According to the Greater Houston Builders' Association, six specific trends are emerging in the latest new homes:

1. Stylish outdoor living spaces

As homeowners focus their living and entertaining on the outdoors they are deciding to do it in style. Outdoor fireplaces are sought-after amenities along with sleeping porches, and dining areas with kitchens. The outdoors is also being welcomed on all sides of homes as people add front and side porches. People want to have their indoor amenities with them so there is increased interest in having telephone and music speaker systems, and "smart home" control systems at their fingertips in outdoor spaces.

2. A "Me" space for everyone

"Me" space is the new term for those areas in the home that are personalized for particular people. Open floor plans have increased the need for people to have intimate places as getaways. Her place may be near the kitchen with internet access for things like locating recipes and paying bills. He may have a traditional den or a game-room and den combination. People also find they enjoy complete hobby/interest rooms for themselves that are specifically designed around their "other-than-work" interests.

3. Say "aaaah" as in "spa"

Master bathrooms remain luxurious places of regeneration. Large showers with seats and multi-spray options serve daily bathing while jetted tubs hold the promise of relaxation. Bathrooms are being outfitted with televisions and "usability" options like laundry chutes and adjacent dressing areas. Lighting dominates both in terms of utility as well as for mood enhancement.

4. The high-tech touch

Technology advances into the home with high-speed internet, music and video, and special controls like lighting coming on when the owner pulls into the driveway. There is a strong trend toward lighting controls that operate automatically to save on energy. The newest technologies take advantage of networking capabilities being built into appliances so everything in the home can be networked for detailed control and use.

5. Keeping cool on the inside

Spray foam insulation that is water-based and doesn't contain CFCs or HCFCs is offering new levels of thermal control without posing air quality issues. These polyisonene insulations fill framing cavities much more completely and offer a per-inch R-value of 3.6. The insulation also acts as a sound barrier making homes quieter inside.

6. No fighting over hot showers

The onward march toward energy efficient homes is highlighted by the growing availability of tankless water heaters. Some manufacturers are claiming their models are 50 percent more efficient than typical gas water heaters and 75 percent more efficient that traditional electric water heaters.

Source: Greater Houston Association of Home Builders

According to a recent report in the Dallas Morning News, the housing market in North Texas is due for a rebound.

"The only question, analysts say, is how strong the bounce-back will be. And that depends on the economy, of course." Any sustained turnaround in sales and construction activity will definitely depend on the economy and job growth," said D'Ann Petersen, a business economist at the Federal Reserve Bank of Dallas. "We do see increasing signs that the local economy has bottomed out, and business contacts say they are through cutting staff."

Petersen said there are signals that the worst is over for the Dallas-Fort Worth housing market. Next year will look better for builders and buyers.
"It will be slow going in 2010, but I do think that Dallas' housing market is in a better position than many other areas of the country to respond to positive economic growth," she said.

During the last two months, sales of pre-owned homes have increased significantly from year-ago numbers, and price declines have slowed. At the same time, the number of homes for sale in North Texas has fallen to the lowest level in more than two years.

Given the demand from homebuyers, builders will have to start more houses in 2010, said David Brown, an analyst with Metrostudy Inc.

"There now is currently less than a six-month supply of homes priced under $250,000 and just over a six-month supply of homes priced between $250,000 and $500,000," Brown said.

"If homebuilders are not able to start as many homes as they are closing because of lending constraints, then some of those buyers may be forced into the resale market and could cause new home closings to fall further next year."

Source: Dallas Morning News

By Alan J. Heavens, Corey Boles, John D. McKinnon

RISMEDIA, October 30, 2009—(MCT/The Wall Street Journal)-The Senate has reached a compromise on extending and expanding the $8,000 tax credit for first-time home buyers, a boost the housing industry believes will help it pull out of its two-year-old downturn.

While its passage remains uncertain, the agreement would extend the existing credit for first-time homebuyers, worth up to $8,000, while offering a new credit of up to $6,500 for some existing homeowners, Senate aides said. The reduced credit would be available to all homebuyers who have been in their current residence for a consecutive five-year period in the past eight years. Lawmakers in Washington also raised the qualifying income limits to $125,000 for single taxpayers and $250,000 for joint taxpayers, from the current $75,000 and $150,000, housing-industry sources said. Under the Senate compromise, buyers must have sales agreements in hand by April 30, but they will have until June 30 to go to settlement, said the sources. The measure still faces votes in the full Senate and the House.

