Longview Real Estate News

Longview-area home sales up 22.9 percent

January through May sales reflect low interest rates, federal incentives

Posted: Monday, June 28, 2010 7:18 am – Longview News Journal

Longview-area home sales numbers in the first five months of 2010 have taken a big upward leap over last year.

In the January through May period there have been 874 homes sold in the area covered by the Longview Area Board of Realtors, according to figures released last week by the Real Estate Center at Texas A&M University. That is an increase of 163 single family home transactions from the same period in 2009 when 711 homes in the area changed hands.

The increase in home sales represented a 22.9 percent jump from the prior year. The general mood among prospective home buyers on the state of the local economy has improved.

“There are still people who are fearful about possibly losing their jobs because buying a home definitely does deplete your savings,” a local Broker said. “But overall I’m feeling positive about the market and hope the trend we’re seeing will continue.”

A branch manager for a local mortgage company, said historically low interest rates along with a federal tax incentive plan that expired at the end of April have helped spur the real estate market.

“We’ve been really busy the past couple of weeks closing out the (federal tax credit) first time home buyer’s program,” he said late last week. By law, those who inked contracts on buying homes attempting to take advantage of the federal tax credit by the April 30 deadline have to have their loans finalized by June 30.

The federal tax credit program offered income tax incentives for first time buyers and a smaller credit for those who had already owned a home but were buying a different one.

“Right now home mortgage interest rates are at all-time lows, “ he said. We recently closed on a 30-year fixed rate loan with a rate of 4.75 percent while a 15-year fixed rate mortgage can be gotten for about 3.8 percent.

“But the qualifying credit standards these days are much more difficult and the paperwork is a lot more,” he said. “The advantage is that people can get more house for the money now.”

The Longview area home sales market also continues to far outpacing statewide sales increases in the early months of 2010. The center reported 86,968 homes were sold across Texas from January through May. That was up about 13 percent, or 10,112 sales, from the 76,856 reported in the same period in 2009 .

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