Snapshot of what is happening in Austin Real Estate today:
- 8,803 homes for sale (Single Family, Condos, Townhouses) (+31 homes)
- 3,588 homes under contract!
- -That's a lot of homes
- We are in a "Seller's Market"
- 14,629 homes have closed so far this year (+711 homes over last week)
- YTD compared to 2011: +1,926
- - That's a big increase
Median Sold for Single Family Homes:
- Median price across Greater Austin: $209,444
- Median price as a percentage of list price: 98%
- Median days on market YTD: 33
- Median days on market during past month: 26 days
- Most expensive home sold YTD: $7.75M
- Median SOLD in Travis County past 30 days: $246,000
- Median SOLD in Williamson County past 30 days: $190,575
Q: What are the odds that the house that I am considering buying will go under contract while I am considering making an offer?A: Austin is starting to feel a little like Vegas. Buying a house has odds stacked a little bit against you if you are not well prepared to make an offer. 
Being able to spot the differences between flooring materials is not always as easy as it sounds. Just looking at a picture of a room is not enough and sometimes walking on the floor is not enough to tell the difference either. Now, this was not always true and there are some floors that you can tell immediately that they are inexpensive laminate floors, but not all laminate floors are inexpensive these days and not all hardwood floors are solid wood.
Let's start with the basics. Hardwood. 
Engineered hardwood. It is right to call this a hardwood floor as well, as the genuine hardwood occupies the top surface, typically about 1/16" to 1/8" thick and this layer is identical to the solid hardwood flooring. Below the first layer of hardwood are layers of manufactured wood sub-strait similar to plywood. If you get your hands on a raw piece of the material, it is normally very easy to distinguish between the first layer of hardwood and the remaining layers of base material. Any type of look that a manufacturer can create with solid hardwoods can be created with engineered hardwood because they both start with hardwood--but engineered hardwoods are much more affordable. This is because the material used is mostly a strong manufactured plywood, not solid wood. Installation of engineered hardwoods can be nailed, stapled or glued to the floor--depending upon the type of surface under the flooring. The downside to an engineered hardwood is that it is very difficult to sand and refinish--due to the shallow depth of the hardwood surface. 
Now to laminate flooring. Laminate flooring has taken a beating in years past--probably with good reason. Like old kitchen laminate counter tops, the first couple of decades of these materials were not very robust and not very attractive. However, times are changing. While you can still find cheap and horribly dreadful laminate floors and DIY installations that remind buyers of bell bottom jeans and lime green kitchen appliances--manufacturers make some heavy grade laminate floors today that are both attractive and durable. And when these high quality laminate floors are professionally installed by contractors who know what they are doing--a laminate floor can be just as attractive and harder than many hardwood floors. In fact, this is the major advantage to a good quality laminate floor--it may hold up to harder wear and tear from Fido and Fido's two legged companions running through the house, sliding, scratching and dropping hard toys on the floors on a daily basis than hardwood floor. And some laminate floors are more expensive than hardwoods, too. Of course, not all laminates sold today look as good as this photograph nor are all laminate floors durable--especially to water spills in the seams in some laminate products. When water gets into the seams, it can quickly swell the composite materials and cause bowing and warping. This is a definite downside to many laminate materials and installations. It can be very vulnerable to water, but make no mistake about it, wood is not very tolerant to water either. Installation of laminate floors is typically accomplished by "floating" the floor. This is the most difficult of flooring installations because a poor float feels like the floor is moving or bouncing. A good float with a great padding underneath should be very similar to a hardwood floor in how it walks. But this takes experience. 
So what is laminate and how is it different from hardwood flooring? Laminate is a photographic representation of wood, attached to the surface of a manufactured sub-strait similar to Masonite. The better the photo surface quality, locking edge design, sub-strait depth, padding and installation, the more robust and attractive the floor. (Translation: the more expensive the laminate and laminate installation--the better the quality). But there are so many inexpensive laminates available today and so many DIY installations that, in general, laminate floors seldom hold a candle to a good hardwood floor. But let's not generalize too much; I have seen some laminate installations that I have to bend down, tap the floor and figure out if it was laminate or a floating engineered hardwood. The floors were that good that I could not tell from just looking or walking on it. 
Happy Labor Day 2012, Austin! We will see a lot more activity over the next couple of days due to the holiday activity that will not show up on the MLS record for another day or two. However, We are more than 2,176 homes sold ahead of where we were this time last year and homes are sitting on the market for a much shorter period of time. In the last week alone over 590 homes have closed and 3,401 homes are currently under contract--expected to close during the next 30 days. Inventory is low and activity is high. We are in a Seller's Market--which means that homes that are priced right and show well are selling fast! (See my report on how fast homes are selling).
In considering the "Best time to make an offer" there are a couple of things to keep in mind. First of all and most importantly, if you can make an offer when there is no competition--your Realtor has more leverage to negotiate on your behalf. Making an offer when there are no other bidders can be as simple as jumping on an opportunity as soon as it hits the market or making an offer on the right day of the week. Most buyers know the right property for them within minutes of seeing it and the prudent buyers are the ones that are ready to make an offer within a few hours of finding the right home--not a few days. The longer you wait the more likely someone else is going to find the same house and make an offer ahead of you--especially in today's market here in Austin. 
I did not publish this at the beginning of the week in remembrance of the victims of 9/11. However, this report is retro to Monday's weekly numbers. We are more than 2,583 homes sold ahead of where we were this time last year and homes are sitting on the market for a much shorter period of time than the recent past. In the last week alone over 673 homes have closed and 3,307 homes are currently under contract--expected to close during the next 30 days. Inventory is low and activity is high. We are in a Seller's Market--which means that homes that are priced right and show well are selling fast! (See my report on how fast homes are selling).