Throughout most of 2016, the pace of home sales within the city of Austin has been relatively flat, mostly because of a limited number of homes and rapidly increasing prices.
But Austin bucked the trend in October, according to new data from the Austin Board of Realtors. Single-family home sales increased 7.5 percent compared to October 2015, reaching 705 sales.
That happened while median home prices climbed by 6.5 percent year-over-year to $332,250.
“Home sales typically slow down in the fall, so it’s encouraging to see a surge of sales within Austin’s city limits last month,” said Aaron Farmer, 2016 president of the Austin Board of Realtors said. “Much of this growth is being driven by new home sales in the city, which are up nearly 38 percent year to date.”
It’s not surprising to see continued demand for homes in Austin, where the city’s booming tech industry is based. Austin continues to see rapid population growth as major companies, such as Apple, Facebook, Amazon and Oracle, hire thousands of new workers.
But rising prices have tempered the pace of sales. And throughout most of the year, the increase in home sales have mostly been just beyond Austin’s city limits in areas like Cedar Park, Kyle and Manor.
Overall, the Austin-Round Rock metro area saw a 3.1 percent decrease in sales compared to last October. The area logged 2,219 total sales. Meanwhile, median prices across the region grew by 9.3 percent to $279,000. In Hays County, sales were nearly flat — a 0.8 percent increase.
Williamson County, meanwhile, saw the pace of single-family home sales fall by 12.2 percent year-over-year. Some of that may be attributed to the normal slowdown in home buying in the fall. And rising prices may also play a role. The median price for a home in the county climbed by 7.1 percent to $255,000.
“An extraordinary number of homes are under construction in Williamson County, but nearly everything that’s going on the ground is being sold,” said Vaike O’Grady, Austin regional director for Metrostudy. “In the city of Austin, single-family housing growth is concentrated in a few subdivisions, such as the Mueller community.”
Here are a few other key stats from the Austin Board of Realtor’s September housing report on the Austin metro area.
- Median Price for Single-Family Homes in the Austin Area — $279,000
- Single-Family Homes Sold in the Austin Area — 2,219
- Average Number of Days on the Market — 51
- Total Dollar Volume of Homes Sold in the Area — $797,000,000
- Months of Housing Inventory Available — 6
- New Listings — 2,624
- Active Listings — 6,293
- Pending Sales — 2,273