Texas Burning
Posted:
Wednesday, October 26th, 2011
Category:
Real Estate License
Texas is burning. As this is being written 50 wildfires are scorching different parts of drought-dried Texas, setting houses, barns, farms, and ranchlands ablaze. The fires, originating from lightly populated west Texas, are roaring eastward toward the big cities propelled by dry winds. Near Austin, in the Bastrop County Complex, the fire has torched 30,000 acres and destroyed over 600 homes, forcing the evacuation of more than 6,000 residents. Already, two firefighters and two civilians have perished and a million acres have burned to the ground across the state in 13 days of conflagration.
The wildfires could not have come at a worse time for Texas. Despite a continuing if shallow national decline in home sales prices through the first half of 2011, high unemployment, and anemic consumer confidence, home sales actually nudged up in the second quarter. An encouraging sign for the market. According to the latest report released by Clear Capital, a Truckee (Calif.)-based data and valuation firm, five metro areas are in fact forecast to post home-price gains for the rest of the year: Dallas, New York, Orlando, San Francisco, and Washington.
Now the wildfires are threatening to erase what little recovery the market has managed thus far—but only if the fires reach the big cities. About 1,200 firefighters are currently on the ground and in the air to prevent that and the loss of property and of lives from happening.
If they’re successful (weather and other indications say they will be) TX real estate training such as Texas Real Estate Pre-license and Texas Real Estate MCE will be in demand again.
