Here are the April/2021 MLS single-family statistics for Austin, TX:
April marks our 1st monthly anniversary after the Covid lockdown in Mar/2020 that had an effect on our home sales market. Therefore, we can’t put 100% credence into what we see above since some categories were affected more than others. Keeping in mind that most homes close in a 30-45 day window (pre-covid) homes that closed in Apr/2020, for instance likely went under contract in early to late March...or about when the Austin Covid lockdown began. So, while our 32% increase in sales represents our best of 2021, it is likely skewed due to the early effects of Covid. We will likely see similar numbers when May’s results are out and then I think we can begin to see more valid comparison numbers for the remainder of 2021.
It was nice to see our listings grow above 1,000 in January for the first time this year at 1,590, but we are still trending about ¼ of the number of homes for sale each month this year as we normally see. I also ran the same numbers as the chart above, but compared them to 2019 to remove any Apr/2020 oddities (below) and you can see that all but the 3 most affected by pending contracts were about the same as numbers above.
I then captured the chart for this year for the 1st 4 months (through April) to show just how strong our year has started out...even more robust than the past 5 months of 2020 after Covid and the “Tesla effect”. I wish I could tell those of you who want to buy a home in Austin that things might be getting easier soon, but I don't see that happening any time soon...sorry.
Speaking of Austin home buyers, here are 2 tips you might consider to improve your chances of getting a home under contract:
- You want to use a loan so you don’t use up all of your cash: if you can buy a home by scraping together all of your available cash from all sources it greatly improves your chance of getting a home under contract since “cash is king”...now and always. After you close on the home, you can immediately get a home mortgage on it to free up your cash again. This process is called “Delayed Financing”. · Discuss this plan with your current lender so they understand what you are doing up front and cover all issues.
- You can’t find time or live outside of Austin so viewing homes is difficult: While viewing a home in-person before purchase is ALWAYS the preferred method in a normal market, we are not in a normal market. If you can’t preview before submitting an offer, maybe you can have a friend/relative, etc view it with the Realtor; use video chat; or other ways to get a good idea of if the home meets your needs or not. If that is not an option, you can always submit an offer sight-unseen as this article states: Redfin: Two-thirds of home buyers in 2020 made offer sight unseen
- You can get preapproval from Keller Mortgage which does full underwriting up front so the financing days can be as low as 5 in the offer, they order home appraisals upfront when they get the sales contract, can close in 21 days, and maybe they best of all: they have NO loan fees that can save a buyer $5,000+ at closing! Contact loan officer Paul Risenhoover at 214-824-2336 or PRisenhoover@kellermortgage.com to learn more.
(512)853-0110 or robert@AustinTxHomeSales.com
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