Mark Dotzour, the director of the Real Estate Center at Texas A&M University, has announced that the Texas real estate market has likely reached bottom.

According to Dotzour: “I feel now is the time to buy a house in most Texas cities. Housing affordability has never been higher, and I never thought I would see 5 percent mortgages in my lifetime. If you plan to live in the house for at least two or three years, now is the time to buy.”

The Texas A&M real estate center is predicting that 2009 will look a lot like 2003 in terms of volumes, listings, and inventory. Prices, however, are definitively higher with the 2009 estimated average price 20% higher than the price in 2003 and lower only than the prices of the last two years. The median price remains at an all time high.

Texas A&M Austin MLS Tracking with 2009 Estimates

Date	Sales	Dollar Volume	Avg. Price	Median Price	Listings	Months Inventory
2003	19,793	3,899,018,519	197,000	154,800	10,340	6.6
2004	22,567	4,487,464,528	198,900	154,100	10,394	5.9
2005	26,905	5,660,934,916	210,400	161,300	8,965	4.3
2006	30,284	6,961,725,607	229,900	172,200	8,695	3.6
2007	28,048	6,910,962,480	246,400	184,200	9,833	4
2008	22,439	5,470,241,896	243,800	188,200	11,585	5.5
2009 e	20,043	4,746,392,079	236,800	188,000	11,244	6.6

It's hard to know how Dotzour's prediction applies to the downtown Austin condo market. The downtown Austin market is less established than other markets and currently faces a surplus of newly constructed and planned units. This surplus, however, is driving unprecedented discounting. For buyers, it is a balancing trick: for how long will prices continue to go down and at what point will interest rates go up?

Tags: news