In a year in which the Southwest Austin real estate market saw historically low amounts of inventory paired with an historically high volume of home sales, the median price of homes sold peaked in December, reaching $471,000, according to the latest report released by the Austin Board of Realtors.

Those who sold their homes in Southwest Austin this past December made $91,000 more per sale than one year prior, a 24.9% increase year over year. In 2019, December sales resulted in a median price of $380,000, according to the ABoR. Although the number of homes sold in April and May slowed due, in part, to coronavirus fears, 10 of 12 months in 2020 exceeded 2019 sales. Overall, 2020 saw 9.1% more sales than 2019, with 4,997 transactions in 2020 compared to 4,550 in 2019, according to the ABoR data. “The Central Texas housing market is incredibly competitive and moving at lightning speed right now,” ABoR President Susan Horton said. “The complexity of a home sale is at an all-time high as it has become commonplace for homes to receive multiple offers well over list price.”

Contributing to the competitive housing climate is low amounts of housing inventory on the market. In Southwest Austin, there was an estimated 0.3 months of inventory available in December, with 130 units on the market. That mark is 1.2 months lower than in April, which saw the highest inventory this year.

Southwest Austin has not surpassed 2.6 months of inventory since July 2019. That month, there were 931 active listings on the market. The area has been under two months of inventory since October 2019, according to the ABoR.