Austin Real Estate News

Today, Forbes ranked Austin #5 in a list of cities where home prices are likely to rise. To calculate their rankings, Forbes.com analyzed statistics such as Moody’s job growth (4.7% for Austin), the National Association of Home Builders record of housing starts (down 28.2% in 2008 for Austin) and their own projections for the increase in number of families moving to particular cities (5% for Austin).  Although Austin is still doing relatively well compared to the rest of the nation, they noted that large builder’s bearish attitudes about the whole economy has caused them to slow down on new home starts everywhere, including Austin. Additionally, Forbes.com specifically cited Austin as one of the rare cities that have “largely avoided the real estate crash” pointing out homes price increases of 4.1% for Austin since last year. They concluded that Austin home prices would likely continue to rise due to the reduction in new home starts while job growth increases and people continue to move to Austin.  

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The Austin Board of Realtors reported this week that Austin area home sales fell nearly 21 percent in July compared to this time last year.  Although the sales drop was spread across all price ranges, the majority of the reductions in sales came from the high and low end of the market.  For example, homes in the Austin area priced between $100,000 and $129,000 saw a 30% drop in sales from July 2007. Worse, homes priced over $1,000,000 experienced a decline of 33% for the same time period.  Compared to the rest of the nation, the value of an Austin home is holding up extremely well. The median price of an Austin area home is up 3% to $195,000 compared to this time last year. On another positive note, new home listings in Austin fell 5% which could help contain values as the inventory of available homes fall in line with the reduced number of buyers.

The Austin Business Journal (ABJ) reported this week that 700 condos from 12 different projects located near downtown were either put on hold or canceled indefinitely.  The ABJ’s analysis concluded that the main driver behind the stalled projects was a combination of the national economic slump, the tough credit market conditions and competition from the current supply and the 3,000 new Austin condos already on the market or soon to be released.  The list of projects the ABJ reported as either stalled, canceled or unknown status includes 1705 Guadalupe, Metropolitan, Hotel van Zandt, Aquaterra, San Jose Lofts, Don Mar, Sungari Pearl, Skyline, The Orsay and Texas Gameday Center.

The Austin Business Journal reported comments today from Mark Dotzour, chief economist at Texas A&M University’s Real Estate Center. Mark predicted that “Austin will outperform the rest of the country in job growth and in the health of its housing market.”  The ABJ went on to quote Mark saying “Austin will add 8,500 new jobs between now and August 2009, despite a negative job growth across the country. The local housing market will turn around faster than the rest of the country by next summer”.  

Here at Great Austin Properties, we can’t help but like Mark’s optimism. As a leading website for Austin real estate, we have the opportunity everyday to talk with people moving to Austin. Whether it’s the beautiful scenery of the hill country and lakes, the culture of central Austin, or a growing job market, we hear the same thing over and over… folks want to move to Austin, Texas.