MARKETS & TRENDS
TEXAS SPOTLIGHT
JAN-NOV 2018 SCHEDULED FORECLOSURE AUCTIONS
Texas
New Jersey
Florida
California
Illinois
Pennsylvania
New York
Austin, TX
Ohio
Taste of Texas
Georgia
Virginia
REAL ESTATE INVESTING OPPORTUNITIES IN THE STATE’S FIVE LARGEST METROS.
Maryland
by Joel Cone
verything’s big in Texas, includ- ing the foreclosure auctions. A total of 27,324 Texas properties were scheduled for public foreclo- sure auction in the first 11 months of 2018, the most of any state and accounting for one in 10 scheduled foreclosure auctions nationwide, according to ATTOM Data Solutions. Texas foreclosure auctions are on track to increase 12 percent in 2018 compared to 2017, the first annual increase since 2014 but still well be- low the peak of more than 126,000 scheduled foreclosure auctions in 2006. In Texas, foreclosure auctions are on the courthouse steps on the first Tuesday of each month. “There’s not as many foreclosures as we used to have. People fly in from other states to Dallas, Austin and Houston for the day and then fly home. They show up and bid on a couple hundred properties in Texas,” E
said Aaron Amuchastegui, co-found- er of HomeRock, LLC, who, with his support team, prepares a list of potential properties in those three metro areas to bid on every month. “The trick is having a big list when you come in. Most investors target three or four counties a month.” With an estimated population gain of 1.34 percent in 2018, not only is Texas the home to 8.75 percent of the nation’s population, it’s also a very popular state for people to relocate, according to a state migration study published by LendingTree. Based on the study of 2 million purchase mortgage requests, Texas is a top destination choice for people thinking about moving out of state from Colorado, New Mexico, California, Louisiana, Arkansas and Oklahoma. Texas also had the highest percentage (93.4 percent) of residents applying for a purchase mortgage who wanted to
remain within the state’s borders. Statewide unemployment, which most recently topped out at 8.3 per- cent between August 2009 and March 2010, has dramatically dwindled to 3.7 percent as of November 2018. Between population growth and job growth alone, it is easy to understand why Texas has been, and continues to be, a popular place for investors looking for passive income from long- term cash flow and appreciation. “The only downside with investing in Texas is the property taxes are really high,” said Amuchastegui. “But it is a landlord-friendly state. You can evict someone in just two to three weeks.” With the help of data and local market experts, I've assessed real estate investing opportunities in the state’s five largest metro areas — Austin, Dallas, El Paso, Houston and San Antonio.
AUSTIN: AGREAT PLACE TOWORKAND LIVE
TOP 10 STATE PROPERTY TAX RATES
U.S. News & World Report ranked it the top place to live in the U.S. for 2018. More than just the state cap- ital, Austin is the 11th largest city in the country. Everything considered, it is no wonder that Austin is a popular place for flipping as well as buying and holding rental properties. Named the eighth fastest growing city in the country in 2018 by Forbes, Austin has a very stable tenant pool to draw from thanks to population growth and low unemployment, which remained at 2.7 percent in October 2018, unchanged from 2017. The number of jobs in Austin grew by 3.88 percent during the same 12 months and is up 20.5 percent over the past five years, according to sta- tistics provided by Dr. Ted Jones, chief economist and senior vice president
AVERAGE OF TAX AMOUNT
EFFECTIVE TAX RATE
Pennsylvania Connecticut
New Hampshire
New York
New Jersey
Illinois Vermont Texas
Ohio Wisconsin
70 | think realty housing news report :: february / march 2019
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