GoodLife Team

Austin Real Estate Statistics - Is The Market Turning?!

Single Family Monthly Graphs

Note to readers: The Wise Assessment is posted on the first day of every month. We post our stats later that other real estate companies because we want the most accurate numbers available…and this makes them worth waiting for! Other agents simply copy and paste graphs that they get from other sources and offer no opinions to the marketplace conditions. We track data in house and compare the market on a whole to what we produce internally in order to produce an opinion of the data and give our thoughts of what we are personally experiencing as a top company in Austin.

Keep reading for the written Wise Assessment and/or listen to our interpretations on our latest VLOG:

Overall Market Summary Report

The Wise Assessment

SELLERS: Supply (Active Listings) is decreasing, at a much slower rate than in recent months/years, and sales are increasing at an unprecedented rate - we are rapidly approaching the sales levels of the ‘good ole days’ of 2005 and 2006. With all else being equal, these two indicators suggest that sales price should also increase (demand increases, supply decreases, and price must increase). However, we have experienced yet another monthly fall in prices … why? What force would cause the fundamental laws of economics to seemingly betray itself?? One force that we have been studying is the influx of first-time home buyers in the market due to three specific factors:

1. Interest rates - rates remain extremely low which allows otherwise unqualified buyers to purchase homes in this market
2. Prices - prices are extremely affordable and lower than they have been in years
3. $8,000 tax credit - the governmental intervention and tax credit has incentivized buyers and made it possible for some buyers to have the necessary cash funds to purchase homes

With more and more buyers entering the market because of the extended and expanded tax credit, demand continues to increase … and supply is still on the decline. What this means is that there are MORE buyers wanting homes and LESS homes to choose from, reducing the amount of competition. If you have been thinking about selling your home, now might just be the best time.

NOTE: While this is great news for most of our sellers, we must also keep in mind that the overall market is still down over the past few years. So, if you bought your Austin home in the past few years and are selling it today, your home is most likely worth less than what you paid for it - not worth more. That means you will not be selling for a profit but for a loss. To learn more about pricing your home, read Krisstina’s article, “Are You Still Living In A Bubble“.

What Is My Austin Home Worth? Want to get a good idea of what your home is worth … and find out right now online? Check out our Market Snapshot for an analysis of the value of your home.

BUYERS: Interest rates have just taken another dip, sales prices remain low, and this means that your mortgage payments will be lower now than in the past. Buyers should definitely take heed of the message above to sellers: there are more buyers looking to buy fewer homes. What this means to you is that you must be pre-approved with a mortgage banker before you start looking for homes and be prepared to write an offer. Homes are staying on the market for shorter durations and we are experiencing many multiple offers on our most desired Austin homes for sale. Need an accomplished and trusted mortgage banker to help find you a loan? Contact us to get in touch with Kristin Carroll, our partner in the home lending business.

“Stop the car, honey … look at that house. I wonder what it’s worth?!?” Does this ever happen to you? Ever wonder what that house is worth? Find out now What That Home Is Worth.

Property Virgins (aka First-time Homebuyers): Did you miss the great opportunity to take advantage of the $8,000 tax credit? GREAT NEWS: The tax credit has been extended … so you didn’t miss this unique opportunity to take advantage of your very own stimulus package! Want to learn more about the extension and what it means to you? Read Krisstina’s article about The First Time Home Buyer Extension or click here to chat online with one of our specialists now.

Sales Closed by Month (Demand)

This has never happened … at least in the 12 years I have been in real estate. We are living in a time that sales are increasing in the fall; historically we see the sharpest decline of sales all year during this time. As noted above, there are 3 factors we are attributing to this:

1. Interest rates - rates remain extremely low and allow otherwise unqualified buyers to purchase homes in this market
2. Prices - prices are extremely affordable and lower than they have been in years
3. $8,000 tax credit - the governmental intervention and tax credit has incentivized buyers and made it possible for some buyers to have the necessary cash funds to purchase homes

Active Listings (Supply)

We are entering a season when demand for homes traditionally decline to an annual low, so sellers decide to wait for spring to put their home on the market. However, sales are way up. Inventory is being absorbed at an increasing rate by the increase of buyers in the market. Supply is declining. If you are thinking of selling in the next 12 months, you may want to consider now as a perfect time to put your Austin home on the market. You will have less competition and more demand. That being said, you will still want to obtain expert help from a qualified real estate professional who can design a thorough strategy to get you the most amount of money in the least amount of time.

