The Austin area's home sales and median home sales price both hit record highs for the month of March, bringing the region's housing market to a strong close for the first quarter, the Austin Board of Realtors said Thursday.
Sales rose 10.5% over March of 2017, and the median price of the houses sold was up 3.5% to $305,233, the board said.
"Last month, 2,714 single-family homes were sold in the five-county Central Texas region, which is more sales than any March we've seen on record," Steve Crorey, president of the Austin Board of Realtors, said in a written statement. "This type of growth early in the year indicates a strong summer selling season ahead."
The Austin-Round Rock metro area, which stretches from Georgetown to San Marcos, has been marked by strong demand and low supply, an imbalance that has been driving prices up for some time, experts say.
In the first three months of the year, Central Texas logged 6,309 sales of single-family homes, an 8.2% increase year-over-year. Year to date, the median price was up 3.1% to $299,000, the board said.
The region's supply of available housing declined in March to 2.2 months, meaning that's how long it would take to deplete the existing inventory at the current sales pace, the board said.
Homes priced between $150,000 and $250,000 stayed on the market less than 50 days, on average. Within the city of Austin, single-family homes in this price range spent between 27 and 35 days on the market in March due to the critically low supply of homes within Austin, the board said.
"Historically, it's common for some homes to be on the market for 50 days or more, even in markets with strong housing demand," Crorey said. "Within the city of Austin and other local markets with limited inventory, homes are spending a fraction of time on the market — as little as two weeks in some areas. This is an indicator of just how competitive it's become to purchase a home in and around Austin."
Vaike O'Grady, Austin regional director for Metrostudy, which tracks the housing market, said that "demand for homes priced below $250,000 is driving the emergence of new submarkets like Manor and Del Valle, where builders can construct homes at a lower cost."
