Luxe Austin Homes - demand

"The Housing Market Has a ‘Chicken and Egg’ Problem—but Buyers Have Finally Hatched the Perfect Workaround"

Realtor.com writes, "anyone who’s tried to buy or sell a home lately is no doubt painfully aware that today’s real estate market has slowed down considerably—but why?

A new Realtor.com® report sums it up as the “chicken and egg” problem. Allow us to explain.

It all starts with mortgage rates—which are about 1 percentage point higher than last year, hovering in the mid-6% range. This is a formidable deterrent not only for buyers, but also for sellers, who feel “locked in” to their current properties (along with the lower mortgage rates they got years earlier).

As a result, even homebuyers who are willing to pay high rates are finding few homes for sale, with May clocking 22.7% fewer new listings than last year.

“Many sellers report being…

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"U.S. Housing Market Recovery Is Being Held Back by Limited Listings and Fluctuating Mortgage Rates"

Realtor.com reports, "The numbers: Sales of previously-owned homes in the U.S. fell 3.4% in April for the second month in a row, as buyers continue to deal with low levels of home listings and see-sawing mortgage rates.

Sales of existing homes in the U.S. fell to an annual rate of 4.28 million in April, the National Association of Realtors said Thursday.

That’s the number of homes that would be sold over an entire year if sales took place at the same rate in every month as it did in April. The numbers are seasonally adjusted.

The drop in sales wasn’t as bad as what economists on Wall Street had expected. They forecast existing-home sales to total 4.26 million in April.

But compared with April 2022, home sales were down 23.2%.

Key…

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"New Home Sales Rise as Buyers Run Out of Options in the Resale Market"

Realtor.com shares, "The numbers: An ongoing and persistent lack of homes in the resale market is pushing more home buyers into new construction, which caused sales to surge for the second month in a row.

The strength in new home sales was also driven by a massive jump in sales in the south. Overall, new home sales are trending higher as buyers grapple with a low level of home listings in the existing home sales market.

U.S. new home sales rose 4.1% to an annual rate of 683,000 in April, from a revised 656,000 in the prior month, the Commerce Department reported Tuesday.

The number is seasonally adjusted, and refers to how many homes would be built over an entire year if builders continue at the same pace every month.

The jump exceeded…

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"The Austin housing market is outperforming national trends, latest report shows"

CultureMap Austin shares, "housing inventory is on the rise, as is the number of days houses spend on the market, while prices are steadily falling. That spells another month of a balancing act in the Austin-Round Rock housing market, according to the latest report from the Austin Board of Realtors (ABoR).

“This is still a market that is seeing lots of activity, just not at a record-setting pace, and that is to be expected given broader economic trends,” said 2023 ABoR president Ashley Jackson. “Home prices are moderating, pending sales are holding strong, and homes on the market last month are selling closer to list price. These are all signs of a market that is still balancing and doing so in a healthy way.”

Housing inventory has continued to…

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"Are bidding wars coming back to the housing market?"

Austin Business Journal shares, "although the spring 2023 housing market has little resemblance to the frenzied 2021 buying and selling season, there's evidence some markets and types of houses are starting to become more competitive, owing mostly to a lack of inventory.

Forty-eight percent of homes sold nationally during the four weeks ending April 30 went under contract within two weeks, down from 51% a year earlier but up from 46% a month prior, Seattle-based Redfin Corp. (Nasdaq: RDFN) recently found.

While demand for housing among buyers exists, a key reason for increased competition for certain homes is because inventory remains extremely tight. Owners who locked in record-low mortgage rates during the pandemic are hanging onto their…

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"Have Home Prices and Mortgage Rates Both Peaked? A Hopeful Look Ahead"

Realtor.com writes, "America’s home prices are still rising, currently hovering at a median of $430,000 in April. But at long last, these sky-high housing costs seem poised to fall, perhaps as early as this month.

That’s according to a new report from Realtor.com®, which found that April’s listing prices had ticked up a mere 2.5% compared with a year earlier. That’s the slowest yearly price growth seen since April 2020, when COVID-19 quarantines forced the real estate market to grind to a halt.

Once markets opened up again, the pandemic unleashed a steep and unprecedented ascent in home prices, culminating in a record-setting high of $449,000 last June. But the latest data suggests that this raging seller’s market might have finally reached its…

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"How the 2023 spring housing market is shaping up"

Austin Business Journal reports, "the spring 2023 housing market is off to a different start than its 2021 and 2022 counterparts but several factors are converging to make it not quite a typical pre-pandemic market, either.

Total existing-home sales fell 2.4% from February to a seasonally adjusted annual rate of 4.44 million in March, the National Association of Realtors said in a report last week. Year-over-year, sales activity fell 22%.

But while demand for housing has slowed in the wake of mortgage-rate increases that began late spring last year, inventory remains constrained, thanks to a persistent housing shortage and fewer people putting their homes on the market after locking in a low interest rate during the pandemic.

"The housing…

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"U.S. New Home Sales Surge 9.6% in March as Home Buyers Turn to Builders"

Realtor.com writes, "a lack of inventory has pushed U.S. home buyers to purchase new homes, prompting a surge in sales in March.

The strength in new home sales was also driven by a massive jump in sales in the Northeast. And overall, new home sales are trending higher as buyers have a low number of options with previously owned homes.

U.S. new home sales rose 9.6% to an annual rate of 683,000 in March, from a revised 623,000 in the prior month, the Commerce Department reported Tuesday. That’s at the highest level since last year.

The number is seasonally adjusted, and refers to how many homes would be built over an entire year if builders continue at the same pace every month.

The jump was better than what economists on Wall Street…

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"More inventory signals stabilizing Austin housing market, says latest report"

CultureMap Austin writes, "in what looks like signs of normalizing for both homebuyers and sellers, the Austin-Round Rock metro area now has three months’ worth of housing inventory with active listings soaring to over 8,000.

The latest housing market report from the Austin Board of Realtors (ABoR) stated nearly 4,400 homes hit the market in March, which is a 6.6 percent year-over-year increase from last year. While pending and completed home sales in Austin decreased by about 19 and 25 percent, respectively, there was a spike in both new and active listings.

2023 ABoR president Ashley Jackson said in a press release that the past quarter has “ushered in a sweet spot for both buyers and sellers” exploring the current market.

“There are three…

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"Housing Market Predictions For 2023: Are Home Prices Finally Becoming Affordable?"

Could a housing recovery possibly be underway?

In March, mortgage rates ended the month over 30 basis points lower than where they started and more buyers returned to the market. Home sales prices fell year-over-year in February—the first time in nearly 11 years—and total home sales saw their largest monthly percentage increase since July 2020. However, many economists remain mixed about how much more home prices will drop this year.

For one, the nation’s housing supply remains limited. Those who purchased homes in recent years at record-low interest rates are staying put. Tight inventory issues, in part, are also keeping prices from dropping off, which is perpetuating affordability challenges for many, especially first-time homebuyers.

…

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