So, we went touring houses in Austin over the last couple of months.  We were looking to purchase a primary residence.  Of course we used the resources on HouseHitz to find them and were often sending information to our Realtor on what houses we wanted to look at.  We found a house that we just loved.  We decided to put in a full price offer.  We did ask the seller to pay some closing costs, but we actually increased the offer above the sellers asking price in order to cover it for them.  Two days later, we got: “We got a stronger offer.”  We were stunned.

But, hey, it happens, right?

So, we started again.  We were getting good at finding houses that came available.  Our Realtor was even finding out about some before they came on the market.  We would drive through neighborhoods we liked and we would find houses that weren’t listed anywhere.  Just had a Realtor’s sign “Coming Soon”.

We would walk into one of these houses that aren’t technically on the market yet and say to our Realtor, oooh, we like this one.  He would get on the phone and often would come back to us with “They have three offers already”.

We started checking with the listing Realtor before we would even go out to a house.  “Any offers yet?”  If the answer was yes, we would pass.

We got so discouraged that at one point, we put a contract on a brand  new home in Pflugerville.  If we couldn’t outbid them, we would buy a new one.  However, that didn’t stop us from looking for a resale home.  It did keep us sane though.

We did finally find the perfect house.  It actually had everything on our wish list.  Pool, superior backyard and patio for entertaining.  Everything. We offered 3% over asking price.  Not taking any chances.  This offer was accepted.

Dang, the housing market in Austin Texas is HOT!

Texas is big. We all already know that, but Texas is also home to some of the largest cities in the United States. One of those cities happens to be the city of San Antonio. San Antonio is the second largest city in Texas, and the seventh largest in the entire United States. Currently over two million people call the city of San Antonio home. The city has been named one of the fastest growing cities in the United States even when the real estate market was not performing at its peak. In this next segment of, “The State of Real Estate,” we take a close look at the city of San Antonio.

Right around the same time that San Antonio was named one of the fastest growing cities in the United States, the amount of new houses being built was peaking at around 1600. The value of homes in San Antonio was also at a peak.

By the end of the year 2007, things were much different. The city was still considered to be one of the fastest growing cities in the United States, but the amount of new homes being built had dropped dramatically down to around 500.

The unemployment rate also climbed significantly around the same time. It started to rise in early 2008, and peaked in the middle of 2011. The unemployment rate has started to come down, but the amount of new houses being built still remains at the lowest that it has been for over ten years.

The value of homes in San Antonio have also stayed right in line with the amount of new houses being built. The prices are low, and the inventory is low. A smart investor knows that this could be the very best time to invest in property in the San Antonio area.

Florida has some popular cities, but Jacksonville is the largest. There are over 1.3 million people living in and around the city of Jacksonville. Jacksonville is also one of the largest cities in the United States in terms of size. The city occupies 767 square miles and it sits on the banks of the St Johns River. In our next installment of, “The State of Real Estate,” We will take a close look at the real estate market in Jacksonville, Florida.

Jacksonville definitely saw a huge boom in new home construction sometime in the year 2005. The value of homes in Jacksonville also saw a significant rise right around the very same time. Towards the end of 2005, there were approximately 2000 new homes being built. In 2006 the number of new houses being built saw a steep decline to around 1500 houses. By the beginning of 2007, this number fell to below 500. There were no houses being built in Jacksonville, and by 2008 a recession had begun. The price of real estate in Jacksonville fell right along with the amount of new homes being built. The amount of new houses being built today is still roughly the same as it was when things went downhill.

The unemployment rate in Jacksonville rose to the highest it has been shortly after the real estate market went down. Without all of the new construction being done, many home building companies were letting all of their employees go, and many of the home building companies were going out of business. The unemployment rate has started to fall since it rose so sharply in 2010.

The value of homes in Jacksonville is still at an all time low. It is a great time to get some real estate before the prices go back up.

Pittsburgh is the second largest city in the state of Pennsylvania. At one time Pittsburgh was known to be a steel producing city, but times have changed that. Today, almost all of the old steel factories are long gone. Many of them were abandoned when the need for steel was no longer in demand. These old abandoned steel factories have been redeveloped by the city, and turned into housing, offices and shopping centers. Technology companies are now the most popular businesses in Pittsburgh. In our next edition of, “The State of Real Estate,” we take a closer look at the transformed city of Pittsburgh.

