Austin Real Estate Market Inventory and Price Range Report – June 2009

Below is the breakdown of June 2009 home sales in Austin. Our median price range is roughly at $200K, so about half of all sales for June fall into the first two price ranges below $200K. The second colum shows Average days on market for homes sold in each price range.

The third column shows the number of home active for sale as of July 30, 2009. The last column shows the number of months it would take for every active home to be absorbed by the market at the current rate of home sales. Current rate is calculated by averaging the trailing three month’s sales.

Price Range Number Sold Avg Days on Mkt Active July 2009 Months Inventory
$149,999 or under 494 59 1581 3.39
$150,000 – $199,999 498 62 1741 4.18
$200,000 – $249,999 320 77 1157 4.28
$250,000 – $299,999 230 78 1026 5.55
$300,000 – $349,999 119 105 706 6.83
$350,000 – $399,999 89 105 694 8.71
$400,000 – $449,999 65 83 440 7.90
$450,000 – $499,999 49 126 426 10.92
$500,000 – $549,999 31 104 237 9.00
$550,000 – $599,999 19 107 274 17.87
$600,000 – $699,999 33 156 365 13.52
$700,000 – $799,999 19 150 231 18.24
$800,000 – $899,999 13 125 188 21.69
$900,000 – $999,999 7 124 136 25.50
$1,000,000 or over 25 125 643 35.07

What do the “month’s of inventory” mean?

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Austin Real Estate Stats – 2009 Midyear Breakdown by Austin MLS Area

Below are the Austin real estate market mid-year stats broken down by MLS area. I break the stats down by area each quarter because the macro stats I post each month don’t tell the entire story of our market. Location and price range factors are important, so each quarter I break down the overall stats into the specific MLS areas and compare them to the same time period (first 6 months of the year in this case) from the year before. You can check the areas in which you are interested to see how they are holding up, but even within each area there are pockets and submarkets that will defy the greater trends, for better or worse. Here is a quick summary.

For all of Austin, per my previous stats post a couple of days ago, the average sales price is down about 3% and the median sales price for all of Austin MLS sales combined is up slightly (0.08%). Not bad when viewed in context.

Of the 44 Austin Metro MLS areas tracked below…
11 had an increase in average sold prices, exactly 1/4 of all areas.
11 also had an increase in median sold prices (though not the same exact 11)
7 of the MLS area saw an increase in average sold price per square foot.
4 of the areas saw a decrease in days on market (homes selling faster)
6 of the areas saw a decrease in median days on market.
3 areas saw an increase in the three main metrics – avg and median sold, and price per square foot – areas 7 (South/Central/Zilker), 8W (Westlake/Eanes), and area SC (far southeast Caldwell County). I think SC is an anomoly because I know of nothing that would be driving demand way out there.

The fastest selling areas are 5E (East) SE (S. East), 10S (South) and NW (Northwest), all of which had average sold days of 51.
The slowest selling areas, all having average days on market greater that 100 are areas 1B (Central/Tarrytowm – 118), GTW (Georgetwon West – 114), HD (Dripping Springs – 118), LN (Lake North – 131), LS (Lake South/Lakeway – 122), PF (Pflugerville – 114), RN (River North/Steiner Ranch – 102).

As you can see, these slower selling areas are scattered to the four corners of Austin, and central. Interestingly, area 7, adjacent to 1B, is a fast selling area. We can generally say though that all of faster selling areas are closer in and most of the slower selling areas are further out, which is what I’d expect.

OK, on to the chart below. If you are unfamiliar with Austin MLS Areas, a map is at the bottom of the chart. As usual questions and comments are welcome.

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Austin Real Estate Market Update – June 2009 Stats

austin-sales-market-last-16-months-200906

We’re at mid-year (June 2009 stats) for the Austin real estate market stats, and still the Austin real estate market is hanging tough. We continue to see stubborn bouncing up and down from month to month, as the graph to the left shows (click to enlarge), but the overall yearly trend is holding steady at around 3% below last year’s YTD.

Let’s look at the breakdown of the Austin single family home sales for June 2009:

• Number of homes sold is down 9% (was down 27% last month) from 2,178 June 2008 to 1,986 June 2009.  This is a small decline compared to what we’ve been seeing for the past year, in which most months decline by more than 20% over the year before.

