Luxe Austin Homes - equity

"The Unsung Power Players of Real Estate: How Gen X Carves Up a Significant Slice of the Market"

Realtor.com writes, "The real estate market seems to be constantly buzzing about baby boomers, Millennials, and Gen Z, but what about Gen X?

Born between 1965 and 1982, Gen X is the smallest age cohort by population, but they’re no less mighty when it comes to the housing market.

As a sandwich generation wedged between Millennials and baby boomers, Gen Xers are increasingly stepping up to keep their parents and children afloat while redefining how we live, buy, and move in today’s real estate landscape.

How exactly?

Though Gen X accounts for just 19% of the U.S. population, a new National Association of Realtors® report reveals they represent 24% of recent homebuyers—a significant slice of the market. Around 60% of Gen Xers own their…

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"Despite Inventory Rise, Home Buyers Remain Cautious"

Realtor Magazine writes, "Home buyers may finally be finding more inventory options this fall, but they’re still being cautious about entering the real estate market, the National Association of REALTORS® reported Wednesday.

“Home sales have been essentially stuck at around a 4-million-unit pace for the past 12 months, but factors usually associated with higher home sales are developing,” says NAR Chief Economist Lawrence Yun. “There are more inventory choices for consumers, lower mortgage rates than a year ago and continued job additions to the economy. Perhaps, some consumers are hesitating about moving forward with a major expenditure like purchasing a home before the upcoming election.”

Total existing-home sales—which reflects completed…

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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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"Homeowner equity continues to rise despite housing-market challenges"

Austin Business Journal reports, "American homeowners continue to build significant equity even as the housing market has slowed and home prices aren't rising as rapidly as they did in recent years.

U.S. homeowners with a mortgage pulled in $28,000 in equity gains on average year over year in the first quarter, the highest amount since late 2022, according to CoreLogic Inc. That average year-over-year increase of 9.6% translates to a collective gain of $1.5 trillion and means net homeowner equity totaled more than $17 trillion at the end of Q1.

The implications behind homeowners' gains in home equity are varying, but the gains seen since the Covid-19 pandemic ultimately mean homeowners are gaining wealth, said Selma Hepp, chief economist at…

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"Stop Believin’! 4 Housing Market Myths Hurting Today’s Buyers and Sellers"

Realtor.com writes, "the housing market has been decidedly stuck of late. Sellers with low mortgage rates are holding on to their homes, leaving buyers with scant listings to choose from.

And buyers who do find a house face substantial economic challenges as median home prices and mortgage rates remain high.

With sellers and buyers at an impasse, misconceptions and outright myths are popping up on both sides about the state of the market on social channels and forums.

However, some of the supposed housing issues that are coming up time and again aren’t true. Here are the four biggest myths about the current housing market and why experts say they’re wrong.

1. The housing market is about to crash, just like in 2008

Today’s buy-sell…

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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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"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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"2022 was another record year for Austin-area housing but recent inventory rise provides 'breathing room'"

Austin Business Journal writes, "the Austin metro housing market set another sale price record in 2022 — but prices ended the year trending down, another sign of continued cooling and a possible return to more normal conditions.

The average median sale price of a home was $503,000 last year, an 11% increase from 2021, according to the latest data from the Austin Board of Realtors.

However, after peaking at $550,000 in April and May, prices have been steadily retreating — hitting $457,426 in December, a 3% year-over-year decrease and nearly $100,000 less than in the spring.

Some of that decline is likely tied to the time of year, as home sales typically slow in the winter months. But even that seasonality would be a welcome return after a…

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"Housing markets with highest share of equity-rich households undergo biggest corrections"

Austin Business Journal reports, "even with a rapidly cooling housing market, homeowners across the U.S. are sitting on near-record levels of equity.

A recent analysis by Irvine, California-based Attom Data Solutions LLC found 48.5% of mortgaged residential properties nationally were considered equity-rich in the third quarter. A property is considered equity-rich when the amount of loan balances secured by it is no more than 50% of its estimated market value.

With the housing market downturn that began this summer, though, $1.3 trillion in recently added equity vanished from the market in Q3, according to Black Knight Inc. (NYSE: BKI), a mortgage software and analytics company.

By Attom's measurement, Q3 2022 continued to see gains in…

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"Why Are Homeowners Seeing Prices Drop?"

U.S. News reports that, "for just about any homeowner, talk of falling home prices can spark panic. With homeownership being the major financial and personal investment it is, there's a natural anxiety that comes with any potential threat to that investment.

However, housing market activity to date does not show a year-over-year decline of home prices – at least not yet. While some data sets show small month-to-month home price declines, month-to-month data is more volatile and does not signal a drastic shift in the market on its own.

There is a marked deceleration in home price growth due to a combination of already high home prices, high mortgage interest rates, low housing inventory and economic uncertainty on a larger scale.…

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