According to the July Central Texas Housing Report from the Austin Board of Realtors, there were 223 reported closed home sales across the six-digit ZIP code area defined by Community Impact Newspaper’s Northwest Austin edition’s distribution area.
That is a 16.14% increase in home sales when compared to July 2019—the first month since February when home sales in 2020 outpaced sales in 2019. In both April and May, home sales were down 40% or more across Northwest Austin year over year.
“July was a very encouraging month for the Central Texas housing market,” 2020 ABoR President Romeo Manzanilla said in an Aug. 19 news release. “Strong home sales, combined with an increase in new listings and pending sales, are important benchmarks when analyzing the health of our market. A healthy housing market 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.”
While home sales saw a second month of rising numbers, other market indicators remain relatively stable in Northwest Austin.
Home inventory, or the amount of time it would take for all remaining homes on the market to sell if no new homes were built, continues to lag at an unhealthy level. For the ninth straight month, Northwest Austin’s real estate market had one month or less of inventory, according to ABoR data.
“Our market is now ultra-competitive because of our dangerously low inventory and that is cause for concern over the long-term,” Manzanilla said in the new release.
The Texas A&M University Real Estate Center considers a balanced real estate market to have 6.5 months of inventory.
July saw median home prices across Northwest Austin continue to increase. The median home price for all residential properties in the market was $418,000. That represents an 8.15% increase from July 2019.
Median prices have not fallen in Northwest Austin since the coronavirus pandemic forced businesses and restaurants to close across Texas. The median home price in Northwest Austin has increased year over year by at least 5% since March, punctuated by a 15.4% increase in April.
Northwest Austin’s median home price continues to sit just under the median price of all residential properties citywide. In July, ABoR reported the median price of all homes in the city of Austin was $425,000—a jump of more than 10% compared to July 2019.
