It’s definitely been an adventure of a summer with almost a month in Europe including a pit stop in Paris (where I got to experience Pick Pocketing first hand!!!), nearly 3 weeks in Italy and then a stopover in London before coming home!
My little one wanted to know “why we would go into a building they hadn’t finished building yet” when we asked them if they wanted to go into the Colosseum!
The good news is… the market has seen signs of improvement across the board over the summer and some positive things have happened with real estate nationwide, in Texas, and the greater Austin area…
First off…
The real estate market is rebounding!
Most “experts” now agree that there is no pending market “crash” heading our way. Here are some key facts… I’ll be expanding on some of these a bit more next week.
- Interest rates have stabilized and are expected to start declining more over the next several months.
- Home prices have flattened out (we’re not seeing massive increases or decreases)
- The market peaked in July of 2022 (nationally), slightly before that here in the Austin area.
- Q4 of 2023 is expected to a strong year with improved buyer AND seller demand continuing into 2025!
- On average, homes were on the market for only 40 days… and the median list price was $575,894.
- Closed price to list price is ~ 97%
- Supply is on a downward trend (homeowners aren’t selling because of low rate mortgages)
- We are returning to normal!
- Positive growth and demand moving forward.
- We can expect to see increases in pricing as supply is constricted. More homeowners are staying put and not moving unless they “have” to. But again… we are finally returning to a more “normal” market with interest rates being a big caveat for future supply and demand.
State lawmakers reached an $18M deal for property tax relief. Here are some highlights:
- An increase in the homestead exemption for homeowners from $40,000 to $100,000.
- Allocation of over $12 billion towards reducing the school property tax rate for all homeowners and business properties by 10.7 cents. (This would affect ALL homeowners!)
- Introduction of a 20% “circuit breaker” on appraised values. This would be a three-year pilot project for non-homesteaded properties valued at $5 million and under, including both residential and commercial properties. This is designed to ease some of the tax burden on non-homesteaded property owners.
- The resolution would also create a three-year pilot program for all other property valued at $5 million or less, to cap increases on appraisal values
You can read the full story here:
