From the monthly archives:

June 2007

Less demand for entry-level homes pushes Austin 2Q starts down

June 28, 2007

Looks like the new starter home segment of Austin’s sales market is slowing down a bit, which is great news for landlords. The renters who would otherwise be purchasing those homes are remaining in the rental pool. Also, many of the starter homes were being purchased by investors, which means the rental supply won’t be [...]

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Where are U.S. Home Prices Most Likely to Drop?

June 23, 2007

The PMI Mortgage Insurance Co. has updated its 2007 U.S. Market Risk Index, ranking the 50 biggest metropolitan statistical areas by the likelihood that home prices will be lower in a couple of years.
Mark Milner, PMI’s chief risk officer, notes that the new risk model “gives more weight to the recent volatility of an area’s [...]

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Mark Dotzour on the Texas Real Estate Market

June 22, 2007

Dr. Mark Dotzour, the Real Estate Center’s chief economist, discussed the Texas housing market on Tuesday’s edition of NewsHour with Jim Lehrer. The 12-minute segment is available online.
I’ve posted the transcript of Dotzour’s remarks below, but the video on the MacNeil Lehrer news hour website is worth the 12 minutes watching time to get a [...]

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Central Texas home sales stay hot in May

June 20, 2007

This is from todays Austin Business Journal. I haven’t had a chance this month to do my own stats yet. The difference between the stats I run each month and the stats published by the Austin Board of Realtors, is that I filter out Condos and Townhomes and report only single family home sales.
Looks like [...]

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Austin School Quality and Real Estate Values

June 19, 2007

One of South Austin’s last remaining new home neighborhoods, Olympic Heights, with homes (new and resale) priced below $200,000 is about to get a shot in the arm due to a favorable shift in the elementary school it attends. Olympic Heights kids may now attend the “Exemplary” rated Baranoff Elementary. Many young families intentionally seek [...]

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Travis County Tax Appraisal Values Still Rising

June 18, 2007

Sunday’s Austin Statesman has a front page story about rising tax appraisal values in Travis County, and how those value increases are affecting home owners who are being priced out of their neighborhoods. One lady, quoted below, now has property taxes alone of $1500/mo, which is probably more than her house would rent for.
This is [...]

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Austin Rental Market – May 2007 Update Stats

June 16, 2007

The average rental price in Austin is up 7.6% from May of last year to $1377. The Median rental rate is up 3% to $1175/mo. Days on Market is down 27% and number of homes leased is down 15%. In short, our Austin rental market for single family homes continues to chug along very well, [...]

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Does it matter what kind of car a Realtor drives?

June 15, 2007

I was out one evening last month with a friend of mine who is also a Realtor. We drove in his $50K Mercedes SUV, which, at two months old, still had the new car smell. He had written up two Buyer deals that day and remarked to me that he thought his new sled was [...]

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Showing Property Only After Offer Received

June 5, 2007

I’m making phone calls to preview a batch of homes this morning for an investor. One of the listings has showing access as “Appointment with Agent”. I called the agent and the conversation went like this:
Me: Hi. It’s Steve Crossland with the Crossland Team at Keller Williams. I want to preview {property address} today. Can [...]

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Real Estate TV shows should be viewed with skepticism

June 3, 2007

Turns out “Flip This House” got flipped. One of the star flippers is nothing more than a con man who had his friends and family posing as buyers and who really didn’t fix or sell the houses he was shown to be flipping on Flip This House. Amazingly enough, the only episode I ever saw [...]

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