“Since we know Austin went into the recession later, emerged earlier, and lost fewer jobs than most other major metros, it may be helpful to put this month’s performance ranking in perspective by also looking at where Austin and these metros are currently vis-à-vis peak pre-recession employment.” Continue reading
Volatile. Unpredictable. Erratic. I have used all those adjectives to describe market conditions for Austin/Central Texas residential real estate over the past few months. They all apply, and 2011 will call for ongoing analysis and forecasting. New construction and newly issued building permits should give us a glimpse at the future, however. Continue reading
Despite ups and downs over the past year, we saw the lowest average home sale price in seven months in January 2011. On the other hand, the average price in January 2011 was up 5.2% compared to one year earlier — much stronger than even the strongest of the Case-Shiller cities. Continue reading
The February market snapshot shows mixed results, but important point of emphasis regarding the Austin/Central Texas residential real estate market remains remarkable strength in property values. Continue reading
The benefits of homeownership are so obvious, that I simply can’t accept the James Altucher believes what he blogged on the subject. His advice may be exactly right for him, but for about 2/3 of Americans, owning a home has been the foundation for financial strength they would not have realized by saving a little of every paycheck for forty years. Continue reading
The strength of current gross rents, and the stability in multifamily pricing for most of last year, suggest that we have seen the bottom of this cycle. New project announcements and building permits for multifamily construction (including substantial additions to the inventory of available apartment units) show that large investors and developers are betting on coming growth. Now is the time for smaller investors to take advantage of the trend as well. Continue reading
Austin was one of only two cities to experience positive growth in both prices and unit sales over this 12-month period. Austin’s 5% increase in median price was below the 7.8% average rate of increase since 1990, but still a strong performance. Couple that with growth in unit sales of more than 3x the national average, and this is really impressive. Continue reading
A couple of weeks ago I wrote about the strength and optimism of the multifamily residential market in the Austin/Central Texas market. I promised to keep an eye on this and report further news. Today, this article indicates the same kind of confidence nationally.
I have written frequently over the past year or so about many analyses in which Austin ranked at or near the top in terms of economic strength. This Chamber report includes some details of growing employers that I have not seen summarized in one place previously.
The Austin Chamber of Commerce posted an interesting report today based on the Texas Manufacturing Outlook Survey. The outlook is optimistic. I want to comment on just a couple of charts from the Chamber’s article, and one from the source report.
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