Austin home prices still rising during pandemic

Even though residential home sales in the Austin area declined by more than 21 percent in April, the median sales price continued to climb, according to the Austin Board of Realtors. With the number of listings dropping by more than 7 percent in the area, the median sales price increased by more than 3 percent to $325,000. Also, homes spent fewer days on the market compared to 2019, an average of 43 days, ABoR said. Continued declines in listings in April could mean a second consecutive month of declining home sales. ABoR reported that the median price for residential homes in Austin increased by 12.3 percent from the same month in 2019, bringing the average price to $421,000. At the same time, residential sales declined by about 33 percent. In Travis County, prices increased by 9.7 percent over last year to $395,000. In Williamson County, residential sales declined by about 19 percent, but the median price rose to $300,000. On the other hand, according to ABoR, “Hays County residential sales in April spiked 16.2 percent to 395 sales, and sales dollar volume jumped 18.6 percent,” while the median price declined by 1.6 percent to $284,950. Caldwell County saw a sales decline of nearly 37 percent and the median home price dropped slightly over last year to $202,500.