Yes you heard it here folks. Home prices have increased now that spring and summer are upon us. The NYT put out an article today which notes that “The Standard & Poor’s Case-Shiller home-price index reported Tuesday that prices in April rose in 13 of the 20 cities tracked. Washington saw the biggest price increases, followed by San Francisco, Atlanta and Seattle.”

Overall is still seems that America is continuing down a fractured path. The big auto cities continue to suffer along with the likes of Las Vegas and Miami.

The article gives a cautious optimism. While it’s great that housing it up, there are also some major issues going on. Specifically “Larger down payment requirements, tougher lending standards and high unemployment are preventing people from buying homes. Many people who can afford to buy are holding off, worried that prices have yet to bottom out.”

Summary thought by Kim: This shows that the market is steady at the moment. It seems to be riding a line. One month it’s below it, another one it’s above it. So the market may be leveling out. There are still many foreclosures to be processed yet there are more jobs that are being posted in specific cities.

You can read the full article here.

Oh the spring. The spring in Austin. While the northeast and the Mid-West are still dealing with snow flurries it’s a beautiful day here in Austin, TX. Right now it’s in the 70s and be prepared because it’s a high of 95 today. And of course, you have got to love the yellow pollen covered cars.

Taken from: http://40weeks.modernmami.com/life/seasonal-allergies-pregnancy

And with that we will look back on a colder month of February. The Austin home market has remained pretty constant year to year at this point. One thing to note is last year this time we still have the incentive to buy a house with the 8K tax credit. Seeing as that the number of homes sold were only 3 less than last year with the tax credit, that’s a pretty good sign. Also, there was an increase of the median price. So overall, Austin is looking pretty good.

Here is the full article from the Austin American Statesman:

Austin home sales steady in February, down nationwide

Austin-area home sales held steady in February compared with a year ago, but the median price rose 2 percent to $193,000.

The Austin Board of Realtors said 1,112 single-family homes sold last month, three less than a year earlier.

Eldon Rude, a local housing market expert, noted that last year’s sales were boosted by a federal homebuyer tax credit.

“The fact that February sales approximated last year is an encouraging sign for our market,” said Rude, Austin market director for the Metrostudy research firm.

However, sales in the pipeline to close this month were down 11 percent, and it took an average of 98 days — 27 percent more than a year ago — to sell a house.

Nationally, February home sales were down 2.8 percent from a year earlier, the National Association of Realtors reported. The national median price fell 5.2 percent to $156,100.

Just a quick reminder for all of you who are doing their taxes…

1) If you own a piece of property that you are currently renting out, the house/condo is now considered a business. You may want to employee an actual tax accountant vs doing taxes online at a simple service. The reason being is since it’s a business you can write off any expenses that you have done (upgrades to the house, new washer/dryer, etc). If you have taken a loss on the rent vs what you pay for the mortgage you can also take this loss on your taxes. If you’re using a property management property, they keep tabs of all this and should send you a summary from the last year.

2) For those new home owners. This is more for next year. Make sure to fill out the Homestead Exception form Found Here. This protects you as a home owner. Basically if you have a property that is Homestead and you have another property that you have to foreclose on, the bank cannot touch your Homestead property if you’re current on payments. Also, just in daily life there are some tax breaks with the Homestead Exemption.

That’s it for now! -Kim

I’m feeling a bit rusty at the blogging thing but I feel I’ll get my chops up in no time!

Hope you all had a wonderful winter. It was a cold one here. Austin never really gets below 30 degrees and we had two major cold fronts that were in the teens with wind chills around 0!! Global warming? Maybe. All I know is I can’t remember a winter like the one we just had and I’ve been living here for a couple decades. But today is a high in the low 70s and sunny. BEAUTIFUL!

A view of Downtown Austin with the snow in 2011

Today I’ll be out looking at houses in the Northwest part of town and a tad bit in Cedar Park. I love this area for a couple reasons:

1) Great schools. With AISD laying off 500 teachers/librarians/etc you can’t help but wonder where the public education system is going. I know for Erik and myself we wonder if/when we have kids where should we put them. Right now at this point where we live, it would have to be private school for either of us to be comfortable. Then you start adding up the cost and you have to determine if you want to stay in the place you are and pay your property taxes for other kids to go to school while you are paying another school payment for private school… or you take the money you would put towards private school and move elsewhere. I suppose Austin is not the only place this is an issue. And for those of us who love city living maybe that’s the only option available. I’m sure I’ll keep you posted on all of that as time goes on. Milwood is still in Austin but actually lands in the Round Rock ISD and feeds into some great schools. Such a good options for those that want that public school experience for their kiddos.

One of the entrances to Milwood in Northwest Austin

2) Family Friendly. If you are planning to have a family or have a family this is such a great area. There are usually parks and recreational areas (including pool) nearby and this area of town does NOT have HOAs (for the most part). So that can be a plus if that’s what you are looking for. It’s the type of place on Halloween night you will see TONS of kiddos and families taking over the neighborhood. The kind of place where you should probably drive rather slow down the streets because you know kids are going to be zingging along on their bikes.

Rattan Playground in the Milwood division

3) Location location location. This is a GREAT location. Where we are looking is specifically in the Milwood area of town as well as Anderson Mill. Both of these locations give you great access to major roads including 183, Mopac, Parmer, and 620. Since this is a huge intersection type of area it makes it easy to get anywhere.

Rattan Pool in the Milwood Division of Northwest Austin

4) Size of houses. As you get closer and closer in to town the houses get smaller and smaller just due to the style of when they were built. In this area you can find something around the 2,000 sq ft and larger and you don’t feel you live out in BFE.

So it’s a beautiful day to look at houses! One of my favorite things to do in life is house hunt. I hope you are also enjoying the beautiful day and doing something you love as well!

Alright, back to blogging and what a good day to start. Let’s talk competition.

Redfin (http://www.redfin.com) is the new competition in town. If you don’t know about it, it’s basically an online type of real estate site that offers rebates after the sale so your net is more at the end of the day. The tradeoff is you get to do the research through all the available houses and schedule your own appointments with agents to show you the house. For people that really like nerding out and spending a ton of time learning the market and seeing houses and being your own secretary then this might be the place for you. BUT (spoiler alert) it only makes sense if you are looking at houses around 200K and up.

The reason I say that is because the fee is a 6K minimum to use a Redfin agent. A standard commission in most markets is about 3%. So as a buyer you will need to be buying a house that is 200K and over to be getting some money back as a refund and at that point you have done a lot of the work that an agent does for you.

So it’s an interesting business model, for sure. But it doesn’t seem to be the best choice for a sold price of 200K and under. Now I know that a lot of the Austin market falls over that 200K mark, but I’m looking out for the little guy here.