Austin TX could be looking even better..........

The news release from the Board of Realtors actually has some positives in it. This should not be such big news to me, but given the amazing amount of "less than positive" statistics many realty associations spew out, it is at the point of pleasant surprise.

Yet, the picture could still have been painted brighter. This is the news release they sent out:

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AUSTIN (Austin Board of Realtors) – According to the Multiple Listing Service report by the Austin Board of Realtors, the volume of home sales in the Austin market surged last month, possibly because of the tax credit for first-time homebuyers.
Last month, 1,823 homes were sold, a 38 percent increase from 1,322 in October 2008. The median price of Austin homes in October 2009 was $182,000, a 5 percent decrease from the same month the previous year.
In the early part of this year, the home sales volume in Austin was down significantly compared with 2008. However, that gap in sales volume began to close in July 2009 when the local market reached a volume similar to the same month in the year prior.
“Sales volume like this is similar to what we saw in 2005, which is an encouraging sign,” said Jay Gohil, chairman of the Austin Board of Realtors. “It’s possible some of this surge in volume was related to the original deadline for the first-time homebuyer tax credit, so it’s good for our market that the tax credit was both extended until April and expanded to include more current and prospective homeowners.”
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Again, I look at this type of news from a marketing perspective. The idea is, or should be, to make this information as positive as possible. This realty board exists to assist the dues paying realty agents and offices and to promote home and property ownership in the area.

But there is too much copy in this release that pulls this story back down. They don't know for a fact that the tax credit has any bearing on this information. The very last quote, from the Chairman of the Board, says "it's possible some of this surge.....". That is our final impression from this story - saying that there is a "possible" reason. Sorry, but facts are supposed to support statistics, not a theory.

It's not up to me, but to illustrate my point, here is how I might have released the same information they did, by doing some editing of this copy:

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AUSTIN (Austin Board of Realtors) – According to the Multiple Listing Service report by the Austin Board of Realtors, the volume of home sales in the Austin market has surged.

Last month, 1,823 homes were sold, a 38 percent increase from 1,322 in October 2008. The median price of Austin homes in October 2009 was $182,000, a 5 percent decrease from the same month the previous year. In the early part of this year, the home sales volume in Austin was down significantly compared with 2008.

“Sales volume like this is similar to what we saw in 2005, which is an encouraging sign,” said Jay Gohil, chairman of the Austin Board of Realtors. “It’s also good for our market that the tax credit was both extended until April and expanded to include more current and prospective homeowners.”
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Talk about addition by subtraction!

The affordable college towns

I always try and point out what I find to be positive research as it relates to real estate since there doesn't seem to be enough in this turbulent market.

Now Coldwell Banker has released some of its data researching housing prices in college towns across the country. I'd bet the ranch that you would not have guessed that Akron OH came up as the most affordable college town. I never would have, either.

And while this is a good thing for the agents who will be sharp enough to use this in the higher ranked cities, I give a writer in Austin TX credit for incorporating amazing public relations skills into this.


http://austin.bizjournals.com/austin/stories/2009/11/02/daily22.html


You see, Austin did not finish in the top 10 most affordable college towns in the country according to the research it reviews. Or the top 20. Or the top 30. For that matter, Austin didn't even finish in the top 50. To me, and I'm sure to a lot of others, not finishing in the top 50 of a national list is nothing to crow about, with the possible exception being a significant rise from a previous year or earlier research. Yet, there are no comparisons to past research in this article either.

The fact is that Austin came in 59th on this national list. Yet, this article provides a glowing report on the city of Austin, the University of Texas, and the local real estate market. As they say in the P.R. industry, this is a textbook case of "turning a negative into a positive".

Yet, this is not to toot the horn of the writer or the publication doing the spin. It is to make realty agents and offices aware of the need for positive publicity. Over the past couple of years, it seems like the only other real estate statistics coming out of the Austin market have been to show the drop in home sales in comparison with past years. Instead of simply reporting that "x,xxx homes sold last month" and leaving it at that, we always seem to get the comparison. Once the people hear that the total is, for example, 842 homes fewer than sold in the same month last year, it practically negates the value of the information.

Instead of sitting and repeating the negative statistics about the current market compared with one year ago, we should be turning this market into a positive. It's a start.