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Last month’s single-family home median price ($183,160) was up 5 percent from a year ago. Active listings (8,821) also rose, up 8 percent from last year. The average days on the market decreased 7 percent to just 55 days.
Home prices appreciated more than 10 percent, more than double the national appreciation rate in this year’s first quarter, according to figures from the Office of Federal Housing Enterprise Oversight. Across Texas, homes prices rose nearly 7 percent year-over-year
Priced From: $169,775
GOOD YEAR FOR CENTRAL TEXAS BUILDERS
January 2008
Austin American-Statesman - Builders started construction last year on a record number of homes in Central Texas. The supply of new, unsold homes also climbed to a record level, prompting builders to start 10% fewer homes in the last quarter of 2006 than the previous year.
About 2,900 new homes - just over a 2 month supply - were available in Central Texas in December, 2006. But experts, citing the local healthy economy, predict the supply of unsold homes, which rose slightly in 2006's fourth qtr, will diminish by spring, 2007.
Builders started 16,050 homes last year, a 10% increase from 2005, according to Residential Strategies Inc., a Dallas market research firm. There also were a record number of closings, which jumped almost 23% to more than 16,000.
The median sales price of a new home in Central Texas rose 8 percent to nearly $196,500.
Unlike other markets in the nation where prices and sales are cooling, Central Texas has experienced healthy job growth, a steady stream of newcomers and relatively affordable prices.
For the 12 months that ended in November, 24,800 jobs were created in the Austin area, according to the Texas Workforce Commission.
"Homebuilders are cautiously optimistic about the market," said Dr. Jim Gaines, research economist at the Real Estate Center. "A slowdown in sales and buildup in inventory should lead to fewer speculative units. Builders are looking forward to spring activity that will probably dictate the rest of the year's activity levels. Employment and population fundamentals are in place, so adjustments in the market should be relatively minor."
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Housing boom over in 28 states
Arizona, Florida and California see the sharpest drops.
The nation's once-booming housing market slumped even further in the spring. Sales declined in 28 states, led by big drops in the formerly red-hot areas of Arizona, Florida and California.
Sales of existing homes fell nationwide to a seasonally adjusted annual rate of 6.69 million units in the April-June quarter, a 7 percent decrease from the record rate of 7.19 million units in the spring of 2005, the National Association of Realtors reported Tuesday.
And in further evidence that the housing boom is over, the National Association of Home Builders said its monthly survey of builder sentiment fell to its lowest level in more than 15 years.
The decline, which pushed the index down seven points to 32, was blamed on growing unease among builders about record levels of unsold new and existing homes and increased cancellations of contracts for new homes. It was the seventh consecutive drop.
"An increasing number of potential buyers are adopting a wait-and-see attitude because of uncertainty about where the housing market is headed," said David Seiders, chief economist for the home builders.
The slowdown is occurring after a lengthy boom in which sales of both new and existing homes set records for five straight years as buyers were lured by the lowest mortgage rates in more than four decades.
But mortgage rates have been climbing for most of this year, reflecting a two-year campaign by the Federal Reserve to push interest rates higher as a way of slowing the economy and keeping inflation under control.
The Fed last week chose not to raise rates for an 18th time, spurring hopes that the increases will end before they do more damage to interest-rate sensitive sectors of the economy such as housing.
The Realtors survey showed that sales fell in 28 states and the District of Columbia in the spring, compared with the same period a year earlier.
The biggest sales declines occurred in states that had the hottest markets last year. Sales fell 26.9 percent in Arizona, 26.7 percent in Florida, 25.3 percent in California, 23.9 percent in Virginia and 23.5 percent in Nevada.
However, some other areas of the country where previous gains had been more modest continued to have increases. Twenty states reported sales gains, led by Alaska — which had a 48.6 percent increase fueled by the boom in the oil industry — followed by Arkansas, Texas and North Carolina.
"States with moderately priced areas that have experienced healthy job creation are seeing sales gains," said David Lereah, chief economist for the Realtors. Lereah predicted that the slide in existing home sales would soon come to an end as reluctant home sellers start cutting their asking prices, which he said should spur a sales rebound.
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Costing more to build
Ken Swisher, president of David Weekley's Austin's division, said the hard costs of building a home, such as materials, have increased by 8 % to 12 % during the past year, which means that an average $200,000 home costs the builder $8,000 to $12,000 more to build today than it did a year ago.
The home builder is paying 24 % more for concrete than it did one year ago, while the prices of shingles and drywall have each increased 10% in the same period.
Competition among builders continues to make it difficult but he hopes to raise prices more in the next year. Swisher said David Weekley has raised prices "a little bit" in the past few years.
"Depending on what everybody does, I think it could be anywhere from zero to 10 %," Swisher said. "It just depends on where you are."
New homes in Austin - Information about purchasing a new home in Austin Texas -
Investment and appreciation potential and market trends
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New homes in Austin - Information about purchasing a new home in Austin Texas -
Investment and appreciation potential and market trends
Realty
