AUSTIN’S REAL ESTATE MARKET UPDATE

My last post was on the 11th, where have I been? Busy, busy, busy. All of a sudden earlier this month, the phones started ringing again and emails where flying in faster than I could answer them. It sounds like the word is out that now is indeed a good time to buy. Offers are coming in to sellers and although they are still lower than expected, sellers aren’t feeling the desperation from November, December and January. Things are looking up.

If you are looking to buy, you still have a great chance. Just don’t insult sellers with unreasonable offers because showing activity is way up. Leave negotiating to the professionals. Listen to your Realtor’s advice in times like these because the little things are still important.

If you are looking to sell, get your house ready! Search this blog as well as the headlines section for tips on how to get your house ready and consult with a professional. This spring should bring plenty of activity, but you still want your house to WOW buyers with the still overwhelming inventory still available. You can sell in this market, but you still can’t expect to have buyers knocking down your door unless your house stands above the rest.

As always, if you would like any more information, that is my job! Feel free to call me at (512) 771-1776 or email.

Keeping you up to date,

Aria Schoenfelt McIntosh
liveaustinrealestate.com

Tags: austin, austin real estate, hot market, housing, living, market, money, planning, real estate, realtor, sales, seller by Aria
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 So what was the real story with Austin’s Real Estate Market?  Is the bottom really going to fall out?  And why hasn’t it yet?  I feel like a broken record sometimes, but the falling prices we keep hearing about on the news are in totally different markets in the east and west coasts.  In these areas, prices flew up by 200, 400, and even 600%.  So it’s really no surprise that home prices have fallen in these markets.  Here in Austin, we’ve stayed smart as always.  Prices consistently rise, on average, 4-6% each year.  What we’re seeing in Austin right now is a slow-down, and after the huge boom we saw that peaked in 2006, it really shouldn’t be a surprise.  Prices were still climbing steadily in this period, but there were many, many more new homes built to meet a rising demand, and do-it-yourself HDTV fans flocked to invest in their own “flip” projects.  At some point in early 2007, supply met demand, but some were still creating supply.  And projects begun late in 2006 still had to be finished before being placed on the market.  Some areas of Austin saw this more than others, and in particular, Central Austin, East Austin, and South Austin saw the biggest booms.  Suburbs saw more production, but not on the scale of these urban areas of Austin.  Now, we’re waiting for demand to catch up with supply.  We are currently in a buyer’s market, but not on the gloom and doom scale of other parts of the country (or even Austin in previous recessions).  If I was thinking of buying a home, I would buy now while deals are good, sellers are willing to negotiate, and the market has some catching up to do.  If I were a seller in this market, I would be ready to be patient, and prep my house to it’s absolute peak, hiring professionals to make sure that everything is at it’s absolute best — the best way to ensure that when a house does sell in your neighborhood, it’s yours.

 I am still confident that there is no reason to panic.  Austin has grown to the point that it can withstand most anything you can throw at it.  We have many, many different industries to sustain us.  There are advantages to out-growing the medium-city way of life and I believe we are seeing it now.  New construction has slowed but is still strong.  The best builders out there will survive and others will move to a different industry.  This is a strong city now!

Keeping you up-to-date,

Aria Schoenfelt McIntosh
http://liveaustinrealestate.com
(512) 771-1776

Tags: austin, austin real estate, building, development, facts, financial planing, hot market, housing, living, market, money, planning, real estate, realtor, sales, savings, statistics by Aria
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The Austin Real Estate Market remains healthy despite the slow-down caused by nervous would-be buyers and investors. The gloom and doom in the news spilling over from other markets does seem to have made for more cautious real estate consumers, but obviously some do understand that real estate markets are local and that the ill symptoms of markets elsewhere were caused by super-booms that Austin did not see.

Austin continues to top investor’s charts as a place to buy because as weird as Austin may be, its real estate market has always remained consistent. Many areas are seeing homes sit on the market longer, but prices continue to rise. The caution caused by the media has surprisingly done something wonderful for Austin: it has slowed or even halted the boom of 2006, which in the long run can prevent any potential crash.

Markets within Austin are localized as well. While area 4 in central Austin remains a hot spot, but all of it’s neighbors are so lucky. Such as been the fate of area 6 in south Austin. Area 6 has a huge inventory compared to this time last year but sales have fallen drastically. Some of this is last year’s boom settling, but the surge of investors and flippers last year has changed this area. Although central Austin saw a similar flock of interest, low-priced properties were already hard to come by.

Keep in mind that the area boundaries have changed for this area! Last September, there were 80 new listings and listings were sitting an average of 51 days on the market. 70 listings sold this time last year at an average price of $437,187. This year, 78 new listings were available in September and 23 sold at an average price of $616,781 with homes sitting on the market an average of 83 days. Area 1B is a perfect example of Austin’s changing market with prices on the rise and sales taking longer.

Tags: austin, market, money, real estate, realtor, sales, statistics by Aria
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It’s raining in the USA, right now! Probably… but is it raining where you are? Saying “the Real Estate Market is crashing” without reference to a specific market is really an overly-broad statement. I LOVE the weather analogy to our Real Estate Market because like the weather, Real Estate truly is local. Why would you ask a weather forecaster in Phoenix about the weather in New York? THIS is why we have Real Estate professionals!!

The markets to watch are the markets which continued to appreciate at a steady pace (4-6% a year) while the east and west coast markets you’ve been reading about made the rich richer artificially appreciating 400-600%.

So when you wonder why Realtors get paid, remember the good ones are watching and analyzing all of these changes each day. I am happy to answer questions and provide answers in the Austin market, and recommend finding a good agent in your area to answer your concerns.

Aria McIntosh
Builder, Realtor®, e-Pro
Corias Homes, Inc. & BridgeOne Properties
(512) 771-1776
aria@ariamcintosh.com
ariamcintosh.com
coriashomes.com
bridgeoneproperties.com

Tags: austin, market, money, real estate, realtor by Aria
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I was reading one of my favorite blogs today and found a great example of how NOT to use the captions in MLS in an Agent Genius post by Jay Thompson. I really need to start a collection of classic MLS “no-no’s,” but let this be a reminder to check your MLS listing once your agent publishes it! And don’t be afraid to ask for any changes. I always send my sellers their own listing because it’s also a way to double-check everything — plus it shows them that I’m doing my job well. I show them their listing as well as their competition.

So “sit your royal hynee down” and enjoy this photo gallery of the not-so-good, the bad, and the ugly from an MLS listing out of California.  I have my suspicions that this is an agent selling their own home.  Click to enlarge.

Tags: realtor, responsibility by Aria
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