Three Stages of Home Purchase

In this day and age, there are three clear stages that most buyers go through when buying a new home. While every buyer is different, and the order of the first two stages can be reversed, this seems to be the new tends for how buyers look at and purchase a new home.

First of all, Buyers start Online Research. This is easily understood and leads to a general understanding of what homes cost in a given city or area or community. This helps buyers know what a dollar will buy in the area where they are researching. This first phase tends to be all about the price of the perfect home search. (Our ZipRealty.com web site has every MLS listing in the Greater Austin area; it is designed to address a buyer's online research need in the Multiple Listings Service, as well as provide some ancillary information).

The Second Stage has to do with deeper research on the areas and communities. It starts to become apparent to buyers that not all areas or communities are created equally, and what costs $1 in one community, may cost $1.5 or $2 in other areas. Understanding what drives market values in the various areas of the larger city or areas is a big research effort and the deeper one goes, the more information they typically want to understand. (Combined with the ZipRealty.com web site, Austin Real Estate Secrets blog is designed to help buyers understand what drives the local Real Estate market, what triggers higher prices, and what is happening in our local market).

The Third Stage has to do with picking a Realtor. Regardless of whether the first two phases lead a buyer to new home communities or resell communities, there comes a time in one's research that the lights go off and there is a realization that dozens of hours of research does not equal the experience or expertise of a good local Realtor. Realtors know more and have access to more information because this is what (some of us) do 65 hours a week--every week. Twelve months out of the year.


Buying homes is my business. I walk 700-1000 homes a year with clients and help more than 30 families and investors each year find the kind of home that will make them happy for years to come. Stages 1 & 2 in this process are important first steps in your home purchase process, but no buyer who is buying fewer than 1 house a month in the local market should depend exclusively on their own experience or public domain information. There are simply too many places where you can go wrong, and at the end of the day, if your Realtors fees are already paid by the seller (i.e., the services of a Buyer's Agent is free to you), it seems to me that it is all upside for a buyer.



If you need a Realtor ®, I would be honored to assist you in your home purchase, search or selling your Austin area home.

tT

Tim Thornton, Realtor ®
Top Producer 2010, 2009, 2008
Century Club member
Zip Realty, Inc.
Austin, Texas
(512) 914.4665  mobile

Austin Luxury Home Sellers -- What you should know

The Luxury Market in Austin is ever evolving and changing. It is a living, breathing, changing entity. This applies to any Austin area luxury home community--Westlake, Rob Roy, Barton's Creek, Seven Oaks, Westminster Glen, River Place, Steiner Ranch, and the list goes on and on. Of course, when I speak of "the market", I am speaking in terms of generalities. And generalities are like the weather report. You know what the weather-person thinks is going to happen, but you may or may not be in the right place at the right time to see the weather that was predicted. It just depends. 

Here is what I am seeing happening right now in the Austin area Luxury Market among sellers. There seems to be 2 types of sellers right now. The first Seller is staging and preparing the house to sell and pricing this house very well to the competitive market. The house and lot look great and show extremely well. These homes are getting a lot of buyer attention and are not only selling quickly, but they are often selling with multiple offers and at full listing price (sometime above listing price). 


The second Seller that I am seeing right now is the seller that has prepared their listing well, staged and taken great photos (i.e., the seller did all the right things to get the property ready to sell), but has priced the house well above the homes that have sold in the community during the past 6 months. These listings are getting buyer's attention, but when the house is listed too high above market value, it does not tend to produce offers, or the offers fall on deaf (seller) ears. 

This kind of market dynamic is hard on buyers. Call it a bumpy market. Well priced houses are selling faster than some buyers can make up their mind, and the ones that are not priced well to market are languishing in the wind. This makes is hard. Buyers have to be ready to contract, just like sellers have to do their job in getting the house ready to sell. 



If you need a Realtor ®, I would be honored to assist you in your luxury home purchase, search or selling your Austin area home.

tT

Tim Thornton, Realtor ®
Top Producer 2010, 2009, 2008
Century Club member
Zip Realty, Inc.
Austin, Texas
(512) 914.4665  mobile

Is the Austin Market Soft?

I spoke to a prospective client today who told me "The Austin market is really soft; I know a bunch of Realtors think otherwise, but I have been watching it for a couple of years and it is soft."

I study the numbers for Austin, various communities and various parts of the Greater Austin market continuously, and my first reaction was to say--well, you can think what you will, but Austin is really doing pretty well. Prices are stable and in many communities prices are going up again. Houses are selling, and nice houses are not only selling fast, but may have multiple offers at or above the listing price. On top of that, people are still moving into the Austin area which means resell and new homes alike are still moving up and to the right on the charts. However...

