High-profile companies have pulled back from the city, but there seems little chance of a deep housing slump as activity continues to tick along
Its housing market may have cooled since the COVID-19 pandemic – but homebuying activity has hardly cratered in Austin, Texas, despite plenty of recent publicity about companies exiting the city.
Average home prices remained unchanged last month compared with the same time in 2023, according to Redfin, while the number of homes sold dipped by just 2.2% year over year.
That signals continuing resilience even in the face of speculation that the city’s real estate market could take a hit from the high-profile relocation of Oracle Corp. and pullback by Tesla in Austin.
The slowdown is hardly an outlier among major housing markets across the country – and activity has remained steady even despite the milder current pace, according to a mortgage broker based in the city.
Amanda Lombardi (pictured top), of Lombardi Lending, told Mortgage Professional America that the spike in mortgage rates seen since 2022 had failed to deter many from making their move, even if it’s a risky one, because of the possibility that affordability will slip out of reach if they don’t act quickly. “Buyers are buying like it’s their job right now,” she said. “Interest rates increasing – I feel like it hasn’t really stopped the business.
“There’s been a few people who can’t afford it and that’s a smart decision for them, but even people who are still maxing out their budget and who are really stretched are still moving forward with the purchase because everything is more expensive, and I feel like they’re worried that home prices will never come down.”
How would lower rates impact the market?
Top of the wish list for brokers and borrowers alike in 2025, then, is a slide in interest rates, not least because it would unlock the prospect for many homeowners of being able to refinance out of an ultra-high mortgage. Still, lower mortgage rates would also be a double-edged sword, potentially inflaming the housing market and driving up competition and prices even further.
After a tough period for home sales, the National Association of Realtors (NAR) has forecasted that the housing market will stabilize in the coming years, with a projected increase in home sales for 2025 and 2026 as mortgage rates level out.https://t.co/E4v8YeHLpw
— Mortgage Professional America Magazine (@MPAMagazineUS) November 11, 2024
Helping Americans address their overall financial picture has been a core focus for Lombardi since she stepped into the wholesale space after a spell in retail, especially given the cost-of-living crises of recent years. “I think everything needs to be more affordable, not just housing and not just interest rates but everything inside of [people’s] lives, too,” she said.
“I think that we all need to learn how to budget better. That doesn’t directly correlate with housing, but… that’s part of my job, to help them restructure the way that they have their debt and make sure they have a roof over their head, their kids can stay in the same school, and they can afford the things that they need month to month.”
Education-driven approach critical for brokers in current market
Operating as the sole originating broker at her company has allowed Lombardi to pivot away from a sales- towards a service-based approach, she said, prioritizing the educational aspects of her role. “If your buyer or homeowner is happy with that monthly mortgage payment, that’s really the main thing that matters,” she said.
“People focus so much on the price, location, interest rate. All of that is so important, but it really comes down to that monthly mortgage payment. We really help people restructure the way they’re thinking about their home and see this as a pathway to wealth in the future – especially here in Austin.”
Key to developing that approach has been maximizing her own educational opportunities within the industry and continually finding new ways to develop and expand her own knowledge. For Lombardi, aligning with the Association of Independent Mortgage Experts (AIME) provided an invaluable means of doing that.
The association’s guidance, she said, helped give her business a new dimension during her early days on the wholesale side. “When I came over to the broker side, that’s when I found AIME,” she said. “There’s so much education and the classes that they put together and the amount of time they put into it really helped explode my business.
“If I didn’t have that, I don’t know where I’d be today. So I’m very thankful that in 2020 – only two years into the [broker] business – we came across the Brokers are Better, now Brokers are Best, page, and it really just helped transform things.”
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