March Austin Real Estate Market Report

A Cool Start to 2019 for Austin Area Home Sales

The pace of Austin area home sales slowed slightly in January, compared to the same month a year ago, and the ever-rising increase in median home prices also eased ever so slightly.

Austin’s residential real estate market has been on such a hot streak for such a long time that you might need a second look to make sure you read it that right.

But slower growth is still growth, and a little cooling off might be OK.

“In December 2018, new listings on the market returned to more normal levels compared to December 2017. This resulted in a slight decrease in January sales this year,” Kevin P. Scanlan, president of Austin Board of REALTORS®, said. “However, even though we are seeing slowing home price appreciation, future homeowners are still buying. That means Austin’s market remains extremely competitive and 2019 is highly likely to be another strong year.”

Inside Austin’s city limits, home sales remained flat in January, as compared to the same month last year. The median price rose 1.7 percent, year-over-year, to $353,250. New listings, meanwhile, shot up 24 percent to 784.

Just north of Austin, Williamson County tallied 557 home sales — a 2.6 percent decrease, year-over-year. Median prices there increased slightly by 1.6 percent, reaching $275,400. To Austin’s south, in Hays County, single-family home sales declined by 17 percent as the median price increased by 3.4 percent to $267,900.

Looking back at the last 12 months, Austin home prices average out at $390,128, our internal analysis shows. That’s up from $388,786 in 2018 and $372,482 in 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 30,527 in 2017 to 30,810 in the past 12 months.

“In submarkets where there’s lots of growth, the price gap between home resales and new home construction is narrowing. New development is moving further away from the city—to areas where land is less expensive—and most resales are more centrally located,” Vaike O’Grady, Austin regional director of Metrostudy, said. “However, in the city of Austin, we’re seeing the opposite trend. Older homes on larger lots are priced higher than new homes on smaller lots. As Austin runs out of space for inventory, developers are getting more creative with home and lot configuration.”

Here are more Austin metro area home sales figures from January 2019.

Median Price for Single-Family Homes in the Austin Area — $296,999
Single-Family Homes Sold in the Austin Area — 1,598
Average Number of Days on the Market — 72
Total Dollar Volume of Homes Sold in the Area — $599 Million
Months of Housing Inventory Available — 2.3
New Listings — 2,820
Active Listings — 5,840
Pending Sales — 2,452