As I spoke more to this gentleman, I began to discover that he had been looking at one specific part of the Austin market--Condos. And you know what? He was right. Condos (in general) have been very soft and even declining in value in many complexes and areas across Greater Austin over the past 2 years. He was watching several developments and condo conversions over the past couple of years, and these complexes had lost value during that period of time. In as much as what he was looking at--he was dead on correct. However...

The big mistake here is in semantics, or maybe a more fatal mistake--over-generalization. There is no such thing as "The Market". It is a misnomer. "The Market" only exists when you are talking about financial statistics, not when you are talking about buying or selling a specific home. You see, you can't buy "the market", so it is easy to talk about what is happening on a large scale, but when it comes to buying and selling a home, you have to come down from your satellite viewing station, and look at a school district, a community, a street and a specific seller's property. The things that really affect market value of a given home are those things that you can see from standing on the front porch. The further you get away from the house (measured in blocks, not miles), the less important the information you gather will play into the market value of that specific home.

So, the next time you hear someone talk about "the market", stop long enough to ask them "which market" and "what part of the Austin market are you talking about when you say that?". Real Estate is local. Very local. If you are not looking at what has transpired on your street, and in your community during the past 6 months, you probably need to talk to me so we can come to a determination about buyer's behaviors that continually create those things that we call market value for your home.




If you need a Realtor ®, I would be honored to assist you in your home purchase, search or selling your Austin area home.

tT

Tim Thornton, Realtor ®
Top Producer 2010, 2009, 2008
Century Club member
Zip Realty, Inc.
Austin, Texas
(512) 914.4665  mobile

Austin Luxury Home Market Update June 2011

The first question that one must answer or define when speaking of the "Luxury Home Market" is "What is the definition of a Luxury Home?". Glad you asked.

In the Austin market, a luxury home may have a variety of notable characteristics, starting with the price of the home, but price alone does not define "Luxury". In our Greater Austin real estate market, we have residential properties that range in price from ~$100k to approximately $20M. Many people are surprised to learn how much of the Austin market is comprised of homes over $1M. Until rather recently, Austin has been a low profile destination for home owners, but with the migration of more and more celebrities and high profile events to the area such as SXSW, ACL, ROT Rally, and the new F1 Race Track--Austin is showing up on more and more personal and professional GPS locators. In the high tech and social media arena alone, almost every major player in the US has some presence in Austin--many of which have some of their most important people assets in our fair city.


Back to the definition. A more complete definition of a specific luxury home would include the neighborhood, amenities, type of home, size of the lot (in some cases), and potentially a view of a significant local "feature" (water view or water frontage, city view, golf course view, major greenbelt view, etc). However, for the sake of statistics and numbers, we will limit our statistics to just one central dimension of the luxury criteria--Price. This will give us a very strong first look at Austin's Luxury Market. I will be defining the Luxury Home Market in Austin Texas as any home with a listing price starting at approximately Twice the Median Home Value of the typical home sold. Median home values are approximately $200,000, so we will define the Luxury Home (LH) to be any home whose listing or sold value was $400,000 or more. I will also define a separate Luxury category to further refine the numbers as Premium Luxury Homes (PLH). For the sake of these numbers, I am defining the PLH as any home listed or sold over $1,000,000 ($1M).

Active Listings:

• All Single Family Homes: currently there are 14,143 Single Family homes, Condos and Townhouses For Sale* in Greater Austin
• Luxury: 3,095 of these homes are priced at or over $400,000 (~ 22% of the total available homes)
• Premium Luxury: 676 of these homes are priced at or above $1M*

Under Contract or Sold, Year to Date, through June 23rd, 2011:

• All Single Family, Condos and Townhomes: 12,257 homes have either closed in 2011 or are under contract to close currently
• Luxury: 1,687 of these homes were at or above $400,000
• Premium Luxury: 201 of those homes were sold at or above $1M *

Areas of interest:

Luxury homes sold YTD have significant weighting on West side of I-35. Not all the luxury homes were sold East of I-35 but many of the areas of great buyer interest were found from the river in downtown Austin, east of I-35, all the way up to RR-620 and over to Lake Travis on the West side of Greater Austin. This includes such well known communities as Tarrytown, Enfield, Clarksville, Oak Forest, Steiner Ranch, River Place, Westminster Glen, Great Hills, Davenport Ranch, Rob Roy, Long Canyon, Cat Mountain, Lake Pointe and Barton Creek. Additionally, home in the West Round Rock and South Lake Travis areas had significant representation in these numbers. Some of the peripheral Austin area communities on to the north and surrounding the lake included Rough Hollow, Lakeway, Falconhead, Ranch at Brushy Creek, and Behren's Ranch. South West Austin also continues to be an area of interest, notably in master planned communities such as Circle C,  and the master planned community Avery Ranch, in NW Austin. Of course, many other communities and areas are represented in these numbers. These are just a few of the communities that have gotten buyer's interest.