Average Sales Price

If we worked and lived in a vacuum where there was only one product, current supply and demand would force the sales price to increase. However, since we have a very broad range of product (low-income housing to lakefront mansions) the rate of sale of the different products affects the average sales price. Since we have had a government incentive for first time homebuyers, lower priced homes have sold very rapidly this fall. Because of this, the average sales price has declined.

In fact, last month we sold 3 homes for full price with multiple offers…before they ever hit the market! Interestingly, they all were between $150,000 and $225,000.

BTW, We do have very specific data for every price range and area of town. Want specific data pertaining to your neighborhood or your own home? We have it! Please let us know if you would like a neighborhood-specific analysis by emailing us at experience@goodlifeteam.com or calling us at 512.892.9473.

Simple Summary

Want to sell your house more quickly than your competitor?

Get really good help from proven professionals

and

Price your house accordingly.

The data provided to create these graphs are available to you by FREE subscription to our monthly update service.  Please email us experience@goodlifeteam.com to receive your monthly update. Or, catch the wave and follow @GoodLifeTeam on Twitter.

Note to readers: The Wise Assessment is posted on the first day of every month. We post our stats later than other real estate companies because we want the most accurate numbers available…and this makes them worth waiting for! Other agents simply copy and paste graphs that they get from other sources and offer no opinions to the marketplace conditions. We track data in–house and compare the market on a whole to what we produce internally in order to produce an opinion of the data and give our thoughts of what we are personally experiencing as a top company in Austin.

Keep reading for the written Wise Assessment and/or listen to our interpretations on our latest VLOG:

Single Family Monthly Graphs

Overall Market Summary Report

The Wise Assessment

• SELLERS: The supply (Active Listings) continues the seasonal decline but has an additional thrust behind it…demand (Sales) has leveled off and may actually climb next month. As we approach the holidays and the traditional seasonal decline in supply continues, while demand remains the same; we can anticipate the sales price to remain relatively steady or even begin to tick upwards (whereas we traditionally experience a decrease in prices).Are you interested in selling your home right now? Well, we have very good news for you: for the first time all year, the number of sales (demand) is more now than it was just 1 year ago. What this means is that more homes are selling right now than last year, and we are even experiencing very rapid sales cycles (homes are selling quickly) and our sellers are receiving multiple offers on many of our properties within the $125,000 - $250,000 price range. Additionally, if you are selling a home and buying a more expensive home (aka a Move-Up), this is a perfect time to make a move! Read Krisstina’s Housing V conversation for details.While this is great news for most of our sellers, we must also keep in mind that the overall market is still down over the past few years. So, if you bought your Austin home in the past few years and are selling it today, your home is most likely worth less than what you paid for it - not worth more. That means you will not be selling for a profit but for a loss. To learn more about pricing your home, read Krisstina’s article, “Are You Still Living In A Bubble“.What Is My Home Worth? Want to find out now what your home is worth in today’s market? Check out our Market Snapshot.

• BUYERS: What are you waiting for? This is NOT a rhetorical question! To buy or not to buy…now THAT is the question! Do I buy just to take advantage of the first-time homebuyer credit, or do I wait for my 401-K to recover fully? Have we hit the bottom yet? These are all great questions and ones that we hear from buyers on a daily basis. While everyone’s specific situation differs and we highly recommend a personal consultation to address your specific concerns, the fact remains that we are in the midst of The Perfect Storm for buying a home. Interest rates and housing prices remain low … and this means that mortgage payments are lower now than they have been in years. What are you waiting for?”Stop the car, honey … look at that house. I wonder what it’s worth?!?” Does this ever happen to you? Ever wonder what that house is worth? Find out now What That Home Is Worth.

