Luxe Austin Homes - pricing

"Home Builders Struggle To Find Buyers as Cancellations by Developers Rise"

Realtor.com writes, "it’s a tough time to be selling a home. That’s also true for home builders, who are seeing canceled orders and dwindling interest among would-be buyers.

“Mortgage applications have been running down close to 40% year over year. People are clearly in sort of a wait-and-see or pause mode,” John Lovallo, a UBS analyst who covers home builders, told MarketWatch on an episode of Barron’s Live.

Confidence among home builders dropped for the 10th month in a row in October to a 10-year low (with the exception of the start of the pandemic), according to the National Association of Home Builders. Traffic among prospective buyers, one of the components that measures confidence, fell significantly, the association said, as buyers look…

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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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"‘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…

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"10 Reasons Why Austin, Texas Is The Hottest Real Estate Market In The United States Right Now"

Times Square Chronicles writes, "Austin, Texas is one of the fastest growing cities in the United States. With more people flocking to Texas from many parts of the country, the city’s real estate market is amongst the hottest in the country right now. We’ll take a look at ten reasons why.

Teifke Real Estate announced that median home values are expected to rise in the middle of next year. Rental rates are also expected to rise as well. Let’s take a look now at the list of ten reasons why Austin is the hottest real estate market (and you should jump in now).

1.   THE TECH INDUSTRY IS PLANTING ITS STAKE HERE

Some of the most popular tech companies like Apple and Tesla are making their presence known here in the Austin area. It’s becoming a…

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"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…

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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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"Austin's economy among fastest-growing in the U.S., new report finds"

Austin American-Statesman writes, "Austin's boom is far from over, as a new report says the metro area has the second-fastest-growing economy in the country.

Austin's estimated regional gross domestic product — the total value of goods and services produced in one year — increased by 4.3% this year, second only to San Francisco's growth at 4.8%, according to the Kenan Institute of Private Enterprise at the University of North Carolina.

The report is the institute's first as a part of its American Growth Project, which aims to provide "up-to-the-minute" economic data for the microeconomies of towns, cities and counties across the country.

Hoping to help government officials and community leaders understand real-time industry trends, forecasts…

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"Austin homebuyers regain power as active listings reach decade-plus high"

Austin Business Journal reports, "there's more evidence that Austin's housing market is correcting itself after years of overheating.

The Austin Board of Realtors'latest housing market datafound that September saw 9,671 active listings on the market — the most since 9,909 in July 2011 — and total inventory hit 3.1 months for the first time since July 2017. Median home sales prices also dropped more than $25,000 from August, helping the city push back on what's widely considered the biggest threat to the economy: affordability.

Though 3.1 months of inventory isn’t enough to transform Austin into a buyer’s market, there are winds of change.

“Homebuyers have not had this much leverage and this many options in over a decade,” ABOR President Cord…

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"In September, the Austin area saw the highest number of active home listings since 2011"

KVUE AUSTIN, Texas — "Prospective homebuyers can start breathing a little easier, according to new data from the Austin Board of Realtors (ABoR).

ABoR reports that, in September, home sales declined 18.5% to 2,992 closed listings as active listings were up 162.4% to 9,671 listings. That's the highest number of active listings in the area since July 2011, according to ABoR.

"Homebuyers have not had this much leverage and this many options in over a decade," said Cord Shiflet, 2022 ABoR president. "We’re still in a seller’s market, but as homes take longer to sell and are being bought for less than the original list price on average, and with inventory steadily increasing, right now is a great time to be a homebuyer in Central…

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"This Fall’s Latest Housing Stats Are Hiding a Surprising Upside for Homebuyers"

Realtor.com writes that, "Although the fall season is traditionally the best time of year to buy a house, homebuyers out there right now might not feel that way—and for good reason.

We looked at the latest real estate statistics in our column “How’s the Housing Market This Week?” We found that this year’s seasonal high point for buyers is up against some strong headwinds—including skyrocketing interest rates, soaring inflation, and overall economic volatility not seen since the Great Recession in 2008.

“Early fall is usually the best time to buy,” says Realtor.com® economist Jiayi Xu in her analysis, adding that the most optimal window of opportunity for homebuyers nationwide just passed last week.

However, she continues, “as inflation…

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