Luxe Austin Homes - home sales

"Median home prices down almost 8.4% in Austin-area year-over-year"

 Austin American-Statesman shares, "there was good news for homebuyers in the latest monthly report from the Austin Board of Realtors last week.

With rising inventory and lower prices, Central Texas' cooling housing market has provided more choices and leverage for buyers, board officials and other experts say.

Here are some key takeaways from the November report.

Median price

• Across the Austin Round-Rock region from Georgetown to San Marcos, the median price of the homes that sold in November fell 8.4% year-over-year to $424,450, indicating Austin’s housing supply is becoming available at lower price points, board officials said. They were quick to point out, however, that prices remain "considerably elevated relative to pre-pandemic…

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"Austin home sales and prices expected to drop in 2024 according to new Realtor.com report"

Austin American-Statesman writes, "soaring home prices in recent years could calm down in 2024 after a report from Realtor.com predicted a drop in both home sales and prices for the Austin-Round Rock Area. 

Specifically, the real estate website predicted home sales in the Austin metro area would fall by 11.7%, while prices would fall by 12.2% compared to both of those marks in 2023. 

Moreover, across the country, the website predicted median home prices would fall by a much smaller 1.7%. However, it should be noted that larger, and recently more expensive, markets are expected to see bigger drops in price. 

How are other Texas housing markets expected to perform in 2024?

While the Austin area is predicted to see the biggest combined…

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"Reports: Austin home prices dropping, housing demand cooling off"

"The Austin Board of Realtors says buyers are willing to enter the market, despite higher interest rates. However, Zillow says the demand for houses is cooling off."

KVUE reports, "home prices are dropping in Central Texas, and the housing market overall is cooling off. That's according to new reports from both the Austin Board of Realtors (ABoR) and Zillow.

According to ABoR's October report, the median home price in the Austin-Round Rock area is $435,000. That's a 7.5% drop from a year ago.

The report also shows residential home sales are up about 4%, which experts say shows buyers are still willing to enter the housing market, despite higher interest rates.

In October, homes spent an average of 68 days on the market,…

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"Despite challenges, international homebuyers juice Central Texas' real estate market"

Austin Amerian-Statesman shares, "Mandar and Asmita Shinde are international homebuyers from India who, after seven years of living in Seattle, now call Austin home. 

Mandar Shinde, a tech business developer for Amazon, originally came to the U.S. from Nagpur, India.

He said Nagpur has similar weather to Austin, so "it literally feels like home here."

Since January, he and his wife, both 40, have been leasing a home in Liberty Hill. They are paying $2,375 a month in rent for a three-bedroom house with about 1,900 square feet, including a study.

But by next summer the Shindes and their 4-year-old son, Jai Shinde, plan to move into a new home in Leander once the house, which Perry Homes will start building soon, is completed. They expect to…

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"Median home prices in Central Austin mostly up in September"

Community Impact reports, "most Central Austin ZIP codes saw an increase in median home prices year over year in September, but there were a few exceptions, according to data from the Austin Board of Realtors.

Like median home prices, the average number of days homes spent on the market and the number of home sales were also mixed. Days on market were up and home sales were down, but there were some exceptions.

In September, median home prices in 78703 dropped by 50% from $1.8 million to just over $889,000. In 78701, median prices dropped nearly 50% from $1.13 million to $570,000.

Conversely, median prices in 78756 jumped over 50% from $603,500 to $926,750, the biggest increase in the market. In 78751, homes went from $822,500 to over $1 million.

The…

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"Some median home prices increase in Lake Travis, Westlake in September"

Community Impact writes, "a few ZIP codes in the Lake Travis-Westlake market saw an increase in home sales and median home prices compared to last year, according to data from the Austin Board of Realtors.

While prices and sales were down across the market, there were a few outliers. Homes in 78732 saw the biggest price jump at over 17% year over year. Sales were also up the highest year over year in this ZIP code by 40%.

Median prices in 78733 dropped the most in the market, going for $1.5 million last September to just under $900,000 this September.

Sales in the market were also a mixed bag. Homes in 78746 sold 15 homes both last year and this year. For the remaining six ZIP codes, three had more home sales than last year, and three had fewer sales…

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"So Much for the Federal Reserve: Mortgage Rates Hit a High Not Seen Since 2000"

Realtor.com writes, "last week brought hope to the housing market when the Federal Reserve did not raise interest rates. Many predicted this would help keep mortgage rates fairly steady.

But it turns out those predictions were 100% wrong.

Instead, for the week ending Sept. 28, rates for a 30-year fixed-rate loan rose to their highest level since 2000, landing at an average of 7.31%—a substantial jump from last week’s 7.19%, according to Freddie Mac.

This latest spike in borrowing costs will likely hit today’s already shaky real estate market especially hard.

“Unlike the turn of the millennium, house prices today are rising alongside mortgage rates, primarily due to low inventory,” said Sam Khater, Freddie Mac’s chief economist. “These…

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"'The market is active and resilient': Austin area sees uptick in home sales"

Austin American-Statesman writes, "Resilient.

That's the status of the Austin-area housing market as of August, when it saw its first year-over-year increase in home sales since early 2022, the Austin Board of Realtors says.

In its latest monthly report, the board said 2,939 houses changed hands last month in the five-county Austin region, which extends from Georgetown to San Marcos.

The sales represented a 1.4% increase over August 2022. It was the first increase in sales in the Austin region since February 2022, before repeated interest rate hikes by the Federal Reserve to ease inflation began sharply slowing home sales throughout Central Texas.

Across the Austin-Round Rock metro area, half of the houses last month sold for more than…

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"Texas is the 3rd hottest state for international homebuyers, new report shows"

CultureMap Austin writes, "the trend of international buyers purchasing homes in Texas shows no signs of slowing down, as revealed in the latest Texas International Homebuyers Report.

Released September 6 by Texas Realtors, the report shows that the Lone Star State remains the No. 3 hottest U.S. destination for international homebuyers. Texas ranks behind Florida and California for the fourth consecutive year.

From April 2022 to March 2023, 9,900 Texas homes were purchased by buyers from outside the U.S. These homes make up 11.7 percent of the total number of Texas Realtors sales transactions.

For comparison, Florida (No. 1) accounted for 23 percent of purchases, with California (No. 2) at 12.2 percent.

"Texas has long been one of the most…

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"Signed Contracts for U.S. Homes Rise for the Second Month in a Row"

Realtor.com reports, "the numbers: U.S. home sales inched up for the second month in a row, as the housing market continues to be hampered by high rates and a lack of home listings.

Pending home sales rose by 0.9% in July from the previous month, according to the monthly index released Thursday by the National Association of Realtors.

The figure exceeded expectations on Wall Street. Economists were expecting pending home sales to fall 0.5% in July.

Transactions were still down 14% from last year.

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

Big…

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