Like much of the rest of the United States the real estate market in Pittsburgh has seen its ups and downs. When the bottom fell out of the real estate market in 2009, it had a huge effect on Pittsburgh, and it affected much more than the Pittsburgh real estate market. Unemployment rates seemed to rise at the same exact time all of the house values fell. It was a tough time for citizens in Pittsburgh, and the rest of the United States.

In 2008 the unemployment rate was as low as 4%. By the end of 2010 it had risen to as high as 9.5%. This was the highest unemployment rate that the city had seen in over ten years. Today it has dropped to just over 7%.

New housing that was being developed saw a massive decline when the rest of the real estate market in Pittsburgh fell in 2009. It is no small coincidence that the unemployment rate shot up at the same time. The United States was in a recession that some say still exists. One interesting thing to note. During all these difficult times, the average income continued to rise from right around 20,000 in 1990 to around 42,000 today.

To say that San Francisco was big would be quite an understatement. There are currently over 7.5 million people that live in the city of San Francisco, and they are spread out over a 47 square mile piece of land. That means that there is approximately 17,000 people for every square mile. This huge amount of people fuels a very big real estate market. In the next part of our series entitled, “The State of Real Estate,” we take a closer look at some real estate history for San Francisco.

The real estate market in San Francisco has been one heck of a wild ride. If you happened to purchase some property in San Francisco back in 2006 you are probably not a very happy person. In 2006 the value of homes in San Francisco was roughly $215,000. Today that very same piece of property is only valued at around $125,000. That is quite a significant loss in value. If this purchase happened to be a first time investment, you may be re-thinking this whole real estate investment scenario right about now.

If you happened to purchase a piece of property in San Francisco 10 years ago, hopefully you sold it in 2006-2007. Ten years ago a piece of property in San Francisco was worth right about the same amount that it is worth today. If you are still holding on to that property that was purchased in 2002, then you have not made or lost any money.

Will the real estate market in San Francisco come back to the way it was in 2006-2007? It hit a ten year low in the middle of 2009, and then it made a slight rebound, but it has been in a state of steady decline. This is the time to buy property in San Francisco.

California is usually a trend setter when it comes to the real estate market. Real estate professionals all over the United States are constantly watching the California real estate market like some kind of magical crystal ball. For the most part, California does lead the United States in real estate trends. In our next installment of, “The State of Real Estate,” we take a closer look at the real estate market in the city if Sacramento, California.

Like much of the United States, the real estate market in Sacramento has seen better days. In early 2006, the real estate market all over the United States was seeing massive growth. Houses were being built, and new houses were being sold in record numbers. Along with this spike in real estate activity, the value of homes in Sacramento also started to rise as well, but this growing trend quickly came to an end in late 2007.

The value of homes in Sacramento started to fall. The amount of new homes being constructed started to fall as well. They reached a record low in 2008, but halfway through the year, the value of homes started to rise again. The rest of the real estate market in the United States was still falling, but there was a spark of life in Sacramento. That spark was quickly extinguished in early 2009, when new home construction, and home values fell even lower than they did in 2008.

Since that dramatic fall in 2009, the real estate market in Sacramento market has never fully recovered. For the past three years it has seen some ups and downs, but it has not gotten back to where it was in 2008. It has started to show some signs of growth again since the beginning of 2012. If you are thinking about purchasing real estate in Sacramento, now is a great time. You will be able to get in while the prices are still low.

There are more people that live in the city of Denver than in any other city in the state of Colorado. It gets its nickname of, “The Mile High City” because the elevation is exactly one mile. While the elevation in the city of Denver may seem high, the value of real estate seems to be right on par with the rest of the country. In the third installment of our series entitled, “The State of Real Estate” we take a closer look at the value of properties in the city of Denver, but instead of using only five years or so of data, in this example we will go back to the mid 80s.

If you were a real estate investor who was smart enough to purchase a lot of property in Denver in the mid 80s, then you would have made some very serious amounts of money. The value of homes in Denver in the mid 80s was right around $50,000 per home. By the early parts of the year 2000, the value had almost tripled, and this roller coaster was not done yet.

In early 2006 the value of homes in Denver, Colorado peaked at around $140,000. The values began to fall in late 2007 where they hit rock bottom by early 2009. It was not a total loss because homes were still valued at around $122,000.

