At the time of writing this blog post, the central Texas real estate market is NUTS! As someone in this business it becomes easy to get so involved that I sometimes forget that people in general not not aware of what's going on & how it will effect them when they decide to buy a home.
Getting someone to pay a premium for your home is not a problem. There will be a long line of people ready to make an offer. The problem is, where are you going to live now? You'll be in the same boat as everyone else that needs a home to live in unless you plan to buy in a market where things are not so crazy.
Below is a short video I made about how the central Texas real estate market is right now & my thoughts on where we're headed. Click below to watch.
When is the best time to buy a home?
I forget where I heard this from but it makes a lot of sense. The best time to buy a home was 10 years ago. The next best time is today.
If we had a time machine, going back to buy a home 10 years ago would be great & I bet you wouldn't have a problem paying the prices from 10 years ago would you? In reality, people were complaining then about the prices and interest rates. Right now, interest rates are at historic lows & it's cheap to borrow money to buy a home.
Here's a chart showing the historic home prices in central Texas over the past 10 years.
As you can tell from looking at the chart, the average home price in central Texas in January 2011 was around $160,000. What a deal!
All of that is great until you see where we are at now with the average home price is around $325,000. Now imaging if you purchase a home 10 years ago. Then imaging what this chart will look like in 10 years from now.
There is so much opportunity & good things going on here in the central Texas area that I don't see why prices wouldn't continue to rise.
Whats fueling this surge in home prices?
There are so many different ways to look at our situation & reasons to point the finger at. While some are more of a contributing factor than others, when you combine them all at the same time you get this huge demand and very little inventory. In comes the supply & demand concept.
Real estate is a market that is similar to stocks. When an area is lacking opportunity, people will no longer want to live there so you'll have less people wanting to buy a home thus prices will be cheaper. This is just a general explanation of how this works.
Also, COVID has had a large impact on how people view their living arrangement. Since a lot of business are adopting a work from home model, people are finding themselves staying at home. People who are renting now want to buy a home to accommodate a dedicated office & people who own a home are want to make it the best they can with no intention on selling now that they spend most of their time at home.
Now you have less people wanting to sell their home & more people wanting to buy a home that was previously renting. This is just for the people already living here. What about the people moving here?
Homes Just Listed For Sale
Central Texas looks very attractive
For a while now, Austin & the surrounding areas have been a hub for large tech companies moving to the area. In 2020 Tesla announced they're building a new assembly plant here, Cisco announced it was moving there executive offices here & Samsung might be expanding it's plants here with a new $12 billion dollar plant. Add all of that on top of some of the big name tech companies already here like Apple, Facebook & Google just to name a few.
With these large company's come a lot of other smaller companies that service the larger ones. All of these are high paying jobs & can afford to buy a house. Keep in mind that the real estate price here is about half of what they would normally pay in the places where they're coming from. So naturally, they're willing to pay more because it's such a great value to them.
It's my opinion that what we're experiencing right now (2/24/2021) is the start of a boom & expansion in the area with a lot of potential for appreciation.
This may be because I'm a Realtor & my perspective is biased but it's really hard to see the data & deny the trend. What are your thought?
If you want to buy, lets start planning
As a Realtor, I see my job as helping you realize your dream & get what you want. The best way to get started in any major goal is plan out how you're going to get there. That's where I can be a tremendous resource for you.
I can help explain what the market is like, recommend places that best fits your needs & walk you through the entire process of buying a new or a used home.
When you have a home to sell, you're definitely going to want to be more diligent in your planning. That's where I can also be a resource every step along the way. You do not have to figure it out alone.
My final thoughts
I hopes I was able to give great information to help answer your questions on whether or not you should wait to buy a home in 2021. You may or may not agree with my ideas but either way I'd like to hear your feedback down below in the comments section.
If you are in agreement or would like to talk more in detail feel free to give me a direct call @ 512-809-0091.