Austin Texas Real Estate Daily

Asking prices for homes across the country fell 1.4 percent in September, bringing the total drop in the last three-month cycle to 2.9 percent, according to data released by Altos Research LLC.

The Mountain View, Calif.-based real estate research company released September findings of its 10-city composite listing price index on Wednesday. The findings are based on market conditions in 26 major U.S. metropolitan statistical areas including - among many others - Boston, Cleveland, Dallas, Los Angeles, Miami, New York, Seattle and Washington, D.C.

The Real-Time Housing Market Report, a joint publication between Altos and market analysis firm Real IQ, showed asking prices fell in 21 of these 26 metropolitan markets.

The fastest fall occurred in the Las Vegas market, where listing prices were down 3.5 percent during September and a total 8.1 percent during the last three months, according to Altos’ data. On the opposite end of the spectrum, Denver’s listing price increased 0.9 percent - the fastest rate of increase - followed by San Diego’s 0.8 percent increase. Both cities were joined by Houston as the only metropolitan areas studied that showed consistent asking price increases during the last three months.

“The fleeting signs of stability we saw during the summer have largely vanished,” said Altos CEO Michael Simonsen in a press statement. “Job losses and the credit crunch will aggravate typical seasonal weakness during the coming fall and winter months.”

Days-on-market declined in only three metropolitan markets during September. Of the 19 markets that showed an average of 100 or more days-on-market, Miami - which has maintained the title of slowest turnover every month since September 2007 - reported the slowest turnover of 167 days-on-market in September.

As asking prices largely dropped, inventory levels also declined in 21 of the markets during September. Inventory contracted 6.3 percent in Austin and 6.2 percent in Detroit.

Although a connection might be drawn between decreased asking price and decreased inventory, one source at Real IQ said there’s no immediate bottom for troubled markets in sight.

“While inventories have continued to slowly decline, they remain at historically high levels,” said Real IQ research director Stephen Bedikian in a press statement. “The result is that prices remain under pressure in most markets. Until we see large and sustained declines in inventory, we’re not going to see a market bottom.”

Credits: Housing Wire

Bad loans are on the rise at Texas banks, but the industry in the state is “fundamentally strong” with a positive financial outlook, according to a new report by Austin-based Sheshunoff & Co. Investment Banking, a bank advisory firm.

Banks based in the Austin area saw a key indicator of bad loans increase sharply in the 12 months ended June 30, but the overall quality of their assets remained far below the danger zone.

Bad loans — those that are more than 90 days overdue or no longer accruing interest and real estate acquired through foreclosure — make up 0.48 percent of Austin-based banks’ total assets, up from about 0.08 percent in the third quarter of 2007.

A bad-loan ratio of 1 percent or less indicates a bank’s assets of good quality.

The report studied results from 21 banks with headquarters in Central Texas. The largest by assets include First State Bank Central Texas of Austin, First National Bank of Bastrop, Union State Bank of Florence, First Texas Bank in Georgetown and Independent Bank of Austin.

John Blaylock, an associate director at Sheshunoff, said the Austin area, with its relative lack of industrial companies, doesn’t have as diverse a lending base as Houston — with a booming energy services business — or San Antonio and Dallas.

“The lending opportunities are fairly limited,” he said. “So a bank says, ‘What kind of asset can I put on my books?’ It’s usually commercial real estate.”

More banks are reporting past-due loans for construction, real estate and development, Blaylock said.

The Sheshunoff report cites the state’s relatively strong economy and population growth for keeping Texas banks healthy during the ongoing crisis of tight credit.

“They’ve benefited from the economy and the influx of people, and energy prices are a driver (of growth) now instead of the drag it was 20 years ago,” he said.

Texas has led all states since 2000 in adding new residents, thanks to broad-based job growth and a relatively low cost of living, according to a recent report by the Federal Reserve Bank of Dallas.

Blaylock said the common refrain from Texas bankers these days — that they learned their lesson from the state’s banking disaster of the 1980s — happens to be accurate.

“They have the experience and history, and that has kept a lot of Texas banks out of trouble,” he said.

Still, problems with loans “may not have peaked in Texas or the nation,” the report said.

The data show a number of banks with dangerously high bad-loans-to-assets ratios. One of the largest is Franklin Bank of Houston, with a ratio of 9.6 percent. That ratio is higher than the level posted by IndyMac Bank of Pasadena, Calif., when it failed in July.

Banks with much lower ratios, such as Washington Mutual, have failed recently. The largest U.S. savings and loan had a ratio of 3.6 percent on June 30, not long before the federal government last month seized the bank and engineered the sale of the assets to JPMorgan Chase & Co.

Credits:Statesman

Neighbors fed up with crime took to the streets in order to take back their neighborhood Saturday night.

Hundreds who live along East Rundberg Lane marched alongside police to crack down on crime.

Neighbors say they’ve had enough, and police admit Rundberg Lane is a source for violent crime, prostitution and drug activity.

“I think some of our biggest problems are street level prostitution and narcotics issues here,” Police Chief Art Acevedo said.

Police say crime has decreased in the area, noting they cracked down on several problem properties that served as drug dens.

Acevedo noted there were 236 serious crimes investigated in the area at this time last year. That number stands at 121 this year.

This is the second year neighbors have marched along Rundberg Lane to protest crime in their neighborhood.

Credits: Keye TV

Austin police say new home developments are getting hit hard by thieves. Air conditioning units are being stolen, but not just by copper thieves.

Police say long before these homes are ready, thieves move in.

“Most of the neighborhood isn’t occupied yet. There are a lot of un-opened buildings that are easily accessible. They go in at night and get what they need,” Austin police detective Jeff Olson said.

Olson says in this Southeast Austin neighborhood, thieves are after A/C units. Until a few weeks ago, they were getting away with it.

“A lot of local builders are doing things to protect themselves,” Olson said.

Centex Homes put GPS devices in appliances in several homes under construction. Soon after, thieves struck again. Police were able to track the stolen a/c units to this home in Southwest Austin. Olson says units from K.B. Homes were also found. But this is not just the work of copper thieves.

“In this case, they were stealing units that were still functional with the intent on re-selling them and there’s even some information looks like they may have been headed to Mexico,” Olson said.

“It’s something we know about and it’s a big problem,” said Greg Yamin, owner of A+ Air Conditioning.

Yamin says older homes aren’t immune.

“A good friend of mine as a matter of fact had a rent house of his that the entire unit was gutted and stolen,” he said.

Yamin says there are some things you can do to protect yourself.

“The best thing would be to make sure your outdoor unit is on the backside of your fence so it’s not visible. If you have a fenced in backyard lock the fence,” he said. .

Credits: KVUE