Welcome to City-Data.com Forum!
U.S. CitiesCity-Data Forum Index
Go Back   City-Data Forum > U.S. Forums > Texas > Austin
 [Register]
Please register to participate in our discussions with 2 million other members - it's free and quick! Some forums can only be seen by registered members. After you create your account, you'll be able to customize options and access all our 15,000 new posts/day with fewer ads.
View detailed profile (Advanced) or search
site with Google Custom Search

Search Forums  (Advanced)
Reply Start New Thread
 
Old 04-06-2007, 08:33 PM
 
16 posts, read 78,476 times
Reputation: 15

Advertisements

I have been looking for new home and the market seemed to be slowing down to me...and I finally read some articles on statesman.com and cnn that central texas market was slowing down...is that true? I am sure everybody is aware of it......I was seeing lot of houses on hot communities like steiner ranch as I read in some previous posts to be on sale for more number of days than average 120 days...Is it just steiner ranch or overall in Austin area....

Why the homes in hot neighbourhood like Ranch at Brushy Creek, Forest Oaks and Steiner Ranch not sellling.....inspite of incentives...

Will home prices still go down.....Is the house market cooling down like California?

Please advice...
Reply With Quote Quick reply to this message

 
Old 04-06-2007, 08:39 PM
 
Location: Austin TX
1,207 posts, read 6,281,142 times
Reputation: 420
The article from today actually was about new home starts...those are down from last year, but overall closings are up.
Reply With Quote Quick reply to this message
 
Old 04-06-2007, 08:54 PM
 
575 posts, read 2,496,563 times
Reputation: 149
Quote:
Originally Posted by desu30 View Post
I have been looking for new home and the market seemed to be slowing down to me...and I finally read some articles on statesman.com and cnn that central texas market was slowing down...is that true? I am sure everybody is aware of it......I was seeing lot of houses on hot communities like steiner ranch as I read in some previous posts to be on sale for more number of days than average 120 days...Is it just steiner ranch or overall in Austin area....

Why the homes in hot neighbourhood like Ranch at Brushy Creek, Forest Oaks and Steiner Ranch not sellling.....inspite of incentives...

Will home prices still go down.....Is the house market cooling down like California?

Please advice...
I don't know if it is like CA or not, but I do know in CA the psychological advantage swung back to the buyers to a certain extent because enough potential buyers went on the sidelines. Once the supply vs. demand got more balanced, prices began to fall to due to sellers wanting to get a deal started and done.

In Texas, and here in Central Texas, the prices never really ran up, even after recovering from a decline back in '03 and '04. What you are chancing is that the prices you see are out of balance, and I don't believe they are grossly out of balance. What if you wait 2 years, and prices go up 8% each of those years. On a $200K house, with compounding, that is an additional ~$33K. Was it worth it to wait? Don't know, you decide. If the market somehow stagnates, and stays flat, then you did not gain or lose in this market, but it will still be a market with very nice homes, in nice areas, that are less than CA.

I purposely left out the scenario of a decline, because I don't want that to happen, and most of the pundits around here say it probably won't for Central Texas.

Read this for some balance to whatever you originally read:


http://www.statesman.com/search/content/business/stories/realestate/03/25/25ausprime.html (broken link)

and

http://www.statesman.com/search/content/business/stories/realestate/03/25/25ausprime.html (broken link)
Reply With Quote Quick reply to this message
 
Old 04-06-2007, 11:06 PM
 
979 posts, read 2,956,042 times
Reputation: 621
Quote:
Originally Posted by FromCalitoSteinerRanch View Post
I purposely left out the scenario of a decline, because I don't want that to happen, and most of the pundits around here say it probably won't for Central Texas.
I imagine we'll be fine as long as there isn't a bad recession. During the last one in 2001-2003, we were hit much harder than most areas of the country and many people had to move to find jobs elsewhere hence the price reductions in housing (mostly in 250k+ houses in the suburbs). If there is a recession that impacts technology again, we'll surely feel it once more.

Even though house prices in the North/Northwest suburbs have been fairly flat with a modest increase if you look at them from 2001-2007, houses in central Austin and South Austin have had a huge run these past six years.
Reply With Quote Quick reply to this message
 
Old 04-06-2007, 11:16 PM
 
Location: SW Austin & Wimberley
6,333 posts, read 18,060,267 times
Reputation: 5532
Quote:
Will home prices still go down.....Is the house market cooling down like California?
No, Austin prices are not going to go down and the market is not cooling. All I'm seeing in South/SW Austin is a strong seller's market.

We are still in the early stages of a 5+ year boom cycle. Luckily, we haven't heated up out of control. We don't want $500K average home prices here, but Austin has for sure been discovered and is one of the best real estate markets (for seller and builders) in the nation right now.