Home Values in Luxury Class homes:

• Most Expensive homes sold. The two most expensive homes that sold YTD in 2011, sold for $5.8M each. 
• Median Home values in the Luxury Class Homes:
• Median ppsf: $179.35 
• Median sold price: $525,000
• Sales price as a % of List price: 96.1%
• Largest home sold: 18,955 sf
• Median Days on Market: 50 days 

If you are interested in buying a home in Austin Luxury Home market and need a Realtor ®, I would be honored to assist you in your home purchase and search.

tT

Tim Thornton, Realtor ®
Top Producer 2010, 2009, 2008
Century Club member
Zip Realty, Inc.
Austin, Texas
(512) 914.4665  mobile phone

*$1M homes include $999k; homes For Sale include Pending home sales.

Steiner Ranch Mid Year Real Estate Market Update

Steiner Ranch is among Austin's most recognized and loved master planned communities. Today, Steiner Ranch has over 4000 homes in this Austin oasis that was once a working cattle ranch. Nicknamed "The land between the lakes", Steiner Ranch is situated between Lake Travis and Lake Austin, and sits on 4600 acres of rolling hills and greenbelt--with views at every turn.

The first half of 2011 (1H11) has shown to be very positive for Steiner Ranch sellers--homes are selling.  

The 2011 numbers, year-to-date (YTD):

• Currently active listings: 120 single family homes
• Median home price: $492,500
• Median home features: 3518 sf, 4 Bedrooms, 3 baths
• Pending contracts: 53 (or 30% of the unsold inventory)
• Homes sold YTD: 121
•  This gives us a consumption rate of about 22  homes a month
• This also puts Steiner Ranch generally in a Seller's market status
• In this seller's market, the homes that show well and are priced right, tend to be the homes that sell fastest and sell for market value
• Median DOM: 43
• Median size: 3335 sf
• Median ppsf: $130.27

Inside the community are three Exemplary Elementary Schools, an Exemplary Middle School, new Exemplary High Schools (Vandergift High is on the edge of the community), junior Olympic swimming pools, private boat dock, over 20 miles of hike and bike trails, playgrounds, soccer fields, tennis courts, hundreds of acres of preserve and greenbelts and a lot of very happy home owners. Steiner Ranch is also home to the luxurious UT Golf Course and Country Club.

Buyers migrate toward Steiner for a number of reasons. Steiner is one of Austin's Best. Premier schools. Best amenities in a master planned community. Wonderfully built and designed homes. The community is close to both the lakes and downtown. Hill country views. Health conscious community. A neighborhood design that considered nature, the trees, the greenbelts and the lakes as a part of the community to be preserved--not exploited. Great golf inside the community and within 20 minutes drive time in all directions. Bottom line--Steiner Ranch is a place that home owners are proud to call "home".

If you are looking for a home in Steiner Ranch, or considering selling your home in Steiner Ranch, I would be honored to help you in your Real Estate quest.

Tim Thornton, Realtor ®
Top Producer 2010, 2009, 2008
Century Club member
Zip Realty, Inc.
Austin, Texas
(512) 914.4665

Tim.Thornton@ZipRealty.com

Home Stead Exemptions in Texas

Closing on a home in Texas today in Greater Austin or even in Texas has a lot of unexpected implications. First of all, it probably means you are going to start getting a lot of mail and door hanger advertisements. While some aspects of your home purchase are not public information in Texas, the fact that you bought a home and its location is information that can be easily discovered by businesses. So, the solicitation begins.

Some of the adverts you receive may be really helpful for you. Lawn care specialists. Window Treatment sales. Area restaurants. But one solicitation that you will probably get in Texas that you may consider to be a scam is the solicitation to file your Texas Homestead Exemption paper work. Upon reading, you may think that you have to stand in line somewhere or file complicated legal paperwork to file your homestead exemption. Well, you don't. This letter that most new home owners receive looks very "official", and if you don't read it carefully, you may believe that it is from the State of Texas. It may even have a large seal on the letterhead that you mistakenly believe it an official Texas State office seal--further convincing you at a glance that it is an official mailing. The letter briefly explains that if you fill out the attached form and then mail it back to the address with a check for $29 or $39 or some specified amount of money, they will file your Homestead Exemption for you. Well, some might say "This is a service and they should be paid for the service." Yes, that is true; it is a service or some sort for some people. However, you did most of the work for them by filling out the form that will later be sent to the County taxing authority. The only real service that most of these companies seem to provide seems to be in holding your information until the filing date of January 1st in the new year, and than file your Homestead Exemption. And that may well be worth $29 to you. But the price you pay to the State of Texas or County for filing your Texas Homestead is the cost of mailing the form. There is no state/county charge for filing. No lines to stand in. No classes required to fill out the form.
 
