The greater Austin metro area capped off a decade of explosive growth by selling more homes in 2019 than any year on record. According to the latest market report by Austin Board of REALTORS (ABoR), Austin's median home price rose by 5.3% to $395,000 in 2019. In December, Austin's median single-family home sold for $405,093, which is 8% above December 2018. The suburbs continue showing strong demand and growth with inventory dipping to 1.7 months ("balanced" market is around 6.5 months) and a median sales price up 7% to $323,000 in December. Inventory in Austin dropped to an absolutely insane 0.9 months with a 29% decrease in active listings compared to the December prior. This continues the broad market dynamic in the Austin MSA of rising prices in response to extremely high housing demand and cripplingly low housing inventory.

Romeo Manzanilla, the new 2020 ABoR president, added his thoughts: "Austin's unprecedented population growth during the past decade has heavily impacted the real estate market. Compared to 2010, home sales in 2019 increased by 84%. That type of exponential growth has put enormous pressure on the market, raising the median home price from $193,520 in 2010 to $318,000 in 2019. As we look forward to this year, the market is not showing signs of slowing down anytime soon.”

Mark Sprague state director of information capital at Independence Title said that Austin is one of only eight U.S. metros with home prices that have fully recovered from their pre-recession levels. He also added the remarkable fact that, "Austin’s GDP, which grew 117% over the last 20 years, helped the real estate market recover from the recession. The closest metro out of the top 50 in the U.S. to see this type of growth was Silicon Valley, which grew its GDP by 99% during the same period."

Here are basic stats on single-family home sales for December 2019 for the City of Austin and the greater Austin area:

I'm a native Texan and have lived in Austin for nearly 14 years, and it really is remarkable how the area has transformed over the past decade. We saw Austin's nascent tech industry absolutely explode in recent years to create thousands of jobs, a net influx of 100+ new residents per day, and the creation of a diversified 21st century economy currently supporting an unemployment rate below 3%. There have been growing pains--affordability concerns, strained transportation, low housing inventory, homelessness, sprawl vs. density--that will carry on in full force this new decade. The City of Austin is currently in the midst of a complete overhaul of its outdated land use and development code in an attempt to address some of these issues.

According to Austin MLS data, the median price of a single-family home in Austin increased 68% over the past decade. Median single-family rent in Austin, by comparison, increased 40% over that same period. Here are charts of median SFR prices and median SFR rents in Austin 2010-2019: