November-Landscape-&-Gardening-2022

November Landscape & Gardening Tips & To-Do’s

by Resources

Need help planting a successful garden or landscape? Here are some November planting tips from the Dallas Arboretum horticulture staff and the Dallas County Master Gardeners that can help keep your home garden looking beautiful this Fall. Tree and shrub planting should be your focus in November.

  • Continue planting trees and shrubs now while they are becoming dormant so they can establish roots during winter. An application of root stimulator will help get them started.
  • Transplant trees and shrubs in your landscape now. Give them a large enough root ball when transplanting to avoid root damage.
  • Dig and divide spring blooming perennials now so their roots can get established before spring.
  • Prune back fall-blooming perennials to produce healthy, bushy plants next spring.
  • Plant narcissus and pre-chilled tulips toward the end of the month.
  • Plant pansies, dianthus, kale and other winter annuals, as well as cool season veggies such as broccoli and cabbage.
  • Fertilize annual color with a complete, water soluble fertilizer.
  • Mulch new plantings to help retain moisture and insulate roots against cold temperatures.
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September 2022 DFW Area Real Estate Stats

by Real Estate ArticlesResourcesStats

September 2022 Stats are IN!

In Collin County, all arrows point up with regard to new and active listings, average sales price, average price per square foot and days on market. The number of sales is down about 26% from 2021. In Dallas County, new listings are down 5.5% from this time last year, along with the number of sales down almost 23% from 2021. The number of active listings is up 22.5% from last year, along with increases in days on market (up 27%), averages sales price (up 9%) from the prior year and prices per square foot (up 16%). Denton County sees the biggest increase in active listings up over 100% from last year, along with increases in new listings, average sales price, average price per square foot and days on market. Not surprisingly, we see much of the same statistics in Rockwall and Tarrant Counties.

The good news is that buyers have more options than they did in 2021. However, even with the increased inventory, there is still only an average of 2.5 month supply in all counties (according to NTREIS TRENDS report) which still makes it very much a sellers’ market in North Texas (with people still moving here)! Happy Selling!

Our stats infographics include a year over year comparison and area highlights for single family homes broken down by county. We encourage you to share these infographics and video with your sphere.

For more stats information, pdfs and graphics of our stats including detailed information by county, visit the Resources section on our website at DFW Area Real Estate Statistics | Republic Title of Texas.

For the full report from the Texas A&M Real Estate Research Center, click here. For NTREIS County reports click here.

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Republic Title Frisco Named a 2022 Faces of Frisco Business

by Inside Republic TitleReal Estate ArticlesResources

We are excited to announce that the Republic Title Frisco office was recently named a 2022 Faces of Frisco business!

Republic Title is proud to be the leading title insurance company in Frisco and is committed to providing customers with exceptional service when handling the transfer of title and protecting their financial investment in a property. Buying or selling a home is the largest transaction most of us will make in our lives and Republic Title is the smart option for protecting your property rights.

Founded in 1991, Republic Title is proud to have our corporate headquarters in Collin County. With over 230 collective years of title insurance experience in the Frisco office, we have been named a “Best Place to Work” by the Dallas Business Journal and a “Top Workplace” by the Dallas Morning News for eight years in a row. Republic Title was also named “Best Title Company” in Frisco/Plano by Living Magazine.

At Republic Title, the mission is to add value to every customer we serve trough Proven Experience, Dedicated Service, and Lasting Relationships. Count on the experienced team at Republic Title to be your trusted partner when buying or selling a home, refinancing an existing mortgage, or obtaining a construction loan.

To view the October issue of Frisco Style and see all 2022 Faces of Frisco business, click here.

 

Housing-Insight-August-2022

Texas Housing Insight August 2022 Summary

by Real Estate ArticlesResourcesStats

The pandemic-induced housing frenzy is easing as the Fed’s aggressive monetary policies directly affect the housing market. Mortgage interest rates rose from 2.84 to 5.22 percent in the past year. Amid these robust rate increases, Texas’ housing market quickly dialed back sales while supplies have gradually accumulated. Despite the slowdown, inventory levels remain below historical levels, and prices are still high. While prices have dipped some in recent months, they still remain considerably high compared with before the pandemic. As of August, Texas’ median price remains 11.4 percent elevated from a year earlier.

Supply1

Interest rates continued to increase following more aggressive Federal Reserve intervention. Despite mounting interest rate pressure, Texas’ single-family construction permits recovered 12,500 permits in August, rising 9.3 percent month over month (MOM). Permits rebounded in three of the state’s four largest metros (San Antonio being the exception). Houston (3,700) and Dallas (3,693) had the most permits, while Austin (1,609) and San Antonio (681) followed third and fourth in the state. Meanwhile, Texas’ single-family construction values continued to fall by double digits, tumbling to a two-year low. All major metros reported double-digit negative year-to-date (YTD) growth.

Permits for Texas’ multifamily sector corrected. After July’s abnormally high request of 12,500 construction permits, 9,000 permits were issued in August.

Total overall housing starts in the Southern Census Bureau Region also recovered some in August with 885,000 new starts. However, single-family housing starts, which account for the biggest share of the overall count, remained 100,000 units short of the year-ago average with 530,000. August’s boost could be partially explained by declining input costs such as lumber. The lumber producer price index (PPI) decreased for the third time in a row in August.

In the existing-home market, the state’s current supply has accumulated throughout the summer. Active listings rose more than 30,000 units since May. This loosening up of housing availability indicates a break-through considering the distinctly low inventories of the past two years. Texas’ housing supply, which had been below two months of inventory (MOI) from November 2020 to June 2022, ticked up to 2.4 months. San Antonio led with 2.7 months, and Dallas remained the tightest with two months (Table 1). The Texas Real Estate Research Center considers six to 6.5 months of inventory a balanced market.

Demand

As a result of higher mortgage rates, housing demand has fallen, and homes are sitting on the market longer. Sales improved slightly in August (5 percent MOM) from July’s steep decline, reaching a seasonally adjusted rate of 29,300 sales. Overall home sales have been in freefall since around April. At the current rate, 2022 sales will likely fall short of 2021. According to the Center’s Data Relevance Program, the sales level was down 16.3 percent from a year earlier.

Sales in all major metros remained low as mortgage pressures rattled buyers. Austin and Houston’s closed listings were most affected with a 20 percent year-over-year (YOY) reduction, while DFW and San Antonio pulled back more than 10 percent. Existing-home sales, which make up 80 percent of Texas’ housing market, inched down for the seventh straight month. Texas’ marginal recovery in August was concentrated in the remaining 20 percent of the housing market, where Dallas’ new-construction market had double-digit growth.

Texas’ average days on market (DOM) was 38 days, up from 29 days in March. However, compared with the five-year average of 57 days between 2014 and the early 2020s, the relatively short time suggests a persistent imbalance between sellers’ and buyers’ bargaining-power. Amid slowing sales, Austin’s market reacted most aggressively, doubling the listing time in the past five months, while DFW reacted most moderately.

When days on market are differentiated based on the home market, the existing homes’ DOMs are conspicuously lower than new homes’. This could possibly be due to differing price points as new homes tend to be more expensive than the average existing-home listing. Categorized by price cohorts, homes priced between $300K and $500K had the shortest listing time, taken off list in 34 days.

Prices

The downward trend for Texas’ median home price continued in August. The state’s seasonally adjusted median price was $342,000, falling more than $10,000 in three months. Prices dropped in all metros except San Antonio, which advanced $2,000 this month (Table 2). Dallas and Houston, Texas’ two largest MSA areas, reported modest declines of $2,000, while Austin took the biggest hit of $11,000. Although housing prices are recently under correction, they remain much elevated from year-ago prices, accelerating 11.4 percent YOY. Even for Austin, the price in this much-affected market was up 5.5 percent YOY.

The Federal Reserve is expected to impose more forceful monetary policies throughout the latter half of this year and likely into the upcoming year to combat inflation. While the ten-year U.S. Treasury bond yield persisted at 2.9 percent2, the two-year counterpart continued to march upward. The spread between the ten-year and the two-year bond yields dipped further in the negative territory, indicating the market’s economic uncertainties about the near future. The Federal Home Loan Mortgage Corporation’s 30-year fixed-rate refrained from June’s high of 5.52 percent and slipped 30 basis points in the past two months. The last time the mortgage rate was over 5 percent was 2009. For more information on the effect of mortgage interest rates on purchase affordability, see “How Higher Interest Rates Affect Homebuying.” 

The Texas Repeat Sales Home Price Index, which accounts for compositional price effects, corroborated the trend of depreciation. The index’s monthly decline was the second in a row. Annual appreciation slowed to 12.1 percent YOY in August compared with 20.4 percent YOY growth in January. While Dallas’ home price index remained above the state average, Austin’s YOY rate fell to a single digit, behind Houston’s yearly growth and down to the slowest appreciating metro.

Household Pulse Survey

According to the U.S. Census Bureau’s Household Pulse Survey, in spite of rising mortgage rates, the share of Texas homeowners current on their mortgage payments improved 60 basis points in August, and the percentage of people who were behind shrunk to 4 percent (Table 3). This implies that while the overall economy continues to decline, homeowner financial health has so far remained robust. Houston owners’ bolstered ability to pay their mortgage resulted in an increase in the state’s average owned free/clear homes ratio. On the other hand, when asked about future payments, fewer Texas homeowners were confident that they would not face foreclosure. The proportion of delinquent individuals at risk of foreclosure shot up 80 basis points to 8 percent (Table 4).

_________________

1 All measurements are calculated using seasonally adjusted data, and percentage changes are calculated month over month, unless stated otherwise.

2 Bond and mortgage interest rates are nonseasonally adjusted. 

Source – Joshua Roberson, Weiling Yan, and John Shaunfield (September 29, 2022)

https://www.recenter.tamu.edu/articles/technical-report/Texas-Housing-Insight

October-Landscape-Tips

October Landscape & Gardening Tips & To-Do’s

by Resources

Need help planting a successful garden or landscape? Here are some October planting tips from the Dallas Arboretum horticulture staff and the Dallas County Master Gardeners that can help keep your home garden looking beautiful this Fall. Cool seasonal planting should be your focus in October.

  • Start planning your purchase of pre-chilled, spring-blooming bulbs, like tulips, daffodils, and hyacinths.
  • Start planting cool season annuals, such as pansies, ornamental kale, and snapdragons.
  • Plant herbs like cilantro and parsley now for harvesting through the fall and winter months.
  • Keep newly planted trees, shrubs, perennials, and seasonal color watered to help them establish.
North-Texas-Giving-Day

North Texas Giving Day

by Inside Republic TitleResources

Today is North Texas Giving Day and we are excited to raise awareness for 5 local non-profits that we are proud to support.

For more information on North Texas Giving Day, visit https://www.northtexasgivingday.org/

For more information on these organizations, please read below.

Bonton Farms

Bonton Farms is an agricultural intervention driven by the mission to restore lives, create jobs and ignite hope in a once forgotten and neglected neighborhood with some of the most marginalized people.

Visit bontonfarms.org

Carry the Load

Carry the Load provides active ways to honor and remember our nation’s heroes by connecting Americans to the sacrifices made by our military, veterans, first responders and their families.

Visit carrytheload.org

Elevate Dallas

Elevate Dallas’ mission is to build long-term, life-changing relationships with urban youth, equipping them to thrive and contribute to their community.

Visit elevatedallas.org

Genesis Women’s Shelter

At Genesis Women’s Shelter it is their mission to provide safety, shelter and support for women who have experienced domestic violence, and to raise awareness regarding its cause, prevalence and impact.

Visit genesisshelter.org

Presbyterian Night Shelter

Presbyterian Night Shelter is Tarrant County, Texas’ largest provider of services to residents who are experiencing homelessness, with a “housing first” approach designed to address root causes from a place of strength and stability.

Visit journeyhome.org

Promise House

Promise House moves youth in crisis toward safety and success through crisis intervention, emergency shelter and long-term housing, case management and counseling services, education services, advocacy and outreach.

Visit promisehouse.org

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August 2022 DFW Area Real Estate Stats

by ResourcesStatsVideo

August 2022 Stats are IN! Here are the highlights! In Collin County New listings are slightly down, while Active listings are up quite a bit from last year. The days on market, average sales price and price per square foot are also up as we are all aware, with the actual number of sales down about 21% from 2021. In Dallas County, the new listings are also down slightly with Active listings up with similar percentages to Collin County. The days on market, average sales price and price per square foot are also up in Dallas with the number of sales down about 15% from last year. The statistics are about the same in Denton and Rockwall counites as you can see. In summary, while the market is definitely slower than 2021, we are still experiencing a shortage of homes for sale in the entire metroplex which makes it a great time be in the business in North Texas! Happy sharing and selling!

Our stats infographics include a year over year comparison and area highlights for single family homes broken down by county. We encourage you to share these infographics and video with your sphere.

For more stats information, pdfs and graphics of our stats including detailed information by county, visit the Resources section on our website at DFW Area Real Estate Statistics | Republic Title of Texas.

For the full report from the Texas A&M Real Estate Research Center, click here. For NTREIS County reports click here.

Housing-Insight-July-2022

Texas Housing Insight July 2022 Summary

by Real Estate ArticlesResources

Aggressive central bank policy continues to drag down the housing market, stalling the previously hot streak of housing sales. The housing sector continues to show signs of easing as housing inventories recover and home prices depreciate. Amid a statewide retreat in construction permits, the elevated demand for construction suggests many prospective homebuyers might be putting off their big-item purchases. Sales of homes below $300,000, an attractive market for first-time buyers and younger households, diminished more than sales of higher-priced homes.

Supply1

Texas’ single-family construction permits marked the largest monthly decrease since April 2020, sliding 16.1 percent month over month (MOM). Permits for building construction and renovation fell in all four major metros, but contractions were most significant in Houston and San Antonio, falling at 19.9 percent and 12.7 percent MOM, respectively. Amid the drop, DFW (3,626 permits) surpassed Houston (3,471 permits) as the metropolitan area with the most construction permits. The last time DFW surpassed Houston on the national permit list was one-and-a-half years ago. On the other hand, permits between Austin (1,626) and San Antonio (781) continued the 1:2 ratio. While the single-family sector shrank to 11,900 permits, Texas’ multifamily sector rose to an historic high with 12,500. The growth was heavily concentrated on permits for apartment buildings, doubling the year-ago level.

Lumber producer price index (PPI) balanced at the year-ago value, and the July value was four-fifths of March’s record-high metric. Despite the recent lumber price deduction, material prices are still soaring compared with historical prices. Additionally, rampant mortgage rate increases suppressed the South’s total housing starts to a rate of 710,000 units. Single-family housing starts, which account for the biggest share of homebuilding, plunged to 511,000 units. Correspondingly, single-family private construction values tumbled to a two-year low, withdrawing 13.2 percent MOM. All major metros reported double-digit negative year-to-date (YTD) growths.

While homebuilding is expected to continue decelerating, the state’s current supply is starting to accumulate. Active listings rose more than 17,000 units since May. This loosening up of housing availability indicates a break-through after the abnormally low inventories of the past two years. As a result, Texas’ housing supply, which has been below two months of inventory (MOI), recovered to 2.2 MOI. The Texas Real Estate Research Center considers six to 6.5 months of inventory a balanced market. San Antonio led the pack with 2.5 MOI, and Dallas remained the tightest with 1.9 MOI (Table 1).

Demand

Record home prices and rapidly rising mortgage rates continued to discourage buyers. While summer is normally peak season, July’s total housing sales sank according to the Texas Real Estate Research Center’s Data Relevance Program. The state’s sales volume lost over 3,000 deals, falling to a seasonally adjusted rate of 28,121 closed sales. Sales in all major metros declined under falling demand. Austin and Houston’s closed sales took the biggest hits, each dipping almost 16 percent MOM, while DFW and San Antonio each shrank close to 8 percent. While every prospective homebuyer has to confront financial challenges, affordability most adversely impacted first-time buyers, resulting in a significant shrinkage in sales of homes below $300,000.

Texas’ average days on market (DOM) remained low at 34 days, suggesting a persistent imbalance between sellers and buyers’ bargaining power. Homes sold quickest in Austin and Dallas, leaving the market in 22 days, while Houston and San Antonio’s DOM hovered around 30 days. When DOM is differentiated based on the home market, the DOM for existing homes is conspicuously lower than that of new homes. Existing homes are still in a tight housing market. 

Categorized by price cohorts, homes priced in the $300K and $400K cohorts sold fastest, typically in 28 days. Meanwhile, homes priced at more than $750K had interestingly shorter listing periods than those priced at less than $300K.

Prices

In July, the Texas’ median home price fell $5,000 to $344,000. Prices dropped in all metros (Table 2). Austin ($510,000) and DFW ($406,000) fell $7,000 and $8,000 in a month, respectively. Meanwhile, Houston ($338,000) dropped $3,000, and San Antonio ($328,000) dropped $4,000. Amid the statewide downturn, Austin prices had the steepest decline, falling $33,000 in three months. Housing prices are under correction, but they remain much elevated from a year ago, accelerating 13.2 percent year over year (YOY).

The Federal Reserve is expected to impose more forceful monetary policies in the second half of the year to combat inflation. The ten-year U.S. Treasury bond yield retreated to 2.9 percent2, while the two-year counterpart continued to march upward. The spread between the ten-year and the two-year bond yields entered the negative territory for the first time since 2008, indicating the market’s economic uncertainties about the near future. The Federal Home Loan Mortgage Corporation’s 30-year fixed-rate, which for years hovered around 3 percent, elevated to 5.52 percent. The last time the mortgage rate was this high was 2008. For more information on the effect of mortgage interest rates on purchase affordability, see “How Higher Interest Rates Affect Homebuying.”

The Texas Repeat Sales Home Price Index, which accounts for compositional price effects, corroborated the trend of slowing price growth, as the index shrank from increasing 20.4 percent YOY in January to increasing 14.9 percent YOY. Falling prices pulled the state YOY growth down by 55 basis points in the last seven months. Austin fell from the fastest appreciating metro to second, behind San Antonio’s yearly growths.

Household Pulse Survey

Homeowners who just closed a deal were likely to start off in good financial standing. According to the U.S. Census Bureau’s Household Pulse Survey, in spite of rising mortgage rates, the share of Texas homeowners caught up on mortgage payments improved 60 basis points YOY in July, and the share of people who were behind shrank to 4 percent (Table 3). Houston owners’ bolstered ability to pay their mortgage increased the owned free/clear homes ratio to the state average. On the other hand, when asked about the future payments, fewer Texas homeowners were confident they would not face foreclosure. The proportion of delinquent individuals at risk of foreclosure shot up 80 basis points to 8 percent (Table 4).

_________________

1 All measurements are calculated using seasonally adjusted data, and percentage changes are calculated month over month, unless stated otherwise.

2 Bond and mortgage interest rates are nonseasonally adjusted. Loan-to-value ratios, debt-to-income ratios, and the credit score component are also nonseasonally adjusted.

Source – Joshua Roberson and Weiling Yan (September 14, 2022)

https://www.recenter.tamu.edu/articles/technical-report/Texas-Housing-Insight

Avoid-Common-Closing-Delays

Avoid Common Closing Delays

by Real Estate ArticlesResourcesTitle Information

Remember – Prior planning prevents inconvenience.  Awareness of the following items will help to ensure a smooth closing.

LOAN REQUIREMENTS
Be sure that you return all lender requested documents and complete lender required tasks so they are able process your loan and get you through underwriting as soon as possible, in order to keep your closing date as scheduled. Failing to turn in documents in a timely manner can slow down the closing process.

TAX INFORMATION
If any delinquent taxes are found in your name during the title process, you will need to pay them prior to closing, and you must furnish an original tax receipt, otherwise you will not be able to close until payment of these taxes can be confirmed.

POWER OF ATTORNEYS
If either party intends to use a Power of Attorney at closing; i.e., will not be there to sign:

  • The title company must approve the Power of Attorney prior to closing.
  • The original Power of Attorney must be delivered to the title company prior to closing, as the original must be recorded with the County Clerk ahead of all other closing documents.
  • The title company must be able to contact you via telephone on the day of closing to be certain you are alive and well and have not revoked the Power of Attorney.

COMMON NAMES
If you have a common surname, please complete a Confidential Information Statement and return it to the title company prior to closing.

MARITAL STATUS
     A.  Texas is a community property state. If you purchased your property when you were single and you have married, the title company will require that your spouse join in signing the deed at closing, due to Texas Homestead Laws.

     B.  If you are divorced and your divorce proceeding was handled in a county other than the county you are in, please have a certified copy of the Divorce Decree delivered to the title company prior to closing.

OUT OF TOWN MAIL-OUTS
If any documents must be mailed out of town:

  • All documents must be signed exactly as requested.
  • All documents must have proper notarization.  Any documents mailed out of the country must be notarized in English.

REVIEW IMPORTANT DOCUMENTS
There a few important documents that the Buyer and their REALTOR® will need to review prior to closing. They include the Survey, Title Commitment, HOA documents (if applicable) and the Closing Disclosure. When the title company sends these documents, review them in a timely manner and alert your REALTOR® and/or the title company to any errors or discrepancies.

Print Version

Republic-Title-Mobile-900x506

Republic Title Mobile

by Real Estate ArticlesResourcesTitle Information

If you haven’t downloaded our app, Republic Title Mobile, now is the time! Join other real estate agents using Republic Title Mobile and see why we have a 5 star rating in the Apple Store!

Republic Title Mobile is a mobile app that provides easy access for real estate professionals, buyers, and sellers to closing cost calculators, educational videos and articles on title insurance and the real estate industry, and more information on our services to serve your real estate needs.

Our convenient calculator allows users to quickly calculate closing fees associated with your transaction. Calculators include:

  • Title Quote
  • Closing Disclosure Quote
  • Loan Estimate Quote
  • Seller Net Sheet
  • Sell To Net
  • Seller’s Multiple Offers
  • Buyer Estimate
  • Monthly Affordability
  • Rent vs Buy

Other Helpful Real Estate Resources Include:

  • Contact Information for Republic Title’s 13 North Texas Locations
  • Insightful News on the Title Insurance and Real Estate Industries
  • Educational Videos and Monthly Real Estate Stats

Republic Title Mobile can be found in the Apple App Store or in the Google Play Store.

If you have any questions, please reach out to one of our Business Development Representatives.