"This April week is the best time to list your Austin-area home, data says"

KXAN Austin writes, "wondering when the best time is to list your Austin home? New realtor.com data states it’s coming up soon.

The study shows the week of April 16-22 is the best time to list a home in the Austin-Round Rock metro area. This week is forecast to have above-average prices, above-average buyer demand, a fast market pace and lower competition from other sellers.

This week is also the best week for most other metros in the country, the report said, including the Houston metro. San Antonio’s best week is the following week, April 23. The report said the week of March 26 is the best time to list Dallas-Fort Worth homes — bucking the national trend.

Best times to list your Texas home

“The week of April 16-22 is expected…

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"Amid Bank Turmoil, the Housing Market Has Just Done Something Extraordinary"

Realtor.com writes, "while most Americans rarely worry about their bank, that faith was shaken this week when several (including Silicon Valley, Silvergate, and Signature) went under. Withdrawal runs and stock market chaos ensued, sending ripple effects far and wide. 

Yet by some miracle, one facet of the economy that remained astonishingly unruffled was the housing market—which even showed a glimmer of good news. 

Namely, mortgage rates fell this week to 6.6% for a 30-year fixed-rate mortgage, according to Freddie Mac. This marks the first drop after five weeks of pushing upward, cresting last week at 6.73%.

Plus, homebuyers who are bracing for another hefty rate hike to hit next week when the Federal Reserve meets again may instead find some…

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Austin rent prices increased nearly 10 percent from 2022, report finds

CultureMap Austin writes, "apartment rent keeps going up in Texas, and in Austin the increase is nearly 10 percent more than last year, making it increasingly difficult to afford living in the city. That’s according to a new national rent report from online rental marketplace Zumper.

Despite rent increases showing a small slowdown month-over-month, overall prices are still on the high side from the previous year. For example, the average rent for a two-bedroom apartment in Austin is $2,070 now, in March of 2023, which is a one percent increase from the previous month, but a nearly 10 percent increase from 2022 at 8.4 percent. The average rent for a one-bedroom is $1,670, which is a mere .60 percent increase month-over-month, but a whopping 7.7…

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"‘They’re in a hurry’: Elon Musk is building his own town in Texas. Here is everything we know about it"

Elon Musk is planning on building a “utopia” in Texas, a whole new town on thousands of acres of farmland recently bought outside the state capital of Austin.

Deeds and land records show the extent of the project and the billionaire and Twitter owner has attended meetings with land owners and real estate agents in which he and his staff have outlined his ideas for the project that The Wall Street Journal calls “a sort of Texas utopia along the Colorado River” where staff could both live and work.

Top executives at the Boring Company, the Tesla CEO’s tunnelling firm, have looked into placing the town in Bastrop County 35 miles from Austin, allowing Mr Musk to regulate some issues in a municipality of his own and speed up the projects.

People…

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"If you're considering a move to Austin, keep these real estate metrics in mind"

KVUE Austin reports, "as South by Southwest (SXSW) continues in Downtown Austin, we're starting to see more people searching for Zillow listings in the capital of the Lone Star State.

Every morning, the KVUE News team takes a look at the trending Google searches in Austin. Over the past few days – since the start of SXSW on March 10 – searches for "zillow austin" have begun appearing more and more often. On Tuesday, Day 5 of the festival, "zillow austin" was the No. 2 search at around 9 a.m.

With this trend, we thought we would highlight the cost of real estate in the Austin area compared to the median salary.

A new study from Zillow found that Texas had one of "the most valuable housing markets" in the country in 2022. The…

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"Three Historic Austin Houses Are for Sale in $20 Million Package Deal"

Bloomberg writes, "even before the lawyer Mark Mueller bought his first historic home in Austin, Texas, he “always tried to live in one, or rent one,” he says. He recalls that in the mid-1990s, as he wandered around downtown one day, he passed a white Victorian with an elegant veranda and a massive oak tree out front. Fortuitously, the house sported a “for sale” sign. “I just went, ‘Damn, I want that,’” Mueller says, and shortly thereafter closed on it and turned it into an office for his law practice.

Over the next few years, Mueller acquired the two adjacent houses (three, if you count the carriage house on one of the properties) in an area known as the Bremond Block Historic District, a group of eleven homes which is on the National Register of…

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"eXp Realty, Compass earn No. 1 spots in RealTrends 500 brokerage rankings"

RealTrends reports, "it’s official, there’s a new sheriff in town and his name is Glenn Sanford, founder of eXp Holdings and CEO of eXp Realty. The firm moved from No. 3 to No. 1 by transaction sides in the soon-to-be-announced 2023 RealTrends 500 rankings, based on 2022 data.

Robert Reffkin’s Compass held on to the top spot in sales volume, ranking No. 1 for the second year in a row. Reffkin will be a featured guest on the RealTrending podcast on March 20, where he discusses the brokerage’s growth plan, lessons learned scaling rapidly and his move to build on company culture through in-person relationship building.

A big initiative for Compass this year is to reinforce the importance of culture and encourage agents to go into the office, which…

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"Austin Housing Market Forecast"

U.S. News reports, "given the enormous popularity of the greater Austin, Texas, area for online searches, newcomers and employment growth, it may act as a reasonable bellwether for the state of the U.S. housing market. This will certainly be tested in the spring and summer selling season, when the National Association of Realtors reports that about 40% of sales of existing homes throughout the U.S are historically made between the months of May and August. Besides offering warmer weather, buying a home during these months allows buyers with school-aged children to shop, bid, close and move into a new residence before the start of a new school year.

Similar to the overall U.S. housing market in mid-2020, the Austin housing market went into…

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"Prices, construction timeline revealed for luxury Lunaroya neighborhood in Dripping Springs"

Austin Business Journal reports, "pieces are falling into place for a new luxury single-family community in Dripping Springs, including its name.

Nashville-based Southern Land Company LLC said March 1 the neighborhood, first revealed in January 2022, will be called Lunaroya. Prices for the 28 homes will start at "under $2 million," said Jenna Lefever, SLC director of public relations.

Infrastructure work has been underway on the 70-acre community since the third third quarter of 2022 and home construction is expected to begin in September 2023.

The floor plans and square footage range of Lunaroya’s homes are still being finalized, Lefever said. The neighborhood will consist of 10 1.5-acre home sites and 18 two-acre home sites across the…

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"What Is an Escalation Clause in Real Estate and When Should You Use One?"

Realtor.com shares, "when you’re deciding on what price to offer on a home, the situation might call for a single price or, in some cases, numerous prices via an escalation clause.

In a fast-paced, competitive market, having an escalation clause as part of your offer on a house can benefit the homebuyer and seller alike. But it does come with some downsides, so it’s important to know the pros and cons before you include one in an offer (or accept one as a seller).

Here’s what to know about an escalation clause, and when it’s a smart tactic for your real estate deal.

The basics of an escalation clause

An escalation clause is a real estate contract, sometimes called an escalator, that lets a home buyer say: “I will pay X price for this home,…

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