Grossman & Jones Real Estate Blog - housing

"Austin has the 3rd most active real estate market in the U.S. within the last decade"

CultureMap Austin writes, "a new report has discovered Texas cities hold the top five most active real estate markets in the country, with Austin landing in third place. The study by storage marketplace StorageCafe reflects the city's resiliency over the last decade after a recent reported plummet in Austin's quality of life.

Austin had the third highest number of single-family home permits between 2013 and 2022, totaling 37,000 units. At the same time, the city also permitted over 98,700 new multi-family/apartment units. The massive influx of housing ultimately adds up to an impressive national surge.

On the industrial end, the Texas Capital also took the No. 3 spot in the country for the most square feet of new industrial space construction.…

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"Massive luxury community set to break ground west of Austin"

Austin Business Journal reports, "the first phase of construction on Thomas Ranch, a 2,200-acre luxury community near Spicewood, is set to begin later this month.

Salt Lake City-based developer Areté Collective LP plans to break ground June 15, according to an announcement from late May. The first-phase neighborhood will be called Loraloma and have more than 400 homes and a golf course — although a builder is still needed.

Loraloma will be home to about 450 cottages, villas, estates and custom homesites, said Joe Rentfro, Thomas Ranch managing director.

"Our intention was to cater to a wide variety of individuals seeking a fresh take on Hill Country living without sacrificing the culture that rests at Austin’s core," Rentfro said.

To that…

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"Luxury residential community coming soon to San Marcos"

Community Impact reports, "Alta Center Point, a luxury residential community located at 625 Gregsons Bend, is being built in San Marcos.

The multifamily residential community is being developed by Wood Partners and Pursuant Ventures Development, led by Tyler Sibley and will offer 330 apartment homes with a mixture of one-, two- and three-bedroom floor plans.

Alta Center Point will have a resort-style pool, outdoor kitchen and a dog park along with a clubroom. Residents will also have access to a high-tech fitness center, conference area with multiple personal workspace offices and a variety of entertaining spaces.

According to Donya Mansoorian, an assistant account executive for the Wood team, the development anticipates opening its first unit in the…

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"The Housing Market Has a ‘Chicken and Egg’ Problem—but Buyers Have Finally Hatched the Perfect Workaround"

Realtor.com writes, "anyone who’s tried to buy or sell a home lately is no doubt painfully aware that today’s real estate market has slowed down considerably—but why?

A new Realtor.com® report sums it up as the “chicken and egg” problem. Allow us to explain.

It all starts with mortgage rates—which are about 1 percentage point higher than last year, hovering in the mid-6% range. This is a formidable deterrent not only for buyers, but also for sellers, who feel “locked in” to their current properties (along with the lower mortgage rates they got years earlier).

As a result, even homebuyers who are willing to pay high rates are finding few homes for sale, with May clocking 22.7% fewer new listings than last year.

“Many sellers report being…

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"Austin ranks third in national real estate construction"

Urbanize Austin reports, "in the past decade, the pace and amount of Austin real estate development has eclipsed that of all but two other cities in the nation (both in Texas), according to a new report from Storage Cafe, an online platform that provides storage unit listings across the nation.

The StorageCafe study looked at inventory expansions from 2013 to 2022 in the 100 largest U.S. cities to determine real estate growth. It analyzed new construction data for the country’s most populous cities, based on square footage in the case of commercial assets (industrial, office, retail and self storage) and on building permits in the case of residential units. It also analyzed unit count data from U.S. Census building permit records and deemed it a…

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"U.S. Housing Market Recovery Is Being Held Back by Limited Listings and Fluctuating Mortgage Rates"

Realtor.com reports, "The numbers: Sales of previously-owned homes in the U.S. fell 3.4% in April for the second month in a row, as buyers continue to deal with low levels of home listings and see-sawing mortgage rates.

Sales of existing homes in the U.S. fell to an annual rate of 4.28 million in April, the National Association of Realtors said Thursday.

That’s the number of homes that would be sold over an entire year if sales took place at the same rate in every month as it did in April. The numbers are seasonally adjusted.

The drop in sales wasn’t as bad as what economists on Wall Street had expected. They forecast existing-home sales to total 4.26 million in April.

But compared with April 2022, home sales were down 23.2%.

Key…

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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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"Georgetown is the fastest-growing city in the U.S."

Austin Business Journals reports, "for the second year in a row, a city in Williamson County was estimated by the U.S. Census Bureau to be the fastest-growing city in the country. It was one of three Austin-area cities that ranked among the top four.

Georgetown reached a 2022 population estimate of 86,507. That's a 14.4% year-over-year increase, according to a May 18 release from the U.S. Census Bureau. That ranked just ahead of Santa Cruz, California (61,800, +12.5%), Kyle (57,470, +10.9%) and Leander (74,375, +10.9%) among cities with a population of at least 50,000 people.

"Job growth in Georgetown and across the Austin metro continues to bring new residents to our city," Georgetown Mayor Josh Schroeder said in a May 18 statement. "People are…

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"Mortgage Rates Just Edged Higher, but Homebuyers Aren’t Giving Up. Here’s Proof."

Realtor.com writes, "what a difference a year can make.

Today’s mortgage rates are more than 1 percentage point higher than a year ago. Plus, rates edged even further up this week, to 6.39% for a 30-year fixed-rate loan, compared with 6.35% a week earlier, according to Freddie Mac.

These stubbornly high interest rates, combined with headstrong home prices, have plunged the entire housing market into a strange sort of stalemate.

On the one hand, 82% of home sellers feel “locked in” by the low mortgage rates they’d secured years earlier. Meanwhile, cash-strapped homebuyers with few new listings to pique their interest feel locked out of the American dream.

Yet despite this unrelenting real estate limbo, there are small signs of life kicking…

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"Austin housing prices are down one year after setting spring records"

Austin Business Journal writes, "one year after setting a median sales price record of $550,000 last April, housing prices are down in the metro.

The median sales price in the Austin area was $466,705, a 15% year-over-year decrease that amounts to $83,295, according to the Austin Board of Realtors April market report. And while prices have been trending up in recent months, the year-over-year decrease is a welcome signal to Central Texas, which saw housing prices skyrocket at unsustainable rates during the Covid-19 pandemic to a level where many buyers were over-bidding on property. It wasn't uncommon for a $400,000 home to sell for closer to $500,000 in recent years.

“This is still a market that is seeing lots of activity, just not at a…

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