Real Estate Information Archive

In the late 80’s and early 90’s in Austin, job growth stopped, real estate values dropped and people left town. Probably because of the severity of that recession, Austin has faired much better this time. Home prices did not increase more than could be supported by median family incomes. Thanks to Texas’s home equity laws, consumers could not borrow against their home appreciation nearly as easily as homeowners in other states – which helped keep home prices stable and consumer debt manageable. If you don’t have a bubble then you don’t have a bust. While most other major real estate markets have seen home prices drop by as much as 50% and experienced high unemployment, Austin’s median home price has been stable or seen only a small drop. Job losses have been slight. 

Now, Forbes and Moody’s Economy.com projects Austin's economy will grow by 32% over the five year period from 2007 to 2012. Not only is Austin’s economy growing, but it's growth rate is nearly 50% higher than #2 ranked Fort Myers, Florida. Equally important to Austin’s economic growth is Austin's population growth which is expected to grow by an amazing 15%.

 “To compile our list, we looked at all of the country's 363 metropolitan areas, defined by the U.S. Census Bureau as a geographic region with a "core urban area" of at least 50,000 people. Because many small metro areas are high growth--and because we wanted to show growth in large cities as well--we split the group into two classes: the largest 100 metro areas (with at least 528,000 people) and everyone else. We use projections run for us by Moody's Economy.com to show growth in GMP between 2007-2012.

Of course, if one looks at economic growth in the country's largest 100 metros, the usual suspects jump to the top of the list. With an estimated 32% GMP growth from 2007-2012, Austin, Texas, is the winner for big metros. Atlanta, Seattle, Orlando, Houston and San Jose, Calif., also appear high on the list. What do they all have in common? They're tech hubs with proximity to universities and a healthy increase in population. Austin's population, for example, is expected to increase by nearly 15% by 2012, according to Moody's Economy.com forecasts.”

Go Austin. Go.

Full Article: http://www.forbes.com/2008/01/30/economy-cities-alabama-biz-cx_bw_0130econcities.html

According to the Austin Business Journal, there good news for those looking for work in Austin in 2008.

The Austin area ranked as one of the top metro areas in the nation when it came to online job advertisements in December, according to a report by The Conference Board.

Austin had 5.07 advertised vacancies per 100 people in the local labor force, just below Milwaukee, with 5.31 vacancies per 100 locals, and San Jose, with 5.30 online job ads per 100 people, according to the report.

Nationally, there were 2.3 advertised vacancies online for every 100 people in the work force in December, according to The Conference Board, a nonprofit research organization based in New York that tracks the postings on 1,200 Internet job boards.

Austin also had the highest number of advertised vacancies in relation to the number of unemployed of any metro area in the nation.

A total of 43,200 jobs were advertised on the Internet in December 2007, up 19.7 percent from 36,100 in December 2006. The national growth rate of online job postings was slower -- 6 percent -- during the same year-to-year period.

In Austin, the number of new ads was up 17.6 percent from 25,600 in December 2006.

The Conference Board generates a monthly report of help-wanted advertising in the nation's newspapers.

New home starts in Austin has slowed down according to new study by the real estate research group, Metrostudy. During the 3rd quarter of 2007 home building starts fell 27% from 2006. The majority of this drop off was for homes under $150,000 due to the tighter credit policies on lending. This is has knocked out a number of first time home buyers.

“The Austin area will experience less demand for new homes in upcoming quarters.“ A sharp decline in relocation buyers, a competitive resale market and more hesitant home buyers are factors leading to the slowdown, as are decisions by corporate offices of the region’s largest builders....Austin experienced only moderate appreciation in new home pricing in recent years" and this will, to a large extent, insulate the area from large price reductions that will plague the new home and resale markets in other parts of the country."

We still see a very competitive resale market and think prices will continue to rise a modest rate. So if you are a buyer trying to 'time" the market wouldn't be advised as you will be paying probably 5-6% on a home a purchase. Again this varies by areas of town. Consult your Realtor to find out about specific neighborhoods or subdivisions.