Which Way Is the Value of Your Home Headed?

Considering Buying? GO HERE to perform a Full Home Search, or if you're a prospective seller, CLICK HERE to receive a Free Market Analysis. For any other questions, feel free to call me at (281) 599-6575, or shoot me an email at rdr@daleross.com.

One of the most frequent questions I get these days is if we are in a buyer’s market or a seller’s market in Houston. The answer is, we are actually in a balanced market.

Whenever you’re in a balanced market, you’re never really even-keeled. Typically you’re trending one way or another; toward a seller’s market or a buyer’s market. The Houston real estate market is currently trending toward a buyer’s market.

This means we have more sellers than we do buyers. Right now we have about 6.5 sellers for every buyer out there. Typically when you get to about a five month supply of homes for sale - which we’re easing towards right now - it turns into a full-blown buyer’s market.

Right now, prices are becoming competitive because we have so many sellers trending toward that buyer’s market. Over the past year we’ve seen about a half point decline in home values on a monthly basis, so prices are down in general; about 6% lower than where they were during the same period last year.

I expect the current decline to continue, well into the summertime. In fact, I expect us to hit that buyer’s market at the end of July, when prices will become even more competitive, and we’ll have about 10 sellers for every buyer in the market. Things will get interesting unless something changes dramatically in the petroleum industry (which is what controls a lot of our market in Houston).

If you’re interested in learning more, email me and I’ll provide a free market analysis. If you have any questions in general, send me an email or give me a call. I look forward to working with you.

What’s Happening in the Houston Real Estate Market?

Considering Buying? GO HERE to perform a Full Home Search, or if you're a prospective seller, CLICK HERE to receive a Free Home Value Report. For any other questions, feel free to call me at (281) 599-6575, or shoot me an email at rdr@daleross.com.

Today, I want to talk to you about a market condition that is starting to happen more often. This isn’t something that happened when Houston was in a seller’s market, but now that we’re in a balanced market, buyers have started making an offer on a home, executing a contract, and then continuing to look for homes.

If the buyer finds another home they like better, they will secure that home under contract and terminate the initial contract. The Texas real estate contract lets the buyer out during the termination option period with a very insignificant penalty to the buyer.

This drives sellers and agents crazy, but buyers have the upper hand in this market. We haven’t seen this happen before. Now, just having your home under contract is not a sure thing. It used to be that if problems arose during the home inspection and the buyer and seller couldn’t negotiate a deal, then the buyer would walk away.

That’s not happening as much anymore. Now buyers are just finding a home they like better, and they have a lot to choose from. In our current market, there are 5.5 sellers for every buyer to choose from.

If you have any questions, just give me a call or send me an email. I would be happy to help!

How Is the Houston Market Improving?

Considering Buying? GO HERE to perform a Full Home Search, or if you're a prospective seller, CLICK HERE to receive a Free Home Value Report. For any other questions, feel free to call me at (281) 599-6575, or shoot me an email at rdr@daleross.com.

The great news right now in the Houston market is that interest rates are still low and buyers still have faith in the market. There will come a point when many home buyers will decide to wait another 6 months to start buying again, and when that happens we are going to start to see some declines in buying activity.

The biggest challenge sellers are having is that there is only one buyer out there for every 5 sellers. We are seeing 1 out of every 5 homes sell, and the rest are sitting. A lot of people are listing their homes right now and as long as petroleum stays in the $30 per barrel range, we expect this to continue.

One other thing we wanted to mention is to remember to protest your property taxes. I can help you with that. Head over to drtaxprotest.com and I’ll send you the info you need to protest them in 2016.

If you have any questions for me, don’t hesitate to reach out. I’d love to get a call or email from you!

What Do Recent Houston Market Trends Mean for You?

Considering Buying? GO HERE to perform a Full Home Search, or if you're a prospective seller, CLICK HERE to receive a Free Home Value Report. For any other questions, feel free to call me at (281) 599-6575, or shoot me an email at rdr@daleross.com.

December 2015 was a record month in real estate for the Houston area. The momentum has continued so far in January, which started out with a phenomenal burst of buyers. In fact, this past weekend we had 48 people show up to a single open house, and we received three offers by the end of the day.

