Austin home sales are on the comeback after bottoming out in early spring

The number of homes sold in the city of Austin last month was 20.7% higher than in September 2019, according to an Oct. 15 report by the Austin Board of Realtors. In the entire Austin-Round Rock Metropolitan Statistical Area, that statistic is even higher, with the number of homes sold up 31.5% year over year.

ABoR cites an extended summer boom in local home sales following a spring slowdown due to COVID-19 for September's strong sales numbers. The city of Austin's 1,208 closed sales last month raked in $678,062,256, a dollar volume 39.2% greater than was brought in during the same month last year.

While ABoR representatives say demand for homes has grown in 2020, a dramatically low housing supply is driving costs up.

“The housing market is pumping billions of dollars into our region’s economy at a time it’s greatly needed, but we also need to be cognizant of the impact such rapid activity is having on record-low inventory levels and rising home prices,” ABoR President Romeo Manzanilla said in a press release.

With only 1.4 months of inventory in Austin—that is, the length of time the city's current stock of available housing would last if no new housing was put up for sale—the city's median home price has risen to $415,500, up 8.7% from this time in 2019.

In Northwest and Southwest Austin, supply is even lower, with only 0.8 months of inventory available. Central Austin's inventory is higher, with 2.7 months' supply available, possibly due to the prevalence of condominiums in that market, which are less in demand than single-family homes as buyers' priorities shift due to pandemic conditions.

"The Austin area needs more housing supply at all price points in order to stabilize home price growth and help make home ownership accessible, especially for first-time home buyers,” Manzanilla said.