April 2018

Austin Real Estate Report

As Austin’s home prices have soared, the areas just outside its city limits have boomed.

New data from the Austin Board of Realtors shows the median price of a single-family home in Austin climbed by 12.2 percent year-over-year in February. And, as the city’s available home inventory declined, so did the pace of sales. Austin home sales decreased 6.7 percent last month, compared to the same month a year prior.

With Austin’s median home price reaching $367,701, the metro area’s biggest winners have been its neighboring communities.

Williamson County, to Austin’s north, saw a 13.1 percent increase in sales, year-over-year. Meanwhile, the median price there increased on 1.1 percent to $275,000. Cedar Park was an exception, with sales decreasing nearly 7 percent to 69 homes sold in February 2018 while prices climbed by more than 12 percent to $329,000. Meanwhile, sales in Hays County, to Austin’s south, grew by 12.1 percent to 222 homes sold. That happened as the median price grew 6.7 percent to $255,000.

“While wages and jobs in the Austin area haven’t increased, the local economy remains strong and continues to attract new residents and potential homebuyers,” said Mark Sprague, state director of information capital at Independence Title. “This population growth is putting additional pressure on local housing markets with already critically low housing inventories, leading to sharp price increases that both homebuyers and new home developers cannot keep up with.”

Looked at from a longer range perspective, the average price of a home in Austin in 2016 was $353,919. In the past 12 months, the average has been $374,386. Meanwhile, the number of homes sold grew from 29,805 in 2016 to 30,804 in the last 12 months. The average square footage of homes sold — 2,271 square feet — didn’t change from February last year.

“Last month, economists predicted an upwards of 5 percent growth in median home prices within the Austin area, and we have far surpassed that,” said Steve Crorey, 2018 president of the Austin Board of Realtors. “This is especially evident in local markets where housing demand is strongest, such as Austin and Cedar Park. Home price increases are sharpest in these markets, while dwindling housing inventory in the lower price classes could be discouraging people from buying.”

Here are additional Austin metro area home sales stats from February 2018.