NEW YORK (CNNMoney.com) — Contracts for the sale of existing homes rose sharply in February, the National Association of Realtors’ (NAR) said Monday.

In the single-biggest monthly rise since October 2001, pending home sales rose 8.2% in February. Economists were expecting a 1% decrease.

It was also a 17% improvement over February last year. The unexpected increase could indicate demand driven by the federal government’s homebuyer tax credit, NAR said.

Buyers have to ink contracts by the end of April to take advantage of the tax credit, which offers first-time homebuyers up to $8,000, and those who are trading up as much as $6,500.

NAR’s report measures signed real estate contracts, but not completed sales, for existing single-family homes, condos and co-ops. Pending home sales are considered a forward-looking indicator since many of the contracts don’t result in completed transactions for many weeks or months.

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NEW YORK (CNNMoney.com) — Americans, it seems, still have a love affair with the West. Texas and Wyoming were the big winners in the Census Bureau’s annual population estimates, which were released on Wednesday.

In the year ended July 1, Texas added more people than any other state, and Wyoming had the highest growth rate in the nation.

The population of the United States has grown more than 9% to 307,006,550 since the 2000 census. The population grew 0.86% since last year’s estimates.

Just three states shrank during the year. Michigan’s population fell by 0.33%, Maine dropped 0.11%, and Rhode Island lost 0.03%.

Other Sun Belt states have fared much better. Texas, for example, never went through the boom-and-bust housing cycle that devastated the Sand States. Home prices remained affordable, and the state’s unemployment rate was 8% in October, a full two percentage points below the national average.

So, it’s no surprise that Texas added more than 3.9 million residents during the 2000s. Its population also grew by the greatest number of people (478,000) during the 12 months ended July 1.

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By Peter Woodifield

Nov. 30 (Bloomberg) — Individuals with more than $800,000 to invest plan to increase their property holdings because they foresee better long-term returns than from stocks and bonds, according to a Barclays Plc global survey.

Twice as many people plan to raise their investment in commercial and residential property as intend to reduce it, the Barclays Wealth unit said in an e-mailed statement today. The richer the individual, the greater the proportion of wealth is placed in real estate, the survey found.

“I was surprised how big a share of their wealth property represents,” Mike Dicks, the London-based head of research at Barclays Wealth, said in an interview. “It’s not what I would tell grandma. None of our data suggests that would be a good allocation.”

The global recession pushed down commercial and residential real estate prices in every region except Asia. The value of U.S. shops, offices and warehouses fell 21 percent in the first three quarters of this year, following a 12 percent decline in 2008. Belief that properties are now undervalued was the second most common reason cited for increasing investment.

Real estate investment among wealthy individuals is set to rise to 30 percent of the average portfolio for the next few years from 28 percent now, according to the survey. That excludes properties used as a principal residence. Most rich people, other than the extremely wealthy, should have no more than 10 percent of their assets in property, said Dicks.

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As part of its plan to stimulate the U.S. housing market and address the economic challenges facing our nation, Congress has passed new legislation that:

• Extends the First-Time Home Buyer Tax Credit of up to $8,000 to first-time home buyers until April 30, 2010.
• Expands the credit to grant up to $6,500 credit to current home owners purchasing a new or existing home between November 7, 2009 and April 30, 2010.

Who Qualifies for the Extended Credit?

*   First-time home buyers who purchase homes between November 7, 2009 and April 30, 2010.
*   Current home owners purchasing a home between November 7, 2009 and April 30, 2010, who have used the home being sold or vacated as a principal residence for five consecutive years within the last eight.

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Lone Star Luck
In No. 2 city San Antonio, home to four military bases, and Austin, our third-ranked city and the state seat of government, municipal jobs supplement Texas’ robust energy sector. In Dallas (No. 6), it’s a thriving tech industry that buffers it from energy highs and lows. Although Houston (No. is invested mostly in oil, it has diversified its energy industry beyond oil rigs into refining and chemicals manufacturing.

What’s more, the state’s housing prices never ascended to the unsustainable levels the rest of the country hit at the peak of the housing bubble. Thus, it didn’t crash as hard. These factors have toughened the local economy against a recession that is inextricably tied to real estate.

