January Market Report, 2008

Everyone asks me if I see the market around us improving for 2008. The National News does not reflect what is going on in the North Texas Economy, but let’s hear what some facts are! The Dallas Federal Reserve Bank states that we had a gain of 97,400 new jobs from August, 2006 to August, 2007. The employment rate is under a healthy 3.9 percent in the Dallas area and Fort Worth is even better with 3.8% (full employment is achieved if the unemployment rate is 4.0 percent!)

Forbes Magazine names the most stable housing markets in the U.S. and we are the 4th of four. Business 2.0 listed the 10 markets that are poised to appreciate in value over the next 18 months and Dallas-Fort Worth was listed as the number one market for price appreciation estimating 6.4 percent increase. (Now wouldn’t that be nice!!??)

Money.cnn.com blog stated the the No. l undervalued housing market in the U.S. is Dallas with an underevaluation of 24.9 percent. Actually in the study, there were 6 Texas cities listed with their being Dallas first, Houston, College Station, Fort Worth, Killeen and Lubbock.

The National Association of Builders is stating that their outlook for 2008 is going to be more conservative with new construction for residential being down about 5.1 percent. With the slowing down of building, perhaps our preowned market could catch up some!

Getting more specific for the cities here surrounding Plano, most of us are down for the year compared to 2006 but really not much! We have held our own for all of 2007. Hopefully these predictions will come to past in our immediate area in 2008. We are still seeing even here, multiple offers on “great” properties.

If you are thinking of moving up and purchasing that home you have been eying, let us see if we can help you accomplish your goals. Give us a call and we will explain how we work.