Austin real estate is the place for you to be. Why you ask? There are a host of reasons but let's do a comparative approach to proving why Austin is best.
Around the nation there have massive price run ups that have taken home prices out of reach for many regular people. Unless you are making $100,000 per year or more you would not qualify for a house priced at $300,000. THis is due to the current mortgage environment and the tightening of credit standards.
Also now most banks are demanding a 680 credit score whereas just 1 year ago you could get the same financing with a 600 credit score.
That may not seem like a lot to you but when you know a little bit about how credit scores are calculated you know it can take 6-12 months to raise your credit score by 50-60 points.
With the current crumbling economy that will be hard to do because it's more likely you'll run into hiccups with high gas and food prices affecting the rest of your budget.
Austin hasn't had the price run up that other places have had so the housing here is still very affordable. Many great properties can be had for under $200,000.
Many local underlying factors are supporting the stability in prices and the likelihood of excellent price rises as soon as the economy goes into expansion cycle again soon.
These include:
-high local job growth mostly in service and tech industry but also including the movie industry
-low unemployment
-still fairly tight supply with homes usually selling in 4-6 weeks in most areas
-stagnant and stable prices that have remained low even when the rest of the country was booming
Financing is definitely a bear though. The big banks and many little ones are now demanding a minimum of "680 credit score or don't even walk into our door" policy. A good local mortgage broker or loan officer still knows where to find the money that is gettable.
There are still some deals to be had out there and financing to get them. Austin houses like elsewhere are occupied by people and people have different reasons for selling...some with urgency to sell.
Having a good person on your real estate team that can get you the money you need when you need it is key. This is especially true with so-called jumbo financing.
Jumbo mortgage loan financing, usually deemed to be $417,000 and up, is ever increasingly difficult to get.
With all of these challenges added together and the instability of buying or owning elsewhere in the country you have to be educated. There's simply no other way.
There's an adage on Wall Street that goes like this "pigs eat, hogs get slaughtered". The basic meaning is you want to eat and know what to eat but you can't gorge yourself.
If you indulge and overeat you'll get killed. Americans experience this by holding onto stocks for too long and get slaughtered when the market devalues their shares by 20%-40%.
This could still happen in many overinflated real estate markets nationwide. There are a number of real estate experts and financial pundits predicting a further 20%-30% drop in home prices in many select markets, mostly major metropolitan areas that saw vast price run ups.
Fortunately Austin homes are insulated from this because they never had that extreme irrational runup to borrow a phrase from old Alan Greenspan.
You need to have the insider knowledge to know where and when to buy. Some areas are really good and will grow explosively in Austin once the economy in the United States rebounds.
Discover the knowledge you need to make good buying and selling decisions in this local market.
