Austin Real Estate Blog

The October statistics for the Austin real estate market are out. The Austin market continues to move at a slower pace compared to what we experienced over the summer.

The amount of inventory is up compared to last year.

In October 2006 we had 7947 properties on the market and in October 2007 we had 9431 which is an 18.7% increase. Although the inventory usually goes down as we head into winter, I was wondering if the amount of inventory might actually increase from last month. But the inventory went down. Also the increase year over year was less in October (19%) than it was last month (22%). Not enough of an improvement to say we are getting over the subprime issues but at least a sign that the market is not getting worse.

The months of inventory is a general sign of how the market is doing. This number is how many months it would take to sell all the inventory on the market if no new homes were put for sale. Basically if there are more than 6 months of inventory the market is considered a buyers market. If there are less than six months the market is considered a sellers' market. The months of inventory stayed roughly the same improving from 5.47 last month to 5.32 this month. Even though the months of inventory is less than 6 months, I would say we are in a buyers' market.

I wanted to break out the numbers a little more. So I looked at Central East Austin (MLS area 3,5,9,11), Central West Austin (MLS areas 10n,10s,1a,1b,1n,2,2n,4,6,7,8e,8w) and the suburbs.

Breaking out the chart a little. You might notice that central Austin west (22%) saw more of a year over year increase than the suburbs (16%). But if you look at months of inventory on the market central Austin west had a lower number of months of inventory on the market (4.65) than the suburbs (5.38). This is basically because last year there was an incredibly low amount of inventory on the market in central Austin. The other thing that stands out is East Austin has seen a massive increase in inventory. Compared to last year East Austin has seen a 57% increase in inventory. In general I am seeing an increase in inventory in the parts of east Austin that have recently attracted interest from investors. Areas that have seen less investor interest like French Place have not had their inventory increase as rapidly.

Overall prices are up again compared to last year. But this is a little misleading. When the credit issues appeared they had the largest effect on houses under 200k. Therefore the slowness in this price range is pushing up the average price. What areas do I find interesting? Since the California investors are pulling out, areas like 10N look pretty attractive because properties are starting to cashflow in that area. Also while I don't like the new builds in Mueller (tiny lots with expensive houses), I do find the properties surrounding Mueller pretty appealing.

If anyone has any questions about the market or a particular property feel free to send us an email.

If you want even more stats we have stats for the last few years located here Austin Real Estate Statistics.

And here are the statistics broken down by mls area for the month of October.