The exception will be people trying to sell fairly new homes in areas - especially starter home areas - that still have a lot of new construction competing in the same pricepoint as the resale homes.

Steve
Reply With Quote Quick reply to this message
 
Old 04-07-2007, 02:28 AM
 
111 posts, read 332,874 times
Reputation: 30
Quote:
Originally Posted by austin-steve View Post
The exception will be people trying to sell fairly new homes in areas - especially starter home areas - that still have a lot of new construction competing in the same pricepoint as the resale homes.

Steve
I can certainly vouch for that statement. I have been studying the market before we purchased, and I told my husband we better love what we buy because we will be in it for at least 5 years. I see the ones in Belterra sit on the market because of the competition.
Reply With Quote Quick reply to this message
 
Old 04-07-2007, 10:56 AM
 
Location: 78737
351 posts, read 1,431,608 times
Reputation: 170
When our community (Highpointe) first opened up, it was billed as a 100% Pulte community. Since the cool down in the market, Pulte has since sold land at Highpointe to Wilshire homes. We'll see where it goes from here.

For people buying new homes, you couldn't ask for a better environment. Low interest rates and excess inventory. I see newer used homes sitting on the market for weeks if not months because new home builders are competing with the used homes in new communities. The new home builders don't have a choice but to discount with all the new used homes on the market.
Reply With Quote Quick reply to this message
 
Old 04-07-2007, 09:58 PM
 
16 posts, read 78,476 times
Reputation: 15
Thank you all for replies...I was just wondering because I made a predecision trip her e before I relocated to austin couple months ago. I saw quiet few communities and inventory homes at that time buy could not find anything I liked so decided to rent and now I am looking forward to buy new home and I still see some of the inventory homes that I saw couple months ago with prices marked down...in areas like ranch at brushy creek, forest oaks...There are several resale homes in steiner with marked down prices...where new builders are unable to sell inspite of incentives...may be there is much competion...

But I am being positive and looking forward to buy house some where in cedar park.....
Reply With Quote Quick reply to this message
 
Old 04-07-2007, 10:07 PM
 
575 posts, read 2,496,563 times
Reputation: 149
Quote:
Originally Posted by desu30 View Post
...There are several resale homes in steiner with marked down prices...where new builders are unable to sell inspite of incentives...may be there is much competion...
Actually, now that I think about it, we did go to an Open House because we came out on one of our family trail walks into River Heights Overlook. There was a home marked down from $629,990 to $599,990. It is a Green Belt lot, and is 4010 sq. ft. so they went from $157.10/sq. ft. to $149.62/sq. ft.

I certainly don't like to see this, but it is vacant, so I bet the home has a high carrying cost, and probably is holding the owner back in buying a home wherever they live now. That is one thing about a neighborhood that has many relo's, they may relo out too sometimes, and give someone here a bargain. By the way, the home next to it is $629,990, and it is about 3900 sq. ft. so that really makes it a bargain.

The builders, Drees and Taylor Woodrow, are still very active in that section, so competing against the builders is no fun, but if they can still get $599K, they may have done OK because I think that neighborhood started in the high $400K in early '06.
Reply With Quote Quick reply to this message
 
Old 04-08-2007, 06:30 PM
 
38 posts, read 128,328 times
Reputation: 30
Question Purchase vs. list?

Can anyone speak to what the difference is between the list sales and the prichase prices? We are hoping to relocate there and want to get a sense of bargaining power...

Thanks.
Reply With Quote Quick reply to this message
Please register to post and access all features of our very popular forum. It is free and quick. Over $68,000 in prizes has already been given out to active posters on our forum. Additional giveaways are planned.

Detailed information about all U.S. cities, counties, and zip codes on our site: City-data.com.


Reply
Please update this thread with any new information or opinions. This open thread is still read by thousands of people, so we encourage all additional points of view.

Quick Reply
Message:


Settings
X
Data:
Loading data...
Based on 2000-2020 data
Loading data...

123
Hide US histogram


Over $104,000 in prizes was already given out to active posters on our forum and additional giveaways are planned!

Go Back   City-Data Forum > U.S. Forums > Texas > Austin

All times are GMT -6. The time now is 11:27 PM.

© 2005-2024, Advameg, Inc. · Please obey Forum Rules · Terms of Use and Privacy Policy · Bug Bounty

City-Data.com - Contact Us - Archive 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12, 13, 14, 15, 16, 17, 18, 19, 20, 21, 22, 23, 24, 25, 26, 27, 28, 29, 30, 31, 32, 33, 34, 35, 36, 37 - Top