What to Consider When Buying a Home

The key turns, the door opens, the excitement mounts. Will this be the home of your dreams or a potential nightmare? What items should you beware of when checking out a home to buy? Follow this simple list below to help make sure that you are not just looking at the outward appearance of the home but also at the inward “bones” or structure of the home as well.

What to Look for When Buying a Home:

1.     Turn on faucets and even the shower—Does the home have the kind of water pressure that you like or need? If not, could this be easily fixed?

2.     A/C Unit-Air conditioning units are a major expense, and some houses can have multiple units that need upkeep or replacing. Make sure to take a look at the physical unit for signs of rust or decay and note how the home feels. Is the A/C working well to regulate the temperature? Ask the seller for the age of the unit or to see the service record & upkeep of the unit over the years.

3.     Roof-A new roof is a major expense. A quick visual examination of the roof will give you an initial idea of its age and condition, but you really will need an inspector to get up and walk on the roof to truly know how many more years you will be able to get out of it. Make sure to ask the sellers for the age of the roof and for a list of any roof repairs that have been done along the way!

4.     Appliances-Open all appliances that convey with the home and look inside of them. Don’t be afraid to turn them on and make sure they work properly (and then turn them back OFF again!). If you are planning on replacing appliances, take measurements to make sure that your new appliance will fit within the alcove/space of the current appliance!

5.     Ceilings-Many buyers forget to look up and take note of the condition of the ceiling. Make sure to notice if there are any visible water leaks or if there are ceiling patches and fresh paint. If so, ask questions about roof leaks and past water damage. Take note of cracking and settling lines as well. If the cracks run along the seams of the house, then they could just be regular settling. However, if the cracks run down a wall or in an unusual pattern, then they could be evidence of a larger foundation problem.

6.    Foundation-In addition to looking up, make sure to look down and all around the house at the foundation. Does it look like it is in good visible condition? Do you see any cracks on the outside of the house running in an unusual pattern through the exterior of the home? A foundation repair is one of the most major repairs you can do on a house—and a good reason to run the other way when considering a home purchase.

7.     Loose wires— Any loose wires that you see are obviously a safety issue. Make sure to ask questions about any light fixtures or electrical outlets where you see loose wires that don’t make sense.

8.     Under the sink—Make sure to take the time to look under all sinks at the pipes. Do any pipes look cracked or rusted? Do you see any water stains on the cabinetry or flooring below?

9.     Windows—Make sure to go over by the windows and stand for a while. Can you feel the outside air? Note the quality of the windows (single paned? double paned?) and how well they are doing at keeping the weather out of the home. This will have direct impact on your energy bills!

10.  Outside—Make sure to note the environment outside of the home. Is it located on a busy traffic street? Take a listen and make sure you like what you hear. Is it located in a potential flood zone?  Do you see any fire hazards?  Is there anything you need to be made aware of about living on or near a gas line? Make sure you are aware of any outside environmental hazards that could impact your peace of mind in your new home.

11.  Smell-Take note of how the home smells as you enter and remember that smells are hard to get out of a home.  Whether it’s cigarette smoke, a sewage line, mildew, etc, these odors can be difficult to expunge and should be considered when purchasing an existing home.

12.  Turn on all lights & open all cabinets –Make sure everything works well in the home.  For example: Is there a kitchen cabinet that collides directly with the dishwasher door when it is open? These are the sorts of functional, spatial issues that many buyers overlook when considering the purchase of a home.

13.  Flooring/countertop surfaces- Take note of the materials and condition of the flooring and countertops in the home. Although these may not be a deal breaker, they can be expensive to replace and need to be taken into consideration when considering the price tag of a home.

14. Think through the design & layout of the home—Does it fit with your lifestyle? Will there be a functional place to use most of your existing furniture? Is there wall space for your favorite wall hangings? Does the layout line up with what you value? For example, if you value hosting large parties, is there a great room space where people could mingle that would help facilitate this value?

15. Part of town/school districts—Location is a huge part of a home and can be one of the largest determiners of resale value. Make sure to do your homework about neighborhoods and schools before you begin looking!

What to Overlook:

1.     Paint- Many buyers let paint colors persuade them too much in the sale or refusal of a home. Remember that paint is a relatively cheap fix and can easily be changed in a matter of days in a home. If you love the home and the above list checks out, then overlook the paint color!

2.     Normal settling lines-As houses age, they develop normal cracks and settling along the seams of the house. However, these cracks can be “unsettling,” especially to first-time home buyers. If the foundation checks out, you do not need to worry about these normal crack lines (they can be caulked!), and the home is still safe to purchase.

