Rising Prices, Dropping Sales in Texas’ Capital City

Residential sales in Texas’ capital city dipped last month, while the median price soared.

The Austin-Round Rock metro area clocked 3,280 closed sales in April, decreasing for the second month in a row, and down 6.2 percent since April 2021, according to an Austin Board of Realtors report. The median price in the area nevertheless set an all-time record, rising to $550,000, a 19.6 percent increase over the same time last year.

Notably, while changes in new listings and average time spent on the market changed little from last year, active listings jumped 52.5 percent and pending sales declined, causing housing inventory to increase. It’s the biggest gain in housing inventory year over year since the summer of 2017.

“We are far from a healthy number of homes for sale in our market, so any increase in housing stock is a welcome sign,” said ABoR’s Cord Shiflet. “Our area continues to 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.”

Within Austin city limits, April home sales decreased 4.2 percent and the median price rose to a record-setting $640,000, a 16.3 percent increase over the April 2021 median.

The biggest median price jump in the area was in Caldwell County, where it rose 47.1 percent year-over-year. The county southeast of Austin has attracted development projects recently, in part related to the boom along the I-35 corridor between Austin and San Antonio. Despite the big year-over-year increase, at $365,000 the county had the lowest median price in the metro area.

Although Austin’s median price was the highest in the area, its year-over-year increase, 16.2 percent, was the lowest. Travis County, where Austin is located, had a 16.8 percent increase since April 2021, the second-lowest in the area.