Is there a Real Estate Recovery going on in Austin TX? As I've said many times, Austin never saw a big boom like other parts of the country. Because of this, there wasn't/isn't much to recover from. Currently, Austin TX is seeing very low inventory, but there are hundreds, if not thousands, of buyers out there wanting to buy a house. To an extent, in many communities throughout Austin and its suburbs, there is a supply and demand issue going on.
And what happens with Supply and Demand? As supply goes down, and demand goes up, prices go up. Prices aren't necessarily going up, however, sellers are able to sell pretty darn close to their asking prices. In many neighborhoods where I do regular market reports, houses are selling at 97-98% of asking price. That means, sellers price their homes competitively with the comparable sales, and it leaves very little room for a buyer to come in and offer a lower price.
Here is a Nationwide graphic provided by ActiveRain that tells a little more.
As you can see, it says that Austin is ranked #2 in the Top Ten Real Estate Markets, based on consumer confidence. However, if you look below, you'll see that Austin is actually tied for #1 with Ft Myers-Naples. Austin should have been listed first for alphabetical reasons, but maybe as the decimal point goes out, Ft Myers might have had the edge.
With looking at the map, you can see that Texas as a whole is doing quite nicely. 4 of the top 10 cities are all in Texas, including Dallas, San Antonio, and Houston. Again, none of these areas had a "bubble". Texas is known for it's steady market. Most neighborhoods see 1-3% appreciation year over year. That also means that you can't buy a house and sell it two years later and except to "make a profit". On average, with typical closing costs on the sale of a home, it takes living in a house four years before breaking even. Some neighborhoods don't fair as well as others and it could take 6-7 years to break even. It all depends on the type of neighborhood and the area of town as there are always higher sought-after areas no matter where you move.
To summarize, the Austin Texas Real Estate Market is doing very well, and it's holding its own compared to significantly larger metro-areas across the country. We are seeing record amounts of relocation into the area, and we're just trying to keep up with the demand. For the question of "Real Estate Recovery or Not", I would say it's definitely a Real Estate Recovery!
**Further analysis of the Real Estate Recovery or Not.
**Are You Packed Yet?**
Donna Harris, REALTOR®
RE/MAX Austin Skyline
www.DonnaHomes.com
Donna@DonnaHomes.com
austin-texas-homes-for-sale.com
Austin TX Real Estate and the surrounding areas of Lakeway, Bee Cave, West Lake Hills, CedarPark, Round Rock, Spicewood, Circle-C, Steiner Ranch, and everywhere in between... Hill Country Austin TX Real Estate and beyond. Whether you're buying or selling an Austin home, I'll be with you every step of the way.
For real time Austin TX listings,click here.
** Multi-Million Dollar Producer Year after Year **
** Platinum Top 50 Finalist 2011 out of almost 9000 agents in Austin TX**
** Five-Star Professional 2011 **
** RE/MAX 100% Club **
Copyright© 2012 By Donna Harris, All Rights Reserved. You may re-blog with links back to this post.
* Is Austin TX Going Through a Real Estate Recovery or Not? * was first published on donnahomesblog.com.
Austin is looking at changing their MLS program, and they've asked the membership for help in the decision. There are 3 programs we're looking at. I attended the meeting on Monday to go through the overview of the systems. The meeting was open to anyone who is a member.
The gentleman in front of me was asking question after question about a system to share data in the different MLSs in the state, which was not what we were there to talk about. At one of the breaks, I find out that he's an appraiser. There's this program called Data Co-op that is used in many areas where MLSs overlap, like New York. In Austin, we have our main system. NW of Austin about 1 1/2 hours, there is a different system, and then San Marcos, about 45 minutes south of Austin has it's own system before you get to San Antonio with its own system.
These areas are very distinct areas so I would not consider the Austin MLS having an overlap of systems. This Appraiser started talking about how it's so expensive to join all the different boards in order to have access to all the data he needs for his appraisals, and wouldn't it be great if the Texas systems would participate in the Data Co-op like other areas? (Most systems do participate, they just don't share the data with other systems)
All of a sudden, it clicked what he was really talking about...
I said, "No offense, but I want my appraisers to be local. I'm sick and tired of appraisers in one area thinking they can do an appraisal in another area that they're not from. It's people like you that are causing problems on many transactions because you're not familiar with the areas."
