Luxe Austin Homes - home sales

"Will 'golden age of remodeling' persist with economy, housing-market slowdown?"

Austin Business Journal writes, "home-remodeling activity, which boomed during the height of the Covid-19 pandemic, is beginning to taper off from what experts say was unsustainable growth, but current conditions in the housing market may ultimately provide medium-term tailwinds for the sector.

Harvard University's Joint Center for Housing Studies' most recent Leading Indicator of Remodeling Activity, a quarterly assessment of future demand for remodeling projects, is projecting a decline for remodeling activity beginning early next year. Its forecast also calls for activity for the current year to end at a 3% annual growth from the previous year, a deceleration from pandemic years — where double-digit annual growth was typical.

Abbe Will, a…

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"Austin housing economist: forecast calls for cooling home prices, lower mortgage rates"

Shonda Novak of Austin American-Statesmant writes,  "last week, I attended the Austin Board of Realtors' second annual Central Texas Housing Summit. It was loaded with facts, figures, insights and prognostications about the Austin-area housing market. One panel featured the board's housing economist, Clare Losey; Mark Sprague, a longtime Central Texas housing market analyst with Independence Title; and Selma Hepp, CoreLogic's chief economist who gave a national economic update.

Below are a few takeaways with Losey's outlook for the Austin metro's housing market over the next several months. Losey made the comments in a weekly audio interview called "Driving It Home" that features Losey and the board's CEO, Emily Chenevert.

• Inflation will continue…

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"Austin housing market improved over the first 6 months of 2023, despite economic challenges"

CultureMap Austin reports, "despite economic struggles, lack of housing availability, and affordability woes making up a majority of concerns with the Austin-Round Rock housing market, overall trends have improved through the first half of 2023. The latest Austin Board of Realtors (ABoR) report details a need for more inventory to address rapid population growth.

"Despite a slight uptick in mortgage rates in June, the median sales price rose a modest 2.7 percent from May," said ABoR's housing economist Dr. Clare Losey. "Overall, the moderation in home prices throughout the region over the past year has eased the affordability constraint posed by higher rates, but more work needs to be done across the region and into the future to fully address this…

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"U.S. Pending Home Sales Fall but the Housing Market Is in Recovery Mode"

Realtor.com writes, "the numbers: U.S. pending-home sales fell in May, the National Association of Realtors said on Thursday but the housing market is still showing signs of being in recovery mode.

Demand for homes is still strong, despite mortgage rates hovering near 7%, but buyers are finding few properties for-sale to choose from as homeowners hold out on selling.

The shortage in housing inventory has become so dire that it’s pushed pending home sales down in the spring, which is generally the peak season for home-buying.

Sales fell by 2.7% from the previous month, according to the monthly index released Thursday by the National Association of Realtors (NAR).

The figure fell short of expectations on Wall Street. Economists expected…

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"Yay! Mortgage Rates Just Dropped—and Now There’s Even More Good News"

Realtor.com writes, "mortgage rates have finally dipped, after three panic-inducing weeks of climbing upward.

For the week ending June 8, the average 30-year fixed mortgage rate sank to 6.71%, down from the previous week’s 6.79%, according to Freddie Mac.

And that’s not where the good news ends.

Home price growth, which has been spiraling skyward since the COVID-19 pandemic, has also “slowed to a halt,” according to Danielle Hale, chief economist for Realtor.com® in her recent analysis of the latest housing data.

Indeed, median listing prices came in a mere 0.2% higher for the week ending June 3 compared with this same week last year. That’s the lowest level in the history of Realtor.com data, which goes back to 2016.

Yet despite this…

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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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"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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"Mortgage Rates Just Tumbled—but Here’s Why That’s Still Bad for the Housing Market"

Realtor.com writes, "mortgage rates have skyrocketed this year, scaring many would-be homebuyers and sellers out of the market.

But even when rates seesaw lower, as they did this week, it still takes a toll on the housing market.

Why? Because when financial conditions are so erratic and unsettled, many would rather wait it out.

“Today’s homebuyers and sellers are dealing not just with higher housing costs, but more uncertainty as a result of fluctuating mortgage rates,” Realtor.com® Chief Economist Danielle Hale says in her weekly analysis. “The uncertainty is leading to hesitation.”

We explore the ramifications of when borrowing costs zigzag all over the place, keeping both homebuyers and sellers on edge, in our column “How’s the Housing…

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Austin's million-dollar home sales are rivaling Dallas, Houston

Million-dollar home sales in Austin have skyrocketed along with the rest of the market, coming neck and neck with luxury sales in Dallas and Houston.

The number of Austin's luxury sales from January-May 2022 was almost double the number of sales for the entire year of 2018, according to a report from the Texas Real Estate Research Center at Texas A&M University.

While Houston, Dallas-Fort Worth and San Antonio saw sales spike in 2021, luxury home sales had remained relatively stable before that.

The Dallas area still leads the charge on luxury real estate sales but the study says Austin is poised to surpass Houston soon. Austin’s population is one about one-sixth of the Houston metro area.

Researchers say year-to-date sales are…

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As extreme heat rolls on, energy efficient homes capture attention

As Texans keep a close eye on the state's electrical grid during this record summer heat, one Austin-area neighborhood is staying relatively worry-free about blackouts.

Each home in Whisper Valley — located in Manor, about 8 miles north of the Tesla factory — comes equipped with solar panels on the roof and an underground geothermal heat pump that is more efficient at heating and cooling a home than an above-ground unit, said Greg Wolfson, chief technology officer of EcoSmart Solution, an affiliate of community developer Taurus Investment Holdings LLC. These two factors make Whisper Valley a zero-energy capable community. The development will eventually have more than 7,000 homes that are zero-energy capable.

The zero-energy capable label is not…

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