Real Estate Rumblings

Austin housing market shatters records as median price nears $500,000 mark

This Austin home is currently on the market at $500,000.

Neither snow nor ice nor power outages can slow the Central Texas real estate market. Last month, despite a crippling winter storm, Austin's median home price inside the city limits hit $491,000, yet another record.

February's median home price was a mind-boggling 24.3 percent leap over February 2020, and is the highest median home price on record for the city of Austin, according to the Austin Board of Realtors Central Texas Housing Report.

The trend continued in Travis County where the median price for residential homes increased 25.3 percent year-over-year to $470,000. And across the five-county region — which includes Travis, Hays, Bastrop, Williamson, and Caldwell — February's median home price hit an all-time high of $395,000.

“Until we have more supply, the lack of inventory and prices rising nationwide are going to present challenges for homebuyers everywhere,” said Lawrence Yun, chief economist and senior vice president of research at the National Association of Realtors. “Although it's not visible, mortgage rates will continue to rise throughout the year. Get all your documents and finances prepared early, and realize you may not buy your dream home, but it will be a worthwhile investment.”

Though median home prices remain red-hot, the historic winter storm did impact sales volume, which fell for the first time since June 2020, largely due to the statewide power loss and infrastructure issues. Austin-area home sales declined 8 percent to 2,389 sales in February.

Still, they didn't decrease that much inside the city or county limits. Austin home sales fell 4.6 percent to 834 sales, and Travis County saw only a slight 2.3 percent decline to 1,287 sales.

“Although the winter storms slowed activity in February, this does not indicate a market slowdown. We’re still very much in a sellers’ market,” said Susan Horton, 2021 ABoR president, in the release. “Across the region, a high quantity of offers, cash offers, and requests to waive appraisals or option fees are increasingly commonplace."

Elsewhere in the Austin-Round Rock metro, Williamson County's median home price increased 25.9 percent to $364,950, while sales volume plummeted 25 percent. Caldwell County actually saw median home prices decrease 3.4 percent year-over-year to $199,900 and sales volume fall 28 percent, the only county to see such a trend.

But nothing could slow down shoppers in Hays and Bastrop counties, where median home prices and sales volume both continued to climb. Last month, the median home price in Hays County hit $301,000, a 7.1 percent rise over February 2020, and home sales steadily increased 9.8 percent to 313 sales. Bastrop home prices experienced a double-digit increase of 12.2 percent to $274,946 while home sales leapt 28.8 percent — the highest of any of the five counties.

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Hot Market

Austin housing market breaks another record as median home price hits $550,000

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In February 2021, the city's median home price was $491,000. It's now $550,562.

Record-breaking milestones continue for the Austin real estate market, according to the Austin Board of Realtors' latest data. ABoR's April 2021 report, released May 18, details new all-time highs and unprecedented growth at the city, county, and metro levels.

Home sales in the city of Austin skyrocketed 51.4 percent in April 2021 compared to April 2020, ABoR says. And while the city was under shelter-in-place orders last year that essentially put the market on hold, last month's home sales figure (1,167 sales) was an all-time high for any April on record, the report notes.

With that jump in sales came a very significant jump in price. The median home price in Austin soared 31.7 percent last month to $550,562 — the highest price ever recorded. By comparison, in February 2021 — just two months prior — the city's median price made waves as it neared the $500,000 mark for the very first time.

Travis County was also home to significant growth last month, with home sales up 46.8 percent year-over-year and the median home price up a whopping 37.8 percent to $537,500. And at the metro level, Austin-Round Rock's median sale price clocked in at $460,000 in April 2021, up 42 percent from the previous year, with sales up 37 percent.

“One year ago, shelter-in-place orders effectively ground real estate transactions to a halt, leaving uncertainty in the market,” Susan Horton, 2021 ABoR president, said in a release. “Although striking at face value, last month’s housing market activity demonstrates not only a strong recovery since last spring, but significant growth beyond that recovery.”

That growth has led to an increasingly competitive Central Texas housing market, with very little inventory and homes flying off the market in mere days. In Austin proper, homes spent only seven days on the market last month, and across the five-county metro area, homes were on the market for just 17 days.

Still, Horton remains optimistic about the market in the months to come, noting that "housing inventory was slightly higher in April than in March, and the pace of home price appreciation month to month is slowing, indicating that the rush on the housing market at the beginning of the year could be easing."

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