• Property Virgins (aka First-time Homebuyers): Did you miss the great opportunity to take advantage of the $8,000 tax credit? Is that the ONLY reason you would be buying right now? Coupling The Perfect Storm with This Limited Time Offer certainly offered many buyers an opportunity to buy a home when they would have otherwise been confined to living in an apartment. However, there are other ways to gain access to $8,000 through negotiating terms with sellers who are motivated to sell. If you are interested in buying but not quite sure if you can afford to venture into the Storm, call a highly-qualified and accomplished real estate professional to discuss your options. Click here to chat online with one of our specialists now.

Sales Closed by Month (Demand)

Imagine this: it is 108 degrees outside, we are in the middle of one of the worst droughts in history, and you are thinking of buying a house…as long as you don’t have to go outside! I don’t care how much you love your Austin real estate agent or how nice their car is; when it is miserable outside, you do not want to leave the air conditioning. Couple that with an uncertain stock market and doom and gloom in the national media and what you get is a slow summer buying season. Now imagine the weather cooling down, your portfolio recovering, an unprecedented $8,000 tax credit coming to maturity and the national media focusing on balloon boy. And wait, there’s more – interest rates and housing prices remain low. What is the outcome? See the chart above for yourself and you will notice that demand actually increased in September. And if the activity at The GoodLife Team is any indication of the market trend, October will be very strong as well.

Active Listings (Supply)

We are entering a season when demand for homes traditionally decline to an annual low, so sellers decide to wait for spring to put the home on the market. However, sales are up. Inventory is being absorbed at an increasing rate by the increase of buyers in the market. Supply is declining. If you are thinking of selling in the next 12 months, you may want to consider now as a perfect time to put your home on the market. You will have less competition and more demand for your home … just make sure you get expert help from qualified real estate professionals to design a thorough strategy to get the most amount of money in the least amount of time.

Average Sales Price

As the demand for homes in the market has increased and supply continues to decline, the prices of homes, on average, have leveled off. Prices may actually increase if we continue to experience increasing demand and falling supply. In fact, we are beginning to help many sellers navigate their way through multiple offers! What this means is that we are generating so much demand for Austin homes for sale between $125,000 and $250,000 that multiple buyers are submitting offers to purchase the home. … and we are quite often getting our sellers more than our asking price.

Want specific data pertaining to your neighborhood or your own home? We have it! Please let us know if you would like a neighborhood-specific analysis by emailing us at experience@goodlifeteam.com or calling us at 512.892.9473.

Simple Summary

Want to sell your house more quickly than your competitor?

Get really good help from proven professionals

and

Price your house accordingly.

The data provided to create these graphs are available to you by FREE subscription to our monthly update service.  Please email us experience@goodlifeteam.com to receive your monthly update. Or, catch the wave and follow @GoodLifeTeam on Twitter.

Note to readers: The Wise Assessment is posted on the first day of every month. We post our stats later than other real estate companies because we want the most accurate numbers available…and this makes them worth waiting for! Other agents simply copy and paste graphs that they get from other sources and offer no opinions to the marketplace conditions. We track data in house and compare the market on a whole to what we produce internally in order to produce an opinion of the data and give our thoughts of what we are personally experiencing as a top Austin Real Estate Brokerage.

Keep reading for the written Wise Assessment and/or listen to our interpretations on our latest VLOG:

Single Family Monthly Graphs

This month, I decided to mix things up a bit. I have been receiving a lot of responses via email and phone from readers that they love the stats, but want to look at the pretty pictures first. You ask, you receive. Additionally, I am including an overall market summary report below so you can have a full review of the entire Austin market before we get to my interpretations of the data.

Overall Market Summary Report

The Wise Assessment

• SELLERS: The supply (Active Listings) is on a seasonal decline right now, which means if you are interested in selling, you will have less competition. However, demand is declining at the same time. If you want to sell, you will need to have the very best house for the money (we call this value) so you can attract the ever-decreasing number of buyers.The good news: if demand and supply are declining at the same rate, prices will not be affected much. Why is this? As supply and demand remain evenly matched, prices will neither rise nor fall…rather, they will stay fairly consistent. So, you can expect to get the same amount of money for your Austin home that you would have last month, but there are fewer buyers looking so it could take longer and you need to be the BEST house in your price range and price to SELL.If you bought your Austin home in the past few years and are selling it today, your home is most likely worth less than what you paid for it - not worth more. Please see the statistics above that show the average sales price is 5% less now than just 1 year ago. That means you will not be selling for a profit but for a loss. To learn more about pricing your home, read Krisstina’s article, “Are You Still Living In A Bubble“.

