Steiner Ranch Housing Report - April 2012

In this edition of How’s the Market in Steiner Ranch?, I review a few of the monthly sales stats, give my interpretation of them, and then talk about the newly formed Steiner Ranch Neighborhood Association.

To view summary and detailed information for all Steiner Ranch neighborhoods, check out the Neighborhood Home Sale Data. If you are looking to buy or sell a home in Steiner Ranch,contact me at 512-650-7300, by email, or the form below. Click here for previous editions of How’s the Market in Steiner Ranch?

If you prefer to read instead of watch, here the transcript:

Transcript

Greetings! I’m Craig Smyser with RE/MAX Capital City. Welcome to the April 2012 edition of “How’s the Market in Steiner Ranch.” In addition to looking at the current statistics, I’ll talk about the recently formed Steiner Ranch Neighborhood Association. In March, 22 homes closed in Steiner Ranch which was down 37% from March 2011. Comparing only resale homes, sales were down 40% from 25 to 15 homes. Keep in mind that many new construction homes are not listed in the

MLS so I cannot provide accurate data on new construction numbers in Steiner Ranch. From this point forward, all the stats quoted are for resale homes only. Of the sales in March, 1 was a foreclosure and 1 was a short sale. As always, when we are looking at small sets of data such as one month in Steiner Ranch, I don’t like to compares prices from one year to the next because they can be volatile. For the record, the average price of a resale home decreased 12% to about almost $390,000 and the median price increased 22% to $420,000 over last March. The average price per square foot slid by 4.7% to $118. Last month, the sale prices in Steiner ranged from $225,000 to $688,000. The number of available homes in March was 89, up slightly both year-over-year and month-over-month. We are beginning to see the number of available homes increase a bit which is giving some breathing room for buyers. While the number of available homes under $345,000 is up to around 20% of the available homes, it is still quite low considering that half the homes in Steiner Ranch sold below that price last year. The average sales price to list price ratio was 97.5% while the average sales price to original list price was 89.7%. For homes that closed in March, the average days on market was 66. As always, my website allows you to look at summary and detailed data for each Steiner Ranch neighborhood (click here).

In February, the Steiner Ranch Neighborhood Association was formed. This is not a Home Owners Association, but a distinct and separate entity. It encompasses Steiner Ranch and several smaller neighborhoods around it. While an HOA is mandatory for all members within its boundaries, a Neighborhood Association is voluntary. Although it serves a number of purposes, I’d like to highlight one that is specific to real estate and that is to monitor and influence development. Because the SRNA is registered with Travis County and the City of Austin, it is notified as part of the permit process for any development within its boundaries. This alone will help us avoid the situations we’ve seen lately in which we were surprised to hear about apartments and the storage facility. It doesn’t mean we can always stop unwanted development, but it certainly gives us a chance. The goal of SRNA is not to stop development, but to give residents a seat at the table to influence decisions. Case in point right now is that Taylor Morrison is considering a plan to put 180 duplexes across from Randalls in the spot in which they had previous planned the storage facility. This will require rezoning as residential is not permitted in this area at this time. SRNA now gives Steiner Residents an opportunity to effectively voice an opinion on this rezoning. At this point, there are about 150 members of the SRNA. At $50 a year, I feel this is a worthwhile investment and I have joined. A key to the success of SRNA is the political influence it can have. The first question asked of a neighborhood association by any member of a government board is always “how many members do you have?” They are essentially asking “How many voters might I lose if I take a position contrary to your group?” The more of us that join SRNA, the more influence we can have on issues that affect us. I invite you to find out more about SRNA at www.SteinerRanchNA.org. As always, if you have any questions, please don’t hesitate to contact me at 512-650-7300, by email, or the form below.

Thanks for watching “How’s The Market In Steiner Ranch.”

 Statistics based upon information from ACTRIS for the periods cited.