El Paso one of few U.S. cities with housing price increases! (Houston: for sale, foreclosures)

[Gary Siete]

Metropolitan Median Prices

Only 18 of 180 cities had single-family home price increases from Q4 2007 to Q4 2008. El Paso is #6!

National Average -12.4%

Top 20 (house price change Q4 2007 to Q4 2008)
+16.7% Beaumont-Port Arthur, TX
+9.6% Bloomington-Normal, IL
+6.5% Dover, DE
+6.0% Bismarck, ND
+5.9% Decatur, IL
+5.3% El Paso, TX
+4.7% Jackson, MS
+3.9% Wichita, KS
+2.8% Shreveport-Bossier City, LA
+2.0% Amarillo, TX
+1.9% Florence, SC
+1.8% Chattanooga, TN-GA
+1.7% Pittsfield, MA
+1.5% Cedar Rapids, IA
+1.5% Charleston, WV
+1.0% Kankakee-Bradley, IL
+1.0% Reading, PA
+0.8% Buffalo-Niagara Falls, NY
-0.1% Austin-Round Rock, TX
-0.3% Madison, WI

Bottom 20
-24.9% Tampa-St.Petersburg-Clearwater, FL
-25.5% Cleveland-Elyria-Mentor, OH
-26.2% Washington-Arlington-Alexandria, DC-VA-MD-WV
-27.0% Lansing-E.Lansing, MI
-27.1% Orlando, FL
-27.3% Toledo, OH
-30.8% Anaheim-Santa Ana, CA (Orange Co.)
-31.4% Los Angeles-Long Beach-Santa Ana, CA
-32.3% Miami-Fort Lauderdale-Miami Beach, FL
-33.6% Las Vegas-Paradise, NV
-35.0% Sarasota-Bradenton-Venice, FL
-35.2% Grand Rapids, MI
-35.5% Phoenix-Mesa-Scottsdale, AZ
-36.4% San Diego-Carlsbad-San Marcos, CA
-36.9% Sacramento--Arden-Arcade--Roseville, CA
-37.4% San Francisco-Oakland-Fremont, CA
-37.7% San Jose-Sunnyvale-Santa Clara, CA
-40.8% Riverside-San Bernardino-Ontario, CA
-41.4% Saginaw-Saginaw Township North, MI
-50.8% Cape Coral-Fort Myers, FL

[alliswell]

Having purchased recently, it's good to see stats like that and I keep watching carefully what's going on around my neighborhood. To be brutally honest and frank, the the houses that sit and continue to sit have some kind of issue that only deep and severe discounts will make them move. REA has stated more than once that some of these sellers just are not being honest or realistic about the product that they have to sell. The ones that don't sell are in denial about something and just won't budge the price where it needs to be to sell.

The great houses on great lots in great locations sell - it's definitely a case of only the cream of the crop homes are getting the offers. The stats seem to show that buyers are willing to pay for the best. I'm sure that makes it hard for the tons of very average homes on the market. If a house doesn't offer some advantage either by way of location, location, location or really low pricing, I'm sure it's just sitting month after month.

[ocean2026]

What was the sample? El Paso today registered a TRIPLING of foreclosures while the rest of the state had a decrease. This will affect housing prices.

This is the best independent source for housing prices- El Paso was projected to decline 5.1% before today's news.

Texas Housing, Houston, Dallas, Austin, San Antonio, El Paso

Many of those other cities had high foreclosures last year and that kills prices - ours are coming now.

Siete you're not a realtor are you? Realtors always say BUY NOW but the truth is next year will probably have lower prices and lower interest rates.

[malamute]

All the people with big money coming from Juarez probably help our home sales a lot. That doesn't mean Americans aren't suffering and losing homes to foreclosure.

[Gary Siete]

Originally Posted by ocean2026

Siete you're not a realtor are you? Realtors always say BUY NOW but the truth is next year will probably have lower prices and lower interest rates.

LOL. No. But the source is the trustworthy National Association of Realtors.

[luplor]

The newspaper is self contradictory, increase in housing prices, but tripling in foreclosures, massive house building, but surplus of empty houses, EP unaffected by recession, but Shapleigh states recession will hit EP by May 2009. As I help my son look for a house, I find MANY houses have reduced their prices, that contradicts the newspaper. Makes me wonder who is writing these stories. Looks someone is trying to put a positive spin on what's really happening and someone else is stating the truth.

[malamute]

The increase in housing prices I think is the result of big money people coming over from Ciudad Juarez, right now, they're pouring over the border abandoning their city. It doesn't mean jobless Americans aren't losing their homes and we know the home builders are fanatics here, they build entire subdivisions practically overnight. I don't see the contradiction exactly.

I see a lot of empty houses in already built subdivisions while the builders are building like mad several more subdivisions in the same area. Everyone is trying to cash in while the cashing in is still good and what do they have to lose? The government will only bail them out when things don't work out.

[abnjmaster]

+5.3% seems kind of high. I'm looking at houses to buy right now and according to my Realtor and other online sources the El Paso market is soft and a buyers market. MSN money says El Pso will see a 1% increase in house values which is still good for the over all market in the US. There is over a 12 month inventory of homes being sold in EP which is rather high and alot of homes online for sale have been on the market for 100+ days already. If the value of homes were going up that much then that would tell you that housing was in high demand in the area. Truilla shows a lot of houses being sold but majority of them were listed for 110k-125k and sold for 85k-105k. I think alot of people are going to be upset when they cant get what they are asking for their homes. After watching the El Paso market EVERY DAY for the last 6 months, theres no way I would pay the asking price on a lot of the houses I see online, they just aren't realistic compared to the condition, size, location etc of what they are actually worth.

[luplor]

Mal, check today's paper and you will see the contradictions. ABn is right it is a buyer's market, prices are dropping. I have been looking at houses on the westisde and they have been reduced in price. There's not many folks coming in from Juarez buying houses and as I stated before, there is a lot false hope in believing the FT Bliss soldiers are coming here with duffle bags full of money buying houses. Most will come and go. Maybe the rentals will do good and maybe 5% will buy and stay, 5% will buy to invest. I hope I am wrong, but I just dont see FT Bliss being a long term solution to all of EP's future. At some point the building at FT Bliss will be finished.

[Caltep]

There are custom spec houses in my neighborhood (westside) built over a year ago that originally went for around $400K and are now less than $300K. Too custom I think for most tastes. These houses have gone through at least three realty companies. Houses on my street (the more reasonable prices ones) are selling for around what we paid for ours a few years ago. I think the problem of taking advantage of this market, which I we would love to, is perhaps getting stuck with two mortgages if the first one does not sell.

Originally Posted by luplor

Mal, check today's paper and you will see the contradictions. ABn is right it is a buyer's market, prices are dropping.I have been looking at houses on the westisde and they have been reduced in price. There's not many folks coming in from Juarez buying houses and as I stated before, there is a lot false hope in believing the FT