Home prices in Austin hit another record last month.
The numbers come as new Census data confirms Austin has continued its explosive growth in recent years.
The Austin Board of Realtors says the median home price was up 14 percent in April 2015, compared to the same month last year, to $274,000. The number of homes sold also hit a record for the month of April.
“The summer selling season doesn’t usually start in April, but it arrived early this year with significant increases in single-family home sales and prices for April 2015," said Austin Board of Realtors president Barb Cooper in an email statement. "Showing the impact of these increases, it cost nearly $20,000 more to buy a home in April 2015 than in March 2015 – one of the largest jumps in median home price that we’ve seen in years.”
A jump in the number of listings also grew the area's housing inventory, but demand for homes is still outstripping supply.
"Unfortunately the majority of homes entering the market continue to be priced outside of an affordable range for many Austin residents, driving homebuyers to look to surrounding markets outside of Austin,” said ABOR's Cooper. “More than half of Austin-area homebuyers continue to purchase homes outside of Austin’s city limits in areas like Kyle, Pflugerville and Georgetown.”
New Census data shows Austin is still among the fastest growing cities in the country. Austin added more than 101,000 residents between 2010 and 2014, according to the Census Bureau. Two Austin suburbs — San Marcos and Georgetown — are the two fastest growing communities on a percentage basis. Each grew by more than 7.5 percent from 2013 to 2014 alone.
Here are some more statistics, provided by the Austin Board of Realtors, for April 2015:
- 2,568 – Single-family homes sold, eight percent more than April 2014.
- $274,000 – Median price for single-family homes, 14 percent more than April 2014.
- $341,054 – Average price for single-family homes, 11 percent more than April 2014.
- 46 – Average number of days single-family homes spent on the market, one day more than April 2014.
- 3,807 – New single-family home listings on the market, nine percent more than April 2014.
- 5,915 – Active single-family home listings on the market, 11 percent more than April 2014.
- 2,909 – Pending sales for single-family homes, four percent more than April 2014.
- 2.5 – Months of inventory* of single-family homes, 0.2 increase from April 2014.
- $875,826,672 – Total dollar volume of single-family properties sold, 19 percent more than April 2014.
* The inventory of homes for a market can be measured in months, which is defined as the number of active listings divided by the average sales per month of the prior 12 months. The Real Estate Center at Texas A&M University cites that 6.5 months of inventory represents a market in which supply and demand for homes is balanced.
