"The best time for Austinites to list their home"

AXIOS Austin writes, "It's prime time to list homes in Austin, according to a new Zillow report.

Why it matters: Sellers who listed their homes in early spring last year made more money on the sale than at any other time of the year.

The big picture: The "best time to sell," per Zillow researchers, depends on where you live, and the season starts early in Austin.

• Across the U.S., homes listed late last May sold for 1.6% more — typically $5,600 — than any other time of year.
• San Jose, California; Seattle; and San Diego also saw price premiums in March, while late fall was prime time to sell in Tampa Bay and Phoenix.

Zoom in: Listing Austin-area homes in the second half of March boosted the final sale price by 2.3%, or about $10,400, on…

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"More listings add much-needed housing inventory, but some homes are sitting on the market longer"

Austin Business Journal writes, "The first few weeks of 2025 have brought an uptick in home listings, but whether housing inventory currently on the market is priced to sell remains to be seen.

New for-sale listings rose 7.9% in the four-week period ending Feb. 2 compared to the same timeframe a year earlier, according to data from Redfin Corp. (Nasdaq: RDFN). Despite the increased inventory, pending sales were still down 8.1% year over year.

Some of the pending sales slowdown could be seasonal or related to economic uncertainty, but mortgage rates and high home prices — including among newly listed inventory — are also keeping many would-be buyers sidelined.

Inventory is beginning to accumulate, and some homes are taking longer to sell, largely…

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"How much does real estate agent experience matter? Here's what the data says."

Austin Business Journal shares, "real estate agent experience levels — and how they are paid — can make a huge difference in the housing market.

A new working paper from the National Bureau of Economic Research by Sophia Gilbukh, an assistant professor of real estate at Baruch College, and Paul Goldsmith-Pinkham, assistant professor of finance at Yale University, studied 8.5 million transactions from 2001 to 2014. The study found homes listed by inexperienced agents were less likely to sell — and the current flat commission structure created a large number of inexperienced agents that drag down home sellers and stunt the housing market, in good times and bad.

Overall, the working paper found, listings with agents within the bottom 10% of…

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"This April week is the best time to list your Austin-area home, data says"

KXAN Austin writes, "wondering when the best time is to list your Austin home? New realtor.com data states it’s coming up soon.

The study shows the week of April 16-22 is the best time to list a home in the Austin-Round Rock metro area. This week is forecast to have above-average prices, above-average buyer demand, a fast market pace and lower competition from other sellers.

This week is also the best week for most other metros in the country, the report said, including the Houston metro. San Antonio’s best week is the following week, April 23. The report said the week of March 26 is the best time to list Dallas-Fort Worth homes — bucking the national trend.

Best times to list your Texas home

“The week of April 16-22 is expected…

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"Austin housing market more stable after cooling 2022 demand, report finds"

CultureMap Austin writes, "In a slightly contradictory year, the 2022 Central Texas housing market saw both higher barriers to affordability and a shift toward buyers.

According to the Austin Board of Realtors' last monthly report of 2022 and year-end overview, inventory rose, but so did interest rates and construction costs. Prices rose, too, reaching a new annual record for the Austin-Round Rock MSA at $503,000 (up 11.4 percent). Travis County mirrored the pattern, as median prices increased 10.6 percent to $575,000.

Demand in the MSA lagged while supply stayed the same: New listings stayed steady but 33,547 homes were sold, down 18.3 percent from the previous year, and they generally stayed on the market for 31 days, 11 days longer. This was…

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"2023’s Housing Market Is Looking Up: 3 Things That Should Give Homebuyers Real Hope"

Realtor.com writes, "after suffering all-time lows during the COVID-19 pandemic, the supply of homes for sale has rebounded with a bang.

January marked a whopping 65% more real estate listings than this same month a year earlier, according to a recent inventory report from Realtor.com®.

And while home prices are still up year over year, they’ve declined from the pandemic peak. January’s median home list price clocked in at $400,000—holding steady since December but much lower than June’s record high of $449,000.

In addition to this deluge of homes for sale at more reasonable prices, mortgage rates are also down from their 20-year high, which broke 7% in November. For the week ending Jan. 26, Freddie Mac found that rates for a 30-year…

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"Zillow says Austin’s housing market is now ‘ice cold,’ Austin Board of Realtors says no way"

KXAN Austin writes, "just days after the Austin Board of Realtors said the local housing market is starting to “rebalance,” Zillow has released a much harsher outlook: the Austin market is now “ice cold.”

The characterization comes as Zillow released its market report for December 2022.

The report shows homes in the Austin area are spending a median of 68 days on the market, more than in any other major metro nationwide. Back in December 2021, Zillow reported homes in the area were on the market for a median of 22 days.

Another metric in the report shows homes aren’t selling for as much as they used to. In November, just 11% of listings sold for higher than the asking price, down from 47% a year before.

That may be leading some homeowners…

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"Real Estate CEOs, Economists & Other Experts Predict a “Less Crazy” Housing Market in 2023, But Expect Any Improvements to be Gradual"

Yahoo Finance writes, "while there is no clear consensus about what will happen to mortgage rates and home sales in 2023, the real estate experts from organizations like the Mortgage Bankers Association, Zillow, Taylor Morrison, and others surveyed in Point’s 2023 Real Estate Expert Survey agree 2023 will likely bring less volatility to the real estate market. But any improvement will be slow.

Point asked experts about where mortgage rates will land this year; what will happen to existing-home sales; and what advice they would give home buyers and sellers.

Key findings include:

• About three-quarters of the respondents expect the average 30-year fixed mortgage rate to stay below 7% in June 2023. By December, every respondent believes rates…

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"Austin's hottest real estate stories of 2022: Dramatic market shift and big developments"

CultureMap Austin writes, "as 2022 comes to a close, we're looking back at the stories that defined Austin this year, starting with the red-hot topic of real estate. Following unprecedented growth during the pandemic, Austin's market is poised for a dramatic swing, but that's not all that happened this year. From massive mansions to tall towers and the first "residential winery" in the state, here are the hottest real estate headlines of 2022.

1. $45 million Lake Travis mansion makes a splash as most expensive home for sale in Texas. A Lake Travis estate fit for a celebrity hit the market at $45 million this spring. The property came with big-as-Texas bragging rights, as it was the priciest home on the market in Texas at the time. In 2013, the…

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"Home Prices Fall and Listings Soar: Could It Be a Great Time To Buy Despite High Mortgage Rates?"

Realtor.com writes, "as the housing market barrels toward the end of the year and all of its holiday trimmings, potential homebuyers are likely wondering what’s in store for the coming season.

Home shoppers looking for lower asking prices can officially check that off their wish list. November’s median home list price of $417,000 was much more wallet-friendly than June’s record high of $449,000, according to a recent report from Realtor.com®.

Yet the volatile real estate landscape is not quite ready to bring only glad tidings. High mortgage rates—which, as of Wednesday, hover at 6.58% for a 30-year fixed-rate loan—are a stark reminder that many buyers might still struggle on the affordability front.

“Even though prices are down month to…

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