Austin Sales Market – June 2008 and Mid-Year Stats Update

Below is the June 2008 Austin real estate market update, including YTD stats. For starters, I thought I’d post a graph showing Average Sales prices in Austin from 1999 through June 2008 for houses, condos and multi-family properties. Austin’s real estate market has historically moved in fits and starts. The slowdown indicated by the June 2008 YTD dip in the graph is real and present, but I’ll match this graph against that of almost any other metro area in the US and say that, relative to the rest of the country, the Austin real estate market is looking pretty darned good.
Austin Sales Market History 1999 through June 2008 Graph

The average sales price for houses in Austin increased 0.47% in June from $263,421 in June 2007 to $264,653 June 2008. We continue to have a large number of expired and withdrawn listings though, and days on market continues to creep upward. Nevertheless, many homes are selling fast with hardly a sign of a slow market, while others, though seemingly well priced and in good showing condition, sit with no offers. Sylvia and I placed a new listing in South Austin on the market a couple of weeks ago and had it under contract in 4 days with a good offer. It was in average condition. Other listings we have in south Austin are equally as well priced and in better showing condition, but no offers yet. I just placed a new listing in Cedar Park yesterday which is priced at about 97% of market value, and I expect it to sell fast, but can’t be as confident as I could in 2006 and 2007. The market seems fickle and somewhat unpredictable at present.

Here is a quick summery of the June stats.
• Number of homes sold is down 25% from 2,702 June 2007 to 2,032 June 2008.
• Average sold prices in Austin were up 0.47% over the same month last year to $264,653.
• Median sold price was up 3.62% over the same month last year to $202,000. I’ll have to doublecheck, but I think this is the first time the median sales price in Austin has broken through the $200K mark.
• Avg sold price per square foot is up 0.84% over June 2007 to $124 per sqft.
• Avg days on market is up 11 days (22%) from 50 last year to 61 this May. Exactly the same as last month.
• Median days on market is unavailable again this month because our $1M/yr MLS software, MLXChange, won’t produce it. (I continue to be dismayed and deeply disappointed in the poor performance of our MLS software, MLXChange, which we are 8 months into and still experiencing numerous data intergity problems.)
• Number of “Not Sold” (exp or withdrawn) is up a whopping 29% over the same month last year, but a far less increase than last month.

Below is the chart with these stats, along with a YTD chart. I’ll have area breakdowns posted in a separate post later today or tomorrow, so check back to see how your area is doing.



 

 

 

 

 

 

Austin Real Estate Market Update for June 2008
All Austin / Central TX MLS Areas – Houses Only
 

May 2008
Jun 2008
Jun 2007
Yr % Change
# Sold
2025
2032
2702
-24.80%
Avg List
$275,390
$274,504
$269,565
1.83%
Med List
$202,950
$209,000
$199,500
4.76%
Avg Sold
$266,866
$264,653
$263,421
0.47%
Med Sold
$199,900
$202,000
$194,950
3.62%
List/Sold %
96.90%
96.41%
97.72%
-1.34%
Avg SQFT
2155
2133
2141
-0.37%
Med SQFT
1945
1949
1957
-0.41%
Avg $ SQFT
$124
$124
$123
0.84%
Avg DOM
61
61
50
22.00%
Median DOM
-
-
-
-
# Expired
512
522
416
25.48%
# Withdrawn
597
687
523
31.36%
Not Sold
1109
1209
939
28.75%
Not Sold %
35%
37%
26%
44.64%
         
On the Market (houses) as of July 13, 2008:
12,920 = Active Res Listings in Austin MLS (12,466 last month)
10,698 = Total Single Family Homes listed (10,335 last month)
1,940 = Condo/Townhome/Loft/Garden Homes listed (1,870 last mo.)
281 = Mobile/Manufactured Homes (97 last month)


 

Note in the chart above that Austin homes are selling for 96.41% of the list price, which is a 1.34% drop from the List to Sold ratio of 97.72% from June of last year. Price drops continue to be an important factor for sellers who are not seeing sufficient activity or interest in their listings. Note also that for June 2008, 37% of the listing failed to sell (withdrawn or expired). 37% is a significant number of listings that are not able to attract buyers, and sellers and listing agents have to be diligent in price drops and showing condition issues in order to offset this headwind of over-supply and lower demand.

For year to date, Jan-Jun 2008 compared to June YTD 2007, let’s look at the next chart below.

Austin Real Estate Market
Update for June YTD 2008
All MLS Areas – YTD Jan-Jun 08

Jan-Jun 08
Jan-Jun 07
Yr % Change
# Sold
10,496
12,941
-18.89%
Avg List
$261,662
$258,843
1.09%
Med List
$199,000
$189,000
5.29%
Avg Sold
$253,044
$252,189
0.34%
Med Sold
$192,472
$185,000
4.04%
Sold/List %
96.71%
97.43%
-0.74%
Avg SQFT
2131
2116
0.71%
Med SQFT
1938
1920
0.94%
Avg $ SQFT
$119
$119
-0.37%
Avg DOM
65
56
16.07%
Median DOM
not avail
33
*
# Expired
3182
2044
-48.25%
# Withdrawn
3476
2617
0.97%
Not Sold
6658
4661
-30.69%
Not Sold %
39%
26%
-13.04%

For the year, average sold prices in Austin are slightly above even at +0.34%. The median sold price is up 4.04% compared to last year. Unsold properties are almost 2 out of 5 at 39%. That’s a lot of failed sales attempts.

In summary, Austin’s real estate sales market is sluggish but prices overall continue to hold steady. Sellers have to be serious about pricing and condition as, in most cases, buyers have a lot of homes from which to choose. This is explained more fully in my Tale of Two Markets article.

As always, comments and questions are welcome.

5 thoughts on “Austin Sales Market – June 2008 and Mid-Year Stats Update”

  1. I just noticed in your graph over the past 10 years how the average prices of condos has almost doubled over from 115k to 212k.

    Reply
  2. Bret, I think that this could be a reflection of the construction of newer higher quality condo’s that are skewing the numbers upward as they resell…I am not too familiar with the downtown Austin market, but I imagine if it is like many other metro areas, there could have been a lot of high end condos and lofts that came on line over the last decade (maybe even in the 300-800k range). This would really drive the average sales price upwards and not necessarily reflect appreciation of an individual condo unit. -Dave

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