Home sales in Central Texas were 31 percent higher in September compared with the same month last year, the Austin Board of Realtors reported recently. The median sales price ticked down 2 percent, to $189,000, the
board said.

Last month, the Austin region “saw its fourth straight month of year-over-year sales volume increases, and the third month in which those volumes outpaced 2010 by more than 30 percent,” said Judith Bundschuh, chairman of the Austin Board of Realtors. “In the midst of that growth, Austin-home values have remained stable.”

The board’s September report shows 1,681 home were sold, compared with 1,280 in September 2010. Listings were clown nearly 19 percent, with 8,490 homes on the market, compared with 10,453 in September 2010.
Pending sales were up 19 percent, with 1,638 homes in the pipeline to close this month.

Year-to-date, 14,862 homes were sold from January through September, 6 percent more than during the same period last year.

Area home sales up 31 percent in September is a post from: Austin Real Estate Agent

Texas cities saw some of the fastest population gains among U.S. cities last year, according to data released Tuesday by the Census Bureau, a statistic that experts chalk up to a stable economy amid a national recession.

Four of the top 10 cities with the greatest percentage increase in population were in Texas: Frisco, McKinney, Round Rock and Lewisville.

Round Rock was No. 8 on the list, with a 3.4 percent increase.

The population growth was tabulated from July 1, 2008, to July 1, 2009.

Frisco, a wealthy suburb of Dallas, saw a 6,2 percent population spike, making it the fastest growing city in the U.S. McKinney was No. 3, and Lewisville was No. 10.

By raw numbers, Austin was ninth on the list of cities with populations of more than 100,000 that saw the largest numerical increases last year, with a rise of 19,183 residents, according to.the Census Bureau.

Four other Texas cities made that top 10 list: San Antonio at No. 3, Fort Worth at No. 5, Dallas at No. 7 and Houston at No. 8.

The Census Bureau reported that New York City had the nation’s largest increase in overall. population numbers, going from 8.34 million to
8.39 million.

Steve Murdock, a former director of the Census Bureau and now a professor at Rice University, said Texas’ growth was probably because of the state’s ability to dodge the worst of the economic crisis, as well as its growing immigrant population.

“Diversity and growth go together, and Texas has one of the most diverse populations in the “country,” Murdock said.

Daniel Hamermesh, a University of Texas professor who specializes in demographic changes, called the population spike a “good thing for Texas,” echoing Murdock’s sentiments that the state’s growth is due to its relatively stable economy while the rest of the U.S. slowly emerges from the worst economic slump since the Great Depression of 1930s.

“People want to move here,” Hamermesh said. “The economy is doing better than anybody else’s, and there is a long-term trend to move toward the South and Southwest.”

The state is also scheduled to receive more representation in Congress because of the population increase, probably gaining three or four seats during the redistricting process in 2011.
“Steady growth will make Texas cities the big winners when the 2010 census comes out next year,” said William Frey, a demographer at the Brookings Institution.

Round Rock, Austin saw big gains in population in 2009 according to Census is a post from: Austin Real Estate Agent

Home prices in February posted their first annual increase since the end of 2006, lifted by temporary tax credits for homebuyers.

The Standard & Poor’s/ Case- Shiller home price index eked out a gain of 0.6 percent, but that was half the increase analysts had expected.  On a more cautionary note, 11 of the 20 cities tracked by the index showed declines from February last year.

Annual Rise in Home Price Index is a post from: Austin Real Estate Agent

Central Texas home sales rose 5 percent in January from a year ago, the Austin Board of Realtors reported Thursday.

January’s median sales price rose 1 percent to $179,250.

Real estate agents sold 884 previously owned homes in January, compared with 840 the same month last year. There were 1,417 sales pending, a 7 percent increase from a year earlier.

John Horton, chairman of the Board of Realtors, said January 2009 marked the low point of the current cycle.

“With steady improvement throughout 2009 that, continued in January 2010, we can see that we’re one year into the recovery in Austin,” Horton said. “What’ most important about this is that it’s the kind of recovery we want: one that is steady, stable and consistent.”

Throughout 2009, the volume of single-family home sales in Austin improved steadily, Horton said. In the first half of 2009, the gap in year-over-year sales narrowed consistently, reaching levels similar to those in 2008 during the summer peak, with the exception of a dip in August, Horton said.

By fall, sales began outperforming 2008. They surged in October and November, spurred by the original deadline for the first-time home-buyer tax credit. In December, sales returned to a modest increase, rising 5 percent from December 2008, a growth rate that held last month.

“We’re already seeing positive signs in sales volume and price appreciation,” Horton said.  “Those factors, combined with the population growth and additional jobs economists expect for our area in 2010, bode well for the long-term value of Austin real estate.”

Home sales in Central Texas rise in January is a post from: Austin Real Estate Agent