January 2020 Austin Market Report
The familiar pattern of extremely high buyer demand, cripplingly low housing inventory, and rising prices continued during the first month of 2020 in the Austin metro area. According to the latest market report by the Austin Board of REALTORS (ABoR), Austin's median home price rose by 13% to $384,750 compared to January 2019. (NOTE: ABoR statistics now include condos and townhomes in addition to single-family.) Suburbs and outlying communities were up 4% over the same period to $308,000. However, active listings in Austin and the metro area last month were down by 32% and 24% respectively year-over-year. That is a remarkably large drop!
ABoR president, Romeo Manzanilla, commented: “While this January showed significant gains compared to January 2019, the beginning of the year is a traditionally slower time for new and active listings. We expect to see a significant increase in activity in the spring when market activity should climb naturally.” However, with active listings in Austin down by 1/3 compared to this time last year, that is a significant deficit to overcome just for the market to get back to last year's inventory levels, which were already extremely low.
Here are basic stats on single-family home sales for January 2019 for the City of Austin and the greater Austin area:
Lawrence Yun, a chief economist the National Association of REALTORS, added his thoughts: "Austin’s engine of job and population growth is not projected to slow down anytime soon. Looking at other metro areas across the U.S. that have faced similar circumstances, this level of rapid, positive growth will not be sustainable without a continued influx of a variety of housing types and careful transportation planning.”
Supporting "a continued influx of a variety of housing types" is one of the stated, top-level goals of the rewrite of Austin's land use and development code currently working its way through approval.
