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In closer neighborhoods West of 35, Westlake Hills and NorthWest Austin, homes in the 300-500k range are the best sellers. And in some neighborhoods, could be considered a “seller’s market” due to limited amounts of inventory available right now.
Round Rock, Pflugerville, and Cedar Park are short of inventory only at the very low end. These area typically must compete against builders and the majority of foreclosures too.
New home builders have trimmed inventory levels from years past. You won’t see builders with 10-15 completed homes in one neighborhood.
If they are selling homes in a neighborhood, they will give a little bit of incentives to get you interested. If you want a “deal” you will need to go to the neighborhoods that they are not selling homes in. Then you have to decide why homes are not selling as well as the other area. Some of the time it is better to pay more and get in a better area, than to get a deal. “The deal home” may never appreciate and in the long run was not a “deal”. Or maybe “the deal” is in a new area and just hasn’t caught on yet, but you need to bet correctly or you may lose a lot of money at resale time.
Downtown condos…you still have to pay big premiums for those lake views. Oh, and be prepared to rent a storage space , closets are tiny in many buildings.
Lake area continues to have excess inventory at almost all price points.
Southwest Austin also has some areas where inventory is low in the 300-500K price range.
Upper end/luxury homes is soft for the most part. Right now, there are 623 homes over 1million dollars on the market. Add in another 419 homes priced at 750-999K in price, and you have 1042 homes or 9% of the total market is above 750K.
This is “The Buyers Market” price range. If you are a seller in this price range, you better have a gameplan. Above all else you need to be patient and work with any offers you receive. Even those you feel are “low ball offers”, need to be negotiated to see if you can reach an acceptable offer.
What is selling…homes that have been totally or significantly updated. Is it a guarantee that your home will sell if you do a major renovation? No, nothing is guaranteed, but in my experience homes that are renovated sell faster and for more money than their non remodeled competitors.
Seller’s constantly underestimate the emotional factor that comes into play when someone buys a home. Most sellers want to offer an “allowance” at closing to the buyers, rather than doing the renovations. Think about situations where you bought something where emotion came into play.
When you buy a new car, they don’t give you the keys to a car to test drive with empty beer cans and fast food wrappers scattered on the inside & a big dent in the hood.
You get a shiny car with that new car smell inside. Imagine your first date with your significant other if they met you with their hair in curlers and a housecoat. Or had a three day beard, bad breath and a sweaty tee shirt and shorts on. Probably no second date occurring there. You get the idea, never underestimate emotion in selling or buying a home.
