January 2010

 A recent report released by RealtyTrac Inc, which is a foreclosure seller based in Irvine, California, has found that the national foreclosure rate has gone down by 8% in November when compared to the previous month. On the other hand, the housing market still has a long way to go before it can be considered recovered, as the foreclosure rate is still a disheartening 18% higher than it was just one year ago.

According to the report, which was released in November of 2009, there have been 306,627 foreclosure filings this year. This includes scheduled foreclosure auctions as well as bank repossessions and default notices. More specifically:

•    Default notices were down 8% when compared to the previous month, but up 22% when compared to November of 2008

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Cantera Real Estate Team member James Brinkman is an active member of North Hills Community Church and has traveled to Haiti on missionary trips in the past year. He has been planning a return trip to the country and was set to leave again next week. James was interviewed on KEYE-CBS News today about the situation in Haiti.

Here is a link to the video and text: http://weareaustin.com/content/news/story/?cid=45691

And you can donate here: http://www.rminet.org/

Text from the Keye news story:

Central Texans want to get involved to help Haitians affected by the massive earthquake that struck the country Tuesday.

"We do various projects there," said James Brinkman, a member of North Hills Community Church in Northwest Austin, speaking of his

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Austin and Central Texas are at the top of many lists in terms of educational attainment, quality of life, low crime rates, economic growth potential and many other areas. Here's a look at a few of the honors that Austin and the Central Texas area have received over the past year:

• Austin was ranked number one by the Milken Institute for creating jobs, with the Killeen-Temple-Fort Hood MSA ranking second.
• Austin was ranked #2 out of 100 metro areas for employment potential and for having the highest metropolitan growth potential (MGP) by Business Week and The Brookings Institute.
• Austin was ranked #9 by CNN-Money as being one of the best places to start a business
• Portfolio.com ranked Austin as #1 out of the 100 largest cities for job creation

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A study conducted by Farmers Insurance Group of Companies mirrored the results of a recent FBI report, which listed the city of Round Rock as one of the safest places to live in the United States. According to the Farmers Insurance Group of Companies report, which looked at 379 large metropolitan areas with a population of 500,000 or more, the Austin-Round Rock area is listed as number one among the Most Secure U.S. Places to Live.

A number of different factors were considered when conducting this study, including all of the following:

•    Extreme weather conditions
•    Crime statistics
•    Housing depreciation
•    Risk of natural disasters
•    Air quality
•    Foreclosure
•    Environmental hazards
•    Terrorist threats
•    Job loss
•    Life expectancy.

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The financial experts at Freddie Mac have reported that mortgage rates have moved higher for the second week in a row. According to the report, a 30-year fixed-rate mortgage loan averaged a rate of 4.94% during the week ending on December 14, which is up from the previous week's 4.81%. This figure is still down when compared to the rate from one year ago, however, which averaged 5.19% at the time. When it comes to one-year, adjustable-rate mortgages, the rates increased to 4.34% for the week ending on December 14, which is an increase from the 4.24% rate from the previous week.

Although homebuyers certainly don't want to see the mortgage rate go up, the fact that the rates are increasing is a sign that the economy is moving in a positive direction. At the…