Luxe Austin Homes

"How High Can Mortgage Rates Possibly Go?"

Realtor.com writes, "higher mortgage interest rates have taken a battering ram to the housing market.

Since the start of the year, mortgage rates have more than doubled. They’ve blown past all expectations, nationally exceeding 7% by some estimates. The possibility that rates could continue to rise has struck fear into the hearts—and bank accounts—of many stressed-out homebuyers.

The simple, and dispiriting, math: Every time they tick up, fewer buyers can qualify for loans—and those that do often can afford to buy only much cheaper homes.

So how high could rates go? The answer depends largely on how the economy fares. If inflation persists, the U.S. Federal Reserve will keep raising its own interest rates and mortgage rates will likely follow…

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"Buyer Bargains: Here Are the 10 U.S. Cities Where Home Prices Are Dropping the Most Right Now"

According to realtor.com, "The inconceivable is happening. After two-plus years of unimaginable and seemingly inexorable growth, home prices are falling from their heady peaks over the summer.

The reason: Higher mortgage interest rates have thinned out the ranks of buyers who can still qualify for a home loan and sharply reduced the price of the homes the remaining few in the market can afford. Gone are most of the frenzied bidding wars and six-figure offers over the asking prices. Homes are now sitting on the market longer, inventory is piling up, and sellers—at least in some markets—are cutting prices.

Ironically enough, they tend to be the areas that fully dominated the real estate market during the COVID-19 pandemic, with big influxes of new…

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"Austin boasts some of the biggest houses in the country, new ranking shows"

CultureMap Austin writes "If everything’s bigger in Texas, that should include our homes, right? Well, a new study shows homes in the Lone Star State are among the biggest in the country — but not the biggest.

Texas appears at No. 11 on American Home Shield’s list of the states with the biggest houses. In Texas, the average home is 2,170 square feet, well behind top-ranked Utah (2,800 square feet).

But don’t despair, fellow Texans. Six Texas cities, including Austin, land on American Home Shield’s list of the top 20 major cities for home size. This list looks at average home sizes in the country’s 50 largest cities.

After reviewing more than 500,000 U.S. home listings from Zillow, American Home Shield concluded that Austin's average home…

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"Novak Brothers Breaks Ground on Austin Luxury Apartments"

According to Multi-Housing News, "Novak Brothers Development has broken ground on Rise510, a 301-unit luxury garden-style component of its master-planned Wolf Lakes Village development. The community will be located in Georgetown, Texas, with construction expected to be completed in the summer of 2024.

Rise510 will be built on 12 acres of the 164-acre European-inspired village, and will host a mix of apartment homes and townhouses, according to the developer’s website. The development’s amenities include a fitness center, swimming pool, community park and private, resident-only parking spaces. The greater Wolf Lakes Village hosts landscaped park space, private lakes, an outdoor amphitheater, hiking trails and an ice-skating rink. The community’s…

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"Mortgage Rates Lowest in More Than a Week"

Mortgage News Daily writes, "We're measuring our mortgage rate spikes in terms of years and decades at the moment.  Progress in the other direction has been elusive--especially since the beginning of August.  Since then, mortgage rates haven't been able to string together any sort of winning streak lasting more than a few days.  On a slightly broader note, we haven't been able to say "lowest rates in 2 weeks" in almost 2 months now. 

If the present stability continues, we'll be very close to breaking that curse over the next few days.  Today's rates weren't markedly different from yesterday's, but both days are much better than last week--especially the 20-year highs seen on Tuesday.  During that time, the average lender moved back down from the…

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"New ultra-luxury neighborhood claws its way into affluent Austin suburb"

According to Culturemap Austin,  "A neighborhood of six multimillion-dollar, high-end homes has emerged in the wealthy Austin suburb of West Lake Hills.

The new 12-acre development, called the Wildcat Club, features six homes on 1- to 4-acre lots with prices starting at $11.75 million. One of the homes (a 9,500-square-foot residence with interiors designed by Fern Santini) already has been sold, and two of the homes are now on the market.

Most of the homes can be customized based on a buyer’s preferences. Amenities include a lounge and wine room, media room, home office, pool, spa, gym, gourmet kitchen, outdoor kitchen, and butler’s pantry. Floor plans range from 5,750 square feet to 9,500 square feet.

Austin-based Foursquare Builders is…

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"It’s the perfect starter home. But it’s only for rent."

"Adam and Tahnya Gaston arrived in this Austin suburb in June with a toddler, a dog and enough money for a down payment. But within days they scrapped their plans for buying a house, deterred by soaring home prices and rising mortgage rates. Instead, they’re paying $4,000 a month to lease a three-story house in a new development aimed squarely at renters.

As the housing market sours, families around the country are eschewing homeownership and turning instead to new homes in rental-only developments such as the one where the Gastons landed. When completed, the Oaks on Chisholm Trail will have 113 stand-alone homes, each with a kitchen island, two-car garage and tiny plot of lawn — all exclusively for rent.

It’s one of…

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"Austin housing market continues to stabilize, fueled by skyrocketing inventory and 'normal' price growth"

According to CultureMap Austin, "For the third month in a row, the Austin Board of Realtors reports that the local housing market is returning to normal. Following the unprecedented price growth experienced in early 2022, the market is shifting back to a normal pace, fueled by skyrocketing inventory and normalized home price appreciation.

The latest monthly report shows that in August 2022, the metro's median home price jumped 5.5 percent year over year, to $496,038. While a record high for the month of August, ABOR says the growth "[indicates] a normalization of home price appreciation that economists say is consistent with historical norms."

In the city of Austin, the median price grew 3.6 percent year over year to $555,000; Travis County's…

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"Crane Watch: More condos to rise in S. Austin; More warehouses slated for I-35 corridor"

According to Austin Business Journal, "There’s another industrial development sprouting in the fertile I-35 corridor.

Mississippi-based EastGroup Properties Inc. broke ground Sept. 12 on Stonefield 35, a 275,559-square-foot project in Buda, the company announced Sept. 22. The development comes amid impressive growth, especially for industrial space, in the corridor between Austin and San Antonio.

The development will be built on about 21 acres at the northeast corner of I-35 and Robert S. Light Boulevard. EastGroup is constructing three buildings with varied dimensions.

The largest building will be 148,233 square feet and equipped with 51 dock doors and two ramps, according to marketing material. The building will have 195 parking spaces.

…

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"Phoenix real estate firm on a roll in Austin area, with another home rental community planned"

According to the Austin Business Journal, "A Phoenix-based builder of rental homes is increasing its investment in the Austin area to $164 million with its latest land purchase.

NexMetro Communities LLC announced Sept. 16 the purchase of 25 acres in Liberty Hill, where the company will construct a neighborhood of 260 single-family rental homes called Avilla Rio Oaks. It will join two other NexMetro projects in the works for in the suburbs around Austin; the company already announced another in Liberty Hill and an additional community in Georgetown.

"NexMetro is actively seeking new sites ideal for our luxury leased Avilla Homes neighborhoods in multiple Austin submarkets," stated Jason Flory, managing director of NexMetro's Austin division.…

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