Luxe Austin Homes - Buyers

"Ashton Gray's project pipeline brims with Austin-area housing developments"

Austin Business Journal reports, "the company behind Elgin’s Briarwood mixed-use development has big plans for other parts of the Austin metro.

Houston-based Ashton Gray Development recently gained approval from the Elgin City Council to annex 75 acres into Briarwood, a housing development and the city's first municipal utility district. With a pipeline that ranges from Jarrell to Lockhart and stops in between, however, that's only the tip of the iceberg for Ashton Gray, which is aiming to bring more than 5,300 single-family homes to the region, plus apartments and commercial projects.

“We started acquiring land in Austin several years ago,” said Shaun Vembutty, Ashton Gray founder and president. “This was even before some of the buying frenzy…

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"The Austin housing market just won't quit. It's an example of what's happening nationwide despite high prices and interest rates."

Business Insider writes, "just when some people thought the Austin, Texas, housing market was going to crash, it's starting to heat up again.

It could be a sign of relief for homeowners across the US — but bad news for hopeful buyers.

This sudden surge in Austin housing sales is a bit surprising. Not only were some experts predicting the downfall of the city's housing market just a few months ago, but interest rates have been back on the rise in 2024, reaching their highest level since December. However, Austin isn't the only city beating the odds; prices are still rising in 85% of US cities even though 91% of all homes are deemed "overvalued."

The inventory of houses for sale in Austin and the number of houses that sold both increased…

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"Austin's housing market is off to a strong start in 2024, says report"

Culturemap Austin shares, "homebuyers and sellers are starting to feel optimistic about the Austin-area housing market, according to a new report by the Austin Board of Realtors.

According to the latest analysis by Unlock MLS, which provides real estate data across the Austin-Round Rock-Georgetown metropolitan statistical area (MSA), bothpending and closed sales increased slightly in January compared to the previous year. 1,667 homes were sold last month, up 4.3 percent; There were also 2,480 pending sales, up 3.8 percent.

Median prices in the MSA dipped slightly year-over-year to $430,000. Unlock MLS and ABoR housing economist Clare Losey, Ph.D., shared that the recent decline in mortgage rates has allowed for lower home prices heading into…

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"Is a Mortgage Pre-Approval Letter Necessary to Make an Offer on a House?"

Realtor.com explains, "the short answer is no. However, if you want your offer to be taken seriously and to stand out from any competing bids, this little piece of paperwork can really give you the edge.

“While you do not ‘need’ a pre-approval letter from your lender in order for your offer to be accepted, I highly recommend all of my buyers present it,” says Denise Shur, a Realtor® with 1:1 Realty in San Jose, CA. In fact, “I do not look for homes with my buyers until they have a pre-approval letter from their lender. To me, it’s that important.”

What is mortgage pre-approval?

Basically, a mortgage pre-approval letter is a guarantee from a lender that it’s willing to finance your home purchase up to a certain dollar amount, based on…

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"Austin and Dallas-Fort Worth Tipped as Top U.S. Housing Markets for 2024, Texas Cities Bracing for Surge in Homebuying Interest"

Hoodline.com writes, "the sizzling property markets of Austin and Dallas-Fort Worth are tipped to be the nation's hottest in 2024, with the National Association of Realtors (NAR) planting them atop their forecast for burgeoning housing demand.

Amid a landscape punctuated by rising prices and competitive bidding wars, Texans in these metros might find themselves in an increasingly tight squeeze to land that dream home.

Lawrence Yun, chief economist at the NAR, paints a picture of a local housing market where mortgage rates, although not at their historic highs, continue to shape the playing field.

In an interview with NBC 5 DFW, Yun pointed out that as companies converge on Dallas-Fort Worth, bringing in a slew of new residents, the price tags…

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"New real estate report calls Austin housing market 'optimistic'"

KVUE AUSTIN, Texas writes, — "Real estate experts are calling the housing market in Austin "optimistic."

Unlock MLS released its January market analysis on Wednesday. It shows the median home sales price in the Austin-Round Rock area dropped about 4% to $430,000. At the same time, residential home sales increased by about 4% compared to the year before.

A housing economist for Unlock MLS and the Austin Board of Realtors (ABoR) said although mortgage rates are still elevated, a recent decline is leading to lower home prices and an increase in closed sales.

“January marks the 15th consecutive month of year-over-year median sales price declines in the Austin-Round Rock housing market, empowering more homebuyers to enter our…

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"Mortgage rates hold steady to start 2024. Is an uptick in the housing market on its way?"

Austin Business Journal writes, "the nation's for-sale housing market is off to a mixed start this year after a 2023 that proved largely challenging for homebuyers.

Existing-home sales ended 2023 down about 19% from the prior year, according to data from the National Association of Realtors. While the number of transactions declined, prices rose in most metro areas through the end of the year, and that trend appears to be holding up early into 2024.

In fact, single-family existing-home sale prices rose in 86% of metro areas measured by the NAR — or 189 of 221 — in the fourth quarter. That's up from 82% in the third quarter.

At the end of 2023, the national median single-family existing-home price was up 3.5% from the year prior, to $391,700.

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"14 Austin Real Estate Startups and Companies Making the Industry Smarter"

Built in ATX writes, "Austin remains one of the country’s hottest real estate markets, so its booming real estate tech sector should come as no surprise. From tightening renter relations between the tenants and the landlords to skipping the commission take by realtors, here are the Austin tech companies making it easier for realtors, renters, homeowners and leasers alike to operate in real estate.

TOP REAL ESTATE TECH COMPANIES IN AUSTIN

• Realtor.com
• Virtual Staging Solutions
• Agent Pronto
• RealSavvy 
• Billd
• OJO

What they do: Closinglock offers real estate tech for fraud prevention. It serves title companies, legal offices and financial service providers in an industry vulnerable to wire fraud, impersonation and other…

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"Austin’s HOME Initiative won’t change much — for now"

Austin Business Journal writes, "a new policy allowing up to three homes to be raised on some single-family lots is one of the most high-profile changes to Austin's land use code as it tries to combat high home prices and adopt a big-city mentality.

But experts said the program will not have a notable effect on the local housing market for the foreseeable future — plus, there's the specter of a lawsuit scaring some developers off.

The first phase of what's called the HOME Initiative launched Feb. 5. That's when homeowners and developers could start to submit applications. Landowners can either sell the new, smaller homes or they can rent them out. The impact of the change will only become measurable in the months and years to come, but the…

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"Pending Home Sales Post Biggest Jump Since June 2020 as Mortgage Rates Fall"

Realtor.com shares, "The numbers: U.S. pending home sales shot up in December as falling mortgage rates brought buyers back into the market.

Pending home sales rose 8.3% in December from the previous month, according to the monthly index released Friday by the National Association of Realtors.

Pending home sales reflect transactions where the contract has been signed for a the sale of an existing home, but the sale has not yet closed. Economists view it as an indicator of the direction of existing-home sales in subsequent months.

The jump in pending-home sales was the largest since June 2020, when it rose by 14.9%.

The sales pace exceeded expectations on Wall Street. Economists were expecting pending home sales to increase by 2% in…

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