2009 Austin Real Estate – Consistently Tracking History

In my last blog article I reflected on 2008 and closing out the year. In this article I take a look at what’s going on in the first quarter of 2009. The more I study the graphs that I have produced with the factual data that is supplied by The Texas A&M Real Estate Research Center (bring on the jokes, Longhorns!), the more I am grounded in the assessments that Krisstina (the CEO of our company) continues to make about our real estate market and her projections for the future: the sky still has not fallen, the Austin Real Estate market has not collapsed, and Maru offers the best sushi in town. # of Listings, Average Closed by Month and Average Sales PriceWith that tasty plug (sushi anyone?), let’s dive into the current status of our local market here in Austin. As you will note from the above graphs, sales closed by month declined sharply in the first 3 months of Q1 compared to previous years. This means that less homes (1,380 to be exact) sold during this time period compared to the same time period during the previous 4 years. However, both average sales price and active listings remained relatively steady. You will note from active listings that there are about the same number of Austin homes for sale right now as there were last year, and we are beginning to track the same trend and bell curve that the past 2 years have provided us.There is no real surprise with any of this data, and my message remains consistent: we are in a healthy market where QUALIFIED buyers are purchasing homes from SELLERS who are realistic about the prices and are preparing their homes competitively in the marketplace…thereby producing a marginal utility which ends up selling their home.Sold to List PriceHere’s where I can begin to rant if I do not maintain control: Austin real estate agents continue to price the homes that they list and market at values significantly above what the market will bear. Please note that there is a drastic difference in what happened in the past. WHY? In the past, agents could price homes above current market value and would wait for the market demands to catch up with their inflated prices. This works when the market is appreciating at a rapid pace (anyone remember the market in 2005, 2006 and 2007?). However, when the market shifted and balanced itself out, prices ceased to appreciate rapidly and those homes that were overpriced sat on the market for a looooong time. Eventually, the agents reduced the prices as the months of being on the market skyrocketed, and the sellers ended up selling for market value….which was drastically lower than the original list price. Hence, the change from a high of 98% to a low of 92% of sold to list price.So, what does this mean and what do you do to sell a house today? Sellers must strategically prepare their home to compete in the marketplace. In the current market, we at the GoodLife Team are professionally staging homes, improving the condition of the properties, pricing homes AT market value (shocking, right?), and consistently outpacing our competitors with our marketing and sales strategies. We are always working to provide that marginal utility for our sellers to get their homes sold faster than the competition and for more money (we sell our listings for an average of 97.6% of our original asking price).If you are buying a home right now, be picky…but realistic. Ignore your TV and realize that we are NOT the national real estate statistic. There are very few steals in real estate…ever. There are good deals out there, but ground yourself in the numbers. Statistics do not lie, so rely on them and a qualified Austin Real Estate professional when you are preparing your offer to purchase your home.If you are a picky buyer, looking for ‘just the right home’ or considering the pros and cons of adding on vs. buying a new home in Austin, this is the very best time to be on the hunt. To search all the listings on the market and to build a customized search for all of Austin and the surrounding areas, check out the custom home search tool on our website. If you are interested in the urban Austin corridor, downtown living, and to see all of the downtown Austin condos and developments, be sure to check out our new interactive maps on our main page.The data provided to create these graphs are available to you by subscription to our monthly update service. please email us info@goodlifeteam.com to receive your monthly update.