Houston is back on the national housing radar.

According to the Houston Chronicle, Houston-area home prices are appreciating again after four years of shrinking gains. The median price per square foot for a home rose 3.8 percent last year, up from less than 1 percent in 2004, according to a study by Evert Crawford of Crawford Realty Advisors in conjunction with the University of Houston's Institute for Regional Forecasting, says the paper.

Houston, like other major Texas towns, is also underpriced, according to new studies.

Says the Office of the Federal Housing Enterprise Oversight, (OFHEO) latest House Price Index, Texas housing has only appreciated 107 percent since 1980. With 12.54 percent national appreciation since Q1,2005 to Q1,2006, Texas appreciated at a slow-paced 5.93 percent.

As an MSA including Sugarland and Baytown, the Houston MSA was under the Texas appreciation rate, as defined by the OFHEO, and registered 1 year gains at only 5.24 percent, and 2.27 for Q1,2006. The Houston-Sugarland-Baytown MSA five-year gain was 24.25, well under national averages.

Considering its size, the number of jobs, and it's convenient location in the Sunbelt, Houston could be a bargain for homebuyers. Concludes the latest analysis by National City Corp, a financial holding company, and Global Insight, a financial information provider, Houston, in the first quarter of 2006, was underpriced by 15.8 percent with a median home price of $110,600, about half the price of the national median. The median home price nationally, according to the National Association of Realtors, is about $219,041 and is projected to rise 5.3 percent to $231,300 by the end of the year.

To that end, the Houston Association of REALTORS® (HAR) isn't letting the grass grow under its feet and is helping its members with the latest information. The Realtor organization is compiling new information, along with the University of Houston Center for Public Policy (CPP), to learn what local home buyers and sellers want, and believes this is the first local survey of its kind.

Overall, client satisfaction is high, helped by the strong housing market for new and existing homes, says Lorraine Abercrombie, HAR Chair of the Board. "Buyers and sellers are generally quite positive about their recent experiences, and both groups express high degrees of satisfaction with their REALTOR®'s performance."

The survey found that Houston home sellers are generally older and well educated -- 76 percent are over 40 years of age, and nearly two-thirds have at least a college degree. They also tend to be long-time residents of the Houston area, with more than half living in the area for more than 20 years.

Most sellers who were surveyed had sold a home before; only 39 percent were selling a home for the first time.

Overall, 90 percent of the home sellers were satisfied that they received a fair price for the home they sold.

Putting smiles on the faces of Realtors, sellers showed high satisfaction levels:

• Nearly three-quarters of sellers sold their home using a Realtor.

• 36 percent of sellers who used a Realtor said knowing the agent personally, or having used them before, was the most important factor in choosing the person who sold their home.

• Nearly half of sellers most wanted their Realtor to help sell the home within a specific time frame.

• Better than nine in 10 sellers were satisfied with their Realtor's overall performance.

• 76 percent of sellers said they would benefit from accessing Realtor ratings by previous customers.

• 89 percent of sellers would use a Realtor again to sell another home.

Houston home buyers, in comparison to sellers, are a younger and less experienced group, notes the survey.

Almost two-thirds are under the age of 50, and half were buying their very first home. Most have lived in Houston for less than 20 years. Houston's group of home buyers is also more diverse than the national average -- more than 40 percent of Houston home buyers were minorities.

Notably, fewer home buyers than sellers used a Realtor, but those who did were also satisfied with their Realtor's performance:

• 57 percent of home buyers used a Realtor, while 21 percent bought directly from the builder. (Editor's note: Due to the availability of land, few building restrictions, and lower prices that Houston, as well as other major Texas cities, has a robust new home market, more so than other parts of the country where building is more restricted.)

• 95 percent of buyers who used a Realtor were satisfied with the agent's overall performance.

• One-third of buyers who used a Realtor rated knowing the agent or having used them before as the most important reason for choosing them.

• 94 percent of buyers were satisfied that they paid a fair price for the home they bought.

• Nearly seven in 10 would use the same agent to buy another home.

Because more buyers and sellers are using the Internet, real estate professionals will be increasingly challenged to add value for an increasingly knowledgeable and sophisticated customer base, suggests the HAR. Among sellers who used the Internet, 40 percent rated HAR.com as the most important website in their home selling process. Sellers who used the Internet were much more likely to be satisfied with their Realtor's performance.

Home buyers also found the Internet to be a useful tool, especially for their research needs; 81 percent used the Internet to learn more about area home prices. Three-quarters of the buyers expected to use the Internet during their next home purchase.

Buyers and sellers also ranked timely responses from their REALTORSR® as a top priority. More than half of the buyers and sellers expected their Realtor to respond to communications within two hours.

The HAR 2005 survey is the first in a planned regular series of studies, designed to help Houston-area real estate professionals track consumer attitudes and experiences over time, says the association. HAR commissioned the CPP to develop two survey questionnaires, one for home buyers and one for home sellers, which were then given to more than 60,000 consumers who bought or sold a home in Houston during 2004 and 2005. A random sample of 224 persons and interviews with another 181 persons yielded the survey results.

Published: June 23, 2006

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