I told him about an appraiser coming up from San Antonio to do an appraisal north of Austin. I told him about an appraiser that I accidentally got black-listed from a lender because I asked him about his CA area code and how long he had been in the Austin area, and he threw a temper tantrum. This appraiser agrees that my concerns were valid.
This appraiser doesn't admit that he's doing anything wrong, however he does tell me to continue to report appraisers that I feel aren't doing good jobs. How could he think my concerns are valid, but continue to do what he's doing? The Data Co-op system isn't supposed to be used for people to do their job outside of their market. Why don't appraisers understand that real estate is local, and it's not possible to know everything about every neighborhood in a 200 mile radius? I'm licensed in the entire state of Texas, but I don't go sell houses in Abilene or Corpus or any other area I'm not familiar with. It's a disservice to the clients.
Appraisers, don't bid the job just because you're free that day. Bid the job because you're capable!
**Are You Packed Yet?**
Donna Harris, REALTOR®
RE/MAX Austin Skyline
www.DonnaHomes.com
Donna@DonnaHomes.com
austin-texas-homes-for-sale.com
Austin TX Real Estate and the surrounding areas of Lakeway, Bee Cave, West Lake Hills, CedarPark, Round Rock, Spicewood, Circle-C, Steiner Ranch, and everywhere in between... Hill Country Austin TX Real Estate and beyond. Whether you're buying or selling an Austin home, I'll be with you every step of the way.
For real time Austin TX listings,click here.
** Multi-Million Dollar Producer Year after Year **
** Platinum Top 50 Finalist 2011 out of almost 9000 agents in Austin TX**
** Five-Star Professional 2011 **
** RE/MAX 100% Club **
Copyright© 2012 By Donna Harris, All Rights Reserved. You may re-blog with links back to this post.
* Appraisers Need to Stay in Their Market Areas! * was first published on donnahomesblog.com.
The Zilker Park Kite Festival is this weekend, Sunday, March 4 2012. We've gone the past two years and it's been so much fun. I'm looking forward to going again this year. I don't think the kids are old enough to fly a kite yet, but they're definitely old enough to run around and have fun.
Here are some pictures from last year.
Yes, some get stuck in trees...
Here is more information about the Zilker Park Kite Festival.
**Are You Packed Yet?**
Donna Harris, REALTOR®
RE/MAX Austin Skyline
www.DonnaHomes.com
Donna@DonnaHomes.com
austin-texas-homes-for-sale.com
Austin TX Real Estate and the surrounding areas of Lakeway, Bee Cave, West Lake Hills, CedarPark, Round Rock, Spicewood, Circle-C, Steiner Ranch, and everywhere in between... Hill Country Austin TX Real Estate and beyond. Whether you're buying or selling an Austin home, I'll be with you every step of the way.
For real time Austin TX listings,click here.
** Multi-Million Dollar Producer Year after Year **
** Platinum Top 50 Finalist 2011 out of almost 9000 agents in Austin TX**
** Five-Star Professional 2011 **
** RE/MAX 100% Club **
Copyright© 2012 By Donna Harris, All Rights Reserved. You may re-blog with links back to this post.
* Zilker Park Kite Festival - Sunday - March 4 2012 * was first published on donnahomesblog.com.
For a couple of years, the view outside my office window was a vacant lot across the street. The builders had not put a house there yet. I thought it would be fun to capture the entire building process on video, so I waited and waited for them to start "moving dirt", as they say. One day, I finally saw the dumpster appear. That means they're ready...
Each day that there was some type of progress on the house, I went out and shot a very short video from approximately the same spot each time. I then stitched all the videos together and produced this:
As I was creating videos, I thought for sure that this would become a 5 minute video that would be way too long to interest people, but it's just over a minute. I've watched it a few times. I think it's pretty cool to watch it all come together.
If you live in a market where it's all older homes, and you've never actually seen a new construction house being built, you would enjoy this little video I created.
Falconhead West, where this video was shot, as this is where I live, is on it's final closeout. The builders should be gone within the next few months. Some of the model homes have already been sold. There are other communities these builders are moving to or already at in addition to other builders. I can help you build your very own home in the Austin TX or surrounding areas like out here in the Lake Travis area. Call me today!
