A Few Key Areas to Note

Looking Forward to the 2012 Housing Market

There appears to be quite a bit of information coming from a wide variety of sources about what we can expect to see in the overall housing market in 2012.  In this month's blog I'm going to take a look at some of this information and how it relates to the Austin housing market overall.

First off and foremost, as the old saying goes, real estate is all about location, location, location.  That simple idea has never been more true than it is today when considering current trends in real estate.  The obvious other key factor is simple supply and demand.  For example, Las Vegas home values are radically different than say for a Houston home when you consider similar homes in similar neighborhoods simply due to location, overall supply, and local demand.

Let's take a look at some of the actual year-end results on a national basis:

• According to CNNMoney.com the largest increase in home values in 2011 over 2010 occured in Fort Myers, Florida (+ 5.1%), while Gainsville, Georgia saw the largest decline in values (-16.5%) according to Zillow.com.
• With a 37.3% growth in population between 2000 - 2010 CNN Money has the greater Austin area down as the 2nd fastest growing "large"metropolitan area nationwide.
• The National Association of Homebuilders builder confidence index rose in December for the 3rd straight month as builders saw greater increases in overall traffic as well as more motivated buyers coming through their communities.
• According to the US Census Bureau single family housing starts rose to 447,000 units on a seasonably adjusted basis in November which represents a full 2% increase over October.

So how what about Austin?

In 2011 the greater Austin real estate market saw the following improvements over 2010:

• Total inventory is down by over 19% to the lowest level since January, 2008.
• Prices increased by an average 1% overall.
• Closed home sales are up 5.2% for the year.
• Pending sales are up 8.6%.

Conclusion?  Although obtaining a new mortgage has gotten more difficult for a large segment of the market there are still plenty of qualified buyers out there looking to purchase.  Coupled with significant declines in inventory as noted above Austin is poised to continue a strong and steady improvement in home sales in the coming year.  It's both a great time to buy as well as a great time to sell.

If I can be of any assistance at all with your real estate needs please don't hesitate to give me a call anytime at (512) 350-3787.