There are signs that the housing market could be headed in the right direction with an increase in new home construction that started in the beginning of 2012.  Housing starts and building permits first began to rise in January.  "Building permits, which are less affected by weather than starts, came in at a 676,000 annual rate in January, up .7% from the prior month and 19% from a year earlier."  Even though residential building has a long way to go in order to reach the pre-2007 level, it does appear that the economy is starting to rebuild and so are hopeful home owners.  In order for the economy to fully recover we will need the job market to also increase.  With the addition of many jobs in McAllen through health care, education, retail, renewable resources, and customer care centers, McAllen could be back in business in no time.  Gus Faucher, senior economist at PNC Financial Services Group stated, "continued pick-up in job growth this year could support faster consumer spending growth and a stronger rebound in housing."

Blog inspired by article "New Home Construction Starts Strong in 2012" written by Hibah Yousuf, featured in CNNMONEY.com and can be seen here: http://money.cnn.com/2012/02/15/real_estate/housing_affordability/index.htm