McAllen Residential Market Report

Contrary to all the "gloom and doom" presented about the national real estate market, our local market of McAllen, Texas has demonstrated a strong performance in 2008. On a YTD comparison of September 2008 versus September 2007, the McAllen market has dipped only 6.9% for the number of houses sold in the MLS. As of September 30, 2008, the YTD sales for McAllen equals 1956 homes. During the same period last year, 2101 houses were sold.

In addition to sold data, the Greater McAllen Association of REALTORS (GMAR) is also tracking the number of houses under contract. At the end of September, there were 432 sales pending. These contracts should close during the last quarter of 2008. Last year, we had 358 sales pending on 9/30 and sold 612 houses during the fourth quarter. As lenders increase their review time (underwriting) to give final approval on loans, the transaction period is taking longer.

It is taking approximately two months to move transactions from "pending" to "sold". At our current rate, we are on track for Total Sales in 2008 to be within 10% of Total Sales for 2007.