Although the Austin housing market continues to show signs of stabilization, with fewer sales and more available inventory in the markets, prices continue to be higher compared to last year, according to the October ABoR report.
“Austin’s housing market is still growing, just at a different pace,” ABoR President Cord Shiflet said in a press release. “We’re entering the time of year that is historically a quieter time for home sales. With more available inventory than our area has seen in a decade and price growth stabilizing, buyers have more options today than ever before. Now is the time for homebuyers to sit down with their realtor and walk through all possible financing and down payment options.”
Jim Gaines, an economist at the Texas Real Estate Research Center, said in a press release the normalization of the Austin housing market was to be expected and is a similar trend happening across the nation.
“The 2021 housing market numbers we saw were an anomaly compared to previous years, so anything different from those numbers can appear significant," Gaines said. "Homes that are coming on the market are not staying active for long, but they are also not flying off the shelves or going into a bidding war like they used to. That previous, hectic pace of home sales has stopped.”
Gaines said Texas, specifically the Central Texas region, is well-positioned to weather any potential economic downturn.
Sales continue to decrease
According to the ABoR report, for the city of Austin, home sales decreased from October 2021 to October 2022 by 41.3% to 613 sales, while sales dollar volume decreased 37.4% to $432,352,496. In Southwest Austin, this trend was also seen. Home sales decreased by 32.2% to 234 sales from October 2021 to October 2022, according to the report. Likewise, sales dollar volume decreased 25.8% to 169,275,566. In Travis County, home sales also decreased 33.4% to 1,029 sales, while sales dollar volume decreased 28% to $730,178,298. The report also showed that, in Hays County, October 2022 home sales continued to decrease as well by 13.5% to 309 sales, and sales dollar volume also slightly decreased 12.7% to $164,078,130.
Median price increases
While sales decreased throughout the Austin area, the median price rose compared to last year by 3.8%, setting a record for October with $555,000 for the city of Austin. For the Southwest Austin market, median prices continued to increase 5.4% from October 2021 to $575,750.The median price in Travis County also rose 5.8% year over year to $544,950. In Hays County, the median price for homes rose 1.4% from October 2021 to October 2022 to $405,000.
