Welcome to the Friendswood Development Company News section, or the Friendswood Development Blog. Here you will find frequently updated news and events regarding our Houston communities, Houston builders, and new model homes opening up in and around Houston.
Feel free to share your thoughts and comments, as we join together with the Houston area communities and citizens in building an interactive relationship!
The Home Buyer Tax Credit has been extended. Senators agreed to extend the tax credit which provides up to $8,000 to first-time buyers to April 30, 2010.
The program was initially set to expire November 30, and is credited for stimulating the nation’s housing industry. However, the Commerce Department reports that after seeing a decline in new-home sales, some industry experts blamed consumer uncertainty about the tax credit.
Senators agreed to extend the existing tax credit for first-time homebuyers while offering a reduced credit of up to $6,500 to repeat buyers who have owned their current homes for at least five years. The tax credits will be available to home buyers who sign sales agreements by the end of April. They would have 60 days or until June 30 to close on their new homes, according to a summary of the legislation being circulated among lawmakers.
Year-over-year single-family home sales soar 32 percent and median price edges up further
Hurricane Ike sidelined Houston’s real estate business for several weeks after tearing through the region in September 2008, so it comes as no surprise that property sales one year later surged into positive territory. According to the latest monthly data compiled by the Houston Association of REALTORS® (HAR), September volume of single-family home sales across the greater Houston area rose 32.0 percent compared to September 2008. Total property sales climbed 30.4 percent in September on a year-over-year basis. The increases come on the heels of gradual improvements to the local housing market resulting from an influx of first-time home buyers who have taken advantage of the federal government’s $8,000 tax credit that expires at midnight on November 30.
At $156,200, the September single-family home median price—the figure at which half of the homes sold for more and half sold for less—edged up 0.2 percent from one year earlier, representing the fifth straight monthly increase in median price. The average price of a single-family home in Houston dipped 1.6 percent last month to $205,925 compared to September 2008.
Foreclosure property sales continued to slow in September, making up 18.6 percent of all single-family home sales in the Houston area compared to 19.3 percent in September 2008 and the 12-month peak of 34.0 percent in January of this year. The median price of September foreclosure sales reported in the Multiple Listing Service (MLS) declined 1.0 percent from $88,950 to $88,000 on a year-over-year basis.
Early Voting begins, TODAY, Monday, October 19 in the Texas Constitutional Amendments Election. Several measures have been endorsed by the Texas Association of REALTORS which represent significant appraisal reform and protection of private property rights.
The Houston Association of Realtors asks that you please cast your vote FOR Propositions 2, 3, 5, 9 and 11. Early voting begins October 19 and ends October 30. Election day is November 3. Contact your county voter registrar’s office for early Voting locations in your community. Propositions 2, 3, and 5 have fallen victim to a malicious and deliberate misinformation campaign which is meant to prey on the fears of uninformed voters in hopes that they will not actually read the proposals. Here is what they do:
During our Social Media Event for Houston Real Estate professionals, we had an impressive amount of video captured of interactions and interviews with Realtors that work with Friendswood Development Company and our communities. The abundance of video inspired us to create YouTube "channels" for our communities to share what Real Estate professionals have to say about them.
In the right module of several of our communities' blog pages as well as the Friendswood Development Company blog page, you should now find a link to a YouTube channel and videos of interviews with Houston area Realtors. We're excited to share the enthusiasm of the people who know our communities best! In addition, on several of our channels, you may also find informative videos about the respective community.
On the channels, you can comment and share with us your experiences or thoughts on videos we post in the future; it is our goal to stay as interactive as possible with those who support our communities. Our YouTube channels are just one more avenue in which we can reach out and hear back.
Below you will find a highlight video covering the Friendswood
Development Company Social Media Event for
Houston Real Estate Agents held in July. This event was held as a
gift to our Houston area Realtors, featuring two "classes" on using
Social Media in Real Estate Business to increase sales as well as
one-on-one sessions with Social Media experts, great food,
entertainment, and drinks.
Friendswood Development Company enjoyed putting on the event and
looks forward to a fruitful relationship with the Houston
community's Real Estate agents; thank you to everyone who attended
the spectacular event and made it a success!
We would like to thank all of the realtors and sponsors that made yesterday's Social Media event a success!
Realtors from around the Houston area gathered to learn from experts about how they can utilize social media online to further their business. We covered networks like Facebook, ActiveRain, and Twitter, and talked about the importance of being effective "community members" online. After our two classes, Realtors could visit with Social Media Experts (a huge hit!) and get answers relevant to their own unique situations.
Realtors also enjoyed dancing to music played by the excellent Doppelganger (a nine-piece variety dance band), food, martinis, candy, and a FlipCam giveaway.
We will soon be posting a video with highlights from the event, so look out for that article soon!
If you were unable to attend this Social Media event, you can still view the handout provided by PoeticSystems with a list of a few references to get you started.
