As the summer home-selling season comes to a close, the number of houses sold and the median price of those sales hit all-time highs for any August on record, the Austin Board of Realtors said Tuesday.
Inside Austin's city limits, the median sales price also was the highest for any August on record, reaching $400,500, the board said in its latest monthly report. Sales in Austin did not set any records for the month or the year, the board said, noting that August 2016 saw higher sales than last month's 936 sales, which were up 3.3% from the prior August.
For the Austin-Round Rock metro area — a five-county region stretching from Georgetown to San Marcos — the board said 3,189 houses changed hands last month, a 5.8% increase over August 2018. Half the houses in the metro area sold for less than $326,500 and half sold for more in August, for a 2% increase in the median price year-over-year, the board said.
Increasing sales and decreasing home stock are leaving few choices for residents in the city of Austin, said Kevin Scanlan, president of the Austin Board of Realtors. The imbalance between supply and demand continues to drive up the cost of homes in Austin, and that trend is expected to persist beyond this summer's sales activity, he said.
"While it's typical to see a decrease in housing inventory and listings at the end of the summer, the continued year-over-year decrease in supply is proof that Austin's housing stock is critically limited," Scanlan said in a written statement. "We're encouraged by the City Council's stated commitment to creating more housing capacity. Increasing the supply and variety of housing is the only way to ensure a more balanced market."
In a written statement with the board's release, Nora Linares-Moeller, executive director of the nonprofit HousingWorks Austin, said a broader variety of housing options is key to addressing the city's affordability issues.
"Austin needs more duplexes and multiplexes to provide more affordable options at different price points," she said.