What we're looking for this year is an increase in interest rates. When rates rise, they decrease the affordability index, which can negatively affect home prices. If you take a home price of $250,000, a change in interest rates from 3.75% to 4.25% will have a pretty dramatic impact on the affordability of a home. It will likely put some downward pressure on the median sale price, but how much pressure depends on how big the change is, so be sure to keep an eye on rates throughout the year.

If you have any questions about what you can expect from the Houston market this year, please don't hesitate to reach out to us. We would love to help you take advantage of the market before rates rise and prices fall!

The Latest Trends in Houston Real Estate Market

Considering Buying? GO HERE to perform a Full Home Search, or if you're a prospective seller, CLICK HERE to receive a Free Home Value Report. For any other questions, feel free to call me at (281) 599-6575, or shoot me an email at rdr@daleross.com.

Today, I want to give you a late summer market update. Our sales are fantastic, and there are many buyers in the market.

The biggest difference between the market last year and this year is the number of sellers. We have about three times as many sellers today than we did in 2014. This is good news for buyers because there are more properties to choose from.

Days on market is up year over year, and the number of homes going off the market unsold is up by 70% as well. We're at the point where two out of every five homes on the market will not sell this year, which is a huge change from 2014.

As for interest rates, right now they are steady. There was a rumor that they would go up in September, but that remains to be seen. If interest rates do go up, I don't think there will be a huge impact on buying activity. However, higher interest rates will affect affordability for buyers.

If you have any questions about the Houston real estate market, give me a call or send me an email. I look forward to hearing from you!

Major Changes Are Coming to the Real Estate Industry

Considering Buying? GO HERE to perform a Full Home Search, or if you're a prospective seller, CLICK HERE to receive a Free Home Value Report. For any other questions, feel free to call me at (281) 599-6575, or shoot me an email at rdr@daleross.com.

Starting October 1, there are going to be significant changes in the way real estate transactions are closed. In today's video, I'll focus on the high and low aspects of these changes.

First of all, the closing statements are going to change. If you've purchased a home in the past and were confused by HUD, I can assure you, you were not the only one. HUD will be replaced by the closing disclosure, which is the easiest closing document I have ever seen. It details all the expenses involved in the transaction so purchasers know exactly what they are looking at. This will be a great improvement for buyers.

On the other hand, closing dates could become moving targets. The Consumer Financial Protection Bureau has decided to give the buyer a three-day cooling off period from the acknowledgement of receipt for the documents from the lending company. If the buyer does not acknowledge receipt, that could delay closing even longer.

I think the days of 30 day closing periods are over. Due to these changes, we will probably move to 45 or 60 day closing periods as time goes on. After the mortgage companies get used to these systems, maybe it can be refined in order to get back to 30 day closings. However, I don't see this happening in the first year after these changes take place. The new closing period could cost buyers and sellers thousands of dollars, simply because sellers schedule their movers for a particular day and buyers may need to be out of a lease on a particular day.

Aside from the closing date issue, I think this is going to be a great system. If you have any questions on these changes, you can subscribe to our newspaper. Just give me a call or shoot me an email. I'd be happy to answer any questions you may have.

What Can We Expect for Houston Area Real Estate in 2015?

Considering Buying? GO HERE to perform a Full Home Search, or if you're a prospective seller, CLICK HERE to receive a Free Home Value Report. For any other questions, feel free to call me at (281) 599-6575, or shoot me an email at rdr@daleross.com.

Hey everyone, today we are here to give you a quick market update. Currently, we are in a firm seller's market here in Houston. Homes that are coming on the market priced correctly are all selling in 7 days or less, often above list price.

As far as inventory goes, we don't have much. Currently we have just about a month of inventory of homes in our market. As for the drop in oil prices affecting the housing market, we have seen no evidence of that to date.

Eventually, the market is going to get very competitive for home sellers. However, right now sellers can take advantage of the low inventory and the fact that interest rates are near all-time lows. Buyers are out there right now, looking to lock in a low rate on a reasonably priced home.

If you have any questions, or would like us to send you a copy of our full market report, give us a call or send us an email and let us know! We look forward to hearing from you!