Austin Home Sales Continue to Slow
The latest stats from Alamo Title are out and here they are:
April 2008 -
Units for Sale: (compared to April 2007)
New listings were up 48.05%. Pendings were down 67.04%.
Solds decreased by 17.31%.
As for Average Prices:
The "New Listings" average list price is down 0.47% to 330,528. In April 2007 the average list price was $332,105. In March (2008) it was $322,288. Sold average sales prices decreased 0.75% to $241,610. For April 2007 it was $243,425. In March (2008) it was $234,386. Check it out at http://www.alamotitle-austin.com/mls_statistics.php.
My comments: We're coming into what should be peak selling season and the numbers don't look good. The huge increase in new listings and the Pending sales being so low points to a slow May. What this means for sellers is if you don't absolutely have to sell, you might want to wait a while.
For buyers it is a different story. Interest rates are very low. In this buyer's market, buyers should consider acting now. If buyers wait a year, either prices or interest rates or both may be up. If you buy now when with the low interest rates and rates go up in a year, you are in good shape even if home prices drop a bit more.
The average price of a new listing is down slightly. My thoughts are that sellers need to be just a little more aggressive. Slowing sales means pricing as competitively as possible.