~Positive news about Texas~

TEXAS QUICK TO BOUNCE BACK FROM RECESSION, FORBES SAYS
WASHINGTON (Forbes) - Several Texas cities are poised for a quick recovery from the national recession, according to Forbes.

Austin-Round Rock ranked first on the magazine's recent list of ten cities most likely to bounce back quickly.

Meanwhile, San Antonio ranked fifth, Dallas-Fort Worth-Arlington seventh and McAllen-Edinburg-Mission ninth.

To compile its list, Forbes looked at estimates from Moody's Economy.com of the projected gross domestic product of metropolitan areas across the United States, as well as unemployment figures from the Bureau of Labor Statistics and home prices, incomes and affordability data from the National Association of Home Builders.

Forbes also put together a list of ten worst cities for recession recovery. No Texas cities made that list.

TEXAS STILL BUYER'S MARKET
TEXAS (Real Estate Center, The Herald-Zeitung) -
Despite rising foreclosure rates in the United States (now nearly 32 percent), the rate in Texas is down 14 percent since last year.

Jim Gaines, research economist with the Real Estate Center at Texas A&M University, said the Texas housing market is doing very well compared with the rest of the nation.

"We're being compared to large, high-growth states like Florida, New York, California and Illinois, and our housing market is in much better shape. This is partly because about four or five years ago, we didn't have the big run-up in prices that many of those states had," Gaines said.

Texas also benefits from a lack of overbuilding, which often creates an excess of inventory to drive down home prices.

Affordable homes, low mortgage and interest rates, and first-time homebuyer tax credits also make this an ideal time to buy a home, according to Gaines.

RECON
Real Estate CenterOnline News
June 16, 2009

"I enjoyed this article because it proved to me what I already knew...that Texas really hasn't been hit like the rest of the country has. Texas is a good place to be right now. When you hear your friends and family talking about how bad the economy is remind them that Texas is a much better place to be living compared to everywhere else! If you or you know of anyone who have any questions regarding Real Estate, please let me know. I am happy to help in anyway I can!"