Over the last 22 months, AustinTowers has been closely tracking the downtown Austin condo market. During this period, Milago has sold more units on the resale market than any other project . The 46 Milago transactions over the last 21 months provide an interesting microcosm of the downtown Austin market.The numbers clearly show the challenges…
Austin: 3rd Best City for Development
From my perspective, it is always great for Austin to be included in a top five list that includes San Francisco, New York, Boston, and Washington DC.This week the Urban Land Institute , a 2,000 member not-for-profit real estate and developer network, released its list of the 5 cities for development in 2010. In order, the Institute’s analysis…
October Surprise: Austin Home Sales Surge
We reported 9 days ago that downtown Austin condo sales were up 44% year-over-year while prices were down 3%. This was good news but not necessarily indicative of the broader Austin market. Today, newly released MLS numbers show that central Texas existing home sales soared 38% in October with 1,823 houses selling compared with 1,322 a…
Houston Condo Market Problems
The #1 thing going for the downtown Austin Condo market is downtown Austin. In downtown Houston, where they also have a brand new crop of high rise condos, very few people want to live downtown. In the other neighborhoods where towers have popped up, picky residents can live nearby in larger, less expensive housing. Here…
New, Less Restricttive FHA Rules for Condo Loans
In a dramatic temporary reversal of policy , the Federal Housing Administration is giving condo buyers a much-needed break.Last week, the FHA, the federal agency that insures low-down-payment home loans for private lenders, said it was relaxing its building underwriting guidelines as a way of helping the struggling sector ride out the downturn. The move could…
Exclusive: October Downtown Condo Sales
We’ve updated the AustinTowers | TOWERS Realty Downtown Austin Condo Market Index for October, 2009. For the fourth month in a row, MLS sales were higher than the previous year’s numbers. The most recent numbers suggest that the bottom of the downtown Austin condo market was likely hit this spring. Over the last few months, sales, prices, and price-per-square-foot have…