Central Texas Housing Market Remains Hot

It’s not just the 100-degree temps common around this time of year, either.

While much of the rest of the country grapples with declining construction, sagging sales and widespread bad credit mortgage problems, Austin remains a bastion of housing growth.

In the Austin area, home sales actually posted their second month of increases in May.

Specifically, single-family home sales hit 2,679 last month, up 2 percent compared with May 2006 and a record for the month of May, the Austin Board of Realtors reports.

The median price for single-family homes was $183,160 for the month, up 5 percent from a year earlier, and still a very affordable Texas mortgage, according to many calculators.

Active listings are also on the rise, up 8 percent from last year to 8,821. But, high Texas home loan demand pushed the number of days homes sit on the market down 7 percent to just 55 days.

“This is an exciting time for the local real estate industry,” says Charles Porter, chairman of the Austin Board of Realtors.

“While the national market is slowing down, Austin continues to experience steady growth… and a healthy Austin housing market benefits the entire local economy.”

Home prices appreciated more than 10 percent in the first quarter of the year, according to figures from the OFHEO.

That’s more than double the national appreciation rate of about 4 percent. Throughout Texas, home prices rose nearly 7 percent year-over-year.

SOURCE: Austin Business Journal