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How to navigate Central Texas's unpredictable real estate market

How to navigate Central Texas's unpredictable real estate market

Yahoo14-05-2025

The Brief
Last fall saw expectations of mortgage rate drops, better conditions for sellers this spring
However, more and more houses have gone up for sale in the Austin area
While prices are quite low right now, buyers are still looking at high interest rates
AUSTIN, Texas - If you're looking to buy or sell a home in Central Texas, you'll likely be navigating an unpredictable real estate market.
FOX 7 Austin's 7 On Your Side reporter John Krinjak spoke with a local realtor for some advice.
Big picture view
Last fall, many were expecting both a drop in mortgage rates and better conditions for sellers come springtime. However, now that spring is here, that hasn't exactly happened.
When Liz Del Bosque put her northeast Austin home on the market back in March, she saw pretty strong interest, including packed open houses and a lot of showings.
In the last few weeks, it's been somewhat slower as more and more houses have gone up for sale in the Austin area.
Del Bosque's realtor Olivia Vale with Roots Residential Group says that's not exactly the picture most experts had anticipated.
"It's a pretty competitive time that way because smaller pool of buyers, there is quite a lot of inventory for them to choose from right now," said Vale. "it's been a wild ride. So everything that pundits, anything that Fannie Mae was predicting has not come to pass…A lot of the turbulence in the larger economic sphere, tariffs, things like that are definitely affecting the housing market."
What you can do
While the market is a little sticky for sellers, there are some things you can do to overcome it, says Vale.
"You can either... Have your sale be a smashing success by doing everything your realtor says, by prepping your home immaculately and just having it so ready to go that you'll attract those buyers. If not, it's gonna be really hard for you to stand out," said Vale.
Dig deeper
For buyers, this is good news and bad news.
While prices are quite low right now, buyers are still looking at high interest rates. That means if you're able to put more money down, it might not be a bad time to buy, but if not, you may want to hold off.
Dig deeper
If you're looking for an apartment, Vale says that rent prices are still low, thanks to high availability.
So if your landlord is trying to raise your rent, it may be time to reach out to a broker and look elsewhere.
What's next
With an uncertain economic picture ahead, the future could be bumpy too.
"I feel we're going see more of an effect from tariffs down the road, when construction prices rise so much that new home sales really slow," Vale said.
For Del Bosque, she says she's glad to have a good relationship with her realtor and that she's still seeing interest in her home and is confident the right buyer will come along soon.
The Source
Information in this report comes from interviews/reporting by 7 on Your Side reporter John Krinjak.

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This move by Trump could be ‘disastrous' for the mortgage market and drive up costs for home buyers even more
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This move by Trump could be ‘disastrous' for the mortgage market and drive up costs for home buyers even more

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Trump's housing plan risks repeating the 2008 crisis
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Last month, President Trump fired off a Truth Social post announcing he was giving 'serious consideration to bringing Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac public.' Weeks earlier, Bill Pulte, Trump's pick to lead the Federal Housing Finance Agency, declared that he is working to end Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac's federal conservatorship — the firewall imposed to prevent them from continuing excessive risk-taking. Trump and Pulte are walking into a minefield that could reward the very institutions that helped set off the worst economic crisis since the Great these two entities, which underwrite mortgages, would give them every incentive to generate as many home loans as possible, even to borrowers who shouldn't qualify. Why? Because the federal government guarantees all the loans they write. Why would they exercise discretion in a post-conservatorship world when they know taxpayers would cover their losses? During the 2008 financial crisis, America learned the hard way how dangerous Fannie and Freddie can be when left unchecked. They fueled the subprime mortgage frenzy by distorting credit markets with government-backed guarantees, leaving taxpayers with a $187 billion tab. And yet, unlike Enron, whose collapse just seven years earlier sparked outrage and prosecutions, Fannie and Freddie survived. The political insulation of these government-created entities made them too connected to fail. However, one meaningful reform to emerge from the 2008 crash was the government placing Fannie and Freddie under federal conservatorship, which mandates they maintain stricter underwriting standards. The terms are not perfect, but they at least provide taxpayers some semblance of protection and security from a disaster like the 2008 recession ever happening again. Yet, now, instead of stopping Fannie and Freddie's free ride, the Trump administration is considering unshackling them from the conservatorship without first overhauling the system that allowed them to crash the economy in the first place. To this day, more than 15 years later, Fannie and Freddie continue to operate with the full backing of the U.S. government. The Congressional Budget Office even includes them on the federal balance sheet. That's not capitalism, that's cronyism. But if the Trump administration removes the federal conservatorship without first instituting structural reforms, it won't just preserve that cronyism — it will supercharge it. These entities would once again be free to chase profits with government guarantees, privatizing gains while socializing risk. That's a recipe for disaster that taxpayers have seen before. If the Trump White House is serious about reforming Fannie and Freddie, it should start by demanding structural free-market changes to their operations. That means no more implicit government subsidy and bailout guarantees or off-balance-sheet accounting. These institutions must become fully private, not some Frankenstein private-public blend that allows them to continue taking risks on taxpayers' dime. In other words, the Trump administration should focus on fixing the rot, not exacerbating Fannie and Freddie from their conservatorship without real reform would be like handing matches back to the arsonists and hoping this time they don't burn the house down. Fannie and Freddie won't burn homes, of course, but they can burn down the U.S. economy — not with flames but financial recklessness. They've done it before, and they can easily do it again. President Trump may want a legacy of housing reform, but unleashing Fannie and Freddie without guardrails would risk repeating or even worsening the very crisis he once condemned. The Trump administration should tread carefully. Thomas Stratmann is a distinguished university professor at George Mason University. He is a professor of economics in the Department of Economics and holds a courtesy appointment at the Antonin Scalia Law School.

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