Steiner Ranch Real Estate

The month of September saw 15 houses that got sold in the Steiner Ranch subdivision. The median sold price per square foot was $119.95. The median list price/sq ft was $124.8 so the good sign is it’s very close to the actual sold price/sq ft. The most days a house was on the market was 197 days, the lowest being 0. Of course every listing has its own attributes, so I wouldn’t bother too much about the ‘days on market’ specifics.

If you compare that with 2007, it’s not that far off! In the month of September ‘07, there were 20 houses that got sold, with median sold price/sqft being $135.71. So even in the midst of this mortgage crisis, there were good closings this past month. So I would say to all sellers to stay positive.

Click on the link below to see the photos and some details of listings for Sept’08 sold statistics:

Houses sold in the month of September ‘08

I have some high low graphs here for your information too:

I first thought of writing about the Bailout plan, but I think you all probably have gotten enough of it all day. So I changed my mind. Here goes something else instead…

For all those zillow.com lovers, beware.

Even I like it sometimes for just a quick peek, when its a neighbourhood I havent been to and I just have enough time(<1 min) to go to a website and look up its location. However their analytics dont always work correctly. I had a shock of my life (pleasant, albeit, unbelievable one) when I saw my house value and my street’s house values showed up way above what they should be.

So word of advice, and in Reagan’s words, ‘trust but verify’.  <trust is used quite loosely here in this context>

Zillow took of very well a few years back, to where at one point Yahoo partnered with it, to show house estimates. Some information on Yahoo search blog:

With all the recent discussion on where home prices are heading, we saw a great opportunity to improve our home valuation product on Yahoo! Real Estate. We?ve integrated our product with Zillow.com to provide users with free instant home value estimates and comparable home valuations for millions of homes in the U.S.

We also made it very easy to get your estimated home valuation: just go to Yahoo! Search and search for ‘home values?. You can then refine your search with a Yahoo! Shortcut by entering any street address and city/state or ZIP to get the estimated value on Yahoo! Real Estate.

Lately, studies showing their lead conversion statistics is also quite high. Looks like Yahoo and Zillow partnership is still going strong, as I recall seeing another article this year sometime in January.

If you are not aware of this fact already, Texas A&M is very highly involved in the TX real estate landscape, providing valuable research data, articles, software, market news and much more!

Particularly, I find this directory very useful: Real Estate Software Directory

However, most of the above software has a purchase or license fee.

If you are looking for free software, what I did was go to www.downloads.com and search for ‘real estate’ to find the following results.

I read recently another update on the interest rates going down even more. That really calls for a careful study of your current interest rates, and see if it deserves a refinance.

On Thursday, Freddie Mac’s nationwide survey found that 30-year, fixed-rate mortgages had declined to 5.78 percent from 5.93 percent the previous week.

Freddie Mac says the big drop in mortgage rates is fueling a boom in refinancing, with mortgage applications up 58 percent since mid-August.

Another solid reason to do it now rather than end of year or next year, is with the new presidential goverment in place, rates are most likely going to go up apart from a lot more changes.

However, be very careful in deciding whether to refinance or not. As the interest rates are not the ONLY deciding factor. I will post some information on it later this week or next.

155 houses, active listings are there on the market now. For this time of the year, the number is higher than normal. While I am sure a lot of these is regular business as usual, I think some of them account for the mortgage slowdown, and buyers in difficulty getting qualified, tighter loan schemes and hence more time on the market, as well as some of it just offloading on negative hype.

Quick one line view of houses on sale

Brief Description of all houses on sale

The recent ABJ article has some more data about the overall Austin housing sale statistics:

Austin area residential sales still aren’t showing signs of improvement.

Just fewer than 2,000 homes were sold in August, according to the latest Multiple Listing Service figures released by the Austin Board of Realtors. That’s a 20 percent drop in sales compared with August 2007.

A few things to look out for as the temperatures to go down:

1. Perfect time to do indoor projects - most materials are on sale now! A gotcha however is that you may have less choices though. I tried to get two chaises for our deck in the backyard thinking it will be nice to enjoy the change in season with a nice blanket and read some books. I got an excellent deal on the chairs, but cannot find cushions anywhere. If you know of places, let me know. I checked out at least 4 pages of google search results and nearly most home goods stores around Steiner. You may not be as out of luck as I am, but really check our Home Depot or Lowes, and you will see a lot of prices on supplies are on the lowest.
2. Home improvement contractors rates lower - We all know that winter is a slow season both for builders and home sales/purchases alike. So its best to leverage this opportunity as well right, why not?

These renovation jobs will also prepare your home for a nice thanksgiving and christmas time - another bonus to get busy this winter.

Dear Steiner Residents,
Picking up on the blogging habit from my husband, I started off with a recipes and food blog and had a lot of fun. After sharing my kitchen secrets, now I am venturing out into real estate blogging. To give a few words of introduction: I have been in Austin a little over 8 years now and have just fallen in love with this charming city. I didn’t think I’d stay for more than a couple years when my job got me here, but little did I know Now I am here for good, at least I cant imagine another city I’d rather be!

I have been a Realtor for a few years now, practicing residential and investment real estate. While a full time investor myself, I am always on the lookout for interesting projects in the Austin and neighboring areas and building portfolios for my clients as well.

So keep watching this section for real estate news, Steiner Ranch housing updates, and other interesting stuff. Of course, if you have a question, please feel free to email me at Steiner.Housing@gmail.com