3.     Small repairs- I’ve seen home buyers walk away from a home because they didn’t like the stone surrounding the fireplace, or the tile on the backsplash of the kitchen. Keep in mind that, on the grand scale of things, these are small jobs that can be replaced for anywhere from $800-$1000. So, if the rest of the house is wonderful, don’t let a small job like a fireplace surround or kitchen backsplash throw you off of your game.

4. If it isn’t PERFECT—Here’s a little secret for you: no house is totally perfect and there is a bit of compromise involved in every home transaction. So, if the home meets the most important criteria on your list then don’t eliminate it just yet. Continue to develop its potential in your head and see if the advantages of the home significantly outweigh the disadvantages. If so, then this still may be the home for you! For example, one client loved all the natural light in the house but was frustrated that there was not a window directly above the kitchen sink to look out of. After many weeks of debate, the clients decided to go ahead and get the house as the lack of window was the only hiccup for them. The clients then ended up using a mirror in that space instead that reflected all the natural light from the house, kept the kitchen light and bright, and helped the homeowners keep an eye on their kids while they were doing the dishes! The moral of this story is to keep an open mind about the home and know that you are looking for the home that speaks to you and your family’s needs the most!

Apple's Big Announcement and Its Impact on Austin

In early December, while all eyes were on Amazon’s HQ2 announcement, Apple made an important one of its own:  the decision to invest $1 billion in a new 133-acre Austin campus that will increase Apple to upwards of 15,000 employees in the coming years. With the completion of this campus, Apple will surpass other well-known names such as H-E-B and Dell to earn the title as the largest private employer in the city of Austin.

The Apple campus will be located right next to its counterpart just over the county line in Williamson County, placing it 12 miles from the city center. It will bring in a good mix of middle to upper range jobs in technology, research and customer call centers. In addition to catapulting Austin into the big leagues as a technology center, the incoming Apple campus will impact all sectors of life, such as housing, restaurants, traffic, and retail marketplaces.  Some estimate that the overall impact of the new Apple campus could result in over 30,000 new jobs across all sectors of real estate, construction, and the marketplace in Austin. 

What impact will this swell of jobs have on the Austin housing market? Prices will continue to rise if more supply is not created to meet these additional demands. As housing prices in the urban core of Austin continue to escalate, look for more incoming Apple employees to search for homes in the Round Rock, Pflugerville, and Hutto areas because of their close accessibility to the Robinson Ranch area (where Apple is located) via SH 45. Other communities that will likely see further development are Liberty Hill and Leader as I-35 will also become a main thoroughfare for Apple employees.

What might the arrival of Apple mean for your housing sale or purchase? If you are shopping in the housing market right now, the answer is simple.  The sooner you can buy, the better.  Competition and prices are only looking to increase. However, if you own a home in North Austin, you might want to hold onto it for a couple more years.  That is, if you can afford its increasing property taxes!

The addition of the new Apple campus will only contribute to Austin’s reputation as a knowledge and talent center and will continue to draw more people from the West Coast who are looking for solid tech jobs in more affordable housing markets.  However, the infrastructure will have to work hard to keep up with the demands of this brand new influx of people to make this a win for all Austinites.

Supply and Demand in the Austin Housing Market

Real estate is a business of supply and demand.  For the past four plus years in Austin, Texas, there has consistently been less than four months’ worth of housing inventory available. Data shows that low supply in the housing market also has driven up the median home price.   

In a relatively short period of time, there’s been a dramatic shift in home sales by price range. In 2011, 67 percent of houses that were sold were priced below $250,000, while 32 percent were priced from $250,000 to just under $1 million. By 2017, those percentages flipped: 63 percent of sales were above $250,000, and 35 percent were below.

The trends of low supply and high demand look to continue as Austin’s population is projected to increase from 1 million in 2014 to an estimated 2.3 million by the end of 2020.  In 2017, Austin saw 151 net new people move to Austin every single day!

In the past 10 years, the median home price in the Austin area has soared as well. In 2018, the Austin median home price was $319,000, up 66 percent from $192,000 in 2008, and median home prices in recent years have seen a year-over-year increase of 5.4%.  In May of 2020, the median home price rose to $424,050 with an average of only 1.7 months of available inventory.

What does all of this mean for the continued growth of the housing market?  There are some that think there will be an inevitable “normalization” of this strong market curve, while others that think the housing market will continue to boom if the city’s economy and job markets continue to prosper. 

What, if anything, could cause a downturn in the market in coming years?  Perhaps another U.S. Presidential election? Other potential factors could be trade/tariff issues, labor shortages, increased traffic and potential water-supply developments as the city continues to expand.  And of course, we have yet to see the full impact of the global pandemic on the housing market.

However, for now, we are enjoying a real estate market that continues to boom with demand significantly higher demand than supply in Austin, Texas. 

