It was just announced that Dell Computers is CLOSING their Austin, TX manufacturing plant. This is big news for Austin because Dell had been hiring lots of people this last year. They are going to cut 900 jobs. While this is good move for Dell’s bottom line which they are ruthless about, it can’t be good for our Austin or Round Rock economy. They are moving the plant to North Carolina which will be great for their market. What will this mean for the Austin area real estate market? We’ll be updating it on our blog soon.
I found a cool little video on why some young guys and girls love Austin. There’s a lot of diversity here for everyone from outdoors to music, great food and of course the University of Texas. Also the Austin Downtown scene is really awesome. It’s where there is tons of live entertainment, bars, good restaurants and activity for people. It may not be everyone’s cup of tea, but everyone I’ve shown it too loves it. If you are moving here and don’t fall in love with Austin on your first trip then it’s probably not the city for you.
Let’s take a look at the Austin real estate sales statistics for February 2008 to see how the Austin TX real estate market is looking:
Austin saw a dramatic 58% increase in new listings this February, when compared against February 2007. Pending and sold listings, however, decreased by 12% and 27%, respectively. The average sales price remained almost unchanged, increasing by a modest .33% to $233,015.
This shows us that Austin home sales are slowing down but the average price is still rising modestly. Most listings are getting A LOT of traffic if they are priced right as buyers are coming out of the woodworks. We had personally had 5 listings get contracts on them in less then 4 weeks and tons of agents are talking about how the activity has been so hectic (in a good way) lately. Even if we end up being a bit slower than 2007, which was a good year by the way, we still could have a very healthy real estate market as we currently do!!! Most people would beg to be in our market right now. Just like when you are looking at the weather, look at what is going on locally to get the best indication of how our real estate market is doing. (more…)
I see most of the investors for Austin real estate wanting to buy foreclosure or short sale properties. We had one deal on a listing in Circle C that was owned by Fannie Mae and they initially accepted a low offer, but then they kicked it back and rejected it. I guess they weren’t ready to go that low on it. Still a lot of investors want to know where these Fannie Mae homes are around Austin. Here’s a direct search link to Fannie Mae….
The problem I see with the investor approach to buy a foreclosed property cheap and then fix it up and Flip it, is Austin isn’t really a good flip market. We are seeing appreciation but it’s very steady around 6-7% in most areas. Plus you never truly know how much it is going to cost to fix up the home. You’ve probably seen enough of those shows on HGTV like “Flip This House” to know how it easy to get in over your head.
I’ve been working my tail of the last 2 weeks with buyers. I’ve shown a lot of homes, probably over 50-60 houses in Round Rock, Cedar Park, and south Austin. After the strong real estate market of the past several years, I’m seeing too many sellers are not realistic about what their home is worth in today’s market.
In our industry many Realtors refer to overpriced homes as “homes that are not on the market”. These homes will get few, if any, showings, and they will languish on the market. They will garner the reputation of an overpriced listing and will generally be avoided by Realtors looking to get their clients a good value. (more…)
