Here's a 2 minute recap of the Austin Texas real estate market in general:
According to Alamo Title research, the number active listings are up 38% over 2007. The number of new listings are down this week by 14% (compared to the same week last year). Pendings are down as well, but solds are up this week from last week. What we have is an accumulation of unsold single-family homes in Austin, especially in the outer regions of first and second-time home price-regions such as Kyle, Manor, Hutto and Leander. Those areas are further out and represent production builder inventories and re-sales in newer subdivision. Those numbers are weighing down the figures for the hotter areas of Austin. Those sellers are being forced to compete on prices, remain unsold or enter foreclosure. Closer in to the Austin core, while inventories are still high, the supply situation is much less severe, even in the skyrise condo market.
Sold average sales prices increased this week (from June 29th to July 5) by 14% to $338k. In 2007 it was $295k for the same week. Median prices continue to nudge upward, currently around 2% higher than last year depending on where you look.
Sales over 800k have slowed down, though there is still good activity above $2million. Most ulta-luxury home buyers are not affected by the lending issues of late. The hottest areas tend to be closer-in areas like Tarrytown, Rollingwood, 78704, east Austin, and Eanes. Luxury areas that are struggling tend to be newer construction areas further out. Most agree that this is a fantastic time to make purchases at this lower point in the cycle: continued job growth, relatively low interest rates still, and one of the hottest destination towns in the US all point to Austin bottoming out soon (already?) and firming up over the next 12 to 24 months. I hope this quickie analysis is useful. I find that an in-depth look at the numbers in the specific area of town you are considering buying is much more useful...please let me know if you would like to discuss any area in more depth. www.AustinModernLiving.com
