Investing

Mortgage Rates Plunge Below 5% – But Does it Help Investors?

November 26, 2008

From my Daily Realtor news feed: Mortgage rates declined Tuesday after the Federal Reserve said it would spend $600 billion to support the mortgage securities market. Rates fell to 4 7/8 percent, a 1 1/8 percentage point decline. David Beadle, president of BestInfo, said it was the sharpest one-day decline since 1988. “I hope that [...]

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Austin Rental Market Update – July 2008

August 23, 2008

The Austin TX rental market continues to do well overall. Rents are steadily rising for the third year in a row after falling for 4 straight years (2002 through 2005). Average rents for homes in Austin for July 2008 were $1,493 per month. Year to date the average rent is $1,425. the graph below shows [...]

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Dear Out of State Investors – We Told You So

July 26, 2008

Today’s Austin Statesman has an interesting, if not predictable article about California investors being disproportionately represented in Austin area foreclosures. We’ve participated in several sales by California investors (not ones that we sold to though) bailing out, some of which were short sales or pre-foreclosures. As the Austin real estate market rebounded at the end [...]

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Austin Real Estate Sales Breakdown by MLS Area – June 2008 YTD

July 14, 2008

Below is the breakdown of year-to-date home sales in Austin by MLS area. This is for houses only, no condos, townhomes, etc. I’m often asked, “how is the Austin real estate market?”, to which I reply, it depends on which market you are talking about. There are multiple “markets” and sub-markets in Austin. Here are [...]

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Austin Sales Market – June 2008 and Mid-Year Stats Update

July 14, 2008

Below is the June 2008 Austin real estate market update, including YTD stats. For starters, I thought I’d post a graph showing Average Sales prices in Austin from 1999 through June 2008 for houses, condos and multi-family properties. Austin’s real estate market has historically moved in fits and starts. The slowdown indicated by the June [...]

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Missed Flip Opportunity or Prudent Caution?

June 13, 2008

A couple of months ago I made an offer on a home to flip. I’m not actively looking for homes to flip in Austin, and I don’t help buyers locate flip opportunities, but when I come across a candidate property that I like, I’ll make a run at at. All of my attempts the past [...]

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Huttoparke Problems Continue, Values Suffer

April 22, 2008

It is with great fascination that I first saw last year Huttoparke home owners made sure that everyone knew how poorly their homes were built. They may have had no choice but to bring public attention to the problems they were having. The homeowners felt that Lennar was unresponsive to their complaints about poor construction [...]

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Austin Sales Market Update – 2008Q1 Stats Breakdown by MLS Area

April 21, 2008

Below is a chart breaking down Austin MLS Sales of single family homes by MLS area for Jan-Mar 2008. Not all MLS areas are included due to low or no sales activity in some. Of the 42 areas covered 36 saw a decrease in the number of homes sold and 6 saw an increase in [...]

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Austin Rental Market Update – March 2008 and YTD

April 20, 2008

Homes in Austin are renting for 8% more than last year, on average. Average rent price for homes across the Austin Metro area was $1401 per month for March 2008 compared to $1295/mo the year before. The Median leased price remained about the same at $1200. Homes are renting fast this March. The average days [...]

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Austin Eviction Aftermath and the Cost of Rental Property Turnover

April 19, 2008

Last Tuesday my tenants did not show up at Eviction Court, so I was awarded possession of the property. Afterwards, I immediately drove to the property to find it trashed, as expected. I own this particular property. The tenants had lived there since 2001 and had been good tenants until about a year ago when [...]

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