Austin's premier master planned community voted multiple times as community of the year has been hammered for well over a year with excessive inventory creating substantial price reductions along with abnormally long selling periods. This summer we were consistently seeing inventory at all time record highs in the 200's with no end in sight.....and then we see the credit crunch and then the credit implosion.
Yet over the past 4 months we have seen a dramatica decline in inventory to down to the 130's....or a bit over 3% of the available homes. This low inventory levels puts Steiner Ranch in a prime situation whereby when we see consumer confidence start to rise, this market can easily move from a buyer's market to a seller's market within a couple of months. Normally this would take 6 months to a year to accomplish, but when inventory is so low and demand increase, there becomes a lack of supply and prices go up dramatically. This was the same case seen 4 years ago...and when it turned no one was ready and most could not keep up with the increases in valuations.
Bear in mind that this massive reductions is not because of great buyer demand, but extreme seller concessions.....most by builders. We have seen drops in asking prices to selling prices in excess of $100,000 for homes only in the $700's. Because the supply is down so low, these deep discounts are now over....though we may see such discounts in excess of $1mm. Sellers are seeing the change in the market and now see a light at the end of this long tunnel. Steiner Ranch has seen a major benefit of buyers moving from other areas of the country that are quite depressed. We anticipate a strong recovery during the first quarter and not the second quarter. Note that Austin prices hit their bottom in 2003 and never reached their levels seen in 2000; thus, we are in a much better position than the rest of the country as our area pricing has not been over inflated since 2000.
Comments (0)Subscribe to CommentsComment