I just read a report this morning about home prices across the country. It seems that Texas has survived the price drop overall. Texas home prices reported to be up in the 4th quarter around 2 percent. Austin on the other hand showed to have risen 4.4%. Some might think this is impossible due to slowing sales. Well here is something to think about. This is my take.

Remember that “0″ down loans were pretty much gotten rid of in the 3rd and 4th quarters. Well if you take the first time buyers out of the mix that were going “0″ down, then that means less lower priced homes were sold. We already know that sales numbers for homes are down. So if unit sales are down but prices are up, this is probably the main factor. Plus loan programs got tighter and who does that effect the most? First time home buyers which again means lower priced homes. It is only common sense that the other homes sold in a higher price range will bring the average up.

That is my take. It isn’t what the article hinted at of course. They just gave facts, which were true. You just have to dig a little deeper and get the whole truth. So this being said, we are still lucky here that our prices and sales have not be effected as much as the rest of the country. Yeah sales are off quite a bit. We are all feeling that in the Real Estate community. But it could be worse. I figure if we made it this far, hopefully when things do turn around, we will have the strongest market in the country as people will want to move to an area not subject to the huge price declines.

I can’t even imagine being a Real Estate agent in many parts of the country now. Especially California. The prices there are taking a beating but rightly so in a lot of the cases. Some, are beaten down too much. I have said it before. When you buy a home like in some areas in Florida that gained 50% to 100% in some cases in only 2-3 years, you are in for a world of hurt if you held on. This is not natural and not a smart move to buy into a market like this. A lot of people are complaining that their homes have lost value but what they are not telling you is that 400k home they bought for 250k just 3 years ago, is now worth 250-300k now. So really they haven’t lost anything. I know this isn’t all cases, so don’t scold me on my comments. I had a stock account that lost 8,000 and now I am going to lose 2,500 of my original investment from 3 years ago. So can I say I lost 8,000? I can but the reality is I am losing my gain and then the 2,500 of my initial investment. I am not happy about that but at least my original investment didn’t get beaten up too bad.

Well that’s all for today.