New and Newer communities still building in the area are Rocky Creek, West Cypress Hills, and Rough Hollow. New Communities on their way are Serene Hills, Sweetwater, and Ladera. All these are Lake Travis ISD neighborhoods, and the new schools are on their way!
**Are You Packed Yet?**
Donna Harris, REALTOR®
RE/MAX Austin Skyline
www.DonnaHomes.com
Donna@DonnaHomes.com
austin-texas-homes-for-sale.com
Austin TX Real Estate and the surrounding areas of Lakeway, Bee Cave, West Lake Hills, CedarPark, Round Rock, Spicewood, Circle-C, Steiner Ranch, and everywhere in between... Hill Country Austin TX Real Estate and beyond. Whether you're buying or selling an Austin home, I'll be with you every step of the way.
For real time Austin TX listings,click here.
** Multi-Million Dollar Producer Year after Year **
** Platinum Top 50 Finalist 2011 out of almost 9000 agents in Austin TX**
** Five-Star Professional 2011 **
** RE/MAX 100% Club **
Copyright© 2012 By Donna Harris, All Rights Reserved. You may re-blog with links back to this post.
* Video - New Construction Home Built from the Ground Up - Falconhead West Austin TX * was first published on donnahomesblog.com.
Austin TX Real Estate is doing well, and there is no exception in Senna Hills, just West of Austin. Senna Hills is in Travis County, outside any city limits, and feeds into the Exemplary schools of Eanes ISD.
Back in September 2011, I wrote a Market Report for Senna Hills that analyzed the year to date activity up to that time and compared it to 2010. The market report below is going to analyze all of 2011 with all of 2010, and you'll be happily surprised with the results.
Here are two pie graphs showing the differences in the Days on the Market for 2010 vs 2011. (please note that only the blue and red represent the same time period and you can't just compare the colors, but look at the legend - technology...)
As you can see, about the same percentage of homes for sale sold in under 30 days. The biggest difference is that in 2010, 20.8% of homes sold between 31-90 days whereas in 2011, 38.8% of homes sold during this same time frame. This means that less homes took longer than 120 days to sell in 2011. Great news!
Below are bar graphs that show the average sales price to the asking price.
I would definitely give an opinion that home owners have become more realistic on their pricing. Back in 2010, the homes that sold the faster were selling at a mere 92.9% of asking price. In 2011, the houses in under 30 days sold for more than 98% of asking price!! Again, GREAT NEWS for Senna Hills!!
In 2010, there were 24 closed sales in Senna Hills. In 2011, there were 31 closed sales. That's a sales increase of 30%. More great news for Senna Hills home owners! In Senna Hills in 2009, properties weren't moving very well because home owners were unrealistic with their pricing. Things have turned around.
It's also important to note that in both 2011 and 2010, not a single sale was a foreclosure!! That's huge news!! People think foreclosures are everywhere, because they watch the National News, but in actuality, they're not.
Across the board, the sales were "better" in 2011 vs 2010 for the home owners in Senna Hills Austin TX.
If you're looking to buy or sell in the Senna Hills neighborhood, or any other surrounding areas of Austin, please contact me today and we can evaluate the sales data in every detail other agents won't give you.
**Are You Packed Yet?**
Donna Harris, REALTOR®
RE/MAX Austin Skyline
www.DonnaHomes.com
Donna@DonnaHomes.com
austin-texas-homes-for-sale.com
Austin TX Real Estate and the surrounding areas of Lakeway, Bee Cave, West Lake Hills, Cedar Park, Round Rock, Spicewood, Circle-C, Steiner Ranch, and everywhere in between... Hill Country Austin TX Real Estate and beyond. Whether you're buying or selling an Austin home, I'll be with you every step of the way.
For real time Austin TX listings,click here.
** Multi-Million Dollar Producer Year after Year **
Copyright© 2011 By Donna Harris, All Rights Reserved. You may re-blog with links back to this post.
* Senna Hills Homes for Sale - Austin TX - 30% Sales Increase for 2011 * was first published on donnahomesblog.com.
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Austin TX real estate changes every day.Whether you're buying or selling, I'll be w you every step of the way! Austin, Lakeway, BeeCave, Round Rock, Cedar Park, Barton Creek and everywhere in between.
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