Luxe Austin Homes - home prices

"Austin homebuyers gaining negotiating power"

Austin Business Journal writes, "Homebuyers in the Austin area are gaining the advantage as competition heats up among sellers.

The metro's housing inventory continues to hover around the six-month mark and new listings have increased 43.6% year-over-year to 17,662 active home listings, according to Unlock MLS’s latest market report. However, the median sale price of a home in Austin in June was flat at $450,000 compared to the same time last year.

“We’re not 100% in a buyer’s market, but we’re pretty close,” said Brandy Wuensch, 2025 Unlock MLS and Austin Board of Realtors president. “Buyers definitely have more power to negotiate and get a lot more favorable terms from sellers in terms of closing costs.”

Sellers are having to become more…

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"Buyers Are Gaining Market Power as Mortgage Rates Dip Another Week"

Realtor.com writes, "The sour outlook from consumers, and the consistent "wait-and see" policy from the Federal Reserve, helped push interest rates lower, including mortgage rates dipping to 6.77% for a 30-year fixed home loan. The dip was housing-friendly but small, so its impact will be modest.

Inflation, which showed the Fed’s preferred gauge, rose 2.3% in the year even as the index excluding food and energy prices edged a bit higher. Consumer confidence slipped in June, and while consumer sentiment improved, both measures remain at a concerningly sluggish level. 

The April Case-Shiller home price index showed regional divergence, with price gains strongest in Northeast and Midwest markets, like New York City, Chicago, and Detroit. Southern…

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"Shopping for a home? Texas city scores largest influx of new listings"

MYSA writes, "In the market for a new home? What better place than right here in Central Texas.

Two Texas cities ranked among the best in the nation for the largest price slashes within their respective housing markets, marking a real estate haven for first-time homebuyers and more experienced house hunters, according to a report from Realtor.com released on Monday, June 23. Both the South and the West led the way in the biggest cost cuts, with Phoenix ranking supreme with 31.3% of its Arizona home listings featuring a price cut.

Coming in second was Tampa with a 29.9% slash in home listing costs, with Denver trailing slightly behind at a 29.4% share of listings featuring reduced prices. In fourth place, Texas made its mark with the capital city,…

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"Austin-area home sales decline in May as inventory rises"

Austin Business Journal writes, "The housing market in Austin showed more signs of slowing in May, with sales dropping and inventory rising.

The number of listings came in at 5,716, equating to five months of inventory, according to the latest report from Unlock MLS. Sales numbered 3,021 in May — a 3.8% year-over-year decrease — although 4,515 sales were pending, a 16.1% year-over-year increase and the most reported so far in 2025.

The median sales price in May registered $449,000, a decline of $1,000 from April.

Clare Knapp, housing economist for Unlock MLS and the Austin Board of Realtors, said the slowing market could motivate sellers to adjust their prices to align more with what buyers can afford and are willing to pay.

“It's not that…

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"Household Real Estate Value Falls in the First Quarter of the Year"

Realtor.com writes, "In a slight setback for homeowners, $200 billion was shed from the total value of household real estate during the first months of 2025—but it remained the fourth-highest on record.  

The aggregate market value of all U.S. homes owned by those living in them retreated to $47.9 trillion during the year's first quarter, down from $48.1 trillion at the end of 2024, according to the most recent release of the Federal Reserve Z.1 Financial Accounts.

This reflects a continued pullback from the highest total of $48.8 trillion, recorded in the second quarter of 2024, according to a recent Flow of Funds analysis by Realtor.com® economists. Yet despite the downturn that has occurred across three consecutive quarters, homes gained $960…

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"The price-cut picture is changing as home listings rise and buyers gain leverage"

Austin Business Journal shares, "After several years of strong sellers' markets, buyers are gaining leverage in a number of housing markets across the nation — and it's reflected in both home-listing and price-cut data.

That’s according to The Business Journals' recent hottest housing markets analysis of first-quarter housing data from Intercontinental Exchange.

Of the 8,936 ZIP codes analyzed by The Business Journals, 5,788 (or 64%) posted a year-over-year increase in home listings in the first quarter. Of those, 698 (or 7.8%) recorded an increase of at least 50%.

The data revealed home listings grew significantly in many pockets of the country, underscoring observations by some market watchers that the national residential real estate…

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"The Housing Market Was Supposed to Recover This Year. What Happened?"

The New York Times writes, "As 2025 began, the stars were aligning for a housing market rebound.

Inflation was easing, the economy looked strong and mortgage rates were drifting downward. By April, there were more available homes to buy than at any time since January 2020, according to the Federal Reserve of St. Louis. The conditions were ripe for buyers to re-emerge, checkbooks in hands, and sellers to negotiate.

Then on April 2, President Trump rolled out his expansive global trade tariffs, shocking the stock and bond markets and sparking fears of a recession. Mortgage rates jumped again, hitting 6.89 percent for a 30-year fixed-rate loan on May 29, their highest level since early February. The extreme volatility threw cold water on a fragile…

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"Here's where home prices grew the most in Q1 as affordability worsens for many Americans"

Story Highlights

• The National Association of Realtors says 83% of metro areas saw their single-family home prices grow in Q1.
• Nationally, the median single-family home price grew 3.4% in the first quarter.
• The Northeast performed the best in sales and price gains while the South lagged.

Austin Business Journal writes, "The U.S. housing market may be showing signs of softening but in most cities, single-family homes only got more expensive at the start of 2025.

A new report by the National Association of Realtors found 83% of metro areas tracked by the NAR saw their existing single-family home prices increase in the first quarter of 2025. While down from the 89% of metro areas that saw price growth in the fourth quarter of…

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"Gen Z's regret grows over generational housing divide"

Austin Business Journal writes, "High home prices and elevated interest rates have members of Generation Z worried about missing out on the dream of homeownership — or deeply regretting having taken the plunge.

According to the BMO Real Financial Progress Index, 54% of American renters envy people their age and younger who have purchased a home. It's a dynamic that's even stronger among Gen Zers, with 63% of those respondents saying they are envious of homeowners. The Gen Z share is second only to that of millennials, who are most likely to be envious, at 67%.

"The data show that owning a home remains a key component of the American dream, but with some obstacles still facing first-time homebuyers, younger generations worry they missed their…

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"Housing market shifts to favor buyers — but they're not buying"

Austin Business Journal writes, "Like much else about the U.S. economy, tariffs and broader uncertainty are weighing on home sales amid the industry's crucial spring season.

In March, more than 375,000 homes were newly listed on the market — an increase of nearly 9% compared to the same time last year, according to Zillow Group Inc. (Nasdaq: ZG) research. But newly pending sales were flat compared to last year, despite slightly lower average mortgage rates in March 2025 compared to a year ago.

That's despite several aspects of the market — including price cuts hitting their highest point in at least seven years — shifting to favor buyers.

Inventory rose to 1.15 million homes in March, an increase of 19% from last year and the most inventory…

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