The Texas real estate market rang out 2012 on a high note, according to the latest reading from the Texas Association of Realtors. It says 56,488 single-family were sold across the state in the fourth quarter of last year. That's an increase of almost 20 percent over the same period in 2011.
"The only downside we’re seeing, and Austin is a good example, is the actual inventory of properties being offered for sale is at an extreme low level," said Jim Gaines with the Real Estate Center at Texas A&M University. "In Austin, it’s actually less than a three month inventory, which basically is saying there isn’t much inventory at all.”
Gaines says while prices are rising, the number of homes sold still has not reached the levels they were at just before the recession. He says sales volumes now are comparable to those seen in 2003 or 2004, just before the market ballooned.
In Austin, the increase in homes sold in the fourth quarter of 2012 was even greater than the statewide average. They clocked in slightly above 24 percent, according to Gaines.