Are you wondering what the fair market price of your home is?  Contact me for a complimentary home evaluation today!  

Articles sourced:

1. http://austin.culturemap.com/news/city-life/09-15-15-what-will-austin-look-like-in-2020-new-lawnstarter-report-confirms-rapid-growth/

2. https://www.statesman.com/business/20180627/expert-outlook-bright-for-austin-economy-housing-market

3. https://communityimpact.com/austin/central-austin/development-construction/2018/02/01/austin-housing-market-expected-to-continue-growth-despite-low-supply-and-increasing-interest-rates/

4. https://www.bizjournals.com/austin/news/2018/03/22/austins-population-keeps-popping-heres-how-many.html

Conventional 30 Yr Fixed Interest Rates Are Going Up

The overnight rate is the interest rate the central bank sets to target monetary policy.  Since the Federal Reserve decides when to increase the overnight rate, it can be a good predictor for the movement of short-term interest rates for consumers in the broader economy.  When the Fed increases its interest rate to the banks, the banks then tend to pass on some, if not all, of that increase to the consumer.  Therefore, the higher the overnight rate, the more expensive it can be to borrow money.

After an extremely low interest rate in the recession of 2008, the overnight lending rate has been increasing slowly over the past 10 years and is expecting another rate hike in December, three more hikes in 2019 and another increase in 2020. 

source: https://tradingeconomics.com/united-states/interest-rate

As mentioned previously, many predict that this overnight rate hike will result in increased interest rates being passed on to the consumer. 

30 YEAR FIXED RATE MORTGAGE INTEREST RATE FORECAST 2018, 2019, 2020

https://longforecast.com/mortgage-interest-rates-forecast-2017-2018-2019-2020-2021-30-year-15-year

Since the Fed has continued to announce project rate hikes until 2020, here are some suggestions for you, the consumer, to think about now:

1.      Pay close attention to variable interest rates.  These will continue to rise as the federal rate rises.  Credit cards interest, home equity lines of credit and adjustable rate mortgages will continue to climb. Student loans with variable interest rates may also be impacted.

2.     If you are a borrower with an adjustable rate mortgage, consider refinancing if your interest rate is set to change in the next 1-2 years.

3.     The sooner you can lock in a fixed rate mortgage, the better.  Even if you are in the process of searching for a home, many lenders will let you lock in a fixed rate once you have been pre-approved for a loan.

Seasonality in Real Estate

While you might not think the seasons of the year have an influence on the price you are paying or asking for your home, it can make a big difference – in some cases, as much as 10%.

Seasonality of Real Estate—What are the Key Factors?

1. Weather-Weather impacts the seasonality of real estate differently, depending on the climate your home is in. For example, in some popular ski resort towns, homes prices can skyrocket during the winter months, while winter impacts the market in other areas negatively. Understanding how the weather and its seasons impacts real estate value is an important consideration both for buying and selling.

 2. School Year- Studies have shown the busiest moving times of the year occur during the summer, with June being one of the busiest months and July 31 the single busiest moving day.  This data means that people are most likely to shop the housing market from the beginning of May through the summer months.

 3. Holidays- Many people do not want to move or uproot their family during the holidays, which essentially eliminates the period between November and January.  Many people do not want to add a move on top of all the extra obligations of the holiday season.  However, as a buyer, the holidays would be a good time to leverage a lower priced market combined with some holiday vacation days! 

What Does Seasonality Mean for Home Buyers? 

For a home buyer, it’s better to buy in an “off season.”   As a buyer in off season, you will have more negotiating room, less competition, and overall lower prices for the houses on the market during the off season. In addition, sellers may be more willing to give more concessions such as money for repairs or a longer closing period in order to firm up a contract on a house during the leaner selling months.

What Does Seasonality Mean for Home Sellers? 

If you are a seller, you want to obviously sell during those summer months, when the competition is fierce and the market is hot.   Multiple offers and bidding wars are your friend as a seller.  However, the downside is that when you are a seller, it usually means that you are also a buyer.   In an ideal world, sell in the spring/summer months to make the most profit on the home that you are selling. Then find a 4-6 month temporary living arrangement that would allow you to wait to buy until the winter or holiday months when seasonality and lower prices are typically on your side as a buyer.

I’m Thinking of Buying/Selling. What Are My Next Steps?

If you are working with a real estate agent, they should be able to provide you with the market metrics for different seasons in your area. By comparing different months and years, you’ll be able to identify where there are significant peaks and lows in your current market and determine when your areas ideal periods for both selling and buying. Interested in the Austin area? Contact me today 512-817-0855. I would be happy to provide you with market trends of any area in Austin and a seasonal analysis of the best time to buy or sell!