Austin Real Estate Statistics Through June 2010
I was looking at real estate stats for Austin area homes and came across some interesting data. I did this because so many people seem reluctant to buy. They keep hearing how bad the real estate market is by the national media and don't realize that doesn't necessarily apply to Austin.
Take a look at the following data. The first row is the average price of an Austin home sold in the first half of 2009. The second row are 2010 numbers. The last row is the change in the average price. As you can see, our area has actually seen appreciation in real estate prices.
| January | February | March | April | May | June | YTD |
| 224,006 | 238,000 | 227,979 | 227,849 | 248,281 | 245,831 | 1,411,946 |
| 223,491 | 235,008 | 232,204 | 230,785 | 238,664 | 267,802 | 1,427,954 |
| -515 | -2,992 | 4,225 | 2,936 | -9,716 | 21,971 | 16,008 |
The next data shows the number of single-family residential units closed each month. Again, the top row is 2009 and 2010 follows. April, May and June show pretty clearly the effect of the tax credit.
| January | February | March | April | May | June | YTD |
| 859 | 1,118 | 1,414 | 227,849 | 1,618 | 1,721 | 8,991 |
| 845 | 1,188 | 1,879 | 230,785 | 2,149 | 2,164 | 10,353 |
| -15 | 70 | 434 | 531 | 403 | 62 | 1,632 |
The following table shows Days On Market (DOM). This basically shows how long it has taken to sell a unit. As you can see, homes were clearly selling faster in 2010 than in 2009.
| January | February | March | April | May | June | AVG |
| 106 | 118 | 114 | 107 | 107 | 105 | 110 |
| 108 | 100 | 96 | 89 | 80 | 88 | 96 |
| 2 | -18 | -18 | -18 | -27 | -17 | -14 |
So what does this tell people? Perhaps is isn't the time to sit back and see how low prices will get. Combine these numbers with the fact that interest rates are unbelievably low. Perhaps now is the time to buy an Austin home.
