AUSTIN, Texas — We talk a lot about unaffordability in Central Texas, and new real estate data shows the problem is dramatically affecting counties outside of Austin.
On Tuesday, the Austin Board of Realtors (ABoR) released its April report.
It shows the median home cost in Caldwell County jumped 47% in a year, to $365,000.
In Bastrop County, it went up 38%, to $402,000. In Hays County, there was a nearly 30% jump, to $477,000.
In Williamson County, the median price is $510,000 – about a 19% increase from last year.
And within Austin city limits, the median home price is $640,000, a new record and a 16% increase from April 2021. Despite about 4% fewer homes sold in April, the sales dollar volume was actually up ten percent due to how expensive homes have become.
The median sales price for the entire Austin-Round Rock MSA was $550,000.
Ashley Jackson, the president-elect for the ABoR, said this is due to low inventory.
"We've had very, very low housing inventory over the past few years. Tragically low sometimes, I sometimes use that word to describe it," said Jackson. "So it's created a lot of competition in the marketplace and everyone needs a home. So buyers were doing everything that they can to win these homes and they're driving up the prices."
The report said that for the second month in a row, April residential home sales decreased across the Austin-Round Rock MSA. But despite the dip, the five-county MSA was just 216 shy of breaking the record set for April home sales in April 2021.
Homes spent an average of 18 days on the market, the report said, unchanged from April 2021. For the City of Austin specifically, a home stays on the market an average of 14 days, but Jackson said it usually sells much quicker.
"Typically, agents will list a home for sale on Friday and they'll be under contract by Monday," said Jackson. "So you really want to get out there shopping on the weekends, making sure you're seeing as much as you can before you make your offer."
Active listings jumped 52.5% to 2,763, causing housing inventory to increase 0.3 months to 0.8 months of inventory as pending sales declined 5.6% to 3,630 transactions, the ABoR said.
"We are far from a healthy number of homes for sale in our market, so any increase in housing stock, no matter how small, is a welcome sign for people looking to buy," Cord Shiflet, 2022 ABoR president, said. "Our area continues to really be influenced by companies targeting the Austin area for job creation and expansion, and that relocating workforce needs a place to live. Austin continues to be a demand-driven market."
For more information or to download the April 2022 Central Texas Housing Market Report, visit ABoR.com/MarketStatistics.
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