(DSNews) The National Association of Realtors (NAR) reported Monday that sales of previously owned homes rose 7.6 percent in April compared to March, reflecting a surge in activity as buyers sought to close deals ahead of the contract deadline for the federal homebuyer tax credit. Last month’s numbers pushed the annual sales rate to 5.77 [...]

By STEVE CAMPBELL For the second year in a row, Texas’ five major metropolitan areas nailed down half the top 10 spots in an annual ranking of the best cities to find a job. “If you look at all the regions, nothing else does as well as Texas,” said Michael Shires, a professor at the [...]

(Houston Chronicle) 4/20/2010 After declining for three straight months, Houston area home sales climbed in March. Realtors sold 4,832 single-family homes in the area last month, according to a monthly report from the Houston Association of Realtors. That’s up 11 percent from the same period last year. Realtors credit the spring selling season, a looming [...]

HUD APPROVES $167 MILLION FINANCING PLAN TO BUILD STATE-OF-THE-ART HOSPITAL IN LAKEWAY, TEXAS The U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) today announced a commitment to insure a mortgage loan to Lakeway Regional Medical Center in Lakeway, Texas. The $166.9 million loan is made possible through the Fede…ral Housing Administration’s (FHA) Section 242 Hospital [...]

TEXAS (Real Estate Center, Reuters, CNNMoney.com) – A total of 13,064 existing single-family homes were sold in Texas last month, a 2 percent drop from February 2009, according to MLS data compiled by the Real Estate Center at Texas A&M University. The median price was up 2 percent to $141,100 during the same period, and [...]

(Austin American Statesman March 22, 2010) Bucking the national trend, Texas banks continued to increase their lending levels during 2009 compared with 2008. Industry observers point to Texas’ stronger economy combined with the state’s mortgage restrictions as enabling banks to maintain lending levels during the recession. Texas’ 629 banks reported $247.1 billion in loans and [...]

(San Antonio Business Journal) 3/17/2010 The Texas economy is pulling itself up by its bootstraps and dusting off the losses of 2009. That’s according to the latest report from the Federal Reserve Bank of Dallas. After losing 338,600 jobs in 2009 — the highest unemployment rate in 22 years — Texas employment is expected to [...]