First and Foremost: Wash Your Hands and Practice Social Distancing
Today in the Austin area, there are over 17,000 real estate licenses, the majority of whom have never experienced any downturn or hiccup in the Austin real estate market in their working lives.
I, however, started in full-time residential real estate before the 2000 dot.com crisis, before 9/11, and long before the 2008 banking recession. In all these cases, the Austin real estate statistics proved out that our housing market rises slowly, levels off when the rest of the country's housing market goes into free-fall, and Austin's market is fundamentally different for one very important reason: JOBS.
Austin has jobs, is creating jobs, building apartments and houses as fast as we can to keep up with the influx of people moving to Texas and, in particular, the Austin metro area for those great jobs. Google, Amazon, Apple, Dell, Indeed, Facebook, UT DELL Medical School are just the tip of the iceberg of companies expanding and hiring the intellectual capital in this town.
The national mortgage rates are in the low 3's and the lowest in almost 50 years! This has added to a frenzy of first-time buyers jumping in while they can afford it. All this has led Austin to have a record low INVENTORY of homes. There is less than a two-month supply of homes for sale. Seven months is balanced. Above that is a buyer's market. Right now, some neighborhoods have less than a one-month supply of inventory of homes to purchase. Multiple offers pour in, and the strongest, preapproved (or cash) buyer wins.
So while we 'social distance' and 'shelter at home' and wait out this health event, review your finances, do your taxes (not due til July 15 now, according to the IRS), and think about your stock portfolio. WOULD YOU have preferred some of that to be in real estate, with paying tenants? with depreciation and tax deductions? This is a great time to clean a closet, call your friends and elderly neighbors to check on them, and take time for your health: physical, mental, and financial. Make sense?
When we get the "all clear", call me and we'll arrange a time to go over your options. In the meantime, go wash your hands for 20 seconds. Stay well, everyone!
