Luxe Austin Homes - housing market

"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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"More international buyers are eyeing the U.S. home market. These cities are getting the most looks."

Austin Business Journal writes, "America's housing market is showing increased interest from international buyers.

That’s according to a new report from Realtor.com, which analyzed international views of for-sale listings on the Realtor.com U.S. marketplace between January and March 2025, as compared to previous quarters.

The data showed the share of home shoppers who came from outside the U.S. grew from 1.3% in the first quarter of 2020 to 1.9% during the same time this year. It was also up from 1.7% in the fourth quarter of 2024.

Cities with the most global interest

In the first quarter of 2025, Miami was the most-popular metro market for international home shoppers, with that metro area capturing 8.7% of demand from outside the U.S.…

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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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"Austin and Round Rock rank among fastest-growing affordable U.S. cities"

CultureMap Austin shares, "A new national study has declared Texas home to the most affordable, fast-growing cities in the country, and Austin and Round Rock both made the list.

Round Rock ranked 10th while Austin ranked 35th on GoBankingRates.com's new list of "50 Most Affordable, Fastest-Growing Cities in 2025."

The Dallas suburb Frisco tops the national rankings at No. 1, and four more North Texas cities appear on the top 10: McKinney (No. 2), Allen (No. 5), and Lewisville (No. 8); and the Houston-area suburb League City (No. 7).

The personal finance website's experts narrowed the study down to U.S. cities of at least 100,000 people, with one-year and five-year population growth rates that were higher than the national average, and with…

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"Multiple new multifamily projects on tap, from The Domain to South Congress"

While deliveries of multifamily projects in the Austin area have been forecast to decline in the coming years, some are still being planned.

From The Domain to South Congress Avenue, developers have projects on tap ranging from townhome complexes to mid-rise apartment buildings, according to three site plan applications filed with the city. They're in the works at a time when uncertainty swirls around the metro's multifamily market and a number of other projects have been canceled or delayed.

Multifamily vacancy came in at 15.5% in April, according to ApartmentData.com, an elevated level that's a concern for developers and property managers because high vacancy rates lead to lower rental rates and less new development as investors hesitate to…

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"Is Now a Good Time to Buy a House?"

Key takeaways:

• If you have the means, now may be a good time to buy a house.
• There are nearly 500,000 more home sellers than buyers, putting buyers in charge – but a shaky economy has everyone on edge.
• Mortgage rates remain elevated and volatile thanks to inflation concerns, tariff uncertainty, and market volatility.
• Housing costs continue rising: The median U.S. home sale price sits at a near-record high $438,000, marking 22 straight months of year-over-year gains.

Spring is in full swing, kicking off the prime homebuying season. So, many homebuyers are wondering if it’s a good time to enter the housing market. 

Housing remains largely unaffordable for most of the country, after all, and economic uncertainty is significantly…

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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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