“Texas didn’t have as big of a boom,” says James P. Gaines, research economist at the Real Estate Center at Texas A&M University. “So we’re not having anywhere near the kind of bust.”

Top 5 Fastest Recovering Cities

1. Omaha-Council Bluffs, NE-IA Metro Area

2. San Antonio, TX Metro Area

3. Austin-Round Rock, TX Metro Area

4. Pittsburgh, PA Metro Area

5. Harrisburg-Carlisle, PA Metro Area

Full list…

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Austin-area real estate market shows improvement over last year
Austin Board of REALTORS® releases September 2009 real estate statistics
October 19, 2009 – According to the September 2009 Multiple Listing Service report by the Austin Board of REALTORS®, activity in the Austin-area real estate market has shown signs of improvement from September 2008.

In September 2009, 1,780 homes were sold, a six percent increase from 1,673 homes sold in September 2008. The median home price for Austin in September 2009 was $185,250, up two percent from the same month the prior year.

“This spur in activity compared to last year is a good sign,” said Jay Gohil, chairman of the Austin Board of REALTORS®. “It shows the Austin-area real estate market is healthy and has remained stable.”

According to the report, the average median home price in the third quarter of 2009 is statistically similar to that of the third quarter of 2008. In addition, the third quarter of 2009 represented the highest quarterly average for home sales this year. There was an average of 1,857 homes sold during the third quarter of 2009, a 3 percent decrease compared to the third quarter of 2008 which averaged approximately 1,912 homes sold.

Gohil continued, “As the deadline for the first-time homebuyer tax credit approaches on Nov. 30, we may continue to see increases in home sales into October and November.” On Nov. 30, the tax credit for first-time homebuyers of up to $8,000 expires. To qualify, first-time homebuyers must close their real estate transaction by that date, a process that requires anywhere from 14 to 60 days or more. For more, visit www.AustinHomeSearch.com.

September 2009 Statistics:

• $431,530,740 – Total dollar volume of single-family properties sold, a seven percent increase from September 2008.
• $185,250 – Median price for single-family homes, a two percent increase from September 2008.
• 9,148 – Active single-family home listings on the market, a ten percent decrease from September 2008.
• 1,780 – Single-family homes sold, a six percent increase from September 2008.

The Austin Board of REALTORS® is a non-profit, voluntary organization representing more than 8,000 licensed REALTORS® in Central Texas. For more, please contact Angela Brutsché at 512/454-7636, ext. 1300. RSS Feed

For quarterly market update, visit AustinHomeSearch Live  

This news was delivered instantly on www.AustinHome.pro. Follow Austin Home Pro on Facebook or Twitter to receive breaking news like this instantly.  Subscribe to the RSS feed to receive all Austin Home Pro Posts.

Moments ago, the U.S. House of Representatives voted by an overwhelming 403-12 margin to approve the Unemployment Compensation Extension Act (H.R. 3548) that included, as an amendment, the extension and expansion of the Homebuyer Tax Credit. The bill already passed in the U.S. Senate yesterday by a vote of 98-0, so now it will advance from Congress to the White House for President Obama’s signature. It is one step away from being signed into law, and the Administration already has signaled its support of the Homebuyer Tax Credit amendment as well as the President’s intention to sign the bill.

The homebuyer tax credit, due to expire in 28 days, would be extended through April 30 of next year.  The tax credit for veteran homeowners will apply only to those who have lived in their current residence for at least five years.  The credit for these buyers will be capped at $6,500 while first time buyers will continue to receive $8,000.

Income levels will be extended from the current limits of $75,000 for a single purchaser and $150,000 for couples to $125,000 and $225,000 respectively.  Above those limits there are diminishing credits available.

The bill was passed as an amendment to legislation extending unemployment benefits.  The House is expected to vote on the bill before the end of the week.

The tax credit has fired the housing market, driving existing home sales to the highest level in over two years.  The National Association Realtors reported sales jumped 9.4 percent to a seasonally adjusted annual rate of 5.57 million units in September and are 9.2 percent higher than the 5.10 million-unit pace in September 2008.

