Austin Market Report - March 2023

[David Ivy]

The March 2023 real estate market numbers are out from the Austin Board of Realtors (ABoR). The median home in Austin sold for $529,495, which is down 15% YOY. The Austin metro had a similar YOY decline of 13% to a median price of $450,000. However, the median price in Austin held firm on a month-to-month basis and was up around 3% month-to-month in the metro area.

Here are the full stats from ABoR:

This time last year, Austin housing inventory was sitting at an abysmal 0.5 months. Since then, inventory in Austin has increased 460% to 2.8 months. This is a tremendous shift compared to last year’s inventory. However, it is still technically in seller’s market territory. We are still far from having an ample housing supply to balance out buyer demand in the Austin metro.

Mortgage rates have somewhat stabilized around the ~6.5% range in recent months:

However, the volume of new mortgage applications (blue in the chart below) remains the lowest it has been in at least 10 years:

The chart below shows the median sales price of a single-family home in Austin over the past 5 years. Prices in Austin appear to have returned to levels similar to 2021. However, prices are still well above pre-pandemic levels.

How does Austin compare to other major US metros during this shift in market conditions? According to Zillow’s data, Austin’s home values are among the hardest hit year-over-year, only outperforming the SF bay area:

Here are the metros experiencing the most price growth over the past year:

How are rents looking in Austin? Here’s a chart showing the median rent for a single-family home in the city:

Here’s the same chart, but for a duplex unit: