A good friend of mine in California emailed this story to me today. In yet another vote of confidence for the Austin, Texas real estate market, HousingPredictor.com has ranked Austin #6 on its list of Top 25 Appreciating Markets!
I hadn't actually heard of this site before, but here's the description I found there for their service/research:
"We examine more than 20 micro market characteristics in each market place, including income levels, employment trends and changes, school enrollment, business trends, regional political influences, real estate sales history and current housing market velocity. The factors are all considered to come up with each local market forecast."
They are predicting that Austin will experience 4.0% appreciation in 2008. This may prove to be an optimistic estimate, but we did get about 2.0% or so when many other markets around the country were dropping precipitously.
I was speaking with someone today at lunch about the fact that sales activity was down overall, yet prices went up. I guess the averages can be a little deceptive sometimes. Either way, I feel that Austin is poised for great things in the upcoming years. Here's a recent post that I wrote on this topic:
"How IS the Austin Real Estate Market these days?"
Interestingly, they noted in the article that no one area of the country contained the lion's share of good potential markets. Rather, they are just sort of spread out across the U.S. If you are interested in seeing the entire list of the top cities, visit http://www.housingpredictor.com/top2008.html.
I would love the opportunity to speak with you if you are sincerely considering a move to or from Austin. Please feel free to give me a call anytime on my cell phone at 512-796-7653 or email me - Jason@austintexashomes.com. I look forward to hearing from you soon! You can also search the entire database of available Austin homes at our website, www.austintexashomes.com.
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Jason,
Thanks for the information. I just finished looking up the report for Tampa, Florida. This report will be a big help.
Thanks for helping me grow and learn.
Jason, Lucky for Austin! That is great. Huntsville has been on several of their top 25 lists, but we missed the mark this time:( We had an article in the Huntsville Times Sunday, stating that Austin is our "Big Brother" city. Guess they decided to leave little brother home this time, lol. Did you notice that the top city was just a little over 4% appreciation? I remember when some of the top cities has double digit appreciation on Housing Predictor. At least now these figures are more realistic, which should help ensure buyers that they are indeed making a wise purchase. Slow, steady growth is always best. Congratulations for that big feather you just got in your Austin cap!
Jason, I just posted yesterday about how Forbes Magazine named Lancaster County, PA -- along with AUSTIN -- as one of the "Top Ten Places to Ride Out the Recession" in their latest issue. You guys are actually rated number 1 on that list! I have the link to the article on my post if you'd like to find it. If it's okay with you, I could provide the link here ~ but don't want to do that without your permission. Along with Austin and Lancaster, they named Portland Ore, Boston, Honolulu, Virginia Beach... and of course a few others to round out the list of 10.
I think that is awesome news ~ I'm sure you'll think so too!
Hi Jason,
I am happy that you are on board with Active Rain.... As a relatively new comer to blogging all this tech stuff has my head swimming (that and the Zicam I am taking for my wicked cold) I find your blogs easy to follow and interesting. However, I am not getting the "how to add feedburner" to your blog site... Must be the Zicam.. I went to Feedburner and they want your blog URL which I am not sure what that is??
Appreciate any help you can offer (after you stop shaking your head wondering how I even manage to blog)
Take Care,
Donna Springer