The Strengh of Texas Real Estate
Here are two interesting articles from the Wall Street Journal about the strength of the Texas real estate market. The first article discusses the attractiveness of investing in the stock of publicly traded, Texas homebuilders. Because the broader economic indicators in Texas point to a stronger economic recovery in Texas (and less of a recession to start with), and because home prices never spiraled out of control in major urban areas of Texas, a lot of investors are betting on the long term viability of new home builders in Texas, as demand continues to grow (Note: the full text of this article is available only to online subscribers, but the summary can be accessed).
The second article from the WSJ site, Marketwatch.com highlights a recent NAR study which shows foreign buyers are purchasing homes primarily in 4 states over the past year: Arizona, California, Florida and Texas. The fact that Texas rates among the top four, without having suffered the same catastrophic reductions in real estate values as the other three, says a lot about the stability of home values in the Texas housing market, and is certainly something worth mentioning to prospective home buyers. The largest number of foreign buyers are from Canada, followed by Mexico, the United Kingdom and China. As a group, 55% of foreign buyers paid cash, compared with only 8% of U.S. buyers paying cash in the last year.