The Austin residential real estate market is shrugging off the global pandemic and historic rise in unemployment like Jay-Z brushed off his shoulders in 2003. Here's the breakdown...

The biggest news of the week is the continuing acceleration in Pendings. This is good and bad. The good news is the number of offers are increasing. The bad news is pending times seem to be creeping upward. The first half of April saw pendings in the 700s. The second half of April has seen them leap up above 1000. Unfortunately, solds moved slightly out of their established range 600-800 falling to 595 at the moment the data was gathered. This could just be an effect of my report timing.

Residential sales might beat April 2019. Back then we sold about 3315 units. So far we have closed on 1928 units in April 2020 and we have almost 2200 units pending. It will come down to how fast closings can be processed with a limited workforce in place.

New listings are up week-over-week by about 8%. Price decreases are holding steady in a range between 500-600 units per week. Price increases are holding steady within their range of 100-200 units per week as well. BOMs are holding steady in their established weekly range of 200-250. This indicates we have not yet seen a large swell in unqualified buyers. Withdrawn listings are holding within their established weekly range. The second most exciting news this week is that new TOMs continue to decrease. Total TOMs on the MLS have also started to decrease. Since price decreases aren't accelerating, inventory is fairly healthy, and the number of unqualified buyers doesn't seem to be increasing yet, I'm not forecasting any pending price decreases in the near future. In fact, prices may continue to appreciate. Let's see if the leasing market can give us any guidance.

Leases signed in April 2019 totaled 2222. Currently we have signed 1439 leases signed in April 2020 and we have 995 leases pending. All metrics in the leasing market are holding within established weekly ranges. April 2020 is shaping up to be a very solid month for the Austin real estate market.