Compared to May 2019, residential sales in the five-county metropolitan statistical area decreased 29.2% to 2,697 sales, while sales dollar volume dropped 30.8% to $1.09 billion, the report said.
However, the median sales price increased 0.7% to $329,893, and homes spent three fewer days on the market—an average of 47 days.
"We're seeing home sales drop because we simply don't have enough inventory on the market," ABoR President Romeo Manzanilla said in a news release. "We recognize there’s still an element of discomfort with listing one’s home during the pandemic and Austin realtors are taking every precaution to ensure safe and efficient practices across the market.”
In the Austin-Round Rock MSA, an 18.8% decline to 6,086 active listings pushed housing inventory down further to two months, 0.6 months lower than May 2019, the report said. During the same period, new listings declined 15.8% to 4,151 listings, while pending sales jumped 14.2% to 4,287 sales, it said.
In May, Georgetown saw a 31.5% decrease in residential home sales—including single-family housing, condominiums and townhomes—year over year, closing on 113 homes, data shows. The median price increased slightly at 1.5% year over year, it said.
Georgetown saw 82 existing home sales and 31 new construction sales, the report said.
In Williamson County, May residential sales decreased by 27.1% to 914 sales, and sales dollar volume decreased 26.4% to $297.56 million, the report said.
The median price also fell 2.7% to $290,000, it said.
New listings declined 20.1% to 1,269 listings, as well as active listings, which decreased slightly by 23.7% to 1,826 listings, data shows.
Even though the housing inventory declined 0.7 months year over year to 1.8 months of inventory, the pending sales jumped 23.6% to 1,497 pending sales, which Manzanilla said he is optimistic about.
“Pending sales growth is the first sign of recovery, so the strong gains in May pending home sales throughout the MSA is encouraging,” Manzanilla said. “With continued population growth and pent-up demand for housing, our region’s housing market will ultimately rebound.”
