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Market News and Trends

This category contains 486 posts

It’s Tax Appraisal Season!

If you have followed my Market Dashboard and comments about supply-and-demand issues in the Austin area, you shouldn’t be surprised that tax values are up. Continue reading

Investing? Compare different parts of the Austin metro …

Every investor has his or her priorities, property management style, risk tolerance, and target market, and with experience comes to understand the financial trade-offs that may be required by a chosen strategy. Here’s one tool to help compare opportunities. Continue reading

Interest Rates Rise

Well, here we go again …. Mortgage interest rates (30-year fixed rate loans) have been very low for a very long time  — mostly 5% or below since early 2009, and mostly 4% or lower since late 2011.  There have rumors periodically during each of those years that rates were about to rise.  We’re hearing … Continue reading

Austin Market Price Distribution

Here’s an updated look at the overall distribution of residential sale prices across the Austin metropolitan area.  Continue reading

Market Dashboard – 2017 recap

Expect inventory constraints to remain with us in 2018, and for high demand to continue.  Some geographic areas and price ranges will experience this differently, but it looks like another wild ride ahead this year. Continue reading

Outlook for the Texas Economy

Increased weighted building permits and housing starts accelerated the Texas Residential Construction Leading Index (RCLI) to its highest level since April, signaling improvements in residential construction activity through year end. Continue reading

More on Housing Supply and New Construction

If all new Austinites purchased single family homes from 2006 to 2017, then we would have been more than 81,000 units under-supplied! Continue reading

Housing supply in Austin?

Calendar year 2017 was unusual — mostly for its similarity to the previous few years in limited residential real estate inventories.  It was the fifth year in a row with housing supply at or below half of what most market economists consider “normal” or “balanced.”  Austinites have come to understand “seller’s market” in a very … Continue reading

Market Dashboard – Austin area update

The most important feature of the current market cycle is that listing inventory has been at or below 3 months’ supply for virtually all of the past 5 years. This has been the longest-lasting “seller’s market” on record. Continue reading

What’s Up with Austin Home Prices?

It’s no surprise that home prices have been going up in the Austin area, especially during the past 5 years.  It’s also no surprise that the trend is more pronounced the closer you get to Central Austin, but average prices tell more of the story than the median. Continue reading

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