All Forum Posts by: Stephen James

Hi Lucia. Sure, I am trying to figure out whether I will have an easier time finding a home in Dallas as opposed to Austin. And more specifically, whether its drastic enough of a difference that it would be worthwhile to uproot and move to a new city (Dallas). I find a lot of drawbacks to moving to a new city where I don't know anyone, so wouldn't want to do so unless it was much easier to win a bid on a house and not have to deal with large appraisal shortfalls in the process.

Perhaps I should ask, how many offers and how far above asking are houses going for in Dallas on average?

OR - In the scenario you mentioned of 20 offers and 20% over, what percentage of the time does that happen?

I'm gathering that Dallas is still pretty competitive, but I'm not sure how competitive it is compared to Austin. I know what the numbers are in Austin from personal experience, but I don't know what the regular numbers are in Dallas. It sounds like its slightly less competitive than Austin. Although when I go on redfin, Austin has competitive rating around 70-80(if you look at surrounding towns as well), but Dallas has around 50... so that seems like a decently significant difference.

See Dallas: https://www.redfin.com/city/30...

Austin: https://www.redfin.com/city/30...

Houston: https://www.redfin.com/city/89...

Thanks!

Hi Rob, thanks for the reply! How often does that scenario happen in Dallas nowadays?

Do you happen to know if Houston is any better right now for buyers?

I'm trying to get an idea of how competitive the Dallas SFH market is compared to Austin.

• On average in 2021, how many offers go into house purchases for SFH under 400k in Dallas?
  • In Austin, they are around 30-50 offers per house.
• Also, how far above asking price are houses going for in Dallas?
  • I tried looking this up on Redfin for Dallas, but its not showing me sold price, it just has "*"
  • In Austin currently there are many that go %25-30 over, or around 75-100k over.
• Are people usually waiving appraisal contingency in Dallas?

Do you have any numbers for whats happening in January in any of those areas? 

I've looked on Redfin and Zillow but you can't see until the close has fully completed.

Thanks!

Thanks!

And I hear that, but this could only continue (at this rate) for so long. I *don't* mean that I think there will be a recession or that the prices will decrease -- in fact I think Austin will always(most likely) appreciate, just not this rapidly. But... eventually a lot of people are not going to be afford it and then demand will not be as high , and demand vs inventory drives prices(unless all of those people just keep getting replaced by rich Californians moving here for another 5 years). But the percentage increase right now just doesn't make sense as far as being sustainable for very long. Also the pandemic initially affected the supply/demand which also pushed prices, but again that wont last forever either, maybe another year.

Let me know if I'm missing something here. I'm here to learn and appreciate expertise from those that have been there before me like yourself.

 It seems like it lol, duffel bags.

What types of numbers (differentials) have you seen in those areas?

Could you elaborate please?

Certainly everyone that buys high (hot market) is not going to become rich. Generally buy low sell high, not buy high sell low.

Thanks!

 That is unfortunate, but good to know, thank you!

Do you have any suggestions? My concerns isn't so much with being able to afford the appraisal shortfalls, but it just seems like an overall bad deal since in Austin we're banking on appreciation, and I'm already throwing away so much upfront (over 100k after all things considered, for a 300k house....).

I'm noticing that in January, houses seem to be going for way over asking price, even compared to 1 month ago in December. Looking at stats I saw houses going for 30-40k over. Now they're starting to go for 60-70k over plus full appraisal waiver which would be tens of thousands extra on top of the down payment. 

How do you buy a house in this market without feeling like you are getting "taken" ?

Is Round Rock any better right now?

I did see this article here which says Austin is one of the worst in terms of bidding wars: https://www.biggerpockets.com/... 

Feel free to DM me as well if you have any advice, it will be MUCH appreciated!!!