Central Texas saw strong gains in home sales in the first six months of the year, a sign 2019 should be another robust year for the region’s housing market, the Austin Board of Realtors said Wednesday. “In the first half of the year, monthly home sales in the Austin-Round Rock MSA consistently outperformed previous years. We are on track for another very strong year,” Kevin Scanlan, the board’s president, said in an email. Across the five-county Austin-Round Rock metro area, sales of single-family homes and the median sales price last month reached the highest level for any June on record, the board said. Within Austin’s city limits, the median home-sales price was the highest it has ever been for any month on record, climbing to $420,000. That’s up from a median of $407,400 in May, according to board figures. For Travis County as a whole, the median sales price has remained at $400,000 for May and June, the highest it has ever been in the county, the board said. “The Austin real estate market is still red hot,” said Donna Blair, who owns Blairfield Realty in Austin. “Properties that are desirable and priced well are in short supply and high demand. In many cases, hot properties are getting 10 to15 offers, and buyers are willing to pay excessive amounts above the list price and even above the highest comps in the neighborhood to secure a property.” From January through June, 16,203 homes changed hands in the five-county Austin-Round Rock region, a 4.3% increase compared with the same period last year, the board said. Half of those houses sold for less than $315,000 and half sold for more, for a 1% increase in the median home price. In June, 3,349 homes sold in the metro area, the board said. Although up only 0.5% from June 2018, the sales were an all-time high for a June, the board said. Half the homes last month sold for less than $334,702 and half sold for more, for a 3% increase year over year in the median price and a record for a June, the board said. However, June’s median was down slightly from May’s $335,095 median home-sales price. Housing industry analyst Eldon Rude said June’s increased sales “are the result of the Austin region continuing to exhibit strong job and population growth, and at this point there’s no evidence to suggest the pace of job creation in Austin will slow through the end of the year.” Lower mortgage interest rates in recent months also are spurring sales, said Rude, principal of 360° Real Estate Analytics, an Austin-based consulting firm. Within Austin’s city limits, however, a short supply of available homes and rising home prices have tempered sales over time, Scanlan said. Home sales were down for June and for the first six months of the year in the city, the board said. In June, Austin had 985 home sales, a 2.3% decline from June 2018. Austin’s record $420,000 median was a 10.9% jump over the year-ago median price. Through the first half of the year, there were 4,736 home sales in Austin, a 1.6% decrease year-over-year. The median sales price rose 3.2%, to $387,100. “We have seen slight dips in Austin’s home sales before, but because this decrease is over the course of six months, it could be indicative of a larger trend,” Scanlan said. Blair, a real estate broker and investor who also is a homebuilder and contractor, is building and remodeling homes in Central Austin, with a focus on 78704 neighborhoods like Barton Hills and Zilker. “The most sought-after real estate is often selling for cash, making it a little tough for the average homebuyer with a mortgage to compete in the bidding wars,” Blair said. “The land is so valuable in these areas that they are also competing with builders and developers for properties.” Neighborhoods just outside of Central Austin, like Castlewood Forest to the south or the Gracywoods neighborhood to the north, also are seeing a sharp increase in value and demand, Blair said. Local real estate agent Ethan Stites said that South Austin, particularly south of Ben White Boulevard, “seems to be pretty hot right now.” “A lot of people are honing in on that area. Houses are a bit more affordable over there,” said Stites, with the Heart of Austin Homes Team, part of Keller Williams Realty. Mark Sprague, an Austin-area housing analyst, said, “Developers are putting more dense residential communities on the outer rim of the city, a trend which should lead to more affordable pricing comparatively.”

Source: Austin American Statesman