Thursday, January 24, 2013

Fort Worth in Housing Market Top Ten

This article is about one month old but I just saw it. Good for Fort Worth, especially homeowners, and Texas which has 4 of the top 10 (bye-bye California):
Fort Worth is one of four Texas markets that are among the nation's "healthiest" housing markets, according to Jed Kolko, chief economist for real estate information site Trulia. By healthiest, Kolko explains, he doesn't just mean that home prices are rising -- "because many of the markets with the largest price gains in 2012 were rebounding from huge price declines during the bust, but they still have weak fundamentals," he says.
Here are his fundamentals: strong job growth (supporting housing demand); low vacancy rates; and low foreclosure inventory. Those are his markers, and here are his picks: 1. Houston; 2. San Francisco; 3. Bethesda-Rockville-Frederick, Md.; 4. San Antonio; 5. Austin; 6. Seattle; 7. Omaha; 8. Peabody, Mass. (Boston suburban); 9. Fort Worth; 10. Louisville.
Read more here: Tarrant Business

2 comments:

John said...

Is it time to buy or time to sell?!

Francis Shivone said...

You know I don't think it matters in Fort Worth right now, which is part of the point of the article. That is, a good housing market is supported by a growing city with a broad economic base, which we have, and where prices are not wildly fluctuating one way or other.

On the down side and unrelated to the local economy is the fact that it's just damned hard to get a mortgage these days, which is bad for buyers and sellers and renters (more renters = less supply = higher rent). Home owners wanting to move do better renting than selling. I hear money is "supposed" to be loosening up for the borrower.

For now renters are getting the worst of it -- but the mortgage deduction is going buy-buy in the car-car and that hurts homeowners.

Conclusion, John: flip a coin because no one knows for sure.