The Austin Board Of Realtors® reported yesterday that "Sales of
single-family homes in the Austin area were 14 percent higher in
January 2011 than January 2010." (See
Austin Business Journal article.)
Since that data differs from my
Austin
Market Dashboard update yesterday, I just want to point out that
the primary difference is between sales of
Single Family
Homes (ABoR) and
All Residential Properties
(my Dashboard). There is also some difference between MLS data from
ABoR and the consolidation of data reported by the Real Estate Center
at Texas A&M University, where I get the data for my Dashboard.
That said, it is true that January 2011 was the second consecutive
month that showed year-over-year growth:
Not only was this the second month of improvement over the previous
year, but
December 2010 and January 2011 represent the
first annual improvements since May 2007 that were NOT driven by
artificially stimulated demand -- i.e., homebuyer tax
credits.
This is absolutely reason to be encouraged. As I said yesterday,
though, this remains an extremely unpredictable time, and despite the
many strengths of the Austin-area economy, there are national and
international forces at work that we cannot influence on any meaningful
scale. What we have done, and should continue to do, is to allow the
business climate and entrepreneurial spirit in Austin to welcome
newcomers and to help them create and find employment and make Central
Texas home.
