Published October 12, 2008

The constant barrage of news reports being piped into TV sets and spewed through the airwaves paints an increasingly dreary picture for prospective home buyers and loan-seekers.

Michael Scudder thinks those reports should end in three words — “except in Texas.”

“The market is a lot better than many believe,” said the president of the New Braunfels/Canyon Lake Board of Realtors and the vice president of the Coldwell Banker D’Ann Harper.

Like many in the real estate and lending industries, he said the mortgage and housing crises crippling other parts of the country have left the Lone Star State relatively unscathed.

So why are so many panicking about the local market?

“People are believing what they see on TV and believing what they’re reading,” said Brooke Hunt, chairman-elect of the Texas Association of Realtors.

She said “media paralysis” has caused somewhat of a slowdown, as prospective home buyers are letting national reports affect their impression of the local housing market.

But Texas’ relatively strong economic base, and the comparatively small amount of sub-prime loans given out by state lenders, have helped it remain afloat while national trends spiral downward, according to Hunt.

“We came into this whole situation with a much stronger economy than many other parts of the country,” she said.

Lenders in Comal County have awarded a small number of high-risk loans, according to Susan Granzin, the local branch manager for Extraco Mortgage.

“I think the national news is affecting us locally,” Granzin said. “All your hear is that there are no mortgages available; you have to put 20 percent down and have perfect credit (to buy a home), and that’s just not true at all.”

She said people with reasonably good credit can still find loans fairly easily, ones that don’t require a great deal of money up front and have low interest rates.

“Right now, actually, is a good time to buy,” Granzin said. “I just think with all the things going on around us in the world, people are afraid.”

While the number of actual homes sold has steadily decreased across Texas in the last year, values have continued to go up.

“One of the great things is that we’ve always had pretty steady appreciation here in Texas,” said Hunt. “We haven’t had the dramatic increases in home values seen in some other parts of the country, so we’re not seeing the drastic decreases as well.”

The current average home price in the New Braunfels is $267,000, up from around $245,000 a year ago. The average home price in 2001 was $140,000.

Home values also have risen in neighboring Austin, San Marcos and San Antonio, according the Real Estate Center at Texas A&M University.

In addition, the number of foreclosures in the state has decreased over the last year, down 16 percent from last July.

That’s thanks in large part, according to Hunt, to the state’s refusal to allow full-price equity lending. Texas made home equity loans legal in 1997. But homeowners in the state can only borrow up to 80 percent of their property’s fair market value.

“More of our Texas homeowners actually have the equity in their homes,” Hunt said. “I think that’s why we’ve fared so well. We do have some foreclosures, but we’ve been able to keep our head above water compared to other states.”

With low interest rates, affordable loans and steady home values, buying that new dream house still appears to be a good investment in Texas — even if your TV doesn’t think so.

“The national news media likes to talk about what’s happening in New York, Washington D.C., Florida and L.A., and they’re probably pretty accurate about what’s going on there,” Scudder said. “But they don’t ever talk about Texas unless we have a hurricane or something. ... We’re doing pretty well down here.”

BY THE NUMBERS

Average value of home in New Braunfels

• 2008: $267,000

• 2007: $245,000

• 2001: $140,000