Austin Real Estate Market

Despite the crisis in the mortgage market and the tightening of credit standards for home loans, the Austin Real Estate Market remains steady and strong. It is true that home prices in the Austin area overall are down from 2007, but the following factors show a positive trend:

• The average sold price has rebounded by 7.9% to $252, 417 compared to January of 2006.
• New listings for January of this year are up 82% to 10,088 active listings compared to 7793 listings the same time last year.
• Neighborhoods such as Cedar Park and Round Rock have experienced strong positive trends in sale prices.
• Homes in Northwest and Southwest Austin are going to contract within days of being listed and many are receiving multiple offers.
• Austin's unemployment rate is currently 3.3 %, below the statewide rate of 3.9 % and the national rate of 4.4%. Statewide, Texas has a positive job growth rate of 2%. This factor is a great help to the housing market.
• According to USA Today, Austin's homes are about 5% undervalued, causing a large amount of investor interest.

In simple terms, the outlook for the Austin Real Estate Market for 2008 is steady. This means there will not be large jumps in home appreciation, but at the same time, there will be steady positive price growth in popular neighborhoods-unlike many other large real estate markets nationwide. The growing amount of inventory will swing the market from seller's to buyer's favor in 2008, and there will be many excellent values to be had. During the house value boom, from 2002 to 2006, home values in Austin overall did not have the radical upward swings that markets in L.A. or Miami had. Because of this, there is not a corresponding huge downward swing in home value in the Austin Real Estate Market.

Austin Real Estate Lakeway