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A homebuilding industry online magazine has ranked Austin the nation's healthiest housing market.  Builder Online cites low unemployment and high demand as reasons why the Austin market is making a comeback.

Home prices in Austin were still going up last year, unlike most of the country, but they have finally started to fall.  The latest numbers show home prices down 4.6% in 2009.

Harry Savio with the Greater Austin Homebuilders Association stated "Clearly we're not as good as we'd like, obviously we'd like for things to be better but still it gives you some feeling of assurance that things aren't as bad as some people are having."

Builders Online notes that Austin's population grew by more than 4% during the first half of this year which created demand and will help to firm up home prices.

"The fundamentals are there for housing to continue to grow," said Savio.  "We don't have a lot of inventory, we don't have a lot of excess houses on the ground."

Savio said builders are also seeing a boom in large part due to the federal government's $8,000 tax credit for first time homebuyers.   A lot of first time homebuyers are going out and looking at houses and realizing, if they are going to buy a house, this is probably a good time to do it.

The credit expires November 30th, but housing industry experts in Austin don't expect a cash for clunkers style decline in home sales.  There are some fundamental things about the Austin's economy that are sound. 

Two other Texas cities ranked in the top ten.  San Antonio finished just behind Austin at number two and the Houston- Sugar Land area ranked number four.

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Buying or Selling a Home?

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Heather Brown

RE/MAX Austin Skyline

512-751-2931

www.HeatherBrown.com

According to Yahoo News:

Austin is the #2 U.S. City least touched by the recession, behind #1 San Antonio.

America's strongest economies have one thing in common - home prices that never got too hot or too cold.

Home prices in metros such as San Antonio, Oklahoma city, Pittsburgh, Rochester, Little Rock, Ark and Baton Rouge, La., remained steady through boom and bust.  Although no metropolitan area entirely avoided the economic downturn, the most resilient metros were protected by a potent mix or recession-resistant jobs.

The upstate New York areas of Syracuse, Rochester, Albany, and Buffalo suffered from declining jobs in manufacturing, but got significant boosts from sizable health-care, education, and government sectors.  construction is booming in Baton Rouge, Louisiana's capital, as firms take advantage of financing for post-Katrina hurricane recovery work and service-related companies expand to meet the needs of a growing population.  Omaha and the state of Iowa have relatively strong insurance sectors.

Texas, the last state to enter recession, has been bolstered by its oil and gas industries -- which have also helped Oklahoma, North Dakota, and Louisiana.  Texas also has many other things going for it, including affordable home prices and relatively low wages, which attract corporations.

BusinessWeek.com used data and analysis from the Brookings Institution's new MetroMonitor to come up with the nation's 40 strongest economies.  The MetroMonitor, which measures the nation's health on a quarterly basis, ranks the top 100 metros based on job growth, unemployment, gross metropolitan product, and home prices.

Although the metros in the ranking are strong by relative standards, their unemployment rates in many cases are now peaking because they entered the recession late.  Texas, which had 5 metros in the top 10 including no.1 San A Antonio and no.2 Austin - is a good example.

The unemployment rate in Texas hit 8.2% in September, rising above 8% for the first time in 22 years.  But that's a very low unemployment rate, compared to the national rate of 9.8% or to Nevada's 13.3% rate.

Texas is unlikely to face a prolonged downturn, said Terry Clower,an economist at the University of North Texas.  The state's affordable cost of living make it attractive to new residents and corporations, the largest of which tend to be based near Houston and Dallas.

According to Clower, "Texas is perceived as a low cost place to do business, because housing is affordable, the wage rates reflect that."

It has also been said that late arrivals to the recession will generally face mild downturns.

Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke might think the country is out of the recession, but unemployment is rising from Connecticut to California and banks are taking possession of a growing unemployment is rising from Connecticut to California and banks are taking possession of a growing share of American homes.  But some metros across the nation have managed to stay out of the recession's path and could now be poised for recovery.  Using data and analysis from the Brookings Institution's new MetroMonitor study, BusinessWeek.com ranked the nation's top 40 economies based on job growth, employment, economic growth, and home prices.  And Texas seems to be the clear winner with San Antonio at the to of the list and five metros in the top 10. 

Austin, known as a high-tech center and home to the University of Texas.  Employment in the Austin metro peaked in the fourth quarter of last year.  Gross metropolitan product peaked in the second quarter.  Home prices grew 2.5% in the second quarter compared with the same period a year earlier.  The unemployment rate in June was 7.1%, up 2.6 points from a year earlier. 

Buying or Selling a Home?

I Want to Help!!!

Heather Brown

RE/MAX Austin Skyline

512-751-2931

www.HeatherBrown.com