New housing market articles, data online

"Going Up? What Mortgage Rate Changes Mean for Homebuyers."
A small increase in the mortgage interest rate is likely in the next quarter or two. It should have little impact on the overall housing market but ​will affect buyers caught right on the edge of qualifying for a loan. These buyers will have to ma​ke a larger down payment or buy a slightly less expensive home. Article by Dr. Jim Gaines.

"Mod Squad." Modular housing is not the same as manufactured housing. These homes are built to the same code as site-built homes in the area. In his latest article, Dr. Harold Hunt talks about how modular homes are an emerging market segment that may help mitigate weather and labor issues during new home construction.

July 2015 building permit data. The site allows direct data downloads of the complete history in three separate CSV files — one for all states, one for all MSAs and one for all Texas counties. This means each complete data set can be imported into analysis tools like Excel for further analysis and graphing.

July 2015 housing market data for most Texas MLS areas. Data show existing home sales for the state were up 11 percent over July 2014, while median prices were up 7 percent. Find out what happened in your market.