Houston Texas Real Estate Price Appreciation

Check out this website: http://www.ofheo.gov/ and this report: 4Q 2007 House Price Index Report This is produced by the Office of Federal Housing Enterprise Oversight, a HUD entity.

The report is long, so skip to page 25. This shows the price appreciation ranked by state last year. Texas is #10! Above it are destinations such as as Wyoming, North Dakota, and Alaska. Texas is the first "big" state on the list (no offense to Wyoming, ND, or Alaska!) And California? 51^st at negative 6.65%, Florida 49^th at -4.69. (No offense to CA or FL, either...)

Also look at the 5 year appreciation and appreciation since 1980. Texas is severely undervalued! In the last 5 years, Texas has appreciated 25%. PA appreciated 48%, IL at 36%, DC at 88%, NY at 51%, and the national average is 41%. Texas has 16% to make up compared to the national average and even more to make up on comparable states.

Now look at the map on page 27. Texas is the only "big" state on the map with the top appreciation price range, between 5 - 9%.

Now go to page 32, which is city-by-city appreciation. Houston is ranked #44 out of 291 ranked cities, at 4.79% appreciation in the last year. San Antonio is #11, Dallas #97, Austin #11. Los Angeles is #244 at -3.23%, Miami is #186 at .27%, New York City #169 at .85%, Chicago #152 at 1.62%, DC area is #237 at -2.87%.

Going into Spring, potential buyers need to know that our local market is undervalued and has strong resale value over the next year, 5 years, or 20 years! In my opinion, we need to let potential sellers know that they should not fear listing their home. Look at this pricing tool: http://www.ofheo.gov/calculator/ Pretty neat. Try it on your home - I was pleasantly surprised. Were you? So should be prospective sellers.

If I were considering buying a home, looking at the statistics and what HUD is telling me, I wouldn't be apprehensive about my return on investment in the Houston area. And if I were considering selling, I wouldn't be feeling the need to drop my pants, er, price, too much to sell my home. Houston Texas buyers have reason to buy & sellers have reason to be confident in selling their home at a fair price.

The nation is in a housing crisis & the national media would like to focus on that, but this Houston, Texas housing market is stable, as is the Houston economy.