November 2011

Take a look at this graph....

It clearly shows that the Austin home market has turned a corner.

As you know our market started falling off a cliff in 2008.  The rest of the country started well before that and has not really begun to recover, but we have!!!

For six months in a row now, our market has out sold the previous year in terms of houses sold and dollars.  That is a trend. 

Will the trend continue through 2012?

I’m not very good at forecasting, but consider the following:

• Total number of homes for sale in our MLS =   8,240

• Months of inventory available =   4.5  -    6 months is considered equal.  Less is a seller's market, more is buyer's market.

• Interest rates are around 4.25%.  6% is the historical average, so anything under 5% is ridiculous.

• Population growth - Over 50,000 new residents are coming to Austin each year.

• New Construction -  6,500 new homes are built in Austin per year.  Look for this number to jump up for 2012.

• Unemployment Rate in Austin - 6.6% and falling...

• Sales Tax Revenue - Up to 12.2%.  This number has risen in for 20 consecutive months now.

Things are looking healthy for Austin.  We aren’t getting back to 2006 levels anytime soon, but praise God we are better, much better.

And we even got some rain!!