Found 619 blog entries tagged as real estate.

Realtor.com shares, "Brokerage giant Compass is set to become the largest residential real estate firm in the world after announcing a deal to acquire major rival Anywhere for $1.6 billion.

Compass, which also operates Christie’s, announced the acquisition on Monday, which will see it take control of Anywhere's subsidiary brands, including Century 21, Sotheby’s, and Coldwell Banker.

The all-stock deal values the combined companies at roughly $10 billion and will create what is by far the largest residential real estate brokerage in the world.

Compass says the merger will expand its reach into every major U.S. city and 120 countries, with a combined workforce of 340,000 real estate professionals globally. Compass was already the largest U.S.…

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Austin Business Journal reports, "The Austin Independent School District plans to consolidate operations amid a tough financial outlook and could either sell or lease up to 13 school sites that it's considering closing.

The district published a proposed consolidation plan Oct. 3 in which 13 schools would be closed and most of the district’s attendance boundaries would be altered. The proposal is aimed at addressing anticipated enrollment declines and financial challenges, with the AISD’s approved 2025-26 budget projecting a $19.7 million deficit and the potential consolidation forecast to save more than $25 million. 

“To protect the quality of education in Austin ISD, we must reassess where our limited resources are spent,” Superintendent Matias…

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Austin Business Journal writes, "Home sales have slowed in many cities across the country — including some Covid-era hotspots — but some communities are bucking the trend and seeing houses sell more than 40% faster than they did pre-pandemic.

That's according to The Business Journals' second-quarter analysis of the nation's hottest housing markets based on quarterly listing and sales data from Intercontinental Exchange.

ZIP code 49629 in Elk Rapids, Michigan, was the fastest-selling housing market in the nation for the second quarter. Homes in Elk Rapids spent an average of 23 days on the market.

The small, waterfront community — approximately 17 miles from Michigan vacation hotspot Traverse City — provides easy access to nearby Elk Lake and…

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Austin Business Journal shares, "Investors are snapping up an ever-growing share of single-family homes, and it’s the smallest investors leading the way.

Real estate investors purchased 33% of all single-family residential homes sold in the second quarter, according to the Q2 Investor Pulse Report from BatchData. That is up from 27% of all single-family homes in the first quarter and up from 25.7% in 2024.

It's also the highest share of investor purchases in more than five years, according to the report. Overall, investors own roughly 20% of the 86 million single-family homes in the country.

The development comes as analysts in some pandemic-era real estate hotspots have seen a shift in how properties are changing hands in their markets. In…

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Austin Business Journal writes, "The best time of the year to buy a home is coming up, giving frustrated house hunters an increased chance to close a desired deal.

The week of October 12-18 is what Realtor.com is calling the “sweet spot” for home shoppers. Why? A rare combination of higher inventory, lower prices and less competition makes it ideal for buyers. And even though it's not exactly a buyer's market overall, the improved buying conditions could feel like a breath of fresh air for prospective buyers.

"After years of constrained conditions, the 2025 housing market is giving buyers something they haven't had in a long time: options," said Danielle Hale, chief economist at Realtor.com, in a statement. "I expect this market momentum shift…

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Austin Business Journal shares, "The Federal Reserve has lowered rates by a quarter point, a welcome sign for homebuyers.

The federal funds rate is now 4% to 4.25%, according to a Sept. 17 announcement, marking the Fed's first rate cut since December. The cut comes as economic indicators point to the growth of economic activity moderating in the first half of the year, job gains slowing and the national unemployment rate increasing to 4.3%, according to the announcement.

Lowering the rate could have an impact on housing affordability in the Austin metro, where the median price of a home was $444,490 in August, 1.3% more than the year prior.

“Even a small rate shift can improve affordability and prompt more buyers to re-enter the market, a…

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Austin Business Journal reports, "Home flippers are seeing their profits shrink dramatically, plummeting to the lowest point in years.

The latest report from ATTOM, which provides property data and analytics, found that home flippers netted a 25.1% return on investment before expenses in the second quarter, the lowest margin ATTOM has recorded since the second quarter of 2008. It's also down from a high point of a 62.9% in fall 2012.

Gross profit, the difference between what a flipper paid for a property and what they sold it for, also has dropped. The typical flipped home netted $65,300 in the second quarter, about 4% less than the first quarter and 13.6% less than the second quarter of 2024.

The culprit? High home prices that push flippers…

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This charming home in Northeast Austin is on the market for $449,000, less than the current median price of a home in Austin. Photo courtesy of Zillow

CultureMap Austin shares, "the latest Central Texas Housing Report from Unlock MLS and the Austin Board of Realtors (ABoR) has indicated Austin's real estate activity in August is portraying a "more balanced" housing market with an increase in active listings, stable prices, and a rise in pending sales. And two national marketplaces, Zillow and Realtor.com, have already recently declared Austin is now a buyer's market.

The local housing report analyzed August data across the Austin-Round Rock-San Marcos metropolitan statistical area (MSA), the city of Austin, and the five Central Texas counties: Travis, Williamson, Hays, Bastrop, and Caldwell.

Across the Austin metro, median home prices in August rose just 1.3 percent year-over-year to $444,490,…

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Realtor.com writes,"Summer ended with a standoff between reluctant buyers and frustrated sellers—but this fall, house hunters can be a bit more optimistic as seven of the 50 biggest metros become buyer's markets.

The national housing market reached a balance of five months of supply—the first summer to do so since Realtor.com® began tracking this data nine years ago, according to the August 2025 Monthly Housing Market Trends report.

What does that mean in simple terms? The months of supply metric represents how many months it would take for all the for-sale homes on the market (including pending listings) to be sold at the current sales pace. 

The higher the months of supply, the slower the market—and the more negotiating power buyers have. 

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CultureMap Austin writes, "As if people needed more reasons to move to Austin: The Texas capital ranked No. 7 on WalletHub's just-released list of the best large real estate markets in 2025.

In a separate WalletHub list of 300 U.S. housing markets of various sizes, Austin ranked 18th. For this list, the personal finance website examined 300 U.S. cities based on 17 metrics including each city's real estate market, housing affordability, and economic environment.

The "large market" rankings included 68 U.S. cities with populations greater than 300,000 residents.

Last year, Austin was the 12th best real estate market in America overall, and it was the third-best out of all large U.S. cities.

This is how WalletHub broke down Austin's 2025…

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