Posted on 04/29/2003 10:39:13 AM PDT by MeneMeneTekelUpharsin
Buyers might find bargains among the more than 9,000 homes for sale in Central Texas,
A record number of houses were on the market in Central Texas in March as sellers trying to catch an ebbing home market added nearly 3,400 houses to a growing inventory. A total of 9,219 houses were for sale, up 34 percent from a year ago. "I think we are beginning to see the effects of the cooling of the booming housing market we have seen over the past few years," said Jack Harris, a research economist at the Real Estate Center at Texas A&M University. "That inventory buildup is a significant thing. It's mainly significant for prices."
The swelling inventory is due to several factors. In a slowing market, homes are taking longer to sell: 71 days on average, compared with 60 a year ago. Layoffs have forced some people to sell their houses. Low interest rates have allowed others to trade up to bigger houses. Harris expects home sales statewide to decrease 5 percent to 10 percent this year, with the Austin market being at the higher end of that estimate. That could mean some bargains for buyers. For sellers, the trend will have an obvious effect: "It may not sell as fast as you thought and not at the price that you want," he said.
Amye Martin and her husband, who are moving to Houston, put their Southwest Austin house on the market three weeks ago. There are five houses for sale within a few blocks. Martin said she realizes that there is more competition than when they bought the house three years ago, at the peak of the tech boom. "Things have changed dramatically," she said. "In 2000, when we bought the house, three of the houses we looked at already had contracts on them by the time we got back to the Realtor's office." Just the same, she said, she's not worried. "We've had a lot of people coming in with a lot more (houses) to look at," she said.
At the current sales rate, there is a nearly seven-month supply of houses for sale, compared with as little as two months in 2000. "We have gone from a market with short supply to one with ample supply," Harris said. He said the high inventory should help keep prices in check. For the past three years, the housing market has been defying gravity, thanks largely to record low interest rates that have lured first-time buyers and allowed others to move into bigger, better houses. Though sales have slowed, the median price remained high. It hit a peak of $162,700 in June.
In March, the median price was $157,500, down just $500 from March 2002. According to the Austin Board of Realtors, 1,383 houses were sold in March, up 25 percent from February but down 2.9 percent from March 2002. For the first three months of this year, sales were down 8.3 percent compared with the same time in 2002. Activity dropped over the winter as uncertainty over the economy and the looming war with Iraq tempered buyers' enthusiasm. Now with the war's conclusion and signs that the economy will avoid another recession, home buyers might be coming out of their winter hibernation. But Harris said that without a new influx of buyers, the market might have played out. "I would be almost assured to say April will be better than March, but it doesn't look like it will be better than last April," he said.
All the development money in Texas converged on Austin after the oil bust hit the rest of the state. Everyone thought Austin was immune with its high-tech employment until they all found out that high tech was just as stinkin' cyclical as oil. I had the fun to be working for the Austin builder's association in 1985 and 1986 and got to witness the development crash from inside the industry...
No shirt, Sherlock. I lived there then, and I bought a house that had originally been built on spec. The builder put all kinds of stuff into it - central vac, 2 huge decks, top-line doors, expensive woodwork, 12-zone sprinkler system (yard), pretty much the works. And it sat on the market for 12 months. When we finally bought it, the price had slipped to 30,000 LESS than it cost the developer to build it. Lotsa pipple got burned back then.
Michael
I am about fed up with arguing with adults who are supposed to know better, teenagers who think they know it all, and Freepers who back both of them up. Go ahead...flame me. One of these days I am going to answer with incredible details. So, carry on.
Darned if I can recall. He was some indie who built just a few houses in the neighborhood. The address was 6300 Amberly Place - you could probably look it up in the property records. Actually never met th' guy. But I do know that he had to bring a really big check to closing - just to get out of it.
For those of you in other states - frequently a real estate closing in TX will occur without both parties ever meeting. First, the seller closes, then the buyer ambles in and does HIS thing. Of the four houses I bought over the years in TX, I never met any of the sellers personally.
Michael
Those are the guys who got skinned in the down market.
Huh? LOL! Here in California, there is a very low inventory of homes for sale, and there are 1000 people for every home....LOL! The ones that do go on the market, are gone in a week, some with multiple offers....
There are not making anymore prime realestate in Southern Cal and the prices reflects it......Supply and demand.
Good luck to you in Texas with those 9000 homes.....
Oh, forgot to mention. I don't either. Will give no details about my housing at this time. If you knew the things I've had to deal with from talking with real estate agents in two states and the stuff they've tried to pull, you would understand some of my invective. What they have done is unforgiveable. I'm out. ;-D
Thanks. Please get started. First, I'll start to document the leading causes of what is going to happen:
Or, try this one:
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