A Record-Breaking February for Austin Home Sales
Spring is usually the most active season for residential real estate sales. And the Austin metro area appears to have gotten an early start on the action with a record-breaking number of home sales in February.
The 2,101 single-family home sales logged in February represents the largest number of sales ever recorded in that month, the Austin Board of Realtors reported. That was a 6 percent increase from February 2018.
Meanwhile, active listings also increased compared to the year prior. That, ABoR says, is likely a signal that Austin’s housing market is gearing up for an especially active spring season.
“We’ve been hearing from our members that buying and selling activity has really picked up over the past month,” said Kevin P. Scanlan, president of Austin Board of Realtors. “We’re seeing a lot of development in North Austin, as major tech employers are looking for space with ample room for housing development and access to major transportation arterials.”
As the metro area continues to add hundreds of new jobs — most notably Apple’s plans to accommodate 5,000 new employees and up to 15,000 in coming years — many homebuyers are relocating to be closer to work and trim their commute times.
“Austin has 150,000 employees in the technology industry and that number is only going to increase as major employers expand their presence in Austin,” Angelos Angelou, founder and principal executive officer of Angelou Economics, said. “We have to be aggressive in how we address this growth and ensure Austin doesn’t become unaffordable for our workforce.”
And Austin’s pace of home sales backs that theme up.
Sales inside Austin city limits increased by 7.3 percent year-over-year. Meanwhile, deal volume increased 8.6 percent, reaching $295.5 million. But, perhaps surprisingly, the median price in Austin came down a bit — 1.6 percent — to $360,000.
Looking back at the last 12 months, Austin area home prices average out at $389,446, our internal analysis shows. That’s up from $388,786 in 2018 and $372,482 n 2017. Meanwhile, the number of days homes spend on the market, on average, has climbed from 54 days in 2017 to 57 last year and 57 in the past 12 months. The number of homes sold increased slightly from 30,867 in 2018 to 30,956 in the past 12 months.
Just north of Austin in Williamson County, home sales also showed big increases — 7.7 percent. Median prices climbed by 2.8 percent year-over-year to $279,500. And new listings shot up by 4.7 percent, and pending sales increased by nearly 20 percent.
To the south, in Hays County, the market also showed promising signs. Home wales increased by 16.1 percent to 260 sales in February. The median price climbed by 4.5 percent compared to last year, hitting the $262,000 mark. New listings jumped by 17.6 percent to 375.
Here are additional Austin metro area home sales figures from February 2019.
Median Price for Single-Family Homes in the Austin Area — $295,000
Single-Family Homes Sold in the Austin Area — 2,101
Average Number of Days on the Market — 70
Total Dollar Volume of Homes Sold in the Area — $774 Million
Months of Housing Inventory Available — 2.3
New Listings — 3,015
Active Listings — 5,858
Pending Sales — 2,715
