Making the mortgage payment each month remains a big challenge for many Texans.
Blue is bad on this map from Black Knight Inc. and it has some big blue bubbles in the large metropolitan areas of Texas, which indicate mortgage delinquencies soared from the beginning of the pandemic through July.
The percentage of homeowners in this state who are struggling to make their payments has gotten slightly better since, still 8.8% of Texas mortgagees were behind in August, according to Black Knight Inc.
Data: D-FW housing most affordable since October 2016
If you are looking to buy a home right now, median prices -- which have surged -- just ticked down slightly from $352,990 in July to $350,000 in August.
Data shows housing in the Dallas-Fort Worth area is the most affordable it has been in four years (see page 13 in this Black Knight mortgage report).
Mortgage rates down, but paychecks slow to go up
Research shows D-FW is one of the worst markets in the country when comparing home price increases to wage increases.
That’s mainly due to rock bottom interest rates, though. It certainly isn’t our paychecks.
The cost of home ownership here is increasing 3.7 times faster than our income. That is the sixth-worst ratio in the country, according to this report.
Mortgage help available for many struggling during the pandemic
If you are one of many Texas homeowners having trouble keeping up with your mortgage, there are pandemic protections, such as forbearance, through the end of the year for which you may be eligible.