AUSTIN – Home sales in the metro rebounded in June as stay-at-home orders eased.
Sales increased 9.3 percent year over year to 3,969 sales, according to the Austin Board of Realtors.
Strong home sales is positive news for the real estate market because it limits the impact of the pandemic on the first half of the year. The increase helped hold sales to only a 5.2 percent drop in the first half of 2020.
Real Estate Center Chief Economist Dr. Jim Gaines said that despite the January-through-June sales decline, “we are still on track for a strong year.”
“There are plenty of unknowns in the months ahead, but June home sales . . . being up 9.3 percent year-over-year was tremendous when considering the strength of 2019,” Gaines said.
Last year marked a run of nine straight record-setting years in the Central Texas housing market.
“Extremely low inventory is one of the factors that affects overall sales dollar volume while simultaneously creating a very competitive and tight market,” Gaines said. “Homebuilders aren’t building quite as many new homes, and sellers were hesitant to list their home during shelter-in-place orders. Even if we end up with a 3 to 4 percent decline in sales in 2020, that would still be a strong year for the region.”
Median sales price increased 4.6 percent.
Pending sales jumped 33.7 percent with 4,737 homes in the pipeline to close. Housing inventory fell to 1.8 months of inventory.
The Real Estate Center has more information on housing: