Texas, the Lone Star State, became the 28th state added to the United Stated in 1845. Centrally located on the country’s southern border, it is the second largest state at 268,581 square miles. These miles are covered by a wide variety of environments ranging from prairies, grasslands, and piney wood forests to mountains and coastline and coastal swamps. Less than 10 percent of the state is desert.
Texas is second in population with an estimated 27,469,114 residents. Based on numbers from 2015, the state’s population saw and increase of 9.24 percent since the 2010 census. The top employer is Texas A&M University, in fact, the state is home to 208 colleges and universities. Texas A&M is followed closely by Shell Deepwater Development Inc., MD Anderson Cancer Center, and Dell. The top industries are agriculture, petrochemicals, energy, computers and electronics, aerospace, and biomedical sciences.
Texas has a large and diverse economy. There is no state income tax, and the state and local tax burden is the 7th lowest in the United States at 8.4 percent of resident incomes. The current unemployment rate is 4.5 percent, up slightly for the state but still below the 4.9 percent national average. Recent job growth shows a steady increase, projected to continue at 0.5 percent through the end of 2016. In 2014, the projected growth rate for the next ten years was 40.5 percent.
The Texas housing market has seen home appreciation rates increase by 1.02 percent in the last quarter and 8.18 percent in the past twelve months. Texas real estate property values are $157,000 according to Zillow’s home value index, 8.1 percent higher than 2015. The values are expected to continue increasing by 4.7 percent by the end of June 2017. Zillow lists the rent index as $1420, only a few dollars less than that of the national index. The real estate market has seen major ups and downs over the past five years. However, there has been a huge increase over the past three years (since 2013) and that pattern is expected to continue. Zillow rates the Texas housing market as very healthy with a score of 9.6 out of 10. The 2016 housing market seems to be doing the best in San Antonio, Dallas, and Austin.
Influencing Factors for the 2016 Texas Housing Market
Based on the Zillow home value index, the median home value is $157,000. That’s $13,000 higher than last year’s $144,000.
1 in every 2,712 homes is in foreclosure, that is a rate of 0.04 percent, lower than the national rate of 0.07 percent.
Up from 2015 by 3.1 percent, the median rental price for a two-bedroom residence is $1240.
The current APR for a mortgage in Texas is between 3.17 percent and 3.38 percent with an average of 3.32 percent. The average is on target with the national average of 3.30 percent.
The current problem faced in Texas real estate is finding/creating affordable housing for rural farm workers.