• BUYERS: Is it time to get off the proverbial fence? Is the market stabilizing, and is my investment protected against further declines? Anyone telling you that we have fully recovered and are in the clear must have a magic 8 ball that works better than mine! The only way we will be able to definitively say that we have reached the recovery zone is this: we study history (the past) and make interpretations of what has already happened. We cannot predict the future; otherwise we would all be rich and retired.Has the market rebounded? My assessment is that it is too soon to tell. This in no way should detract you from investigating the purchase of an Austin home today. However, I recommend you either find a really good magic 8 ball (let me know if you find one) or seek professional help from experts in the industry; otherwise you may pay too much for your home.Thinking of buying, but not quite sure if now is a good time? Check out The Perfect Storm by Krisstina Wise in her most recent article, “Here Come Higher Interest Rates“. In a time when interest rates are at a historic low, coupled with very low home prices, we all get to take advantage of low mortgage payments. Please refer to the article for a brief, simple and thorough description of this situation and what it really means to you.

• Property Virgins (aka First-time Homebuyers): Time is short, and you must buy now to take advantage of Uncle Sam’s $8,000 tax credit. The deadline to close on your home is November 30…and this means that you must be under contract this week to qualify for this unprecedented stimulus. Interest Rates are Low AND Prices are lower than they have been in years. Do you really think you will find a better time to buy your first home? Click on the link for more Info on This Limited Time Offer from the government.

Sales Closed by Month (Demand)

As you will note from the details of the graph, we are tracking the seasonality of residential real estate sales. Granted, the bold green line is shifted downward, but we continue to track the historical movements of sales, year after year. In June of this year, we experienced a steep incline in the number of transactions which was a launchpad to help us begin tracking very closely to last year’s summer months. Normally I would predict that we will continue to track last year’s sales very closely. However, we have noticed a spike in activity for September and anticipate an unseasonable, atypical number of sales for the month. Look forward to next month to see if we overtake the dark green line from 2008!

Active Listings (Supply)

Currently there are 9,500 homes for sale in Austin. This is 8% less homes than were on the market just 1 year ago. How did that happen, and what does it mean? As you will note from the sales graph, we had a significant increase in sales over the past 3 months which helped absorb our inventory..thereby reducing active listings. Also, there have been fewer homeowners putting their homes on the market this summer (who wanted to sell a house when it was 108 degrees outside, the grass was browner than the dirt of west Texas, and Austinites stayed indoors). But what drove buyers to endure the heat when sellers would have none of it? The Perfect Storm. Interest rates remained low all year, prices have remained low, and mortgage payments are now a fraction of what they would have been just a couple of years ago. Ergo, The Perfect Storm.

Average Sales Price

This graph is the child of the first two graphs I create for you. Prices are driven by supply and demand and are completely predictable. As we noticed the supply remaining relatively flat in May and demand increased, the only outcome that could be produced for pricing is indicated in the graph above: they increased. This fall, if supply continues to fall and demand follows suit, we can anticipate that our average sales price will remain relatively flat. However, if supply of homes for sale level out and demand continues to decline with the seasonality, our average sales price will decline as well. Let’s watch this evolve and study the different possibilities as fall continues to bring better weather and rain for our aquifers!

Want specific data pertaining to your neighborhood? We have it! Please let us know if you would like a neighborhood-specific analysis by emailing us at experience@goodlifeteam.com or calling us at 512.892.9473.

Simple Summary

Want to sell your house more quickly than your competitor?

Get really good help from proven professionals

and

Price your house accordingly.

The data provided to create these graphs are available to you by FREE subscription to our monthly update service.  Please email us experience@goodlifeteam.com to receive your monthly update. Or, catch the wave and follow @GoodLifeTeam on Twitter.