Luxe Austin Homes - homeowners

"Austin affected by rising national trend of home buyers ghosting deals"

CultureMap Austin shares, "home buyers across the United States are ghosting sellers at record rates, and Austin is not exempt from the trend. Real estate marketplace Redfin tracked which metros saw the most buyers getting cold feet before closing real estate deals: thankfully Austin wasn't in the top 10, but it did see a significant increase since last year.

Redfin says 13.8 percent of Austin home purchases were called off in September, an increase from 11.8 percent in 2024. San Antonio ranked No. 2 overall, with the highest pull-out rate in Texas at 19 percent. Elsewhere in Texas, Dallas and Fort Worth also saw top 10 rates of home sale cancellations.

Tampa, Florida, topped the list with a cancellation rate of 20.1 percent. The national…

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"Compass launches Buyer Demand tool to help agents price homes"

Housingwire shares, "Compass is adding another feature to its suite of agent technology tools. On Tuesday, the Robert Reffkin-helmed firm announced the launch of Buyer Demand.

Buyer Demand enables Compass agents and their home seller clients to see the number of serious buyers in Compass’s network who are searching for homes that match theirs. Compass says this number is based on current buyer activity and saved searches. The brokerage notes that the insights provided by this tool help agents and their sellers understand demand dynamics across different price points and help them create a more informed pricing strategy. 

The new tool provides users with an up-to-the-minute look at buyer interest. According to Compass, this will be a game…

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"The National Observer: Real Estate: National housing market continues shift to buyers"

Austin Business Journal writes, "The housing market has seen a decent amount of shifting this year amid broader economic uncertainty and an uptick in inventory.

While new listings and home construction are welcome news in a market that's been starved of inventory for years, there are still a lot of challenges for both buyers and sellers.

The national median profit margin on home sales fell to 50% in the first quarter of this year — down 3.2 percentage points from the fourth quarter of 2024 and down 4.8 points from the first quarter of 2024, reports The Business Journals' Joanne Drilling. It's also down from 64% in 2022.

As I get into in today's lead story, the changing housing market has had some sellers rethink how much they list their homes…

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"Austin Home Prices Down in June"

Realtor.com reports, "In June, home prices fell substantially from the month before, with a median listing price of $617,500.

The number of listings on the market grew 5.0%, which is a smaller increase than normal for this time of the year in Austin, and homes are also selling slower than at the same time last year.

Home prices in Austin

Typically, home price per square foot in Austin tend to rise in June. But the most recent data shows that the price per square foot decreased by 3.3% compared with the month before.

So, how does this compare with the rest of the U.S.? Nationally, home price per square foot decreased 0.4%, which means price changes in the Live Music Capital of the World are lagging behind the national market.

Austin…

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"Central Texas home inspectors provide insight on the inspection process"

Community Impact writes, "President Kyle Nunnallee of Nunnallee Inspections and owner Casey Callais of Constructiva Inspections shared with Community Impact what homeowners should know about home inspections.

Established in 2003, Nunnallee Inspections has served the Central Texas area for over two decades, offering home buyer and seller inspections alongside new build and commercial inspections.

Callais launched Constructiva Inspections around four years ago, offering nearly 30 years of construction industry experience. Constructiva specializes in inspections on newly constructed homes but also offers inspections for resale homes, commercial properties and more.

Both companies offer services to the Central Texas area.

Why would someone need a home…

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"Legislative wrap up: Texas passes key housing bills"

Austin Business Journal writes, "The most recent Texas legislative session saw a slate of measures passed to make it easier to build more housing across the state. 

Some of the laws that were changed include allowing smaller and ideally more affordable homes to be built, expanding where housing in the state could be built and making it harder for housing developments to be killed in the approval process. 

While the Texas Legislature and its process is known for killing more bills than they pass, the 89th legislative session proved to be a “really strong” one for housing and affordability, said Julia Parenteau, the director of public policy for Texas Realtors. 

“We did anticipate that housing affordability, in particular, was going to be…

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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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"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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"Half of Texas homeowners don't know they can protest taxes, study says"

CultureMap Austin shares, "some people might be surprised to find out that their taxes are negotiable — at least when it comes to real estate. Specifically, 53 percent of Texas homeowners don't know they can protest their home's property tax evaluation, according to a study by Ownwell, a service that makes homeowners' cases for them.

Put simply, since homeowners are taxed on the assessed market value of their home, an over-appraisal by the local tax office can lead to paying too much in taxes. Homeowners in this situation can lower what they owe by telling tax appraisers what they believe the real value of the home is, and the two entities will negotiate to find an acceptable number. Appraisals reflect the value of the home on January 1 of that tax…

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"A new deal-breaker is derailing some home sales"

Austin Business Journal writes, "Real estate agents are struggling to close on deals because of the surging cost of homeowners insurance.

That’s according to real estate firm Redfin Corp.'s 2025 Industry Survey, which found 47% of surveyed agents said they have encountered more issues with home insurance during a transaction over the past year compared to the year before it.  

Overall, 21% of agents said they had "significantly more" issues recently with homeowners insurance, such as clients having trouble getting affordable insurance or canceling a purchase because of homeowners insurance. About 26% said they had "somewhat more" issues while 35.7% said it was about the same as the year before. 

In California, about 50% said they had…

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