Home prices up in January

Home prices rose in January, despite seasonal weakness: S&P/Case-Shiller http://www.cnbc.com/id/102548825

Allen, TX Residential Sales Report for February

Single-Family:

Sales were off by 7% in Allen for the month of February. The average sales price climbed 17% while the median sales price jumped by 27%. The pending listings increased by 8%. There was an 11% decline in the number of new listings while the active listings increased by 7%. The months of inventory rose slightly to 1.5 months. Demand is still strong but sales are being affected by the shortage of inventory. About half on the active listings are builders new homes so if you are looking for an existing home in Allen you only have about 80 spread across all the price ranges to choose from.

Sales: 84

Average Sales Price: $356,857

Median Sales Price: $335,380

Pending Sales: 82

New Listings: 122

Active listings: 179

Months of Inventory: 1.5

Condos and Townhouses:

There are not enough condos and townhouses in Allen to create a statistically valid report.

Leases:

Leases were off by 44% in February. The average rent increased by 75 and the median rent by 3%. Pending leases jumped 31%. The number of new listings increased by 2% and the active listings by 7% The months of inventory did increase to a whopping 1.1 months meaning you will have just a hard a time finding a home to lease as you will finding a home to buy.

Leases: 23

Average Rent: $1,776

Median Rent: $1,700

Pending Leases: 17

New Listings: 42

Active listings: 47

Months of Inventory: 1.1

Information provided by the Real Estate Center at Texas A&M.  

High cost to rent

http://m.rismedia.com/article.php?permalink=/2015-03-16/renters-feeling-heat-from-heightened-housing-costs/&utm_source=newsletter&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=eNews

New place tp ride horses in Dallas

http://www.dallasnews.com/news/metro/20150326-saddle-up-gates-open-at-texas-horse-park-in-southern-dallas-this-weekend.ece

More jobs coming to the Dallas area

http://bizbeatblog.dallasnews.com/2015/03/liberty-mutual-workers-have-been-told-about-plano-office-plans-as-deal-for-the-big-campus-moves-ahead.html/

No slowdown in growth

Only one U.S. city has seen more population growth than Dallas-Fort Worth http://news360.com/article/284934523

Spring Time in North Texas = Hail and Insurance Claims

It’s spring time in North Texas and that means hail damaged roof and insurance claims.

The latest trend is for insurance companies to increase wind/hail deductibles to 1 ½% to 2% on new policies and renewals as well as depreciating the value of a roof based on the age. The companies that are depreciating the value of the roof based on age are doing this based on a scheduled percentage. An example would be:

$15,000 roof replacement on a 7 year old roof for a $200,000 dwelling. Company would only pay 79% of 7 year old roof with a 2% deductible.

$15,000 x 79%=$11,850.

$200,000 x 2%= $4,000

$11,500 - $4,000 = $7850.

The company will pay $7,850 and the homeowner pays $7,150.

The older the roof the more the homeowner will pay!

You might want to check your wind/hail coverage and see if you can find a better deal.

If you are shopping for new coverage and are getting different quotes from the agent, be sure to ask them what the wind/hail coverage is. This is probably one of the reasons for the different quotes. You might be better off paying a slightly higher price if you are getting better wind/hail coverage.

Plano, TX Residential Real Estate Report for February

Sales for February in Plano were flat. The average sales price increased 17% and the median sales price was up by 9% compared to a year ago. Pending sales were off by 4%. The number of new listings actually increased by 9% but this did not help the active listings which dropped by 26%. The months of inventory had a corresponding decline to 0.9 months.

It’s really tough to find a good house in Plano to buy!

Sales: 230

Average Sales Price: $336,660

Median Sales Price: $272,020

Pending Sales: 209

New Listings: 295

Active listings: 265

Months of Inventory: 0.9

Condos and Townhouses:

There are not a lot of condos or townhouses in Plano so the numbers can be volatile.

Sales were off by 19% in February. The average sales price jumped 109% and the median price by 170%. These huge increases were caused by several sales in the $700,000 to $900,000 price range that are  not typical for this area. Pending Sales were off by 10%. The new listings declined by 33% but we did get an increase in the number of active listings by 67%. The bad news is there is only a 0.7 months supply. It’s harder to find a condo or townhouse in Plano that it is to find a single-family home.

Sales: 17

Average Sales Price: $327,873

Median Sales Price: $270,000

Pending Sales: 19

New Listings: 18

Active listings: 15

Months of Inventory: 0.7

Leases:

Leases were down by 11%. The average rent increases by 7% and the median rent by 8%. Pending leases jumped by 139%. The new listings were up by 1% while the active listings increased by 19%. The months of inventory climber a little bit to 1.3 months.

Leases: 117

Average Rent: $1,838

Median Rent: $1,720

Pending Leases: 74

New Listings: 163

Active Listings: 203

Months of Inventory: 1.3

Information provided by the Real Estate Center at Texas A&M.

Mortgage applications jump

Mortgage applications at highest level since January http://www.cnbc.com/id/102531887

We need more inventory

Here's the backstory on the bounce in new home sales http://www.cnbc.com/id/102530839

Dallas job growth doing well

Schnurman: Amid low oil prices, Dallas is bright spot http://news360.com/article/284402731