Buying New House in Austin - Neighbourhood with good Appreciation (Round Rock: days on market, sales)

[desu30]

Hi I am new to Austin and considering to buy house and saw this forum is very helpful. I will be working in Round Rock area.
What will be a good community/neighbourhood to buy new house.
Living in Round Rock will be less communte and good school district but I have heard houses in Round Rock does not appreciate. Is this true?
Will Round Rock not appreciate even if overall Austin city appreciate? Please advice. Commute upto 45 minutes is acceptable.

I would definitely want my house to appreciate. What will be good neighbourhood from appreciation point of view in Austin.

[FromCalitoSteinerRanch]

Originally Posted by AustinNewGuy

Hi I am new to Austin and considering to buy house and saw this forum is very helpful. I will be working in Round Rock area.
What will be a good community/neighbourhood to buy new house.
Living in Round Rock will be less communte and good school district but I have heard houses in Round Rock does not appreciate. Is this true?
Will Round Rock not appreciate even if overall Austin city appreciate? Please advice. Commute upto 45 minutes is acceptable.

I would definitely want my house to appreciate. What will be good neighbourhood from appreciation point of view in Austin.

The Austin-Round Rock MSA is ranked 21st, and is projected for 5.00% growth for 2007. This is the complete MSA, so the trick is find Round Rock specific figures, but not Google hits that talk about the Austin-Round Rock MSA.

In our particular case, we went went up 2.6% from 6/03-3/05, but still lost money because of commissions. We even had a 4.5% total commission "move up" plan with the agent, so would have lost even more with a full 6%. From talking to our former neighbors, about a home that sold (in Jan. '07) across the street from our old home, with different, but equal attributes, we could have sold it for about $91 less than we sold it for in '05, based on $ / sq. ft., so it has stayed flat since then. In other words, we still would have lost money even in '07 because of the commission.

This was in Sonoma subdivision, so Lake Forest, and Forest Creek may not have the same issue, since they seem to have a more homegeneous home offering, whereas Sonoma was replatted and ended up with several sections with smaller lots, and smaller homes, many of which are rental properties.

[desu30]

Thank you...Yes I have heard some complaints on Sonoma....Wherever I buy either in NW,NE or West Austin....I i will try to choose planned community like Mayfield Ranch or Avery Ranch or Teravista so everything is properly planned and followed.....

Anybody have any idea or predictions if West, NorthWest Austin will appreciate more than RR area in NE

[austin-steve]

A few rules of thumb I follow ...

1) Buy a home at or near the average or median price range for the neighborhood and area. You may love the biggest floorplan the builder has, but don't buy it. If you want a house that big, go find a neighborhood or area where that size is middle of the road.

2) Buy in a neighborhood or area where re-sale homes are not having to compete against new construction, or where nearby new construction is nearing completion. New construction nearby is ok if the price points are substantially higher that the existing homes.

3) Buy in a neighborhood or area that is not oversold to investors. Many of the builders now hide their investor sales through a) proclamations that they don't sell to more than x% of investors (but do so anyway if they get stuck with too many inventory homes), and b) not allowing For Rent signs to be placed on the property. Your Realtor can pull up the ratio of recent sold vs. rented from the MLS stats for the neighborhood in which you're interested.

3) The closer you stay in to Austin, the more likely it is your appreciation will be greater.

4) Stick with planned unit developments if possible, but don't rule out older mature areas. Closer in older areas of Austin are appreciating very nicely the past couple of years and some of those area are somewhat scrubby to drive through (like the 78745 zip code, but the positive change is apparant and homes are selling very fast.

5) Buy in a Hot area with strong demand. We determine which areas are "hot" by looking at the Active/Pending ratio and average days on market. If there are as many or more Pendings than Active on a regular basis, that's a "hot" area with strong demand, which is what drives appreciation.

6) Avoid neighborhoods/areas that are too dependent on one or a few employers. As that employer (or their industry) goes, so does your home value.

7) Buy a good floorplan. Stick with single story if possible, or a home with a master down. Buy a home with an open feel versus a boxy, compartmentalized layout. Check out the sightlines as you walk through. Make sure it has a spacious home office downstairs (in larger homes), preferably off the main entry. Pay attention to the orientation of the home and where it sits relative to traffic (headlights at night), sunlight, neighbors, drainage, etc.

