Austin Realtors say Austin metro still strong, but inventory is still a big problem

House on a calculator

The latest housing numbers show Austin and Travis County’s single family home sales dropped by about 4.5{6d294a0824f6f808f1cc9dcde10d35acd237638cfa4e8dd876851c8906eac7a1} as compared to this time last year.

Austin Board of Realtors’ president Kevin Scanlan explained that drop is because of two things; 1) the spring time typically sees a slump in home buying and 2) critically low levels of housing inventory. He pointed to Austin and Round Rock as prime examples of this. While Austin’s median home price still saw an almost 3{6d294a0824f6f808f1cc9dcde10d35acd237638cfa4e8dd876851c8906eac7a1} bump at $375,000 home sales dove by  4.6{6d294a0824f6f808f1cc9dcde10d35acd237638cfa4e8dd876851c8906eac7a1}. In Round Rock the median home price went up by 6.5{6d294a0824f6f808f1cc9dcde10d35acd237638cfa4e8dd876851c8906eac7a1} at $277,000 and felt a 6{6d294a0824f6f808f1cc9dcde10d35acd237638cfa4e8dd876851c8906eac7a1} drop in sales.

Scanlan said that’s a clear pattern for critically low levels of inventory. Both cities have around 1-2 moths of housing stock, but a healthy market is supposed to have about 6. ABOR expects those sales numbers to return fairly soon. The overall metro median home price jumped by less than a percent to $305,000. (Correction: we had reported the metro median home price dropped, this was incorrect)

However looking out the 183 corridor, Scanlan said Cedar Park’s median home price boomed by 9{6d294a0824f6f808f1cc9dcde10d35acd237638cfa4e8dd876851c8906eac7a1} as compared to this time last year to $338,000. While Leander dipped by 1.4{6d294a0824f6f808f1cc9dcde10d35acd237638cfa4e8dd876851c8906eac7a1} which marked down the median home price to $285,000. Scanlan said these cities have drastically changed in the last ten years with pastures being replaced by developments. Today he sees home builders struggling to keep pace with demand.
Looking at the overall health of the Austin Round Rock Metro housing market’s health Scanlan believes it is still strong.

“Austin remains a highly sought after destination for both, home buyers, as well as businesses.” Scanlan continued, the business friendly position the local government has, has been a boon to the local economy. 
Pointing to major tech giants like Apple, Google and more building up offices all over the Austin area, Scanlan estimates the area is economically set for the next five to ten years.

 

(Photo:Shutterstock/stockcreations)

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