I™ve just sold a Resale – single family property at 258 Charolais Dr in Bastrop. Come and visit my site to see other properties in that area. If you are interested in looking for or selling your home, please Contact Me.

 Ask a seller and they will tell you it™s a seller™s market.   Ask a buyer and it™s a buyer™s market.   Knowing the truth can help you more successfully negotiate a contract for the sale of a home.

Here is how to figure that out:   According to the Real Estate Center at Texas A&M, the Austin market is considered an even market at 6.5 months of inventory.   Less than 6.5 months and it™s a seller™s market because demand is greater than supply.   More than 6.5 months and supply exceeds demand.   An even market might be different in your particular area.   You can even drill down to specific neighborhoods and apply it to the numbers for a neighborhood.

To figure out how many months of inventory you take the total number of homes that have sold in your market in the last 12 months and divide that number by 12 to give you the average number of homes that sell per month.   Then take that number and divide it into the total number of homes currently for sale.   This will give you the number of months of inventory.

Number of homes for sale

Tot sales in12 months/12

In a market that is changing it can sometimes be useful to look at the total sales in the last 6 months and divide that by 6 to arrive at your average.   Since markets can be totally different quarter-to-quarter this can give you an average based on the most recent and latest trend.   When you use the 6-month average it can sometimes give you a œtruer picture of what is happening in the market right now.   You can also compare it to your 12-month average to see if the market is trending in favor of buyers or sellers.

Austin as of the end of April had 6.7 months of inventory or was a slight buyer™s market.

Texting JBG to 87778 will allow you to easily download our application for FREE!

This application will allow you search Austin and San Antonio MLS area homes.   Other areas will be added later.

This app combines IDX and GPS so that with one button you can see homes available near your current location.

The app is available for all Smartphones, not just the iPhone!

I talk to a lot of people who are real estate investors sitting out the œbad market or people who want to become an investor.   Each person has a little different take on whether or not it is a good time to invest.  

Here is what really is going on in the Austin real estate investment market:

SUPPLY:

At the end of 2008 Austin apartment occupancy was at 91.4%, which is a very HIGH occupancy rate.   In 2009, 8412 apartment units were added and the occupancy rate dropped to 90.4%.   That is just over a 1% drop with a high number of units being added.   Why am I talking about apartments? The apartment rate is easily measurable and tends to mimic the occupancy rates of houses, duplexes, and other rental units.

For 2010 there are only 2061 apartment units projected. In 2011 there are only 1207 apartment units projected based on permitting. Due to the long lead-time in the development and permitting process of apartments, this number should not change much.

There are only 6700-7000 NEW homes projected to be built in 2010.

Summary- In 2011, Austin will see an apartment and new home shortage.   Housing supply is LOW.

DEMAND:

Austin resale homes are UP 27% for March 2010 over March 2009.

There are 1,327 people per day moving into Texas.

There are approximately 149 people per day moving into the Austin area

While job growth in Austin dipped slightly in 2009, job growth is UP for 2010.

Summary- Demand for housing in Austin remains HIGH.

 WHAT THIS MEANS TO YOU:

Austin continues to be a good place to invest in real estate.   High Demand and Low Supply will mean LOW Vacancy and Higher Rents.

If you don™t have investment properties, this is a GREAT time to start.   If you already own investment properties, you might want to take advantage of historic low interest rates to obtain more or to diversify your portfolio through a 1031 tax deferred sale/purchase.

Property Tax Appraisals should be arriving any day.   If you feel your appraisal is too high there is a process to protest the appraisal value.   According to Travis County, of people who protested their appraisal 50% received an adjustment.   This can make a difference of thousands of dollars to you each year.

Protests are typically for one of three reasons:

• Appraisal does not reflect market value.
• Appraisal is not fair and equitable.
• Appraisal does not reflect current property condition.

I don™t know of anyone that wants to argue that his or her property is in such poor condition that it is not worth what the appraisal district claims.

Fair and equitable is also hard to quantify unless your neighbors properties are just like yours, they bought at the same time and have the exact same exemptions you have.

So most people I talk to protest their Appraised Value based on market value.   In order to do this you have to show that your home is valued higher than similar homes are selling for in your neighborhood.  

www.CentralTXHouseValues.com

The deadline to file your protest is May 31^st.

Travis County™s form

http://www.traviscad.org/pdf/2010Forms/ARB/50-132_NoticeOfProtest.pdf

Some Travis County property owners may also receive notice of how they can file a protest online.

Williamson County™s form

http://www.wcad.org/appraisal/publicaccess/Forms/Protest%20Form.pdf

Bastrop County

If you didn™t get a notice of appraised value see the statement below from their website:

http://bastropcad.org/appraisal/publicaccess/News.aspx

If you received an appraised value notice the form to protest should be included.

Hays County provides a link to the following state form:

http://www.window.state.tx.us/taxinfo/taxforms/50-132.pdf

If that™s the case, you used to have to buy a property with an Agricultural Exemption or establish an Ag Exemption.   This usually entailed some sort of active livestock or farming business.

Now you can get a Wildlife Management Exemption, which is in effect an Ag Exemption.   Prior to 2007, this required taking a property with an existing Ag Exemption and converting to Wildlife Management, or performing Wildlife Management for 5 years and then Applying for he 1-D-1 Ag Exemption.

The 2007 Texas Legislature passed HB 604, which allowed landowners in some endangered species habitats to move directly into a Wildlife Management Plan without the 5-year rule or having previously been an Ag Exempt property.

This is specifically applied in Houston Toad Habitat areas of Bastrop County.   If you are a property owner in Bastrop County, in the Houston Toad Habitat and you have over 1 acre of land this can be a GREAT way to reduce your property tax bill.   If you have a property with a house on it but with additional acreage then the 1^st acre is considered for the house but each additional acre can have the property valuation reduced to an insignificant amount through this exemption. This GREATLY reduces your tax bill.

 If you currently own property in Bastrop County and are interested in knowing more about this contact Roxanne Hernandez who is the Lost Pines Habitat Conservation Plan Administrator Phone: (512) 332-7284 BastropLPHCP@co.bastrop.tx.us  

There is paperwork, an application and other fees as well as work that has to be done to the property in order to qualify.

 If you want to buy property that can either be potentially converted to Wild Life Management or property that has an existing plan and exemption, please contact David@JBGoodwin.com or 512-658-0890.   Even other Realtors in and around Bastrop are NOT familiar with this exemption or how it can be used.

The process can take 120+ days just to get an acceptance of the offer back from the lender.

A Short Sale is when a Seller owes more to the Lender than a house is worth and the lender agrees to accept less than the full mortgage pay off for the property.  

Usually the seller has to be experiencing a financial hardship.

Just because a property is a short sale does not mean it is a œ good deal.

Each short sale is a little different. As a buyer, the key things to remember are to be patient and find a REALTOR ® to guide you through the process.

I™ve just sold a Resale – single family property at 14302 Vandever St Street in Austin. Come and visit my site to see other properties in that area. If you are interested in looking for or selling your home, please Contact Me.

I™ve just sold a Resale – single family property at 1427 Tuffit Ln Lane in Austin. Come and visit my site to see other properties in that area. If you are interested in looking for or selling your home, please Contact Me.

I™ve just sold a Resale – single family property at 1306 E E Logan St Street in Round Rock. Come and visit my site to see other properties in that area. If you are interested in looking for or selling your home, please Contact Me.