There was an interesting article in The Houston Chronicle yesterday reporting that home values in Houston fell 2.7% in October compared to October 2007. The median home price is currently at $142,000. This comes after a 4% rise in September and small, incrimental rises throughout the year.  The Chronicle reported that a slowing national economy, tighter mortgage guidelines and an uncertain presidential election continued to plague the local housing market, which also saw sales fall 20 percent last month, compared to a year ago. The median price had been holding up because of a shift in the types of homes that had been selling. The number of lower-end sales dropped as subprime credit dried up, while activity increased for more expensive homes. But in October, the only price segment that posted an increase in sales was that less than $80,000.

Despite the bad news, year-to-date home prices are still up compared to 2007. And national figures show Houston continues to fare better than many other U.S. markets, some of which have experienced price declines of as much as 40 percent, the local association said in its monthly market report. Also on Tuesday, the National Association of Realtors reported prices in the July-September quarter fell in most U.S. cities but were up slightly in Houston.
"Houston is the highlight in the country, but there's no way to get around the national uncertainty in the economy," said Michael Levitin, chairman of the Houston Association of Realtors.

Another bright spot in the data was the number of months it would take to sell all the homes on the market at the end of October, which was about half the national average at the end of October, the association said.

Residual business interruptions from Hurricane Ike also hurt the market last month, as did the generally slower time of the year for real estate sales. Realtors sold 4,202 single-family properties in October, marking the 14th consecutive monthly drop, according to the association, which tracks primarily existing homes sold through the Multiple Listing Service. In September, sales fell 30 percent as power outages and damage from the hurricane shut down real estate offices for weeks. Thousands of transactions were postponed as sellers repaired their damaged properties.

All can agree that there both buyers and sellers are being very cautious at this time and what the real estate market is really lacking is confiedence!

Chandler Creek was built in the late 90's and is known for being a "family friendly" neighborhood with several cul-de-sac streets and a great park.  Located off of Flintridge and Falconwing the location is desirable to those that like to be in the "middle of it all".  The neighborhood is just:

•  10 minutes from I-45 and Town Center
• Less than a ½ mile to The John Cooper School www.JohnCooper.org
• Within 5 minutes to 3 shopping centers; Indian Springs, Sterling Ridge and Panther Creek shopping centers
• 1 mile from a 24 Hour Sport Club
• 5 Minutes from the Sterling Ridge YMCA
• 8 Minutes from Highway 2978 and Magnolia 

Chandler Creek was built by David Weekley Homes, www.DavidWeekley.com, Emerald Homes (which was bought out by DR Horton Homes) www.DRHorton.com, and Village Homes (which was bought out by Lennar Homes) www.Lennar.com.  The majority of the homes are Traditional style 2-stories with a few 1-stories mixed in.  Chandler Creek is known for offering generous lot sizes and a good mix of homes with and without pools. 

There are currently 3 active homes on the market, 1 in contract and 7 that have sold since January 2008 with an average days on market of 43 or just over 1 month.  Chandler Creek is a neighborhood that always seems in high demand and the days on market prove that.  Chandler Creek is in the mid price point for Indian Springs offering homes from the mid $300K's to nearly $500,000.

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Metrostudy is the leading provider of primary and secondary market information to the housing and related industries nationwide. Metrostudy understands that knowing your market is an essential ingredient to putting together any successful real estate deal. That's why Metrostudy offers complete, accurate and usable information in the industry. Last week Metrostudy did a presentation discussing the Houston real estate and economic market. They named the State of Texas and also the City of Houston, both, as having the #1 economy in the nation mainly due to the fact that Texas created over 280,000 jobs this year and the majority of them were in Houston. The fascinating part about this statistic is that the #2 State in Jobs Created was Maryland with 28,000 jobs, a small 10% of what Texas did! That is a strong hold of the market share and really speaks to what a great market we are lucky to be in, despite the negative media regarding the rest of the nation. The other interesting piece of news from Metrostudy Houston is that Home appreciation in Houston has been slightly above 6% annually for the last 10 years. This is a postitive, stable number when you look at the double digit gains and losses that some states have experiences such as California, Arizona, Florida and more! With the current low home loan interest rates, a stable job market, a stable real estate market, and more, there is no reason why anyone should be nervous to be in our steady market. If you would like any other information regarding our real estate market or if you, or anyone you know is looking to buy or sell, please contact The Chappell Team today and let one of our real estate experts help you have a postitive real estate transaction! 

With Vetrans Day last week making it a shortened week in the Bond Market, the financial market was still lively as they reacted to several pieces of bad economic news brought throughout the week.

Bad News #1 The week started with Circuit City filing for Chapter 11 Bankruptcy, and stating that they will be closing 150 stores - all this news before the holiday season, when most retailers make a larger portion of their profits for the year. Nordstrom reported its growth rate is down 16%, where they were expecting an increase of 10%.  Best Buy and Macy's, Wal-Mart and Intel also reported lower earnings. As if the headlines of the week weren't enough, Friday's Retail Sales report showed that overall retail sales fell for the fourth straight month and plunged to their worst level since record keeping began in 1992. It is looking like this may be the worst holiday season "shopping/money" wise that retailers will have seen in a long, long time.

In addition, there was bad news for the automobile industry as Deutsche Bank downgraded shares of General Motors from hold to sell, giving a price target of $0. As a result, General Motors stock fell below $3 for the first time since April 13, 1943. Interestingly enough, the automaker was not even making cars at that time but producing only military equipment for WWII.

Nationally, the job market reported bad news as well as Continuing Jobless Claims reached their highest level in 25 years.

Now, remember that poor economic news and a weak labor market usually cause Bonds and home loan rates to improve. This is because fewer jobs and lower confidence about keeping or finding work causes people to spend less. In turn, businesses and retailers lose pricing power, and this is a cycle that keeps inflation - the arch enemy of Bonds and home loan rates - at low levels, especially if oil remains near present reasonable prices.

Bonds and Home Loan Interest Rates are stable right now, which is great at this time when the rates are really low! Now is a great time in real estate to be a buyer! 

*Source MMG Weekly

"Helping" you as they help themselves

Finally, you need to know about a twist on "phishing" scams called "vishing."  In a phishing scam, you get an e-mail purportedly from your bank or another financial institution, or a site where you have an account, such as eBay or PayPal.  The e-mail typically warns of some security problem and tries to get you to provide personal information, such as your login ID and password.

Vishing is like phishing, except a phone is involved.  You may get an e-mail directing you to call a phony customer-service line, which prompts you to input account numbers, passwords and other identifying information.  Or you may get a phone call purporting to be from your bank or credit card issuer and be asked to provide critical information, such as the security code on your credit card.  By the way, you can't trust caller ID to separate legitimate calls from vishing calls.  The criminals often use Internet calling services with software programs that create bogus customer-service numbers, or they hack into legitimate companies' phone lines.

If you get an e-mail or phone call purporting to be from your financial institution, don't provide any information.  Dial your institution's main number yourself and let it know what's happened.  If it's a fraud call, you'll be connected to the right people for further action.

Always assume the sender of the e-mail, the caller on the phone and the person standing behind you in line are out to wreak havoc on your financial life.  A little suspicion can go a long way toward protecting your wallet and your identity.

*Source Liz Pulliam Weston, www.moneycentral.msn.com