The Austin metro set another record for home sales in 2019, finishing the year with 33,084 sales.
That was a roughly 7% jump from 2018, according to the latest statistics from the Austin Board of Realtors, released Jan. 16. The area also had almost $13.2 billion in sales volume in 2019, another record and a jump of nearly 11% from the prior year.
Since 2010, Austin metro housing sales are up 84%, according to ABOR. The group tied the rapid climb to a population surge. As a percentage, Austin has added more people than any other major metro in the country this decade: the 2010 population of 1.7 million climbed 26% to an estimated 2.2 million in 2018.
"That type of exponential growth has put enormous pressure on the market," Romeo Manzanilla, the 2020 ABOR president, said in a statement.
During the same time, the median price of a single-family home in the Austin metro has increased 64%, from $193,520 in 2010 to $318,000 in 2019. Median family income increased about 35% from 2010 to 2017, according to Census figures.
ABOR and other business groups have backed the effort to rewrite Austin's land development code, arguing that changes are needed to allow more home construction. Austin City Council gave initial approval to the new code in December — additional votes are expected in February and March
"If we don’t take action to increase housing supply in Austin, we will continue to see exponential increases in home values,” Manzanilla said in his statement. “ABoR continues to advocate for an updated land development code in Austin for exactly this reason — so that folks who want to purchase a home in the area can afford to do so."
Manzanilla also said 2020 looks to hold more of the same for the Austin housing market, which is "not showing signs of slowing down anytime soon." That sentiment was echoed earlier this week when residential real estate expert Eldon Rude told the Home Builders Association of Greater Austin to buckle up for a huge 2020. Rude said the Austin area saw more than 18,000 home starts in 2019 and that 2020 could be a repeat.
Taking all of the above into account, Austin is one of only eight markets nationwide that have seen home prices fully recover since the 2008 recession, according to Mark Sprague, state director of information capital at Independence Title. He also told ABOR that Austin's gross domestic product — a broad measure of economic output — has grown faster than any other major metro in the past 20 years.
Here are some other numbers you need to know from the latest ABOR report:
• There were 2,608 home sales in the Austin metro in December, up 9.2% year-over-year, and inventory fell to 1.7 months
• Median home sale price in December in the metro was $323,000, up 7.1% year-over-year
• Housing inventory just within Austin city limits was a paltry 0.9 months in December
• There were 11,797 home sales in Williamson County in 2019, a 10.5% increase from 2018, and median home price was $287,774
• Hays County recorded 3,829 sales last year, up 6.9% from 2018, and median price reached $269,000
• Bastrop County saw a 12.2% jump in home sales last year, up to 1,120 sales, with a median price of $239,450
• Caldwell County, home of Lockhart, had 296 sales in 2019, a 3.9% year-over-year jump, while median home price jumped 11.1% to $199,900 last year
• Housing inventory is down nearly across the board. In December it stood at 1.4 months in Travis County, 1.8 months in Williamson County and 2.6 months in Hays County. Inventory increased slightly in Bastrop County, to 3.3 months, and in Caldwell County, to 3.8 months.
