Central Austin housing market numbers trend upward following early 2020 lag

Central Austin’s home sales in July were up 14% over the same month 2019, according to a recent report by the Austin Board of Realtors.

After a five-month slowdown caused by the coronavirus pandemic, overall sales for the years are still down 9.9% compared to last year, but ABoR President Romeo Manzanilla said that strong June and July numbers bode well for the rest of 2020.

“Strong home sales, combined with an increase in new listings and pending sales, are important benchmarks when analyzing the health of our market,” Manzanilla said in a press release. “A healthy housing marketing is vital to the overall economic recovery in the region, and with two consecutive months of positive numbers, we are growing more confident that this is sustainable and can help be the spark that gets our economy back on track.”

Central Austin realtors closed 463 home sales in July at an average price of $707,731—16.1% higher than the average price in July 2019. There was also a 32.3% year-over-year increase in the dollar volume of sales, totaling $327,679,300.

The entire Austin Metropolitan Area saw even stronger gains, with a 21.5% year-over-year increase in sales, minimizing the year-to-date decrease in sales to 0.3%.

Some of this market improvement can be attributed to low housing inventory, with active listings across the Austin area dropping 32.4% due to demand, according to ABoR.

Manzanilla said low inventory is cause for long-term concern.

“Homeowners thinking of listing their home need to understand the opportunities in the market and our elected leaders should focus on promoting policies that create increased housing capacity,” he said.