Luxe Austin Homes - for sale

"Austin nests on Zillow list of best cities for first-time homebuyers"

Culturemap Austin shares, "It's not easy to buy a home anywhere, but folks in Austin are doing way better than average, according to Zillow. Texas' capital ranked No. 5 among the top 10 U.S. cities for buying a first home.

In 2023, new homebuyers occupied the largest slice of the market since the report started in 2018, making up about half of all buyers. The demographic was only 37 percent in 2021. It cites the "rate lock" effect for keeping "repeat buyers" from moving on too quickly and abandoning their lower mortgage rates. Hopefully strength in numbers gives newcomers a little more power against flippers and developers.

The new Zillow report further helps follow purchasing power, identifying places with a larger selection of homes and more…

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"Buda's Sunfield is metro's fastest-growing neighborhood"

Austin Business Journal reports, "Buda’s Sunfield is the fastest-growing neighborhood in the metro, nabbing the top spot after leapfrogging from the No. 8 position in 2023. See the list below this article.

Scarborough Lane Development’s Sunfield, a 2,795-acre master-planned community, earned first place on Austin Business Journal’s latest list of fastest-growing neighborhoods with 470 home starts last year. The list is based on data from real estate company Zonda.

There are eight homebuilders active in Sunfield, where homes can be purchased at prices much lower than the average home in the metro.

While Sunfield’s 470 home starts was an increase over the 291 home starts reported on our 2023 list, many neighborhoods saw a decrease in home…

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"Existing-Home Sales Surge in a Positive Sign for This Year’s Housing Market"

Realtor.com writes, "This year’s housing market is off to a strong start.

Sales of existing homes, which exclude new construction, jumped 9.5% from January to February, according to a recent report from the National Association of Realtors®. That was the largest month-over-month increase in a year.

However, sales did dip a little annually, coming down 3.3% from February 2023.

The surge in monthly closings is likely due to the drop in mortgage rates, which began declining last fall. This brought more buyers into the market and, importantly, might have persuaded more homeowners to sell their properties. As most sellers are also buyers, many have been reluctant to trade a low mortgage rate for a higher one.

Mortgage rates averaged 6.87% for…

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"Many new homes hitting the Austin metro market are priced affordably for first-time buyers, ABOR says"

Austin Business Journal shares, "New listings for homes for sale in the Austin metro surged in February, a rise driven largely by lower-priced homes that are considered affordable for first-time homebuyers, according to data from the Austin Board of Realtors.

February saw 3,915 new home listings in the metro, according ABOR’s latest market report. That’s up from just 3,064 in January, and an increase of more than 40% year-over-year from the 2,764 new listings reported in February 2023.

ABOR housing economist Clare Losey said many of the new listings are for homes priced under $400,000.

“Higher home prices and mortgage rates have diminished affordability for first-time homebuyers over the past few years, but February provided encouragement for…

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"State of the housing market: new listings are up, prices are stable"

ATX Today writes, "In a word, the Austin housing market is looking fairly stable for both buyers and sellers, according to the Austin Board of Realtors’ February Market Statistics report. 

Let’s dive into some statistical highlights from last month."

City of Austin

• Sales rose by 3% compared to February 2023.
  
  • About 200 more homes sold in February 2024 than January 2024.
• The median sale price is $543,200, about $15,000 less than February 2023. However, that’s ~$8,700 more than January 2024.
• New listings increased by 41.7% compared to this time last year.

Austin-Round Rock-Georgetown metropolitan area

• The median sale price in February was $443,065, which is ~$13,000 more than January 2024 but ~$6,000 higher than…

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"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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"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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"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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