Luxe Austin Homes - mortgage

"Report shows Southwest Austin home prices up, number of sales down for October"

The latest Austin Board of Realtors report shows prices in the Southwest Austin housing market continue to increase while the number of sales continues to decrease.

Although the Austin housing market continues to show signs of stabilization, with fewer sales and more available inventory in the markets, prices continue to be higher compared to last year, according to the October ABoR report.

“Austin’s housing market is still growing, just at a different pace,” ABoR President Cord Shiflet said in a press release. “We’re entering the time of year that is historically a quieter time for home sales. With more available inventory than our area has seen in a decade and price growth stabilizing, buyers have more options today than ever before. Now is the time for…

600 Views, 0 Comments

"Fed Says: Don't Get Too Excited About Rates Just Yet"

There's no question that last week was an exciting one for rates. On Wednesday, the average 30yr fixed was fairly close to the highest levels since 2002. The following afternoon, it had fallen more than half a percent to the lowest level in nearly 2 months--the biggest single day drop on record.  

While rates are still very high relative to anything but the past 8 weeks, it was a promising step in the right direction.  It raised hopes for a bigger picture shift after the fastest rate spike in 40 years.  

As the new week got underway, rates managed to hold onto their newfound gains relatively well and with minimal volatility on average.  Things may have been better were it not for a concerted effort on the part of the Fed to remind the market not…

674 Views, 0 Comments

"Mortgage Rates Just Tumbled—but Here’s Why That’s Still Bad for the Housing Market"

Realtor.com writes, "mortgage rates have skyrocketed this year, scaring many would-be homebuyers and sellers out of the market.

But even when rates seesaw lower, as they did this week, it still takes a toll on the housing market.

Why? Because when financial conditions are so erratic and unsettled, many would rather wait it out.

“Today’s homebuyers and sellers are dealing not just with higher housing costs, but more uncertainty as a result of fluctuating mortgage rates,” Realtor.com® Chief Economist Danielle Hale says in her weekly analysis. “The uncertainty is leading to hesitation.”

We explore the ramifications of when borrowing costs zigzag all over the place, keeping both homebuyers and sellers on edge, in our column “How’s the Housing…

489 Views, 0 Comments

"Compass shares soar 90% around earnings report"

TheRealDeal writes, "Compass shares climbed to a nearly three-month high Friday after an earnings report revealed mounting losses but gains in market share and progress in its cost-cutting efforts.

The run-up began Thursday, before earnings were released at the market close. The share price gained 32 percent that day, then another 73 percent in the first hour of trading Friday before retreating a bit.

The brokerage’s stock was hovering around $3.50 at midday, up nearly 50 percent since markets opened Friday morning and 90 percent from Wednesday afternoon, when it fell to an all-time low of $1.85.

The iShares U.S. Real Estate ETF, an index that tracks the broader real estate sector, stood at $88.04 per share, up 7.2 percent from Wednesday…

530 Views, 0 Comments

"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…

556 Views, 0 Comments

"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…

587 Views, 0 Comments

"‘Incentives Come in Many Forms’: Here Are Ways To Lower Your Mortgage Rate, According to This Mortgage Company CEO"

Realor.com writes, "mortgage rates are double where they were a year ago, making home buying a much more costly endeavor. Home sellers are trying to help them out.

Buyers are not feeling the market, depressing mortgage demand. Rates are hovering at around 7%, which adds hundreds of dollars in additional monthly payments for prospective buyers’ budgets.

Even though the number of for-sale homes is growing, they’re still expensive, creating affordability issues for buyers.

Some builders and sellers are getting more creative, and offering ways for potential home buyers to lower their mortgage rate and monthly payments.

“There are programs out there today, like something called a 2-1 buydown or a 3-2-1 buydown,” Michael Isaacs, the CEO of GO…

534 Views, 0 Comments

"International homebuyers still flock to Austin but are spending less than pre-pandemic"

Austin Business Journal reports, "Austin's international homebuyer market is still down in the wake of the Covid-19 pandemic.

That’s according to the Austin Board of Realtors' 2022 Central Texas International Homebuyers Report. From April 2021 to March 2022, international buyers purchased $613 million worth of residential properties in Travis, Williamson, Hays, Bastrop and Caldwell counties — representing 3% of total home sales.

That number was relatively flat compared with the $634 million figure from the 2021 report, but is a steep drop from the $800 million reported in 2020, the first year the report was compiled.

Though international buyers contributed less to the housing market, Realtors say Covid-19 is less of a concern to clients now.

499 Views, 0 Comments

"Austin is a millennial magnet, with tens of thousands moving here last year"

Austin Business Journal writes, "Austin's millennial population grew more than any other city in the nation last year, according to data collected by personal finance website SmartAsset.

The findings, released Oct. 27, suggest that the city’s strong economy and standard of living continue to attract huge numbers of people at the height of working age.

However, other studies indicate the dramatic rise in the cost of living in the city and its shortage of housing continue to impede first-time homebuyers, many of whom are millennials.

Nearly 24,000 millennials — those born from the early 1980s to the mid-1990s — moved to Austin in 2021, according to SmartAsset.

That compared with the more than 13,400 that left, according to SmartAsset's…

608 Views, 0 Comments

"Why is the real estate boom in Austin slowing down?"

KVUE Austin reports, "more than two years ago now, 2020 saw what many real estate agents and developers called a gold rush in Austin, with homes being sold in a matter of hours. Now, the market appears to be slowing down.

"It's brought a lot of people here and it was just a perfect storm," said Chester Wilson, one of the owners of Greater Austin Builders.

Two years ago, many set their sights on Austin.

"Gold rush is a perfect term for it. I've been doing this for 25 years. It was unlike anything we've ever seen," said Cord Shiflet, the president of the Austin Board of Realtors.

However, Shiflet said Austin's real estate boom isn't going anywhere but that it's just slowing down.

He noted that rather than…

530 Views, 0 Comments