Texas Property Insider- Austin Real Estate and Texas Coastal Real Estate Blog

Welcome to Texas Property Insider. The purpose of this blog is to provide accurate and helpful information about market trends and issues important to property owners in Central Texas and on the Texas Coast. You hear a lot of talk out there. You see the statistics, read the stories in the newspaper and you see practitioners regurgitate those same stories and statistics. There is more information available then ever before. But why is it, even after all of the stories and pundits have had their say, you still feel you can’t grasp what’s really happening in the real estate market?


There is a lot more to it than simple statistics and market info. These numbers are helpful and vitally important, but if taken at face value they can be misleading, even deceiving. As Mark Twain once said, “There are lies, damned lies and then there are statistics.” I created this blog to pull back the curtain on Texas real estate, interpret the market information and present it to you in a format that is both pithy and easy to digest.

Saturday, January 16, 2010

Austin New Home Listings Continue To Fall


More news shows available new home inventory continues to drop. This is a healthy trend at this point in time. It allows the market to clear excess inventory from years past. But, as I have discussed in this blog and economists at the ABOR/HBA Housing Forecast mentioned this reduction in inventory coupled with a sharp decrease inbuilding permits could drastically reduce new home and lot availability as the market comes back. New home and lot shortages will cause a jump in prices. Additionally, construction costs are anticipated to rise demand increases.

Austin residential properties for sale dropped 17.6 percent in December compared with the same month in 2008, according to a ZipRealty Inc. (NASDAQ: ZIPR) report today.

The document that compares listings in 27 U.S. metros found on average the homes for sale sloped 26.3 percent year over year and 4.3 percent between November and December. The final month of last year was the largest month-to-month drop in home listings of 2009.
“Seasonality and the heavy activity by first-time home buyers in October and November, who were rushing to take advantage of the tax credit, impacted housing inventory in December,” ZipRealty President and CEO Patrick Lashinsky said.
Austin reported 6.7 percent fewer homes on the market in December than the previous month, which was more than the change in Houston and Dallas. San Antonio numbers were not available.
Dallas listed 9.1 percent fewer homes on the market year over year and 3.8 percent fewer between November and December. Houston posted 5 percent less from November to December and 11.7 percent less in December than 12 months before.

Courtesy of Austin Business Journal

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