Ty will graduate from high school in May of next year and is exploring his options for college. His first pick is the Naval Academy in Annapolis, MD but he is also exploring options to wrestle at the college level. Good luck, Ty, on your upcoming wrestling season and your final semester of high school!
It’s not everyday that you turn 18 and officially into an adult! On Dec 21, our second son Ty turned 18 years old and we celebrate with a family dinner at our country club, Bay Oaks. Did you know that as an 18 year old, there are things you can now do because you are considered an adult?
Inman News reports the latest statistics on existing homes sales, using data from the National Association of Realtors (NAR). There are two types of homes for sale, brand new construction and existing homes (used homes). The latest data on existing home sales shows:
Existing sales fell 4.1% in October to an annual rate of 3.79 million, which is the lowest level since 2010. Nonetheless, multiple offers are still happening, according to NAR’s Chief Economist Lawrence Yun.
The median existing home price for all housing types in October clocked in at $391,800, which is a 3.4% increase from October 2022 when it was $378,800.
Total housing inventory registered at the end of the month was 1.15 million units, up 1.8% from September but down 5.7 percent from one year ago.
A whopping 66% of homes sold in October were on the market for less than a month, according to NAR data. First-time buyers were responsible for 28 percent of sales in October.
A recent article by The Real Deal shows how foreign buyers boost the Austin, Texas housing market. Here are the important takeaways:
There was $609 million spent by international homebuyers in Central Texas in one year, and international homebuyers accounted for 3% of those sales.
Interestingly, one in six new Austin-area residents are from abroad.
India was the primary source of international homebuyers for the second consecutive year, making up 21% of transactions, while Mexico accounted for 17% of international transactions, followed by China (6%), Brazil (6%), and Canada (5%)
Median home price for international buyers increased to more than $573,000, up by more than $50,000 from the 2022 median price.
This median price significantly exceeded the overall median price in the Austin region, which was just more than $478,000 during the survey period.
The most exciting news of all is a special closing that took place on Friday, Dec 1. After nearly 1.5 years of marketing, showings, and negotiating, Annoura Realty sold the Japanese Government’s official residence in 77024. This special home was home to all of the Japanese Consul Generals from the past 35 years up until Hurricane Harvey when the home unfortunately flooded and was destroyed. Many official parties, meetings, and events had taken place in this beautiful home, giving it great significance in Houston history with Japanese relations. Special thanks to Consul General Mr. Murabayashi, Dennis McQuitty, and the entire Japanese Government staff for your trust in Annoura Realty. It was an honor to represent Japan and to get the home finally sold! While the sale of the official residence was the most exciting sale these past two weeks, we also had a lot of other real estate action take place. Susan and Mik got Olympic Forest under contract and through the option period for our investor in California. Susan also got her cute red barn house in Damon under contract and directly into pending status. We are now just waiting for the appraisal to come through and for the buyer’s loan to be approved. On the leasing front, we welcomed a new Mitsui expat to the Memorial area and had a new expat doctor from Saga move into the Medical Center area. On the listing front, we were super busy the past two weeks, taking to market Mario’s waterfront condo for lease on Clear Lake, a 5 bedroom home in Bay glen for lease, and a home for sale. The home for sale is tenant occupied until next summer and is zoned to popular Clear Lake High School: www.har.com/38179541. On the horizon, we will be bringing to market a home in League City for sale. It is currently tenant occupied but will be vacated by the end of January, so it will be ready for an end user to buy it. Mik and Susan will be helping a newcomer from DMG Mori find housing this coming week, and Susan and Mariko will be getting two more condo units to sell inside Ponderosa Forest. We will be looking for an investor to buy this 10 unit portfolio! The year might be ending but we are not slowing down!
The real estate industry is currently facing a multi-front assault from consumers and regulators across the U.S. And while it remains to be seen what will ultimately happen, the industry is increasingly bracing for major disruption.
Sitzer | Burnett Sitzer | Burnett has been the highest profile case lately because it went to trial in October in Missouri and the verdict was recently reached. A jury ultimately ruled in favor of the homeseller-plaintiffs in the case, agreeing that the National Association of Realtors (NAR) and various large franchisors conspired to keep commissions high. At issue was NAR’s cooperative compensation rule, also known as the Participation Rule, which requires listing brokers to make an offer of compensation to buyer brokers in order to submit a listing to a Realtor-affiliated MLS. The jury awarded $1,785,310,872 in damages, which, under the law, will be automatically trebled to $5.356 billion.
In the days following the verdict, several ‘copy cat’ lawsuits have come out, including a suit against Texas Realtors, HAR, MetroTex, ABOR, and many other real estate companies and even individual agents. Although NAR just lost the Sitzer Burnett case, it is not named in this suit. The target is only state and local associations saying they are guilty for overseeing compliance with the NAR MLS rules. Potentially, this lawsuit could seek class action status and represent home sellers in Texas from Nov 13, 2019 to present, who used a local association’s listing broker and paid a buyer’s agent commission. NAR defended the current system of cooperative compensation, stating it benefits both sellers and buyers by allowing homes to be sold for more, providing more choices for buyers, and facilitating transparent and efficient marketplaces. NAR emphasizes the value Realtors bring to clients during the complex homebuying process.
This is my opinion only, but if we change the current system where sellers pay their listing agent and their listing agent splits their commission with the cooperating buyer’s agent, then what system will we go to? Will we follow New York, where sellers are committed to paying their listing agent and will now pay the buyer’s agent directly? Will we change to a Colorado system where the seller often pays their listing agent and the listing agent is in the middle, representing the seller and just helps the the buyer (with no buyer’s agent)? Will we change to a Japanese system where the seller pays the listing agent and the buyer pays his own agent? There are many options of what the system could become after these lawsuits are worked out.