There was a steady increase to just around $128,000 in the early parts of 2010, and then the value of homes began to fall yet again. They reached a low point again in late 2011, but now they appear to be climbing back up again.

The value of home is still no where as low as it was in the mid 80s. The average value today is right around $125,500. This seems to be right in line with the rest of the United States.

The State of Real Estate In The Dallas Fort Worth Area

Texas is known for a few things. It is the second largest state in the United States and everything in Texas appears to be bigger, but there is one thing in the Dallas Fort Worth area that is not big and bloated, and that would have to be the value of homes. The overall housing market in the United States has seen a very rough and bumpy ride in the last five to six years. In the second part of our series entitled, “The State of Real Estate.” We take a closer look at the value of homes in the Dallas Fort Worth area.

Like most of the United States the value of homes in the Dallas Fort Worth area has been a bumpy ride. Over the past five years the value of homes in this area has fallen, but not quite as steeply as they have in cities like Miami.

Another very interesting thing to note about the value of homes in the Dallas Fort Worth Area is the roller coaster like peaks and valleys. Right when it looks as if the value of homes is reaching an all time low, it bounces right back up again, but it never seems to hit the same peak that it did back in the middle of 2007 when homes were valued at around $126,000.

In 2008 an economic recession started, and the value of homes fell to around $117,000, but by the end of the year they were back up again. The beginning of 2009 saw the biggest drop in value, where home values fell to as low as 111,000, but once again, they bounced back up to right around $121,00 by the middle of the year.

Fast forward to today. The values of homes in this area are now as low as they were in 2009. If the past values have any indication of what to expect, then the values of homes in the Dallas Fort Worth area should be on the rise.

Miami is one of the hottest cities in the world, and the term “hot” has absolutely nothing to do with the temperatures in Miami. In fact, one of the most appealing things about Miami is the year round moderate temperatures. People seem the like living in a city where the average year round temperatures are in the mid 80s. Miami also has some of the best beaches in the world. The warm blue waters of the Atlantic Ocean calmly wash up on the white sandy beaches every single day, and when the sun goes down, the city of Miami springs to life.

So what does the current state of the real estate market in the Miami and Fort Lauderdale are look like? Taking data from home sales in Miami from five years ago and comparing to home sales data today does not look very promising.

Five years ago home prices were at their peak. The lower valued homes were selling for an average of just over $320,000 in the beginning of the year 2007. In the first quarter of 2007, the value of homes peaked, and then the slow downward spiral began. By the end of the year 2007, home values were right around $300,000.

In 2008 something horrible happened, an economic recession started and the value of homes in the Miami Fort Lauderdale market fell dramatically. In just two short years the average value of a home in this area went from around $300,000 to right around $150,000 in the middle of 2009. From the middle of 2009 until today the average price of homes for sale in the Miami Fort Lauderdale area has slowly fallen. It has not been nearly as extreme as it was from 2007 – 2009, but the average value of the lower valued homes in Miami is now hovering just under $120,000.

This could be the prime time to start buying up property in Miami. Real estate investors can get in, and get some property while everything is very cheap.  As we said in our post on May 19th, foreign investors certainly think so.

It is no secret that the real estate market has had its ups and downs. If you were to take the data from the real estate market for the last 100 years or so and make a line graph, it would look like a blueprint for the world’s longest and craziest roller coaster ride, and for many people where the real estate market is an integral part of their life, it is a roller coaster ride. There are plenty of uphill climbs followed by high peaks that quickly plummet further down only to come to a smaller less thrilling peak before there is another huge climb towards the top. For some it may be the thrill of a lifetime, while others may find that it is just too much to handle.

Analyzing these peaks and valleys can make a real estate investor a lot of money. Knowing when the market is at its lowest could be a sign to make a purchase or two. Then it is up to the investor to see how long they want to hold on to the property. Real estate trends can also benefit people that are looking to buy homes as well.

There is more than just sales data to analyze. There is other data as well. Some of the most common data points that people will find the most interesting are the following:

The total amount of houses on the market – This is one of the single best pieces of data to help gauge the current state of the housing market. If there are too many houses for sale on the market, it could be a bad sign. If there are not enough houses for sale on the market, it could be a bad sign as well. Over the next few weeks we will be analyzing housing data from different areas around the country. Stay tuned for “The State of Real Estate.”