December 2016 ABOR Market Report
AUSTIN, Texas – Jan. 18, 2017 – The December & Year-End 2016 Central Texas Housing Market Report released today by Austin Board of REALTORS® reported 2016 as another record-breaking year for Central Texas home sales, while also showing signs that the housing market could begin to normalize in 2017.
“The Central Texas housing market is slowly beginning to align with long-term historical trends. Homes are spending more time on the market and the pace of both home sales and price growth is slowing,” said Brandy Guthrie, 2017 President of the Austin Board of REALTORS®. “This normalization does not necessarily mean a weakening housing market, but a return to less aggressive market conditions.”
City of Austin
Austin single-family home sales volume grew slightly in 2016, increasing 1.7 percent from 2015 to 9,049 home sales. Austin home prices rose at a more moderate pace than in years prior, with median price increasing 5.8 percent to $340,000 during the same time frame. Active listings jumped 16.5 percent annually to 1,461 listings and homes spent five more days on the market in 2016 than in 2015, or an average of 41 days.
In December 2016, city of Austin home sales declined 7.8 percent to 705 single-family home sales, while median price rose 9.2 percent to $355,000. Monthly housing inventory increased 0.1 months year-over-year to 1.6 months of inventory. Homes spent an average of 50 days on the market in December 2016, an increase of five days from December 2015.
Guthrie concluded: “The local market areas with critically low housing inventory levels have grown dramatically over the last year, and our region’s housing market will never be balanced until there is a greater influx of housing stock of all types and price points. It will take time to rebuild Central Texas’ low inventory levels, and identifying smarter housing development policies for CodeNEXT in 2017 is the first step to generating more housing inventory in the years to come.”
Austin Board of REALTORS® releases real estate statistics for December 2016
