Real Estate Information

The number of active listings are hovering around 25% up over last year and this week is no different.  We show a 26.66% this week over the same week in 2006.  Last week it was 24.72%.

New listings last week and this week are above 2006.  This week the number of sold homes is below 2006, while last week the numbers were very similar to last year.

According to a recent study done by the Human Capital Institute, Austin ranked in the top ten cities in the country viewed as most desirable for relocation, according to a recent study on talent markets. The study, "Talent Markets: The Importance of Location in the Competition for Human Capital," named Austin the sixth most desirable city for relocation out of more than 30 cities examined in the United States. The study was co-sponsored by the Human Capital Institute and Monster.com.

1. San Diego
2. San Francisco
3. New York
4. Atlanta
5. Boston
6. Austin
7. Denver
8. Los Angeles
9. Seattle
10. Portland, Ore

The full report can be accessed at: www.humancapitalinstitute.org

Here is the weekly Austin real estate update for week of November 18-24. This information is provided by Alamo Title which offers excellent resources for buyers and sellers.

From this chart we can see that the number of withdrawn and expired listings has risen over the month of November. This is because sellers have overpriced their property and are not in good condition. Homes are selling quickly in Austin if they are priced in the market range. Most of the expired and withdrawn listings are priced over $350,000. Homes priced under $250,000 are selling quickly if they are priced right and are in top condition.

Sellers hate to drop prices, but as we are now seeing an increased number of failed sales attempts in Austin, because Buyers are saavy enought to see when they are not priced right.

Overall during the past week listings have increased to 613 compared to 350 in the same week  in 2006. The number of Sold properties dropped. There were 155 sales in this week and in 2006 there were 386. The number of Pending sales remained equal to last year at 330.

We couldn't have asked for a better Holiday treat than the one we got on this week: the lowest 30-year fixed-rate in over two years. That's right. If you have been waiting patiently to “time the market”, now’s the time. Here's your chance to save anywhere from $5,000 to $7,500 or even more on the mortgage financing for a new home. This is a tremendous opportunity to cash in on the lowest rates since October 2005.

Here's why you should act now:

• Monday saw the lowest 30-year fixed interest rate in over two years. However, each time this interest rate reached previous low points, both last year and earlier this year, it began increasing and didn't stop, climbing over 0.50% in the months that followed!
• Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac tightened guidelines, announcing new Loan-Level Price Adjustments. As mention in a prior blog, in the first quarter of 2008, most borrowers who have good credit, but have FICO scores below 680, will now be forced either to pay more points at closing or incur a higher interest rate

The amount that a buyer could be forced to pay, even if they've never been late on a payment, could be as much as 2.00% in points or an interest rate that's 1.00% higher than the going rate.

On a $250,000 home loan, a buyer could have to pay up to $5,000 in order to receive normal market rates! Buyers choosing the higher interest rate, under the worse case scenario, would stand to lose over $7,500 in just the first three years of the loan.

Choosing to wait could cost you money both in the form of higher market rates and points. This could well be the greatest holiday present you could treat yourself to this year!  As Cousin Eddie said to Clark Griswold in Christmas Vacation….”It is truly the gift that keeps on giving”.

According to the Texas Real Estate Center in a report dated November, 27 2007 the Texas economy is cooling but still generating more jobs than the U.S. average. Texas non-farm employment rose 2 percent from October 2006 to October 2007 compared with the 1.2 annual growth rate of non-farm employment for the United States.

The state’s seasonally adjusted unemployment rate fell from 4.8 percent in October 2006 to 4.1 percent in October 2007.

The state’s mining industry ranked first in job creation, followed by professional and business services, leisure and hospitality, and financial activities.

All Texas metro areas reported positive employment growth rates from October 2006 to October 2007. McAllen-Edinburg-Mission ranked first in job creation, followed by Austin–Round Rock, Lubbock, Dallas-Plano-Irving and Midland.

Midland had the lowest unemployment rate, followed by Amarillo, Lubbock, Odessa, College Station–Bryan, Abilene and Austin–Round Rock.

For a copy of the full report click here:  http://recenter.tamu.edu/econ/EconReview1007.pdf

Hey it's just another Ditto Week. The theme is close to past weeks.

The number of active listings in Austin are hovering around 25% up over last year and this week is no diifferent.  We show a 26.38% this week over the same week in 2006.  Last week it was 25.51%.

On the same note:  New listings seem to be resting above last years numbers while the pending and solds are remaining below every week.  This week is continuing along that same beat.

New listings are up while pending and sold homes are down compared to sales for the same week in 2006.

Please review the numbers and browse our site for additional information on the current market.

Real estate is local.  That's not news.  What is news is how buyers sometimes don’t get that message.

Oftentimes we counsel our buyers and get the feedback that they are just going to wait and buy "at the bottom" so they're just going to sit on the sidelines.

Buyers state that they are waiting for prices to go down more and they don't want to buy a house today that they perceive will be worth less six months from now.

There is no data in the Austin Real Estate market that supports this logic and this is contrary to the ever reality in our current market.  And YES, we do let our buyers know.  That is our job as market professionals to educate our buyers, sellers and investors.

Where do consumers get such information?  They get it from so many different sources that it's hard to keep up.  They get it from the newspaper (The Statesman did a story a few weeks ago on slowing home sales), television news, the radio, certainly reading about a national mortgage/home/foreclosure crisis in stories and from the Internet.

The fact is that bad housing news is everywhere.

But it's simply NOT here in Austin. 

Here is your Monday Morning Weekly Real Estate Update for Austin. It shows new listings are up a little from last year and the sold units is a little less too. The interesting statistic here is that the number of expired listings has risen. This is due to seller's not being realistic in pricing their homes or they are bad condition. The majority of the expired listings are in the $350,000 to $500,000 price range. The homes priced under $250,000
are selling consistently.