Up, down and sideways

The fact that we got the house is a little bit surreal to me at this point. I guess it’s not entirely real, anyway, since we haven’t signed all the dotted lines. This morning we’re going to meet our realtor Barbara, who I am now convinced is quite possibly the World’s Best Realtor Ever, to initial the final round of contracts.

So, we’re about to become investors in our first little piece of real estate. Barbara did some research and discovered that in the past five years, the value on this particular home almost doubled. Too bad we weren’t around five years ago! It will be interesting to see where we’re at five years from now. I’m not expecting our new home to double in value…as long as it ends up selling for more than we’re paying for it. This morning I saw a little article that said that Texas is still a growth market for real estate.

Real estate market watchers have noted for some time now that Texas is a value buy. Local Market Monitor recently released a listing of overvalued and undervalued markets. Four of its 10 undervalued markets were in the Long Horn State, with El Paso the most undervalued market in the nation (the other undervalued Texas markets were McAllen, Dallas-Ft. Worth and Houston).

“If I was an investor in real estate — and I’m not — I’d carefully consider Texas markets,” Winzer says. “They had a big boom and bust about 10 years ago. They’re at the end of that. They haven’t been great markets for awhile, but quite likely, as economies improve there, people will move there, especially since prices are relatively modest.”

“Figures lie and liars figure,” as Dad says, so who knows if these gurus know what they’re talking about. In any case, we’re buying a home that we love, on a street we love, in a neighborhood that we love, in a city that we love like. *