Austin Real Estate Blog

First the May Facts & Figures for the Austin real estate market, active listings are up 1756 from last year. Homes sold is down 544 from last year. Both these numbers indicate a trend for a buyers market. But then the average sales price is up as well as the median sales price, so what does that mean? I think this is a little misleading because lower priced houses are not selling which is pushing the median and average prices up.

So what is going on with the Austin real estate market? Certainly the market has been affected by the subprime issues and the national housing malaise that has affected the entire country. We are seeing sellers that are more negotiable and prices have come down. But that said, we are not seeing 30% price drops like what California is currently experiencing. This is likely because the Austin real estate market did not see the wild appreciation California experienced for the last several years before the subprime issues. Let's look over the past couple years.

One interesting thing to look at is the sold to list price. It was pretty steadily around 97% for 2006 and 2007 until September 2007. It then wavered a couple months, and now April and May have come back up to just under 97%. Now that said, you have to remember to not get caught up in what the asking price is because getting a place for 5% less than list price does not mean it is necessarily a good deal. This is a common misconception. Good deals are not a ratio of list to sale price. Good deals are those that sell for less than the current market price. A lot of people feel good when they get X amount off the sales price, but what if it was X amount overpriced to begin with? Actually, some of the highest appreciating properties and best deals we have personally bought were purchased at list price.

Next let's look at the months of inventory on the market. This is basically how many months it would take to sell off all the houses currently on the market. Generally anything over 6 is considered a buyers market. Anything below 6 is a buyers market. Last year at this time the Months of Inventory was 3.27 which basically indicates we were in a very hot sellers market. In May 2008 we are at 4.91. Although this is above what we say in 2007, 4.91 is not that bad. And it's certainly a different story than what other parts of the country are experiencing. (I think parts of Florida are hovering at around 20 Months of Inventory).

Overall I would still say we are in a buyers market. For sellers I would advise to make their house as spotless and presentable as possible. Buyers are not going to look past stains in the carpet and even general clutter is really hurting a houses chance of selling in the current market. For buyers, if you look over the market you can still find decent deals out there. But if you are looking for a decent deal , you need to be flexible in what you are looking for and be open to variety of different houses & areas. That way you have many opportunities and a higher probability of finding a deal.

Now let's look at the breakout of the submarkets. The suburbs months of inventory increased from last month, from 4.83 to 5.22. East Austin has also increased its MOI just slightly from 5.61 in April to 5.71 for May. And central has improved quite a bit with a drop from 4.01 to 3.46 of MOI.

And finally, below is the further breakdown of the different central Austin MLS areas. Here is a map of Austin showing the different Austin MLS areas.

As always, if you have any questions about a particular house or the market in general, or if you are looking for a home feel free to contact us. Also if you want to search what is currently on the market we have a search here for Austin homes.