The first paragraph on the story sent around the country Thursday by The Associated Press might as well have been plucked out of the Twilight Zone.
It couldn’t have been written about Bell County and Temple in Texas.
Here’s what the AP wrote: “Sales of existing homes fell in December, closing out a horrible year for housing in which sales of single-family homes plunged by the largest amount in 25 years. The median home price dropped for the entire year, the first time that has occurred in four decades.”
And here’s the story in Bell County and Temple: Both the number of sales and median prices rose in 2007, for at least the fourth straight year.
Nearly 2,275 existing homes were sold. The dollar volume was more than $32 million. And the median price (a better indicator than an average price) rose a healthy $4,000.
Across the United States, the National Association of Realtors reported Thursday that sales dropped by 13 percent in 2007. And the median price fell by 1.8 percent to $217,000.
In Bell County, home sales increased significantly in several neighborhoods, particularly in South Temple and Killeen.
The Temple-Belton Board of Realtors’ data for the year show that the most expensive place to buy a home in the county was Salado, where the prices came in just under the national median.
“Because we’re so stable, we have consistent growth,” Ken Higdon, president of the Temple Chamber of Commerce, said. “This economy, ever since they’ve been keeping records, has always grown, except in 1998, when we lost TI. In ’99 we caught up. So, we recovered. We had some major expansions of other companies during that time. But, this is just a great economy.”
City Manager David Blackburn likewise cited steady growth as the reason for a housing market that continues to outperform the rest of the country.
And that growth is important, he said, because with growth comes increased demand for city services. Without growth in real estate, the appraised value of which is used to figure tax revenues, tax rates would have to rise.
“Since the city has not been experiencing any decline in requests for services, and the costs for providing existing services continues to increase year to year, a growing tax base is an important part of a viable, sustainable community,” Blackburn said.
“In a local area where prices are rising, it’s a good leading indicator that the area is growing,” Dr. Larry Woodward of the University of Mary Hardin-Baylor said. “We’re doing great. Central Texas and most of Texas didn’t participate in the housing bubble. We have great economic growth along the I-35 corridor.”
So, who’s buying all the homes?
“I polled some of our top producers in the board and would conclude that fortunately we have a diversified base of buyers,” said Terri Covington, president of the board of Realtors. “We experienced a number of people from the area moving up in size and scaling down. Certainly, the health industry and Fort Hood are a large influence on our market. We also see a lot of retirees moving to the area.”
The national outlook for existing home sales is not good.
Steve Kerch, real-estate editor of MarketWatch, published by the Wall Street Journal, said Thursday that the worst news about the housing market was not the low number of sales, but the decline in prices.
“There’s just no evidence” that the housing market decline “is not going to continue into 2008,” he said.
That’s not the outlook for Bell County, however.
“Unless there is some catastrophic meltdown worldwide, I see the prospects for Central Texas as good for the next five to 10 years,” Woodward said. “I see growth, growth, growth. I see that 10 years from now we will be bedroom communities for Austin. We’re only one hour away.”
ncwilson@temple-telegram.com
