CONTINUED FROM 1
After reaching historic highs in 2022, median home pricing across Community Impact‘s Southwest Austin and Dripping Springs coverage area is falling back to what experts call ‘normal’ levels. PRICE PROGRESSION
“We were all having fun two years ago when everything was very expensive and easy to sell, but we’re getting back to normal, which is just a slower, calm market,” Abode Property Group co-owner Mica Gutierrez said. Leveling out After seeing record-setting home pricing and sales activity that peaked throughout the last two years, year- over-year sales gures in 2023 have fallen every month in South Austin and Dripping Springs. At the same time, homes are staying on the market for amounts of time not seen in years, local and federal data shows. “We are still in the phase of leveling,” real estate agent Olivia Barnard said. “We’re still seeing price reductions on some homes where sellers and agents alike are kind of nding, ‘What is the real value?’” Analysts view a balanced mar- ket—one with equal opportunity for buyers and sellers—as one with ve and seven months’ worth of available housing inventory. Southwest Austin and Dripping Springs hadn’t come close to that level in years, and inven- tory had fallen to single digits. This spring, local inventory across rose above the three-month mark for the rst time in ve years, the Austin Board of Realtors reported. “It’s not necessarily that we’re in a strong buyer’s market—that would be four to six months; we’re not quite there yet,” ABoR President Ashley Jack- son said. “But we are in a pretty good balance where a buyer may be able to get something under asking price.” A similar trend has played out in the
area’s relatively limited rental market. Just over half of the housing units in South Central Austin’s Council District 5 are rented, but nearly two-thirds of housing in District 8—covering most of Southwest Austin—is owned, by far the highest share in the city. Rents are attening out after extended increases; MRI Apartment- Data—which researches and collects data on rental trends—tracked a 33% spike in rents citywide between 2020- 22. After years without any slow- down, rents dropped o a bit this year and are holding steady. Cindi Reed, MRI ApartmentData’s Austin-based director, said bene ts to renters may more muted in South- west Austin as much of the area is still considered a sought-after part of town and home to relatively limited apartment development. The recent slowdown has also led some to rent out their properties until things pick back up, said Bailey Moran, a manager at Bramlett Resi- dential Real Estate. “I have had multiple sellers who have decided to just pull out, wait until next year when we get into that spring seasonality and try to sell while they have renters in there for a couple months,” she said. Measuring up the market Those changes apply across much of the Austin area, analysts said, although di erent pockets of the city have their own trends. Housing price spikes in Central Austin have caused more of a rela- tive a ordability crunch there, while rising home values to the southwest
78620
78735
78736
71
78749
35
78745
290
78748
12
78739
78737
N
-17.5%
0
17.5%
+35%
-35%
% CHANGE
SOURCE: AUSTIN BOARD OF REALTORS COMMUNITY IMPACT
MEDIAN RENT PRICES
While home prices remain high, there was a year-over-year decline during the rst ve months of 2023. MEDIAN PRICES BY MONTH
-2.99%
+36.51%
$1,750
$1,500
$1,250
2018
2019
2020
2021
2022
2023
$1,000
$0 //
SOURCE: MRI APARTMENTDATA COMMUNITY IMPACT
JUNE
MEDIAN HOME PRICES
SOURCE: AUSTIN BOARD OF REALTORS COMMUNITY IMPACT
$800K
-16.2%
-7.57%
-4.89%
-15.11%
-7.87%
-8.46%
$600K
$400K
$200K
$0
JAN.
FEB.
MARCH
APRIL
MAY
JUNE
36
COMMUNITYIMPACT.COM
Powered by FlippingBook