The first thing to realize is that you cannot let the national media, national data and national statistics affect your true opinion. While national housing data is used as a general indicator of overall economic health for the country and does have a huge effect on the stock market, you have to look at real estate on a local level and how it affects you personally.“The national media and improper interpretation of national housing data can cause lots of hysteria and reluctance with the potential buyers we meet with,” said Chip Bubela, Principal Broker at Bubela & Associates. “We spend a lot of time helping buyers make the right informed decision, and share a great deal of information about what is happening in Austin and how it affects them differently than what is happening in other markets around the U.S.”

One way to get a handle on local real estate market health is to look at who is driving home sales. Is it families and individuals simply looking for their piece of the American Dream or is it investors buying up distressed properties in bulk with hopes of turning a profit through rental or flipping?

When investors drive housing recovery and buy up inventory, sales will eventually drop off once supply and demand even out, as prices will rise to a point where investors stop finding deals. In contrast, we will see a longer, more stable and sustainable improvement when individual consumers dominate home sales.

Other factors affecting recovery depend on other variables, from an improving job market, increased consumer spending due to confidence in the economy, and the credit markets continuing to loosen up requirements for approved home loans.

“Here’s the best advice we can give you: the playing field is level right now and supply and demand in Central Texas has not evened out,” said Bubela. “Whether you’re a potential investor looking for attractively priced properties, a first time homebuyer, or a family looking to move up to their second or third home, you’ll find tons of great deals that will impress you. Give us a call and we’re happy to show you great properties while educating you on the pros and cons of buying today.”

Bubela & Associates is a full service Austin area real estate brokerage with offices in Cedar Park and Schulenburg. Those wishing to explore listing their homes or land for sale or home buyers requiring assistance in finding a property to purchase should contact mailto: realestate@bubelatexas.com

Austin Real Estate Market Attractive For Both Real Estate Investors & Consumers

After seeing so many false starts and differing national opinions about the recovery of the national housing market, it’s hard to not be skeptical about the level of recovery and real timelines. Will the market improve steadily, or will it keep up with this choppy tug of war that has been going in since the recession?

The first thing to realize is that you cannot let the national media, national data and national statistics affect your true opinion. While national housing data is used as a general indicator of overall economic health for the country and does have a huge effect on the stock market, you have to look at real estate on a local level and how it affects you personally.

“The national media and improper interpretation of national housing data can cause lots of hysteria and reluctance with the potential buyers we meet with,” said Chip Bubela, Principal Broker at Bubela & Associates. “We spend a lot of time helping buyers make the right informed decision, and share a great deal of information about what is happening in Austin and how it affects them differently than what is happening in other markets around the U.S.”

One way to get a handle on local real estate market health is to look at who is driving home sales. Is it families and individuals simply looking for their piece of the American Dream or is it investors buying up distressed properties in bulk with hopes of turning a profit through rental or flipping?

When investors drive housing recovery and buy up inventory, sales will eventually drop off once supply and demand even out, as prices will rise to a point where investors stop finding deals. In contrast, we will see a longer, more stable and sustainable improvement when individual consumers dominate home sales.

Other factors affecting recovery depend on other variables, from an improving job market, increased consumer spending due to confidence in the economy, and the credit markets continuing to loosen up requirements for approved home loans.

“Here’s the best advice we can give you: the playing field is level right now and supply and demand in Central Texas has not evened out,” said Bubela. “Whether you’re a potential investor looking for attractively priced properties, a first time homebuyer, or a family looking to move up to their second or third home, you’ll find tons of great deals that will impress you. Give us a call and we’re happy to show you great properties while educating you on the pros and cons of buying today.”

Bubela & Associates is a full service Austin area real estate brokerage with offices in Cedar Park and Schulenburg. Those wishing to explore listing their homes or land for sale or home buyers requiring assistance in finding a property to purchase should contact mailto: realestate@bubelatexas.com

The mortgages are available at a slightly higher rate that current market interest rates and are used to subsidize required down payments and closing costs. The general amount of available assistance is 4% of the mortgage amount. The loan is structured as a 30 year fixed rate mortgage with no monthly payments required to pay back the 4%, but the full amount of assistance is due and payable in full upon the resale, refinance or repayment of the mortgage.

