Ahhhhh yes, 19° and snowing last Tuesday and now a forecasted high of 77° this weekend. That’s a 58 degree swing in a 10 day span. Thank god we have the calm seas of the Austin real estate market to keep us steady during these turbulent times.

Last month, the Wall Street Journal put out an article entitled, “Once America’s Hottest Housing Market, Austin is Running in Reverse,” which raised a lot of eyebrows. The article highlights that pandemic-era overbuilding and a slowdown in job and population growth have teamed up to pull the e-brake on the freight train that has been the Austin housing market.

Yesterday, the Fed announced that inflation rose 3.2% in October, which was much lower than expected and the most optimistic inflation report in the last six months. Though still higher than the stated goal of 2% – in-line with pre-pandemic levels – it may signal that the economy is finally cooling. What does this mean for real estate?

Roughly 40% of all real estate transactions happen between May and August. The sun is shining, kids are out of school, and transaction volume peaks. Both sides of the coin are affected: listings jump while more buyers enter the market.

This year has been a rollercoaster for the Austin real estate market. After two years of verifiable madness, the market came back down to reality in the spring when the Fed started aggressively raising interest rates, which had its intended effect: to decrease buying power and demand by increasing the cost of borrowing for a mortgage.