It was just a bubble. Austin was the ultimate "meme stock" during the pandemic years. Austin has a lot of good things going for it, but between things like Musk, Joe Rogan, "crypto bros", tons of Silicon Valley decampers, it just got way over-hyped.
One of the things Austin always had going for it was that it was a good value compared to bigger cities, but now that it's just about as expensive as those bigger cities, people are realizing the brutally hot summers, lack of easy access to mountains or oceans, relatively bland architecture and abysmal public transportation just make it overpriced.
Maybe be a little less pedantic and engage in good faith - of course by "red hot" I meant that sellers can name their price, with sales still often going above asking in many regions across the US. Prices shot up like a rocket ship since the beginning of the pandemic, have been remarkably durable, and still continue to climb.
OK, I'll be less pedantic. I think it's just flat out wrong.
It was a red hot market about a year and a half ago. Prices were shooting up, and there was a frenzy of buying, with lots of people feeling FOMO for not buying a house. The situation now is completely different.
Housing prices rarely, rarely go down without widespread unemployment because people are so loath to sell at a loss. So the situation is a bit odd right now it that so many people can't move because interest rates are so high, but unemployment is still low so people aren't forced to sell. The reason prices have stayed relatively flat is because for the small amount of inventory that has come on the market there's still little reason to sell at a loss. That's still the opposite of any definition of a hot market.
