Did you know that first-time homebuyers make up 31% of the current market? June is National Homeownership Month so we wanted to take this time to help our first time home buyers out there! The home-buying process can be hard and perplexing, especially if this is your first time. If you're looking to buy a home in 2022, check out the following tips to remain on track and achieve your real estate goals. 
1. Set A Budget
Examine your finances thoroughly, including your monthly income and obligations, to determine how much house you can afford.
Following are some general recommendations to keep in mind:

If you’re debt-free: You can consider houses that are up to 5x's your total household income.
If less than 20% of your income goes to pay down debt: You can shop for a home that is no more than 4x's your income.
If more than 20% of your monthly income goes to pay down debts: Shop for houses that are 3x's your income or less.

To make it easier to calculate how much yo ...

Our very own President, Russ Phillips teamed up with Legacy Mutual Mortgage's Nick Pronsky again to talk what to do when there's multiple offers on the table. Nick has an extensive knowledge and understanding of the industry after spending time in underwriting, processing, and origination, both in wholesale and in retail. Nick really found his calling when he moved to Austin and became a full-time loan originator, where his knowledge of mortgage underwriting guidelines and his commitment to providing excellent customer service helped him grow his business through a trusted network of referral sources. He is very accessible and straightforward with all of his clients, he always works diligently to make sure clients are comfortable throughout the process of obtaining a home loan, and his goal is to provide each homebuyer with the best possible loan program and terms to fit his/her individual financial goals.Nick has been voted by industry peers as a Top 10 Mortgage Profession ...

Bell County is currently a sellers market, meaning that there are more people looking to buy than there are homes available. The median listing home price in Bell County, TX was $249.5K in January 2022, trending up 21.7% year-over-year. The median listing home price per square foot is also $131. This means that if you have a great piece of property, with or without a home, it's a great time to sell (& we have clients looking exactly in this area!)
As many of you know from reading our President, Russ Phillips’ most recent blog post, “A Note From Russ On His 20th Real Estate Anniversary: Inflation, Supply vs. Demand, Beating of War Drums & More,” real estate inventory is low right now. Really low. Check out this snippet from Russ’ realty wisdom to get a better viewpoint on the current marketing inventory:

“A neutral/balanced market between buyers and sellers is thought to be enough homes on the market that it would take SIX months to sell all; ...

As many of you know from reading our President, Russ Phillips’ most recent blog post, “A Note From Russ On His 20th Real Estate Anniversary: Inflation, Supply vs. Demand, Beating of War Drums & More,” real estate inventory is low right now. Really low. Check out this snippet from Russ’ realty wisdom to get a better viewpoint on the current marketing inventory:

“A neutral/balanced market between buyers and sellers is thought to be enough homes on the market that it would take SIX months to sell all available inventory (if the pace of sales remained constant and no new listings were added).   

But we don't have 6 months' worth of homes to buy. The current supply across many price points and regions is below 1/2 a month. There are niches (like 1-3 acre lots with custom homes in West Georgetown for example) where literally the cheapest available home fitting this criteria is $1.1 million, and the SECOND CHEAPEST is $3.3 million. Everythin; ...

We have many Russ Phillips Team clients looking for properties, both homes and land, in Travis County. According to The Austin Board of Realtors, at the county level, home sales have decreased 12.3% to 1,102 sales as of last month. The median price in Travis County rose 23.8% year over year to $530,000. During the same period, new listings decreased 14.7% to 1,206 listings, while active listings also dropped 25.7% to 603 listings. Pending sales declined 0.7% to 1,511 pending sales as monthly housing inventory decreased 0.1 months year over year to 0.4 months of inventory.
To go one step further, our President, Russ Phillips’ most recent blog post, “A Note From Russ On His 20th Real Estate Anniversary: Inflation, Supply vs. Demand, Beating of War Drums & More,” discusses the overall state of Central-Texas real estate inventory. It's really low across the board, not just Travis County. Check out this snippet from Russ’ realty wisdom to get a better viewp ...