Austin Housing Market Predictions? It’s that time of year when I’m asked to take out the crystal ball and predict what the future will hold. Homeowners start to question whether to sell now. Homebuyers don’t know whether to start shopping now or wait until spring.
I do own a magic wand (Hermione Granger’s from Harry Potter); I do not own a crystal ball. While I cannot predict the future, the present and recent past can help paint a picture of what the future Austin real estate market might look like.
Advice for Austin Home Sellers
As a seller, the decision to sell rests on your schedule for the next 6 weeks or so. Austin is in a seller’s market. The scarcity is here. I honestly, don’t know of a neighborhood, that has any type of selection for a buyer right now. The only reason to wait to sell a house right now as a homeowner is if you simply don’t have time to let buyers in to see it.
Advice for Austin Home Buyers
As a buyer, if you think things are going to get better in the spring, well you probably have a lot of company out there. What does that mean? It means a repeat of last year. Standing in a line just to wait your turn to go see a house and then offering your firstborn male heir in your non-reality items addendum. I am kidding (about the baby), though two of my clients had baby boys this year.
My point is that I have not heard or read that interest rates are going to go up enough to make people pause next year. I am not hearing that there are 1,000s of homes stuck in a shipping container somewhere that is going to pop up overnight and solve the housing supply deficit.
Economists are predicting we should level out a little more next year where home prices will increase at more of a 5% slop than a 20% steep incline. Keep in mind, that this is a broad stroke projection, and markets are local (the devil lives in the details). Prices are clearly not coming down. The only time you are seeing a price decrease right now is when a listing over speculates what the current market (hello Zillow) will bear. It completely misses its audience forcing a price reduction.
Stay the Course – Stay in Line
Buyers who stop looking this time of year, essentially lose their place in line. If you are in this market and can stay in it – stay. While other buyers are looking at Amazon and other daily Black Friday deals, you are going to see a house pop up that others miss. Looking now? As a buyer, you are going to start getting educated. Even if it’s just a few homes to look at – they offer some comparable data, if nothing more. Buying now? The odds are better in your favor competing against two other buyers versus 20 right?
If all of the above doesn’t sway buyers and sellers to stay the course, remember this. We are still living in a pandemic. After last year’s snowpocalypse and ice age, we were literally living off the grid in Austin. If the crystal ball was outside – it probably cracked. My point is that life gets in the way sometimes or gives us a few surprises.
Don’t confuse the universe after you have set your intention. If you want to sell or buy now, work toward that. When it is meant to be it will.