September Austin Real Estate Statistics

Looking for September's numbers? Residential sales (per units sold) in Austin are down but not bad compared to the past months. Lakeway sales are also down but only slightly. I am guessing that the down payment assistance going away had alot of buyers finding and buying a home up to the last day before this program went away.

The FHA down payment assistance program ended September 30th. Not only that, FHA's down payment requirement may increase .5% or a total of 3.5% will be required as down payment when using this program.

The data used in this chart has been obtained from the Austin Board of Realtors and has not been confirmed nor verified. Keller Williams Realty is not responsible for the inacurracy of this report.

Ridge at Alta Vista, Lakeway Real Estate Statistics

A Ridge at Alta Vista resident posted a few questions at a forum asking about the current real estate market in the community. The resident asked the status of the completion, number of homes currently in the market, if there was an increase/decrease in property value. I thought I'd post the answer on my blog so that the information may be somewhat readable in table format rather than having to post it in text.

The Ridge at Alta Vista Community is split into 2 sections, the Reserves and the Estates. The Reserves I believe is to have 183 homesites, while the Estates, 111 homesites or a total of 294. This is based on the latest site plan found posted on Toll Brother's website.

I received an update from the sales office 3 weeks ago and they stated that less than 20 homesites are available at the moment and 3 were suppossedly currently in negotiations (at the time a representative from the office answered my question). I don't remember the exact split but there were definitely more Estate lots than Reserve lots. The last time I counted, there were at least 241 homes owned currently occupied but that doesn't seem right which means there are 33 homes either currently being built, about to close or an inventory home. I need to re-look at that estimate.

I went as far back as the beginning of the year and posted the number of homes sold and split them into the two sections. However, I did not further split up the homes via location (view oppossed to non view; or backs to greenbelt, etc. ) topography etc. This is just an overview of the community. If you are thinking of buying or selling a home in the neighborhood, give me a call and a more accurate comparative market analysis can be given as I consider all of the features and improvements on each home.

Furthermore, I compared this year's solds to the same time frame last year. You may select on the image to enlarge it.

I post Austin's and Lakeway's real estate statistics monthly on my blog in case you want to bookmark this site or better yet, subscribe to my blogs to receive automatic feeds. If you have any questions, please call me at (512)786-SELL [7355] or send me an email at pearljones@kw.com.

Real Estate Jokes

Believe it or not, I get alot of hits for my real estate jokes. I am guessing since there is so much bad press on TV and newspaper about the economy because of the mortgage mess that people turn to other means to lighten ourselves up. Hey, I am not complaining, keep reading my blogs if you feel that it makes you happy!

This is actually a cartoon I dread might happen to me eventually. With my daughter in Middle School and she actually doesn't mind taking my pens and other marketing materials to school (my coozie and lightweight bags with bling that I sewed on), yap someday I might just get a call from a boy!

I am actually trying to drum up my next halloween real estate joke in my head! Keep an eye out for it.

The Government's Bailout Plan

My television has been working overtime and I am finally finding time to sit down and watch the news to figure out what's the buzz in Washington. Sometime today, our elected officials in Washington DC will vote for this plan that will rescue our economy.

No one is really clear as to the specifics of the plan but I found this article that briefly explains the Overview of the Bailout in layman's term. I am not really sure how close this article written by Realty Times is to the actual proposed plan but I thought it was worth reading and sharing.

To the right of this blog is a Poll which ends on October 5th. Please vote and let me know what you would vote if you were our elected official. I really would love to hear any comments you may have (to post a comment, select the pencil at the bottom of this posting). Don't worry, your vote is anonymous to me and all readers.

August Austin Market Measure

Looking for last month's sales statistics? Are you sure you really want to know? Just this past Monday, the stock market experienced a big dip and announced more bad news about banks experiencing hard times. Urgh! I can't wait for all this nightmare to be over with! Okay, enough stalling, here's August residential statistics provided by Alamo Title of Austin, TX.
Units for Sale: (compared to August 2007)

New listings were down 18.87%.
Pendings were down 21.28%.
Solds decreased by 23.21%.

As for Average Prices:

The "New Listings" average list price is up 3.90% to 312,594. In August 2007 the average list price was $300,849.
Sold average sales prices increased 7.95% to $276,954. For August 2007 it was $256,553.

In Lake Travis ISD (MLS area LS), residential sales are down 32%!!! That is just unbelievable! I know for a fact that I have not been getting any traffic in any of my listings. This is a bad, bad sign. If anyone out there has any good news to share, please do share!

For Sale: 142 Sebastians Run in Ridge at Alta Vista, Lakeway

Play the video (by selecting Google) I have created and posted in several sites. 142 Sebastians Run is located in Ridge at Alta Vista in Lakeway, a gated Luxury community by Toll Brothers.

Google

Ridge at Alta Vista Market Measure

Want to find out how sales are doing in Ridge at Alta Vista in Lakeway? Here you go! To get the monthly sales statistics on this neighborhood, email me so that I can include you in my monthly real estate news.