Hats off to Texas housing market?

The Real Estate Center at Texas A&M University is promoting a new study that says Texas homeowners and renters enjoy significantly lower housing costs than the national average. But if the study examined the NEW home market, it would find that Texas has become the nation’s magnet for bad builders. Even good builders are forced to adopt bad practices to compete with unscrupulous ones who cut corners and hide behind laws put in place to protect them from lawsuits and accountability. That’s because Texas has cheap land and labor, does not license or regulate builders, and provides no statewide enforcement of building codes. Anyone can be a builder in Texas with no proof of competency and financial responsibility.

Powerful builder lobbyists have created a business and legal environment where most Texas homeowners simply can’t recover legitimate damages. That’s why we recommend buying USED homes built before 2003 rather than new ones and are working to change the laws.

Homeowners of Texas is a nonprofit consumer advocacy working on legislative reforms that protect homeowners and provide a level playing field for dealing with contractors, insurance companies, lenders and service providers. The current lack of rules and enforcement led to market failures in a Free Market society where sociopathic corporate “bullies” (builders, banks, etc.) can’t lose but everyone else does. (http://www.homeownersoftexas.org/Licensing.html)