THE CENTRAL TEXAS HOUSING MARKET STARTED THE FALL SEASON WITH RECORD-BREAKING MEDIAN PRICES FOR SEPTEMBER AND A 5.7% YEAR OVER YEAR INCREASE IN OVERALL SALES TO $906 MILLION.

The Austin Housing Market:1. Across the Austin MSA single family homesales decreased slightly by 0.9% to 2,368 sales.

2.Year to date, home sales in the Austin MSA are3.6% ahead of 2017 totals.

3.Sales dollar volume across the Austin MSAincreased to over $905,000,000, an increase of5.7% year over year.

4.In the City of Austin, home sales remainedrelatively unchanged year over year, withSeptember 2018 sales at 708 vs 702 in 2017.

5.Active listings are up 5.1%, with 7,706single-family homes on the market, whilepending sales are up 3.3% to 2,362.

6.High demand across the MSA and limitedinventory pushed the median home price forSeptember to $365,000, and increase of 3.2%year over year and the highest for the month ofSeptember.

7.“Steady growth in jobs and income will boost housing demand over time. Increasing housing supply as reflected in higher housing permits will also help slow home price growth and help consumers,” says Lawrence Yun, chief economist and senior vice president of research at the National Association of Realtors.

8. “Austin-area housing market activity hasbucked the trend of a cool-weather slowdownover the last several years, maintaining much ofthe momentum from the summer monthsthrough the end of the year,” Steve Crorey, 2018president of the Austin Board of REAL-TORS®,said. “Home sales growth declined five percentlast September, so it’s good to see that the areahousing market held steady in Septem-ber 2018.Austin continues to be one of the fastest-growing markets and most competitive housingmarkets in the country.”

9. Housing inventory in the Austin-Round RockMSA remained at 3.0 months of inventory, thesame as a year prior. Within the City of Austin,inventory decreased by 0.3 months to 2.1months, representing a 12.5% year overyear decrease.

The Austin Economy:1. The Austin MSA reported 40,000 net newjobs in the 12 months ending September 2018,a steady increase of 3.9% year over year. Overthe past 5 years, the job growth rate hasincreased at an average annual rate of 3.75%.

2.According to the Texas Workforce Commis-sion, unemployment in the Austin-Round RockMSA dropped from 3.0% in August to 2.9% inSeptember 2018. This is well below the stateand national unemployment levels of 3.7% and3.6% respectively.

3.The 2019 population growth rate in Austin isprojected to be over three times the nationalrate, and according to U.S. Census data, thecity’s population grew by about 159 peopleevery day between 2016 and 2017. Excludingbirths, that means that roughly 110 peoplemoved to the city every day.

MARKET UPDATEOctober 2018

AUSTIN MSA REAL ESTATE MARKET

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