Austin-area home sales declined across most of the region in April as the full impact of the coronavirus pandemic and local shelter-in-place orders was felt in the housing market, according to a May 19 Austin Board of Realtors Central Texas housing market report.
Compared to April 2019, residential sales in the five-county metropolitan statistical area decreased 21.6% to 2,611 sales, while sales dollar volume fell 18.3% to $1.06 billion, the report said.
There was also a 7.3% decline in active listings to 6,349 listings, which drove housing inventory down further to 2.1 months, 0.2 months lower than this time last year, the report said. At the same time, median sales price increased 3.2% to $325,000, and homes spent nine fewer days on the market, or an average of 43 days, it said.
“We anticipated a sharp decline in April home sales activity, as it directly correlates with the decline in listings activity recorded in March due to government stay-at-home orders,” ABoR President Romeo Manzanilla said in a news release. “Even with the impact on home sales, homes still spent less time on the market and sold at higher prices than last April. Austin’s housing demand is undeterred, and possibly strengthened by declining inventory.”