To qualify, applicants must be earning no more than 115% of the area median family income (based on your family size) for the area where the home is purchased.

The second type of mortgage assistance loan available through the program is an “unassisted loan.” This program provides funds at an interest rate slightly below current market rates and does not include funds for down payments or closing costs assistance. For those who have saved for down payments and closing costs, this loan is a great way to borrow money at a lower interest rate.

The other requirement for applicants to these programs is completion of homebuyer education through a pre-purchase homebuyer education counseling course, which can be done in-classroom or through an online curriculum.

“We love helping first time homebuyers purchase their first homes in Austin and Central Texas” commented Chip Bubela, Principal Broker of Bubela & Associates. “Our team is knowledgeable about these First Time Homebuyer Assistance programs and are happy to help anyone interested apply for and use these programs intelligently. There are a lot of great homes for singles, couples and families that are a perfect fit for first time homebuyers.”

Bubela & Associates is a full service Austin area real estate brokerage with offices in Cedar Park and Schulenburg. Those wishing to explore listing their homes or land for sale or home buyers requiring assistance in finding a property to purchase should contact realestate@bubelatexas.com.

There are rigid defined qualifications that must be met by both the homebuyer and the property in order to meet the requirements for these 30 year fixed rate, no money down loans. The good news for Austin residents is that many communities in close-in areas are considered “rural” by the USDA. And the even better news for Austin residents is that your income must be below a certain annual amount.

A large number of popular areas within Leander qualify, and the number of properties eligible only increases the further you get from the City of Austin. The Leander suburbs are attractive prospects for those wishing to live close to Austin and purchase a home without having to worry about high down payments or draining their savings. There are also great opportunities in the areas around Schulenburg and the rest of Central Texas between Houston, San Antonio and Austin.

“There’s 2 easy ways to find out if a property in or outside Austin is considered ‘rural’ by the USDA. The first is to call our offices in Cedar Park or Schulenburg. For example, most of Leander is designated as rural by the USDA as well as the areas around Schulenburg. But, due to development, new retail and proximity to Travis County employment, consumers do not consider these 2 areas to be rural by any definition. These are prime locations that growing families are turning to for great homes with high savings built in. USDA just makes it easier with their $0 down loan program, “ said Chip Bubela, Principal Broker at Bubela & Associates.

“The second way to find out if a property is eligible, is to simply enter the address for the property into the USDA website. The data is usually very accurate and is great for those who are home shopping on the web during off business hours,” continued Bubela. “The link can be found here.”

Bubela & Associates is a full service Austin area real estate brokerage with offices in Cedar Park and Schulenburg. Those wishing to explore listing their homes or land for sale or home buyers requiring assistance in finding a property to purchase should contact realestate@bubelatexas.com.

The Assocation says the median time nationally for a home listed on the market was 69 days in July, down 29.6 percent from a year ago, when it took an average of 98 days to sell. Even better, just over one-third of residential real estate transactions sold in July, 2012 were on the market for sale for less than a month.

The trend in Austin follows a similar pattern of good news, which is great for homeowners in Austin and the surrounding area. Homes for sale in Austin were on the market an average of 63 days in August, 2012, meaning homes in the Austin are selling 6 days faster than the rest of the nation. This was an improvement of 14 days over Austin market numbers for August of 2011, or an 18% increase.

“We’re thrilled at our offices in Austin and Schulenburg. This news confirms the increase in activity that we’ve been seeing out on the streets. Our homeowner listings all over the Austin area and in Central Texas as a whole have been getting increased phone calls, tours and attendance at Open Houses,” commented Chip Bubela, Principal Broker of Bubela & Associates. “Our team is educating our sellers, that while it’s exciting to have lots of interest in their properties, it’s important to maintain a stable position on listing prices and to not leave money at the negotiating table by accepting offers too hastily.”

Bubela & Associates is a full service Austin area real estate brokerage with offices in Cedar Park and Schulenburg. Those wishing to explore listing their homes or land for sale or home buyers requiring assistance in finding a property to purchase should contact mailto:realestate@bubelatexas.com.

Austin was added to the Index in early 2012 and has retained its spot for August among the 80 tracked markets, used nationally as a general indicator of real estate market health in Metropolitan areas across the U.S.

