It seems that a lot of the talk regarding the bubble may be all in the head. Many consumers are still able to buy a house but are choosing not to. This is in contrast to previous housing downturns where consumers simply couldn’t buy homes whether they wanted to or not.
I think this applies well to the Austin area. Sure, many people have inflated prices because they weren’t savvy buyers or they were novice investors. We have already seen the market slow down to correct these issues, but Austin isn’t going to stop growing and the demand for homes will keep increasing over time. I hate to burst your bubble, but I believe that the Austin market is not going to crash.
Though if Mack Brown loses another game, there always could be one more home for sale in Austin! Braxton, do you have any stats for the area? Are priced holding steady or have you seen any kind of drop? Is the inventory at normal levels or is it higher than usual?
Jonathan,
That’s true and maybe mack will let me list it for him. Prices have increased about 2% over the last quarter and 8% over the last year and days on market is really about the same as last year. Here’s some good numbers on Austin compared to other areas, http://articles.moneycentral.msn.com/Banking/HomebuyingGuide/HomePricesByCity.aspx
Check out the Market Report here: http://recenter.tamu.edu/mreports/AustinRRock.pdf
It will make you feel fuzzy about Austin Real Estate. Our #s for 2006 were just under 9% appreciation. We’re doing well.