We’re headed into spring and that means a couple of things. One thing we can expect is to see the wildflowers start to bloom and the trees start to leaf out. Both should happen within about 30 days. The other thing we can expect is to see more homes sell. The available inventory of single-family homes in the Austin area has continued to decline. As of today there are 8441 single-family homes on the market in the Austin area. That puts our area at just under 5-1/2 months of inventory. In general, a market that has 5-6 months of inventory is said to be a normal market. Having 4 or fewer months of inventory is considered to be a seller’s market.

Breaking things down farther, in the $250,000 and under price range, there is less than a 4-1/2 month supply of homes on the market. This is good news for sellers in this price range. In the $250,000 to $499,999 price range there is a 6 month supply. From $500,000 to $999,999 there is an 11 month supply of homes on the market and in the million and up range, there is a 25 month supply. One might have guessed as much considering lending standards having been tightened. It is more difficult to get financing at the higher price ranges and many of these buyers have homes to sell in other markets.

Many buyers at the higher price points who have homes to sell in other markets sellers cannot get the prices they want so they are holding off on selling. I’m not sure many of these other markets will recover to the levels these sellers want to see so many may sit tight for a while. Others may choose to take a hit and hope for a bargain here. Another thought is that many sellers took homes off the market in November and December. So will we see the number of active listings continue to fall or might more new listings come on the market in the spring? Only time will tell.