• Average list prices in Austin were down 2% over the same month last year to $265,868.
• Average sold prices in Austin were down 2.9% over the same month last year to $254,924 from $262,512 last year.
• Median sold price was up slightly (0.11%) to $200,500. Last year in June it was $200,278.
• Average List to Sold price ratio is 95.88%, down slightly from 96.40% the same month last year. Note that this reports the sold price compared to the last list price, not the original list price.
• Avg sold price per square foot is down almost 7% to $115 compared to $123 a year ago in Mar.
• Avg days on market is up 16 days (26%) from 61 last year to 77 this June.
• Median days on market is up 14 days (33%) from 36 days last year to 48 June this year.
• Number of “Not Sold” (exp or withdrawn) is down 12% over the same month last year, to 34% of all removed listings compared to 36% for the same month last year.

The chart below shows the June stats for 2009/2008, plus last month’s stats.

Austin Real Estate Sales Market Update
Homes only (condos, duplexes, etc. not included) compiled from Austin MLS data

May 2009 Jun 2009 June 2008 Yr % Change
# Sold 2060 1986 2178 -8.82%
Avg List $274,380 $265,868 $272,312 -2.37%
Med List $203,037 $207,000 $208,250 -0.60%
Avg Sold $265,878 $254,924 $262,512 -2.89%
Med Sold $199,788 $200,500 $200,278 0.11%
Sold/List % 96.90% 95.88% 96.40% -0.54%
Avg SQFT 2154 2224 2135 4.17%
Med SQFT 1945 2016 1955 3.12%
Avg $ SQFT $123.43 $114.62 $122.96 -6.78%
Avg DOM 61 77 61 26.23%
Median DOM 36 48 36 33.33%
# Expired 516 390 530 -26.42%
# Withdrawn 598 679 691 -1.74%
Not Sold 1114 1069 1221 -12.45%
Not Sold % 35.10% 34.99% 35.92% -2.59%

Below is the Year to data stats for the Austin sales market.

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How does your Austin lawn look in the 100+ degree drought?

We just had 12 16 days of 100+ degree heat in June 2009 in Austin, and we’re in the middle of a severe drought. As I drive around, showing and previewing homes in Austin, I see a lot of brown lawns. Even well watered lawns are suffering with brown spots, fungus, sun burn, thatching, grub worms, etc. This is just how it goes in a hot Austin summer. Most people know and understand this.

So imagine the shock and surprise that Sylvia and I recently experienced when the lawn shown in the slide show below, from one of our recent listings, was declared to be “dead” in numerous spots by an ultra picky buyer who, along with assistance from their Realtor, successfully extracted $650 from me and Sylvia under the threat that our seller would be sued otherwise. The amount demanded was purportedly so they could replace a pallet and a half of what they claimed was “dead” grass. The slideshow below was taken the morning of closing. You be the judge as to the condition of the yard being delivered to the buyers on closing day. If you just bought this home and drove up to move in on a 100 degree day, would you be upset and would you threaten to sue the seller for neglecting the yard?

(Original Slideshow removed upon request. Remaining photos show only the worst areas of the lawn but not the actual home

A pallet of grass covers 400 square feet of lawn, so a pallet and a half is 600 square feet of dead grass that you’d need to observe in these photos in order to agree with the amount of grass in question. That would be roughly ten 6ftx10ft areas of “dead grass”, or six 10ftx10ft areas ( 6 bedroom size areas). Do you see 600 sqft of grass that’s even brown in color, much less dead?

Yes there are some brown areas, but they are not dead. No competent landscaper would claim that this yard suffers from 600 square feet of dead grass. Yet the buyer’s and their agent were able to obtain two bids from landscapers for about $650 each for the replacement of 600 square feet of dead grass. I’m wondering if either of the landscapers actually visited the property. I showed my landscaper these photos and he laughed out loud and said “I wish half my yards looked that good”. Unequivocally he said he would not recommend replacement of any of this yard, that it was all normal for what he is seeing all over Austin and that they are fighting this battle on most of the yards they service.

Why didn’t we just say “no thanks, the grass looks fine and normal. It looks in fact exactly like the other yards in the neighborhood, if not better”.

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