Treasury Secretary Tim Geithner and HUD Secretary Shaun Donovan are in full support of the Senate’s proposal to both extend and expand the first-time homebuyer tax credit and called on Congress to approve key housing measures that include the tax credit. “We welcome efforts taken by Congress to extend the First-Time Homebuyer Tax Credit for a limited period. This credit has brought new families into the housing market and contributed to three consecutive months of rising home prices nationwide,” said Secretaries Geithner and Donovan. “In extending the credit, we urge Congress to include strict measures to combat tax fraud and protect responsible homeowners.”

The current tax credit did little for the new-home market in September, the Commerce Department recently reported—news that took many industry analysts by surprise. Sales fell 3.6% from August and 7.8% from September 2008. Industry observers had expected a fifth consecutive monthly increase in new-home sales, believing that the tax incentive for qualified first-time buyers—credited with 357,000 sales of previously owned homes so far this year—would do the trick. Instead, sales of typically more expensive newly built houses slipped. “The decline in new-home sales seems to us to be more a function of the attractive pricing available on resales in the current environment than a reflection of weakening demand,” said Michael Feder, president of Radar Logic in New York, which tracks the market.

“Since hitting rock bottom in March, demand is up 20 percent,” said Joel L. Naroff of Naroff Economic Advisers in Holland, Pa. For Naroff, the robust rise in existing-home purchases—9.2% year over year in September—indicated that the housing market was not faltering. “Maybe the issue is supply, which fell to its lowest level in 27 years,” he said. “Builders, at least those left standing, have been making sure they don’t have any houses sitting around, and they have been very successful in controlling inventories.”

IHS Global Insight economist Patrick Newport echoed that, noting new-home inventories “sank for the 29th straight month to their lowest level since November 1982.” Naroff maintained housing has recovered enough to stand without the tax credit, but Newport said that if the credit were not extended and expanded, housing demand would take a hit, and home sales would drop.

The new provisions are aimed at broadening availability of the credit beyond first-time buyers and giving the weakened real estate market a bigger boost while preventing real estate investors from benefitting. While Senate lawmakers appear to have reached a deal on the substance of the tax credit, they are still at odds over how it would be brought to the Senate floor.

The long run of declines in Dallas-Fort Worth home prices should turn positive next summer, according to a Dallasnews.com article sourcing an industry analyst's recent report.

First American CoreLogic, a California-based housing and finance information firm, is forecasting that home prices around the country will bottom by spring.

And in the DFW area, prices should be slightly positive by August, the firm's economists predict.

"In August 2010, the index is projecting that 12-month appreciation for Dallas-Plano-Irving home prices will be 0.21 percent," First American's latest report says.

That compares with a 0.12 percent decline in home prices here in the 12 months ending August 2009, the analyst said.

First American's current assessment of the DFW home market is a little more positive than other local and national measures, which say prices here are now down about 1 percent from a year ago.

But the research firm's assessment that residential values in North Texas are bottoming and will turn positive next year is in line with some other economists' forecasts.

Mark Fleming, chief economist for First American CoreLogic, said he expects nationwide home prices to "bounce around the bottom of the market in anticipation of a sustained recovery."

"While the majority of house price declines appear to be behind us, there are still a number of economic and institutional factors that are working against a solid and sustainable turnaround in the housing sector," Fleming said in his latest report. "As the economic landscape continues to change, so too will our forecasts."

First American estimates that nationwide home prices are down more than 10 percent in August from a year earlier. The biggest declines have come in Nevada, down 24.43 percent, and Arizona, down 19.53 percent.

But in Texas, prices are off only 0.26 percent from a year ago.

Houston – where prices are still up about 2 percent from last year – and Dallas were the best performing markets First American surveyed in August.

Source: Dallasnews.com

The outlook for Dallas home prices was brighter in two indexes released in August, according to Dallasnews.com.

They were down 2.2 percent in June from a year earlier but rose 2.7 percent from May to June to the highest level since last September, according to the closely watched Standard & Poor's/Case-Shiller Index. It was the fourth consecutive month of gains in the Dallas index price, S&P said.

And the Federal Housing Finance Agency said that Dallas-area prices were up slightly in the second quarter.

The higher prices are a good sign for the local housing market, which has suffered declines for almost two years.

Source: DallasNews.com