Austin Rental Market Vacancy Falling, Rents Rising

August 27, 2010 By Leave a Comment

A glut in Austin’s apartment supply is slowly leveling out this year and analysts expect vacancy rates to fall an estimated 9 percent, according to the latest market data from Marcus & Millichap Real Estate Investment Brokerage Co.

The real estate investment firm said the city is forecast to add 19,100 jobs this year, prompting a rush of new residents and a rise in demand for residential rentals. At the same time, the apartment development pipeline has drastically thinned out, with 2,860 new units expected this year, down from 10,340 in 2009.

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Austin Ranked 3rd Most Recession Resistant City

July 28, 2010 By 1 Comment

Austin - Austin's Real Estate Go To TeamIn April of 2008, Austin was ranked the third most recession proof city by Forbes because of a lack of a housing bubble, low median home price, low unemployment, and strong job growth segments that would recover more quickly. Plus, Austin was known as “Silicon Hills” for its growing tech sector industries.

Now, over two years later, the Brookings Institute has released their quarterly in-depth analysis which also ranks Austin the third most recession proof city in the U.S.

The Brookings Institute analyzes the health of America’s 100 largest metropolitan economies. It examines trends in metropolitan-level employment, output, and housing conditions to look “beneath the hood” of national economic statistics to portray the diverse metropolitan trajectories of recession and recovery across the country. MetroMonitor looks at the particular industries that drive national economic trends, and takes into account metro areas’ unique starting points for eventual recovery.
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4 Texas Cities Feeling Ease In Recession

July 17, 2010 By Leave a Comment

According to a recent Forbes article, Texas has four of the the ten cities where the recession is easing. Below is a passage from the article:

Good Fortune In The Lone Star State

Downtown AustinIf one state is a poster child for economic recovery, it’s Texas, home to four of the 10 cities on our list. There’s more to why Austin, Dallas, San Antonio and Houston are faring well than just the state’s energy industry. The tech, government and education industries supplement the oil state’s riches. As for housing, cities in Texas didn’t see the same run-up in home prices and rampant speculation that led to the spectacular bubble burst elsewhere in the country.

“The housing market got lucky, if you want to look at it that way,” says James P. Gaines, research economist at the Real Estate Center at Texas A&M University. “We didn’t have excessive overbuilding, so we don’t have a big overhang of unsold new homes, and because Texas has among most affordable housing in the country, the demand sustained.”

Like Austin and Dallas, Houston, tied for No. 4 on the list, is expected to experience a three-year 7.03% rise in jobs. But nowhere are jobs projected to grow more than in San Antonio, where four military bases should help drive its expected 8.32% increase.

To read the complete article click here

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Are Interest Rates On The Rise?

March 14, 2010 By Leave a Comment

Rising Interest Rates - Austin's Real Estate Go To TeamCNN Money is reporting that this should happen by the end of the month.

The Fed has been buying mortgage-backed securities, the bundling of home loans that are used to fund mortgage lending, since late 2008. But next month it plans to complete its purchase of $1.25 trillion in mortgages.

That could be bad news. There is wide agreement that the removal of this support will mean higher mortgage rates.

Higher rates on the way. But even if the Fed holds onto the mortgages it has already purchased, the act of no longer buying additional mortgages is likely to raise mortgage rates in the coming weeks. Experts say a jump of at least a quarter to a half percentage point is likely.

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