antonio Texas Real Estate needs.

Buyers – Don’t Go Home Shopping Without a Realtor!

In past years, when the home-seller ruled the marketplace, there was a prevailing thought that buyers employing agents were at a disadvantage – that listing agents would give preference to unrepresented buyers in order to get a higher commission. How unfortunate that consumers would have such a misconception!

These days it is easy to dispel that myth – the buyer now rules the marketplace and any listing agent is open to working with another real estate professional in order to get the home sold.

Still, there are buyers who will search on their own. Maybe they want to set their own pace, shop using their own criteria, or seemingly create a more efficient buying system. I challenge those buyers to reconsider. What seems efficient to you is actually contrary to your own best interest.

You are on the brink of making what may be the biggest investment of your life – are you sure you want to go it alone? While the listing real estate agent will treat you (the buyer) honestly and fairly, that same agent is not your representative and is not compelled to represent your best interest.

The listing agent does not compile a market analysis to help you determine a price that is accurate for the neighborhood and home type. S/he does not negotiate on your behalf, does not provide a professional opinion from a buyer’s standpoint, does not interpret inspection reports for you, does not explain forms and documents for you. The listing agent is directed by law to represent the best interest of the seller.

So why choose a buyer’s agent?

1. S/he can check the accuracy of public and private information so that you are not surprised by issues that come to light after your purchase.
2. S/he has access to current and precise information about sales in the area.
3. Your agent holds any information financial information and negotiating positions you provide as confidential – the listing agent is not held to that standard with regard to you, the buyer.
4. While you can get quite a bit of information in cyber space, your agent has access to all information at once and can make your decisions easier and quicker.
5. If your real estate agent is a Realtor (R) then s/he operates under a code of ethics and is expected to have superior knowledge and up-to-date industry training.
6. Finally, while you may only buy a home every five years or so, your agent goes through the process countless times and can provide the wisdom that experience brings.

Cibolo’s Growth Boom

It has one of the fastest-growing populations in the state, even the country. It’s not even in the same county as San Antonio, but it’s close enough to be considered another part of town.

Cibolo, 20 minutes northeast of San Antonio, has evolved far beyond its days as a farming community. In 2000, the city had just 3,035 people. In the next six years, it grew 289 percent. Now, the city’s population is around 14,400.

But who are these people moving into a town that has sprouted much like the crops that grew there before it?

Cibolo at a Glance Population in 2000: 3,035 Population in 2006: 11,800 Population in 2007: 14,400 Total households in 2000: 801 Total households in 2007: 5,143 Average household income: $67,000 Average starting home price: $160,000 Source: City of Cibolo, Realty Executives

“Many in our community are recent military retirees in a second career or are entrepreneurs,” said Nancy McBeth, the city’s assistant city manager. “Cibolo has a higher-than-average level of people working from their home, for a corporation, business or for themselves.” Cibolo is part of the Metrocom, 10 small cities — including Universal City, Schertz, Converse, Selma and Cibolo — around Randolph Air Force Base. Its proximity to the base makes it a popular military destination. Many retirees have returned to San Antonio because this is where they lived during their enlistment in the military.

“We also tend to have people moving here from the metropolitan area as well as areas further out and from other states,” McBeth said. “Families like the Schertz-Cibolo-Universal City Independent School District and the semirural atmosphere.”

Stacey Lisius is an agent with Realty Executives who lives and works in Cibolo. When she started selling real estate in the Cibolo area three years ago, the starting home price was about $110,000. Now it’s in the $160,000s.

Lisius said most of her home buyers are new to the region and enjoy the easy access to Austin and San Antonio.

“There’s hardly any San Antonio people,” she said. “There are a lot of relocators, a lot of military and a lot of retired military. I think they like the fact that we’re in the outskirts of San Antonio.”

Like many growing areas around San Antonio, Cibolo has an expanding school system. The city has three new elementary schools going up and a 2-year-old high school.

“It helps because people moving here don’t have to worry about schools getting capped out,” Lisius said.

Cibolo’s property taxes are also less than San Antonio’s, at 32 cents per $100 versus 58 cents per $100.

Though the city has many retirees, McBeth said the median age is around 34 or 35 years old. And more than half of the population (53 percent) live by themselves or with two people per household.

Average household income in Cibolo is $67,000, McBeth said.

Nationwide, housing slumps continue to pose problems. There has been a slowdown in housing, said Lisius, the real estate agent. But the market hasn’t crashed in Cibolo.

“There’s enough buyers and there’s enough sellers,” she said. “I don’t feel like we’re hurting for business.”

Imagine Homes opened a subdivision in Cibolo about a year ago, with 140 lots planned. So far, 30 homes have been built. Imagine is different in that it’s a local company, but it’s also a green building company.

“It’s the right way to build a home,” said Kyle Pantuso, an Imagine home consultant. “It’s what we need to do as a city. It also helps people who live there save some money.”

He said he’s sold three houses in the two months he’s been in Cibolo. As a local builder, Pantuso said Imagine doesn’t discount its homes as much as bigger builders might during the slow selling market.

“Cibolo is a little tough because there’s a lot of competition out here,” Pantuso said.

Despite its newfound growth, Cibolo lacks many retail and shopping opportunities. The city is close to places such as The Forum at Olympia Parkway, but there’s not much in Cibolo proper, especially in its downtown district. But the city hopes to change all that through a 1,200-acre mixed-use development to reinvent downtown.

Through the development, the city’s McBeth hopes to attract myriad new residents.

“My focus for the center is business and corporate office, retail, convention, tourism, culture and entertainment,” McBeth said. “This development would allow a mixture of incomes and housing choices, from cottages, bungalows, apartment homes, condominiums, lofts, senior housing and anything else that could be considered a residence.”

McBeth wants that same diversity in the types of residents in the center, from retirees and entrepreneurs to young couples and singles.

“There is value in housing for people in a variety of economic strata,” said Andy Simpson, a local architect who designed the neighborhood plan. “It’s all layered in the same neighborhood so you don’t have that segregation of uses.”

Those involved with the project expect it to increase values of Cibolo’s real estate.

“We’ve heard that the property value is 20 percent higher than the exact same residence in an area that’s just houses,” Simpson said.

Lisius said it should help existing-home sales as well.

“It will bring our houses up in resale value,” she said.

As a real estate agent, she’s looking forward to Cibolo’s development; but as a resident, she’s looking forward to her city having more activities and being more recognized.

“I think it will have a great effect, in the sense that we’ll be put on the map and well known,” Lisius said. “So someone says ‘Cibolo, oh we know where that is.’”

Creighton A. Welch
Express-News Business Writer