Houston and Dallas foreclosure rates are up. Noteworthy because I was told that Texas is still a hot market.
So, is there any city in the U.S. where housing prices are stable or rising?
Or is this entire country subject to falling home prices?
My take: this entire country was subject to exotic lending, and higher interest rates will cause prices to drop nationwide, by 10% in Omaha NE to 50% in San Diego. Look for national record foreclosures, bankruptcies, and a major recession. I am crying wolf.
A friend lives in San Antonio in a very nice area – her 5 bedroom 4 bath house isn’t worth much more than around $300,000 – bought it for around $150,000 maybe 5 years ago.
She moved from Scottsdale, AZ to San Antonio and loves it there. She loves the public schools her kids go to and feels that San Antonio is a great place to raise a family.
Wow, that’s amazing considering the low price of housing. The only way I can expain it is that Texas has it’s own brand of economy.
When I lived in Plano in the late 80’s when the bubble burst it was surreal. In every tract from the lowest to the highest socio economic level there were vacant homes just left open 24 hours a day. You could just walk in and have a look. I coined the phrase Tract Mansions – gaudy huge (ugly) homes one after another. There was one I did like and used to visit it regularly just in case we were in pergatory and didn’t know it and couldn’t get out – one day I walked in and it struck me that the place was furnished, then I realized it had sold and someone was living there.
After really getting into just walking through vacant homes alone it dawned on me that it probably wasn’t safe – I mean these places were BIG and EMPTY and no telling who or what was hanging out in there!
My experience in Texas (at least the Dallas Metro area) was that Texans like to live large and it is easy come easy go. Realized early that we didn’t want to settle there so we just rented.
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