Steiner Ranch Housing Report - May 2012

n 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 my upcoming workshop entitled “How to Protest Your Property Taxes.”

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 May 2012 edition of “How’s the Market in Steiner Ranch.” In addition to looking at the current statistics, I’ll talk about the upcoming workshop about protesting your property tax appraisal. In April, 28 homes closed in Steiner Ranch which was up 87% from April 2011. Before you get too excited, I must mention that last April was unusually low. When I look at the numbers for April in prior years, this year is very comparable to them. Comparing only resale homes, sales were up 136% from 11 to 26 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. When 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 increased 9.8%, the median price increased 8%, and the average price per square foot increased by 2.8%. We can smooth these numbers out to get a better picture of the market by looking at the first four months of this year compared to the first four months of last year. Comparing these time frames, the average price was down 6.9%, the median price was up 3.7% to $350,000, and the price per square foot was down 1.7% to $119.53. This shows a market that is pretty stable, but I expect the next few months to decisively change to show a market of modestly increasing prices. Last month, the sale prices in Steiner ranged from $253,000 to $590,000. The number of available homes in March was 103, up 1% year-over-year and 16% month-over-month. While the number of available homes under $345,000 is up to around 22% 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 97.9% while the average sales price to original list price was 96.5%. When these numbers are so close, it means that very few homes required a price reduction in order to get a contract. For homes that closed in March, the average days on market was 50. As always, my website allows you to look at summary and detailed data for each Steiner Ranch neighborhood (click here).

Once again this year I am leading a workshop entitled, “How to Protest Your Property Tax Appraisal.” Last year Travis Central Appraisal District experimented with a regression analysis theory to value homes in Steiner Ranch. I wasn’t a fan of that method so I am happy that they have reverted back to the old method. However, that means that everything I taught last year doesn’t apply this year, so it is important to attend even if you came last year. The workshop will be held on Thursday, May 24 at 7:00pm at the Towne Square Community Center. As always, those who attend will receive comparable sale information which can be used to protest.

If you have any real estate related questions, please don’t hesitate 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.