There are other factors but these are the main ones in a nutshell. Most rules can have an exception in the right circumstance.

Steve

[sterto]

Originally Posted by austin-steve

A few rules of thumb I follow ...
7) Buy a good floorplan. Stick with single story if possible, or a home with a master down.

good stuff. is your single-story, 1st-floor master advice unique to austin? or texas? or do you think it's more of an aging-baby-boomer national trend?

[Austin97]

Originally Posted by austin-steve

6) Avoid neighborhoods/areas that are too dependent on one or a few employers. As that employer (or their industry) goes, so does your home value.

These are great rules of thumb. RR is heavily dependent on Dell. In a downturn Dell can slah 1000 jobs in an instant wreaking havoc on the community.

If you get caught up in that and have to then commute to austin, that would be hell. I would rather live in an area closer to town and commute counter to traffc. The parmer/mcneil area isnt a master planned community but it has a good location and the price is excellent (and RR schools to boot).

One other thing is that areas are often times undervalued because something that people value more and is transient is outweighing something that is more long term. For example, a run down area close in to downtown will eventually appreciate. It may take a long time though.

Areas like round rock might be hot now, but they are really so far from downtown austin I think they will be limited in their appreciation, same with cedar park, leander etc. Those cities dont have anything intrinsicly good except that they are inexpensive. With 130 coming in, the I35 barrier is going away and east austin will definitely be growing.

[jennyb315]

Originally Posted by Austin97

Areas like round rock might be hot now, but they are really so far from downtown austin I think they will be limited in their appreciation, same with cedar park, leander etc. Those cities dont have anything intrinsicly good except that they are inexpensive.

And then there are those of us that have families to raise and we like to be in the burbs like RR, Cedar Park and Leander. Different things mean more to different people And I know it will grow out here and appreciate, especially the way the dollar continues to be devalued and inflation goes up-- therefore, the cost of goods goes up. Plus here in these areas, you can get some hills while still being in an affordable area. The east side is so flat --- doesn't work for us where we're so used to hills and mountains iin the Pacific NW.

Downtown and 6th Street and all that isn't for every one...... most family people (which is a larger part of the market) want to be in the burbs in good and safe neighborhoods with great schools.

We have bought and sold many houses in WA--- and made $ every time--- even in a dead market like the one we just sold in and my first thought is to buy a lower house (ie. don't be the biggest and best) in a more expensive neighborhood. I'm the first one here in our neighborhood and while I have to listen to concrete trucks all day long, we got in before all the price hikes that will happen every quarter

[austin-steve]

is your single-story, 1st-floor master advice unique to austin? or texas? or do you think it's more of an aging-baby-boomer national trend?

I've noticed it's something people want more often than not. It's not a deal killer, otherwise builders would quit building homes with all bedrooms upstairs, but I've not once had a buyer stipulate "master bedroom must be upstairs" yet I hear the opposite all the time.

I lived in a home with all bedrooms up only once and both my wife and I hated it. Too much stair climbing. And with the washer/dryer downstairs, it was a real hassle getting the laundry up and down.

Steve

[gigi927]

Originally Posted by austin-steve

but I've not once had a buyer stipulate "master bedroom must be upstairs" yet I hear the opposite all the time.

Steve

My husband actually had a client buy a new home 2 weeks ago with requirement of master up. They are hard to find in new construction anymore. But if you have a child with any sort of physical condition or with special needs it can be nice to be on the same floor as the child, so I don't imagine they'll ever be completely obsolete.

Many of the homes here in River Place are master up. The homes on our street were all built in 1992 and every single one is master up. While most people want master down now, the prevalence of master up does not seem to affect the desirability of River Place at all. Here it seems that most people will trade off the master down for the awesome neighborhood, mature landscape and amenities. Kind of interesting.

[nwcubsfan]

But if you have a child with any sort of physical condition or with special needs it can be nice to be on the same floor as the child

This is exactly why we needed a master up. Our kids are 7 and 4 and I don't want them tumbling down the stairs in the middle of the night just because once of them wanted to crawl into bed with us. I was really surprised at how hard it was to find new construction floorplans with a MBR upstairs. We finally found one, but it took a lot of legwork. I am very happy with the location and the plan and hopefully the builder as well.