Besides the number of contracts I have working or the number of buyers I am showing homes to, I like to check my real estate website activity to see what people are doing online.  The majority of people using my site are home buyers, not sellers, and many are anywhere from 90 days to 2 years away from buying.  Some are also chronic lookers who will never turn into business.

last 12 month website stats

 

As one can clearly see, activity really took off in January and in general this year has seen more traffic than last year.  Some of that was probably due to the tax credit for home buyers.  Some of it was probably from people who were just glad to see 1009 behind them.

But how many of these lookers will actually become buyers?  Given the state of the economy and the fact that it looks like our economy will remain stalled for many more months, I don't know what to expect.

People with a lot of money are buying.  People relocating due to a job change are buying - if they can sell somewhere else.  Some people are still buying second homes.

Although traffic in June was great, I am hearing from a lot of buyer's agents that the month was very slow for them.  I personally showed more homes in June that the entire first 5 months of the year.

So what lies ahead for the Austin real estate market?  We'll know by the end of the year and beyond.