While mortgage application activity for new home purchases in the U.S. ticked up 6 percent in October, application volumes were down 15.2 percent on a year-over-year basis according to the Mortgage Bankers Association and despite the fact that inventory levels were up 32.2 percent, year-over-year, and holding at a 13-year high.
And while the average loan size rose to “another record high” of $412,000, the rise is still being driven by a change in the mix, not an “increase in values,” as purchase activity “continues to be dominated by higher loan balance transactions, which pushed the average new home loan size up,” a fundamental trend shouldn’t catch any plugged-in readers by surprise.
Article in the NYT this weekend about Austin real estate suggests national buying trends are buoyant and trending upward into crazy town.
Why would an article about Austin real estate be indicative of national buying trends?
“Will Real Estate Ever Be Normal Again?
In Austin, Texas, and cities around the country, prices are skyrocketing, forcing regular people to act like speculators. When will it end?“
Even the inescapable Fredrik Eklund — whom I believe was one, if not the primary, role model for many of the Bravo channel-watching real estate agents who arrived here from elsewhere with dollar signs in their eyes after reading on the internet that S.F. was “hot, Hot, HOT” and wanted to get in on The Next Manhattan-like market but couldn’t make it in New York City — is expanding his practice to include Austin.
Austin is becoming One of the Least Affordable Cities in America. From the perspective of the people already here in S.F. and trying to just live their lives without being priced out as a result of the depredations of flippers, developers, and other hangers-on in the real estate “game” who have arrived here from elsewhere with dollar signs in their eyes, ready to exploit S.F. workers by running up the pricing of housing so they can escape with their “winnings” to early retirement in Texas or Florida, perhaps Austin will provide a necessary relief valve to direct the people with unquenchable thirsts of avarice toward greener pastures.