Luxe Austin Homes - Buyers

"Austin home sales slip as more buyers look outside the city, report says"

CultureMap Austin writes, "It's been a long-established trend that Austinites will relocate to a much more affordable part of town, even if it means sacrificing shorter work commutes and coveted Austin zip codes. The latest real estate report from Unlock MLS and the Austin Board of Realtors (ABoR) shows home sales have dropped in the Austin-Round Rock-San Marcos MSA, but are on a steady rise in neighboring Central Texas counties.

Residential home sales fell 3.5 percent year-over-year from July 2023, totalling 2,652 closed sales in the Austin-Round Rock-San Marcos MSA. Median prices have plateaued at $450,000 for the second consecutive month. With more than 3,800 new home listings added — a 0.3 percent drop from this time last year — the total…

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"Housing Market Predictions For 2024: When Will Home Prices Be Affordable Again?"

Forbes Advisor writes, "The housing market might finally be entering a transitional phase.

Summer sales have been tepid thus far, but there are signs that activity could heat up by the end of the summer as mortgage rates edge down and much-needed resale inventory continues to enter the market, giving buyers more options.

Other good news for home shoppers is the ongoing decline in the median price for a new home—now below the median resale home price—even as builders continue offering buyer incentives.

Nonetheless, experts say the housing market will only see renewed momentum once mortgage rates drop enough to ease affordability challenges and incentivize homeowners locked in at low rates to move so inventory grows substantially to meet…

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"Luxury home prices hit a new high, more 'starter' homes now cost $1M"

Austin Business Journal reports, "The U.S. luxury housing segment has bucked some of the trends affecting the rest of the residential real estate market, in large part because those buyers and sellers are less affected by affordability issues.

But like the broader housing market, luxury homes continue to see a surge in prices. In fact, luxury home prices hit a new high in the second quarter of this year, with a typical home in the category selling for $1.18 million, an 8.8% increase from the same quarter last year, according to Redfin Corp. data.

Redfin defines luxury homes as those estimated to be in the top 5% of their respective metro areas, based on market value, while non-luxury homes are estimated to be in the 35th to 65th percentile based…

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"Home prices stabilize as real estate options in the Bastrop County area increase"

Community Impact writes, "A rise in housing options and interest rates has led to an increased number of houses available to potential buyers in Bastrop and Cedar Creek.

The population in Bastrop County was 106,000 as of 2022, a 20% increase from 2019, according to data from the U.S. Census Bureau. In the same timeframe, the number of housing units in the county increased by over 27% from 31,085 to 39,539.

“I think we can attribute this [population growth] to several factors—the rise in remote work options, competitive home prices compared to our nearby markets, and the ease of commuting from most of the Bastrop-Cedar Creek area into Austin or other areas,” said James Beck, Bastrop County Board of Realtors president and owner of Centum Oak Realty.

…

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"Case-Shiller Index: Home price gains hit another all-time high"

Bankrate.com writes, "Amid an environment of tight inventory and stubbornly high mortgage rates, housing prices in the U.S. continue to rise ever higher. S&P CoreLogic’s latest Case-Shiller U.S. National Home Price NSA Index, released July 30, 2024, reports that annual home-price growth increased in May 2024 by 5.9 percent. That marks three consecutive months of hitting a new all-time high.

Case-Shiller Index still rising

In addition to the 5.9 percent overall increase, May numbers increased annually for both of Case-Shiller’s composite indices as well, with the 10-city index up 7.7 percent and the 20-city index up 6.8 percent.

“Our home price index has appreciated 4.1 percent year-to-date, the fastest start in two years,” said Brian D.…

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"Buyers continue to hold out as rates stay put"

Real Estate News writes, "After a steady three-week decline, mortgage rates barely budged this week — and home sales have grounded to a halt as buyers wait to see what the Federal Reserve will do.

The 30-year fixed-rate mortgage averaged 6.78% this week, nearly unchanged from last week's 6.77% average, according to the latest Freddie Mac survey. The 15-year fixed-rate was also up slightly, to 6.07%.

Rates appear to be in a bit of a holding pattern ahead of next week's Federal Reserve meeting. The agency is not expected to cut interest rates at the July meeting but will likely signal whether cuts are coming soon.

Investors and analysts are expecting a September rate cut, but there's still a possibility that the Fed could disappoint and send…

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"Foreign investment in US homes declines as buyers face tight inventory, high prices"

Austin Business Journal reports, "International buyers bought fewer U.S. homes in the past year but are paying more for residential real estate than ever before.

Foreign homebuyers purchased $42 billion in U.S. residential properties between April 2023 and March 2024, a 21.2% decline from the prior 12-month period, according to the National Association of Realtors. The approximately 54,300 existing homes sold to international buyers marks the lowest 12-month total on record since the NAR began tracking such transactions in 2009.

At the same time, both the average and median home-purchase prices paid by foreign buyers — $783,300 and $475,000, respectively — were the highest ever recorded by NAR.

International or foreign homebuyers as tracked…

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"Austin-area housing inventory edges higher in June with potential price relief on horizon"

Austin Business Journal shares, "Housing stock in the Austin area continues to edge higher, reaching healthier levels not seen in the metro in over a decade — and it's possible lower prices are on the horizon.

The Austin-Round Rock metro's housing inventory reached five months in June — the highest it's been since 2011, according to the latest Austin Board of Realtors and Unlock MLS market report. That's closer to the six months of inventory that housing experts say typically represents a healthy balance between supply and demand, and it's up from a level of 3.7 months of inventory in June 2023.

But what does an increase in inventory mean? According to Clare Knapp, an Unlock MLS and ABOR housing economist, buyers and sellers could expect to see…

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"Active Austin home listings keep rising in emerging 2024 trend, says report"

CultureMap Austin reports, "The latest real estate report from Unlock MLS and the Austin Board of Realtors (ABoR) has revealed that June saw a significant increase in the number of active home listings in the Austin metro area — continuing on a three-month high that began in April — and median sale prices are dropping to accommodate the rise in inventory.

New in the June report, Unlock MLS refers to the Central Texas region as the Austin-Round Rock-San Marcos metropolitan statistical area (MSA), whereas it was previously identified as the Austin-Round Rock-Georgetown MSA.

The data shows there was a 13.4 percent drop in home sales across the Austin-Round Rock-San Marcos MSA, with only 2,732 homes sold in June for a median price of $450,000. There…

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"Housing affordability got worse in Q2 — and homeownership costs hit a new high"

Austin Business Journal reports, "Homes across America remained unaffordable for many prospective buyers in the second quarter, with single-family home and condo prices less affordable during that three-month period compared to historical averages in 99% of the nation's counties.

That's according to a recent analysis by Attom Data Solutions LLC, which looked at housing data from U.S. counties with a population of at least 100,000 and that had at least 50 single-family home and condo sales in the second quarter.

The analysis also found that expenses for existing homeowners on median-priced homes are on the rise. Those costs consumed 35.1% of the average national wage in the second quarter, a high point since 2007 and meaningfully higher than the…

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