See updated Austin Housing Statistics Here
Choose: Housing Data – Months of Inventory
(This post & chart are dated 5th Nov, 2009)

Lower M.O.I. figures show a seller's market, higher show a buyer's market. Current levels represent a neutral market.

To put this in perspective, I’d like to share a chart from another Realtor in Tucson, Arizona.  This should help show how stable our market here in Austin is compared to other parts of the country.  From The House Chick in Tuscon:

Tucson, for example, has seen fluxuations from 6.1 to 16.6 months of inventory in the past two years while Austin has remained between 4.5 to 7.4 in the same time period.

Austin Makes the Top of Yet Another Top 10 List!

Central Texas Economy In Perspective
by Beverly Kerr, Chamber Vice President of Research

Last week we looked at the release of September data for nonfarm payroll jobs for Texas and its metros and this week we have the release by the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics of that same data for all U.S. metros and states.

Since Austin’s year-over-year change in payroll jobs for September (-0.7%) was slightly less negative than San Antonio’s (-1.1%), it seemed likely that we would again show as best or second best in our ranking of performance of the nation’s 50 largest metros.

In addition to Austin and San Antonio, it looked likely that Fort Worth’s performance would also be near the top nationally, and, indeed, the Texas metros are 2, 3, and 4, behind Virginia Beach (-0.6%). Dallas’s -2.6% job losses put it just out of the top 10 at 11th and Houston’s -3.0% decline puts it at 18th. Among the 50 largest metros, losses range from -0.6% to -9.4% and the median rate is -3.8%.

If this ranking was expanded to the 100 largest metros, instead of the 50 largest, there would be three additional metros outperforming Austin. Alone among the 100 largest metros, Bethesda has added jobs (5,700 or 1.0%) since September 2008. Baton Rouge and New Orleans are the other metros with slighter jobs losses than Austin.

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Just Passed!  The Tax Credit Has Been Extended for First-Time Home Buyers!
Others have been left out, click here to read more on the latest news.

We’ve heard a lot of good news lately in Austin, but and news on expanding the home buyer tax credit that expires this November 30th is great news.  There were many bills on the table for this plan and now this version looks very likely.  This tax credit would help the already recovering Austin housing market!

This news is good news, from Bloomberg…

By Dawn Kopecki and Ryan Donmoyer

Oct. 27 (Bloomberg) — U.S. Senate leaders moved closer to an agreement replacing an expiring $8,000 tax credit for first- time homebuyers with a smaller one that would expand access to so-called step-up purchasers, two people familiar with the matter said.

The deal would reduce the size of the tax credit to 10 percent of the sale’s price, capped at $7,290, the people said. The credit would be available on home purchases that are under contract by April 30, and borrowers would have 60 days more to close the sale. The existing credit is due to end Nov. 30.

The new agreement, which is still being negotiated and may change, would grant the credit to borrowers who have lived in their current home for at least five years. Lawmakers want to keep home sales from slipping as the economy struggles to recover from the worst drop in home prices since the Great Depression.

The demand for new homes and condominiums may increase by “more than two times because you’re allowing step-up buyers into the equation,” said Andrew Parmentier, a managing partner at Height Analytics, a research firm in Washington. “ You just opened up a whole new pool of people who can buy into those empty homes and empty condos that were built out.”

The income eligibility for first-time homebuyers would remain the same at $75,000 for individuals and $150,000 for couples. The income criteria for step-up buyers would be $125,000 for individuals and $250,000 for couples.

The credit would be limited to homes costing $800,000 or less. There is currently no price cap on home purchases.

Unemployment-Benefits Bill

Lawmakers are trying to attach the legislation, which is also being considered by leaders in the House, to a bill extending unemployment benefits under debate on the Senate floor, said Richard Durbin of Illinois, the Senate’s No. 2 Democrat.

Senator Bill Nelson, a Florida Democrat, told reporters yesterday of the tax credit that “we should be able to extend that later this week.” Nelson was traveling with President Barack Obama on Air Force One to a speech in Jacksonville, Florida.

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