Economist: Austin will add 20,800 jobs in the next year

Job Growth in Austin

More job growth and real estate news as reported by the Austin Business Journal today. I don’t have much to add, just wanted to share this.

The growth of the Austin economy will continue to outpace the rest of the nation over the next year, according to a forecast from one Texas economist.

Mark Dotzour, chief economist at Texas A&M University’s Real Estate Center, predicts that the U.S. economy will slow in coming months–in part the result of forces such as increased global construction costs and the rising price of oil. But Austin is likely to add 20,800 new jobs over the next 12 months, a 2.9 percent increase in employment that will significantly outpace national job growth, he says.

Read more

Austin Real Estate Appreciation

Austin Real Estate Appreciation

We’ve heard and read a lot about Austin’s hot real estate market lately. Usually we see a broad overview presented in a news story or article showing number of sales, average and median prices, days on market, etc. Lately, this has all been good news for sellers and owners, as median and average home prices are moving up in the Austin area.

The problem, however, with looking at all-inclusive stats for the overall real estate market in Austin is that it doesn’t truly represent the appreciation for existing homes over time, and it doesn’t distinguish between the different submarkets that the Austin MLS represents.

If you are purchasing a home in Austin today, and plan on living in it or holding it as investment for 5 or 10 years, you’ll be selling what will then be considered an “older home”. By “older”, I mean it won’t be less than 5 years old, which is what most of our buyers consider to be a “newer home”.

I took a look at typical homes that sell in the Austin area – homes in a specific age and size range – to see what the appreciation has been on these over the past 7+ years. I selected homes that are 1600 to 2200 square feet in size, at least a 3 bedroom, 2 bath with a 2 car garage, and built from 1990 to 1995. This represents a true “bread and butter” home in Austin, and removes new homes from the equation. Let’s see what the numbers say about appreciation for these existing homes.

Austin Real Estate Appreciation Graph

Here is a breakdown of appreciation for each year.

Read more