After 20 years in the high-tech industry, I decided I wanted to be in the real estate business. How hard could it be, right? Well, now I’ve now been in the Austin-Round Rock real estate business for almost twenty years, and I also realize how little I knew when I started. But I survived and thrived and I’m still enjoying it. After 20 years of many successes and mistakes, I have a much better idea of what matters. Now I know what location, location, location means. If you don’t, ask us.
I’ve personally bought and sold dozens of properties for my own personal reasons, and I’ve helped hundreds of clients buy and sell properties for their own use. I’ve gotten to that point in my career where I enjoy being a teacher and sharing my real estate experience with clients to help them make wise decisions and to help them consider things that they might not realize until after purchasing a property. A little experience can go a long way towards preventing costly mistakes and also those annoying little things that you wish you would have considered before you made that big real estate purchase.
Lately, one of the questions that I’ve been asked by many clients and other professionals, is the Austin real estate market going to crash? I’ve been trying to guess the direction of the Austin real estate market for almost 20 years without much success. The only thing consistent about my predictions is that when I think it cannot go any higher, it does.
I’ve been fortunate enough that I bought and held a few properties that I acquired through my career. Of course, since I held them, I bought them when prices were lower, and they are now worth more than I paid for them. It seems that Austin real estate has always been a good investment as far back as they began keeping records. There have certainly been some highs and lows along the way, but I’ve acquired properties and held them through the mortgage crisis, and they continue to be good investments.
So, is the Austin real estate market going to crash? I don’t think so! I think it will level off and may evens settle a little, but I don’t think Austin real estate is going to do anything that we would describe as a crash. Austin has too much going for it. It is becoming the new high-tech center of the US. There are many people and companies relocating from California and other areas to Austin. There are multiple announcements of major manufacturers moving to the Austin area. There are real estate investors from all over the world investing in the Austin Round Rock real estate market. However, even though Austin Texas doesn’t bring down the price of Austin real estate, there are other global or national things to consider that we will talk about in another post.
Austin-Round Rock Texas is entering a new era in real estate. Years ago, I saw a California real estate poster that depicted a skeleton of a person long dead. The caption read “Still waiting for California home prices to go down”. Ever increasing real estate prices in Austin and California has been a double-edged sword. It has allowed some people to sell their house after many years and retire happily to a cheaper area. The downside is that it has kept large numbers of hard-working people from ever being able to own a home.
Is it too late to buy invest in some Austin real estate? One thing I’ve learned by experience, is that if you are a long-term real estate investor, the odds are in your favor to make a profit if you hold it long enough. You can always hold a property until the market recovers. I’ve survived a couple of downturns along the way, and I’ve never lost money on a real estate deal in Austin. Of course, It’s always better to buy low and sell high, but that requires making predictions of the future market performance which is rarely accurate. it really doesn’t matter when you buy. If you hold long enough, you can make a profit.
In the long run, land is a limited commodity, and they are not making (much) more of it, so long-term, real estate will continue to rise with some ups and downs along the way. I think more important than when you buy, is where you buy. There is a saying that the three most important things in real estate are location, location, location. This is absolutely true. I would much rather own 1 acre in Round Rock Texas than 100 acres in the Sahara Desert.
Austin real estate is like all of the old cars I’ve ever owned. I wish still owned all of them.
Contact us if we can help you buy a home, investment or commercial property in the Austin-Round Rock area. It’s a great way to build wealth.
ROCK Properties Realty
512 850 4510
service@rockproperties.com