Luxe Austin Homes - homeowners

"Housing markets with highest share of equity-rich households undergo biggest corrections"

Austin Business Journal reports, "even with a rapidly cooling housing market, homeowners across the U.S. are sitting on near-record levels of equity.

A recent analysis by Irvine, California-based Attom Data Solutions LLC found 48.5% of mortgaged residential properties nationally were considered equity-rich in the third quarter. A property is considered equity-rich when the amount of loan balances secured by it is no more than 50% of its estimated market value.

With the housing market downturn that began this summer, though, $1.3 trillion in recently added equity vanished from the market in Q3, according to Black Knight Inc. (NYSE: BKI), a mortgage software and analytics company.

By Attom's measurement, Q3 2022 continued to see gains in…

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"Home Prices Would Need To Fall This Much for Buyers To Get a Break"

Realtor.com writes, "since home prices shot into the stratosphere, many first-time buyers have prayed for them to fall so that they could afford to become homeowners. Their wishes appear to have been granted—and yet, they’re caught in a paradox: Even as prices have begun to dip, the cost of purchasing a home has risen. A lot.

The reason for the contradiction: soaring mortgage interest rates.

Most folks are still laser-focused on a property’s price tag. In fact, this kind of list price obsession is deeply ingrained in the American psyche. But, of course, purchasing a home is very different from buying products from a brick-and-mortar store or shopping online. Unless home shoppers are buying with all cash, they will be taking out a long-term loan…

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"Decline in U.S. Pending Home Sales Gathers Steam in September"

Realtor.com writes, "the numbers: U.S. pending-home sales fell 10.2% in September, which is the fourth straight monthly drop, according to the monthly index released Friday by the National Association of Realtors (NAR).

The decline was much larger that forecast. Analysts polled by the Wall Street Journal had forecast the pending home sales index to drop by 4%.

Outside of the pandemic, the drop in pending home sales is the largest year-over-year decline since 2001. Sales dropped by 33.1% in April 2020.

Contract signings fell by double-digits in all regions across the country.

Pending home sales reflect transactions where the contract has been signed for an existing-home sale, but the sale has not yet closed.

Economists view it as an…

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"15 Austin ZIP codes now dominated by renters not homeowners"

Austin Business Journal writes, "if you live in either the 78727 or 78744 ZIP code, odds are you’re renting.

That's according to an Oct. 24 study from RentCafe, which found that from 2010 to 2020, those two ZIPs transitioned from having a majority of homeowners to a majority of renters. There are now 15 ZIP codes in the Austin area with renting majorities, signifying how the evolution of Austin into a big city is changing its economic makeup.

North Austin’s 78727, which eats up a large part of town north of The Domain neighborhood, had a population consisting of about 51% renters in 2020. Its 2020 renter population of 16,285 was a 21% jump from the 13,413 who called the ZIP code home in 2011, RentCafe found. The rental search platform used data…

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"Mortgage Bankers Expect Rates To Drop to 5.4% in 2023. Here’s What That Means for Home Prices."

Realtor.com reports, "high mortgage rates and recession fears are hurting home prices, so expect growth to be flat this year, one expert says.

“Our forecast is for home-price growth moderation to continue,” Joel Kan, vice president and deputy chief economist at the Mortgage Bankers Association, said Sunday during the organization’s annual conference in Nashville, Tenn.

Home prices have already begun moderating. According to Case-Shiller, home prices fell month-over-month from June to July for the first time in 20 years. The latest numbers, which will be for August, will be reported on Tuesday morning.

With a recession likely in the cards, on top of mortgage rates near or above 7%, “we’ve already seen a pretty dramatic pullback in housing…

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"Why Are Homeowners Seeing Prices Drop?"

U.S. News reports that, "for just about any homeowner, talk of falling home prices can spark panic. With homeownership being the major financial and personal investment it is, there's a natural anxiety that comes with any potential threat to that investment.

However, housing market activity to date does not show a year-over-year decline of home prices – at least not yet. While some data sets show small month-to-month home price declines, month-to-month data is more volatile and does not signal a drastic shift in the market on its own.

There is a marked deceleration in home price growth due to a combination of already high home prices, high mortgage interest rates, low housing inventory and economic uncertainty on a larger scale.…

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Austin real estate expert talks soaring property appraisals and how homeowners can protest

Texas property owners recently received their property appraisals in the mail. In Travis County, the value of residential properties increased 56% compared to last year, leaving many people wondering what they should do next. 

Ashley Jackson, president-elect of the Austin Board of Realtors, spoke with KVUE's Ashley Goudeau about the appraisals and what homeowners can do. Below are Jackson's answers to some common property appraisal questions.

The deadline to protest an appraisal is May 16. Should I protest mine? Who should protest?

"That is really going to vary on a case-by-case basis. They [property owners] may want to reach out to their trusted Realtor to get some advice about where their market value is to see if they have a…

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