There is still no shortage of press coverage on Austin these days. Recently, an article that caught my attention forecasted Austin as the 5th fastest growing metro area among 250 US cities. They are expecting the greater Austin area to grow 87% from 1.5 million residents to 2.7 million by the year 2025! Depending on your perspective, this kind of story could be interpreted as very good or very bad.
There was also an interesting article written about Las Vegas home prices stabilizing that made reference to Trulia's top 10 cities where sellers were reducing their home prices in response to the market. Unfortunately, Austin was #9 on their list where Trulia claims 31% of homeowners reduced their prices an average of 8% in June.
Fortunately, this trend has not yet shown up in the prices homes are actually selling for. According to the Austin MLS, the average price of homes sold in the second quarter of 2009 was only 3% lower than in the same period in 2008. The number of homes sold was down 18% while the overall volume was down 20%. You can see a detailed 2 year historical comparison on our market statistics page. If you would like to see similar charts for a specific neighborhood, community, price range or property type, please let me know.
Now that some of the moratoriums are lifted, I am starting to see more foreclosures and short sales on the market. Austin area foreclosures are up 47% over last year, now at an all time high. If you are are looking for a deal, there are currently 354 foreclosure and short sale properties listed on our website.
For first-time homebuyers, the enticement of an $8,000 tax credit is an incredibly strong incentive to shop for a home this year, especially given the historically low interest rates in and the reduction in home prices. My conversations with potential first-time homebuyers show that there’s a great deal of misinformation circulating about both the benefit itself and the timeline you have to take advantage of it.
Thanks for reading my Austin real estate update. If you'd like me to email you any of the articles mentioned, please let me know.
Romeo Manzanilla, REALTOR
www.RomeoM.com