The benefit? Well, besides potential tax benefits, there are very often other benefits to home owners for letting the county/state know that this is your Texas Homestead--your one primary residence. I don't claim to be an expert on taxes or Homestead Exemptions, but I can tell you that as a long-term resident of Texas, I have benefited greatly from my Homestead exemptions and related benefits of my primary Texas residence.

For more information on your Austin area Homestead Exemptions, go to your county's appraisal district. Find their online FAQ information. Call their office. And go visit them. If you are looking for the forms, here are the links that I have pulled from our two largest counties appraisal district web site:


Travis County Appraisal District

Williamson County Appraisal District

Please note: I am a Realtor®. I am not a CPA or a tax expert. If you have questions about filing your Homestead Exemption, its benefits, or how to best take advantage of your Texas Homestead Exemption--you should consult your CPA, tax professional or your local taxing authorities.

Austin Moon Light Towers

Have you ever driven by one of these fifteen remaining moon light towers around town? Did you ever wonder when they were installed and why they were installed in the first place?

Well, there is more than one report of when they were installed, but the general time frame is the late 1800's. Austin was a much smaller place in those days. Less than 20,000 people. Not much bigger than the population of Steiner Ranch today. Wikipedia reports that lights like these lights were installed in a number of major US cities at that time1. As cities grew, the need for greater security and law enforcement was becoming evident and lights seemed to some to be a good start.

Some say that these lights were installed in Austin to help capture or stop one of the first known serial killers in the US--here in Austin between 1884 -1885. Others have tied the light installations to bigger challenges of the "Boy's Town" area in Austin and a growing downtown area. But stories have it that soon after these lights were installed the murders of 1884-85 era, reportedly stopped. Three years later, similar serial murders began in London, England. That murderer later became known as infamous "Jack the Ripper".  We may never know if the two were linked.

The complete truth behind these stories may be hidden or distorted, but we still have these glorious Moon Light Towers. A reminder of a time when Austin was much smaller--but not a gentler place to live.


1 - Wikipedia Ref

Austin Market Conditions: June 2011

Real Estate has cycles and regional uniqueness. Having recent dealings in one community, city or state, has almost nothing to do with what is happening in another city, state or specific community. It is all about what is happening right here, right now--not what is being reported on the 10 o'clock news for the nation as a whole. This is a little bit like saying that test scores for 10th grade students in the State of Texas are the best in the nation, but test scores in a particular school, class or for a given student in the state of Texas may have no bearing on that information. With Real Estate, it is all about what is happening locally. Here and now.

All things considered, Austin continues to do well. Jobs are still being created in our local market. New industries and the long standing businesses of our market continue to do well. And the things that make Austin a desirable place to live, continue to flourish.


This time of year is particularly important to Real Estate. If homes are not selling between June to August--something is wrong. When school is out, families move. This is particularly true in communities where there are strong and outstanding schools. But in general, this is true all over. If the market is healthy now, the outlook is favorable.

Austin is seeing something now that we knew well in the market peaks of recent years--multiple offers on a listing. Nice homes, that are priced well to the market, in relatively low inventory areas, selling quickly. And selling with multiple bidders. Many of these homes are selling for full list price and above. And homes are appraising at these higher values. Amazing? Unbelievable? No--not really. It is a fixture of our market that we know well, and understand that when the demand is high for a particular home or area, and the price is right, buyers recognized the situation and do not hesitate to act according to the market conditions.

Quick Summary of the Stats. At this writing there are

• 9,837 Single Family Homes are For Sale today in Greater Austin
• There are an additional 3,011 homes under contract--Pending to close
• 7,397 Single Family Homes have sold and closed this Year-To-Date  

Adding sold and pending homes together, divided by the number of active homes on the market currently, you can come to the conclusion that there is approximately 6 months of available inventory right now. If you follow the rule that inventory is based only on closed home sales, we have approximately 8 months of inventory. Either way, it is not an over whelming number, especially when inventory should be highest during the peak summer months to feed to highest demand of the summer.


So, what does it mean? Austin continues to thrive. Yes, we have seen some stress and transition from changes in our local job and real estate market, but we have also seen businesses grow, industries expand, and a migration of new people coming to Austin from all parts of the nation and call our great city "home". I hear it every day.

I had two closes today for wonderful new clients. Both families are moving to Austin from other parts of our great nation. One thing that they have in common, and most of my clients seem to recognize and express. Austin is a place where people like people, and new comers see a genuine sense of interest in people who are moving to our area. We like that. Austin is that kind of place.

If you are looking for a place to call home, and looking for a Realtor to help you find that new home in our Greater Austin area--I would be honored to count you among my clients and friends.