HomeCity Austin

IF YOU ARE A FIRST TIME HOMEBUYER AND BUY A HOUSE ANYTIME DURING THE REMAINDER OF 2008 AND ON OR BEFORE JULY 1, 2009 YOU ARE ELIGIBLE FOR A $7,500 TAX CREDIT

The single largest provision in the recently enacted “Housing Assistance Tax Act of 2008″ is a measure allowing First Time Homebuyers to take a tax credit of up to $7,500 of the purchase price.  The tax credit allows qualified homebuyers to subtract the credit amount from their federal income tax when they buy a home. They are then required to pay the credit back over 15 years. The result is that the credit resembles an interest-free loan that must be repaid to the government.

If you are looking for austin real estate and you are a first time homebuyer who would like to learn more about this program simply login to our website, http://austinrealestate.homecity.com and ask to have a loan officer from our preferred lender, Crosstown Mortgage, contact you.

Earlier this month the PMI Mortgage Insurance Company released its Fall 2008 U.S. Market Risk Index, ranking the nation’s 50 largest metropolitan statistical areas (MSAs) according to the probability that home prices will be lower in two years. Clearly the news is mixed!

If you live in or are considering moving to Texas (Austin, Dallas, Ft. Worth) the news is very good. PMI’s Risk Index estimates there is less than a 1% chance that homes in these areas will decline in value over the next two years. In a number of other major cities, there is as high as a 99% probability of falling home values. To see the full report please click here.

What does that mean for you? That really depends on your individual situation. You may be waiting for home values to fall in Texas; however, there is little probability that will happen. If you live outside of Texas you may reside in an MSA that will see a continuing decline of home values. This may require you to wait out the economy or encourage you to move to a more stable area of the country sooner.

To see how the Austin Real Estate market is doing, visit  http://austinrealestate.homecity.com/

The State of Texas’ Texas Education Agency (TEA) provides detailed information regarding the performance of individual Texas school campus(s) and school districts in and around the Austin, TX area.  TEA provides SAT scores, standardized testing results, spending per student and many other valuable pieces of data.  When evaluating the Austin, TX Real Estate market, many families will select the area based on the performance of a specific high school, middle or elementary school.

Once the school(s) has been selected, the challenge is finding the right home in Austin, TX.  Historically, the consumer would have to contact an Austin Real Estate Agent for guidance or spend many hours searching Austin Real Estate websites that have homes for sale in Austin, TX trying to find the Austin homes that feed into a particular campus.  To simplify this process, HomeCity Real Estate provides our clients and guests with the ability to search the Austin Real Estate market by school campus.  Now you can find only those Austin, TX homes for sale that feed into the particular school campus(s) you are interested in seeing.  To start your search by school campus go to http://austin.homecity.com/.

From The Austin Business Journal, November 23, 2007

Austin is among the top ten cities in the country viewed as most desireable for relocation, according to a recent study.

The study, “Talent Markets: The Importance of Location in the Competition for Human Capital,” named Austin the sixth most desireable city for relocation out of more than 30 cities examined in the United States.

San Diego, San Francisco and New York were the top three most desireable cities for relocation in the study’s survey, but the three least preferred cities also included New York at number one, along with Detroit and Los Angeles.

“Employers and governmental entities within a given region can play an important role in attracting new talent by promoting the unique advantages they offer to residents in concrete terms,” says Allan Schweyer, president and executive director of the Human Capital Institute and co-author of the study. “Our study found that the ‘brand,’ or perception of a city, is a critical factor in the decision-making process for candidates. Therefore, cities and employers that understand, manage and promote their brands will be best positioned to attract and keep knowledge workers of all ages.”

While the foreclosure rate continues to rise across the country, property foreclosure rates in Travis County is down 15% compared to last year (source: KXAN).

It seems that every week there is another news headline pointing out the doom and gloom in the real estate industry. Despite that fact, homes are still being bought and sold every day. In most markets, prices have fallen – although that still does not mean that those prices are affordable for the “average” homebuyer. But there is some good news, especially in markets where housing is considered affordable.

“Affordable markets are in a better position for a strong recovery, because more buyers can come in once prices fall,” says Mark Zandi, chief economist at Moody’s Economy.com.

Forbes.com recently ran an article naming the Top 10 most affordable cities, and both Austin and Dallas made the top ten. The primary method of calculation was the ration of median home price (Austin $176,200) to the median household salary ($65,739). By taking 176,200/65,739 we say that it would take over 2.5 years of gross salary to buy a home. Compare that to a market like LA where the median price of a home is around $600,00 but the median income is only $58k!

For the complete article visit this link.