Texas counties among those with the highest home price growth

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Today's newsletter is 807 words, a 3-minute read.

1. Trump urges GSE’s to boost homebuilding

President Trump has called on Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac to push major homebuilders to increase construction, citing the roughly 2 million empty lots they control.

In a Truth Social post, he compared the builders’ behavior to OPEC’s past control of oil prices and urged the GSEs to “get Big Homebuilders going” to help restore the American Dream.

It is still unclear how Fannie and Freddie would create incentives for builders. Their role is to buy loans from lenders and set mortgage standards, not to finance or regulate builders directly.

2. Texas counties among those with the highest home price growth

According to an ATTOM Report, the national median home price hit a record $375,000 in the third quarter — up 4.8% from a year earlier — even as wages have grown at only half the pace of home values since 2020.

Nearly three-quarters of U.S. counties posted year-over-year price gains, while affordability declined in almost half of the 580 counties analyzed.

Two Texas counties ranked among the top 10 with the largest annual percentage increases in median home prices in Q3 2025. Tom Green County ranked third with a 26.8% jump, while Wichita County came in tenth at 21.3%.

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3. Catch up quick

📣 50+ brokerages adopt Zillow Showcase. (Zillow)

👻 List: Top haunted houses in Texas. (FrightFind)

🏡 Home sellers are cutting prices at a record rate. (Redfin)

🦁 A 3,300-acre ranch in Lampasas just hit the market for $60 million, and it comes with a built-in safari. (CHRON)

😩 93% of Americans say housing costs are too high. (SearchlightInstitute)

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4. Greystar, landlords agree to $141M deal to settle rent-setting lawsuit

Greystar and 25 other property management companies have agreed to pay more than $141 million to settle a class-action lawsuit accusing them of inflating housing costs through rent-setting algorithms developed by RealPage.

Under the proposed settlement, filed Wednesday in a Tennessee federal court, Greystar — the nation’s largest landlord — would pay $50 million.

As part of the deal, the companies also agreed to stop sharing nonpublic information with RealPage for use in its rent algorithm — a key provision, as plaintiffs claim that data allowed landlords to coordinate prices and drive up rents.

5. Starter-home sales up almost 4%

According to a Redfin report, the median sale price of starter homes in the U.S. reached a record $260,508 in August — up 2.2% from 2024. By comparison, prices for mid- and high-end homes grew 1.4% and 2.7% year over year, reaching $370,000 and $575,000, respectively.

Starter-home sales climbed 3.8% year over year, marking the 12th consecutive month of growth and the highest August level in three years. In contrast, mid-priced home sales slipped 0.6%, while sales in the high-end market rose a modest 1.2% during the same period.

Pending sales of starter homes were also up 3.1% in August. Meanwhile, pending sales of mid- and high-priced homes declined 0.1% and 0.8% year over year, respectively.

6. Texas ranks No. 3 state for doing business

Texas was ranked as the third-best state for doing business in Area Development’s annual Top States for Doing Business survey.

The list ranked the states based on three major criteria: strong access to qualified talent, consistent pro-business policy at both the state and local level, and aggressive site development efforts.

Texas led the way for site development, coming in as the best state for site availability. Texas ranked as the second-best state for access to qualified labor and the third-best state for cost of energy.

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