“The list of improving housing markets in August includes metros across every region of the country, all of which have distinctly different characteristics in terms of their economic and employment bases as well as other factors, ” noted Barry Rutenberg, chairman of the National Association of Home Builders (NAHB) and a home builder from Gainesville, Fla.

“The fact that we continue to see a strong core of metros showing up on the improving list each month adds to the growing evidence that the emerging housing recovery has a solid foundation on which to build as housing returns to its traditional role of driving economic growth,” observed NAHB Chief Economist David Crowe.

A total of 80 metropolitan statistical areas across 32 states and the District of Columbia were listed as improving housing markets on the National Association of Home Builders/First American Improving Markets Index (IMI) for August, released today. This included 75 markets that retained their places on the list along with five new ones, while nine areas fell from the list due primarily to slight movements in house prices.

“With Austin and its surrounding area still designated as an improving housing market, it clearly shows that now is a good time to consider a home purchase,” commented Chip Bubela, Principal Broker of Bubela & Associates, a full service Austin and Central Texas real estate brokerage. “We continue to see a lot of consumers shopping for their first or second home purchase, and the phone is ringing consistently with property owners looking to list their homes for sale.”

Austin was added to the Improving Markets Index earlier this year due to improvements in employment growth, housing price appreciation and single family home building permit growth. Six months of improvements for Austin across all of these variables made the Texas capital eligible for inclusion in the Improving Markets Index.

Single family home sales totaled 2,593 homes sold in Austin in June, 2012, a more than 23% increase over June, 2011. During that same time period, the average price for homes was $218,350, an 8% increase over June, 2011.

“This looks to be Austin’s strongest summer housing market since the recession. A healthy amount of housing inventory for sale, a nice increase in completed home sales and a 23% decrease in the number of days it is taking for homes to sell indicate that Austin is re-emerging as a seller’s market,” commented Chip Bubela, principal broker of Bubela & Associates.

Homes selling in June, 2012 spent an average of 58 days on the market, a decrease of 17 days from 2011’s pace. “We’re seeing more overall offers on properties we are listing, as well as offers that are closer to the original asking price,” continued Bubela. “All this makes for a very positive environment for our sellers and is creating an exciting summer for our brokerage.”

The better landscape does not just apply to single family homes. Townhomes and condominiums purchased in the Austin area in June also showed a 19% increase over levels from June, 2011. The average price for condos was $190,000, or a 12% increase. These types of properties also sold faster than in 2011, with townhomes and condos spending an average of 61 days on the market, a 31% improvement over 2011.

This idea becomes more clear when you add in another factor – the value of a home can appreciate much faster than money invested in a savings account with a low interest rate. In a situation where your home increases in value annually, your wealth or investment in the home increases two fold – 1) as you pay the mortgage, you owe less on your original loan amount; and 2) the overall value of your home or asset increases.

In overly simplified terms, if the $250,000 single family home you purchase this year increases in value to be worth $280,000 two years from now, you have increased your net wealth from your home investment in the following ways.

Gained $30,000 in “free wealth” – the difference between the $250,000 price when you bought compared to the $280,000 it is worth now.

Gained back the 24 months of mortgage payments just as if deposited the value of your monthly payment into a savings account.

If you are a renter and do not own your home, you have simply paid your rent every month to your landlord, and they have used your rent money to increase their own net wealth in the same ways.

These calculations are overly simplified and does not take into account monthly property taxes, maintenance, insurance or mortgage interest. But as you can see, those who buy a home get their most expensive monthly costs – their cost of living – re-invested every month into building their personal wealth. Any of our Bubela agents are happy to discuss with you any of these details using one of our specific listings as an example or any home that is currently for sale in the Central Texas MLS.

The Austin and Central Texas real estate market is stable and there are plenty of housing choices for those wishing to buy this year.  Mortgage rates are extremely low, meaning that the interest you pay on your loan will be minimized. Down payment amounts are also low, meaning you can purchase a home with as little as 3.5% of the purchase price required or even $0 down when applicable programs apply. For those who are gainfully employed with a stable income, there has never been a better time to buy a home or invest in Austin real estate.