Red Zone Podcast: Housing Market Update with Jim Gaines

COLLEGE STATION (Real Estate Center) – If you’ve taken a look at the June Multiple Listing Service data, you probably noticed the continued increase in both Texas home sales and prices. Does this suggest housing affordability isn’t a problem yet here?

Real Estate Center Research Economist Dr. Jim Gaines said that depends on the price category potential buyers are looking at.

"If you’re a low-to-medium-income household, you’re probably having difficulty finding a home in the price range you’re looking for," Gaines said on this week’s Real Estate Red Zone podcast. "You’re also probably not finding many new houses because few are being built at that price level. Most builders are building on the high-end scale."

Also, affordability is a relative term, Gaines said.

"Compared with communities around the country, most Texas communities remain a housing bargain in terms of general price levels and availability," he said. "But compared with where home prices in Texas have been the last 20 or 25 years, yes, things are getting pricey."

To hear more from Gaines, check out this week’s Real Estate Red Zone. You can listen to the free podcast at recenter.tamu.edu/podcast. To subscribe, click on the RSS feed found on the podcast page. You can also subscribe through iTunes and download each episode to your iPod.