# Austin Housing Market Report: February 2016, What Spring Listing Season Looks Like From the Inside

> The Austin metro median sale price was $270,000 in February 2016, +7.0% year over year, with homes selling in 39 days and 2.7 months of supply. What Spring Listing Season Looks Like From the Inside, what the numbers mean if you are buying or selling in Austin.

Mike Vilece · March 15, 2016
Canonical page: https://theaustinlocalgroup.com/blog/austin-housing-market-february-2016/

At **2.7 months of supply**, February 2016 was a market tilted to sellers across the Austin metro. The median sale was $270,000, up 7.0% year over year. Homes took a median of 39 days to sell.

## Austin market statistics, February 2016

| Metric | February 2016 |
| --- | --- |
| Median sale price | $270,000 (+7.0% YoY) |
| Median price per sq ft | $132 (+6.3% YoY) |
| Homes sold | 1,760 (+4.3% YoY) |
| New listings | 2,573 |
| Active inventory | 4,831 (+6.1% YoY) |
| Months of supply | 2.7 |
| Median days on market | 39 |
| Sale-to-list ratio | 98.4% |
| Sold above asking | 21.5% |
| Listings with a price cut | 22.2% |
| 30-year fixed rate (avg) | 3.66% |

## What Spring Listing Season Looks Like From the Inside

The ridesharing question was set for a May 7 ballot rather than settled at the dais. The companies backing a proposition that would replace the council's rules with their own. Meanwhile the spring listing season began the way it always does in Austin: quietly, weeks before anyone outside the business notices.

## What changed since January 2016

The median rose $14,374 from January 2016, a 5.6% move. Time on market lengthened by 5 days, to 39. Active inventory grew by 171 listings, to 4,831. The share of homes selling over asking gained 2.9 points, to 21.5%.

One month is noise. The reason to read it anyway is that direction shows up in inventory and days on market well before it shows up in price, so the months where those two disagree with the headline number are the interesting ones.

## Where this month sits in the cycle

| | February 2016 | January 2016 | February 2015 | Since Oct 2016 |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| Median sale price | $270,000 | $255,626 | — | — |
| Median days on market | 39 | 34 | — | — |
| Active inventory | 4,831 | 4,660 | — | — |
| Months of supply | 2.7 | 3.3 | — | — |
| Sold above asking | 22% | 19% | — | — |
| 30-year fixed rate | 3.66% | 3.87% | — | — |

The right-hand column is the range this series has covered since October 2016. No forecast in it, just where February 2016 falls against every month that came before it.

## If you are buying in Austin right now

At 2.7 months of supply, sellers still have the edge on the best listings and buyers have real leverage on everything else. The spread between those two groups is where the negotiation lives.

The average home sold for 98.4% of asking, so roughly 1.6% under list was the normal outcome, not an insulting one.

**The payment math.** At $270,000 with 20% down at 3.66%, principal and interest runs about **$989 a month**. Add roughly $450 for property taxes and $180 for insurance and you are near **$1,619 a month** all in. Texas has no state income tax and this is where the state collects instead, budget the tax line from day one, not as an afterthought.

**If you are selling:** 39 median days on market means your first two weeks decide the outcome. Price to the last ninety days of closed comps, not to what your neighbor listed at and did not sell. Condition and photography are doing more work now than they were two years ago.

## Neighborhood in focus

**Westlake (78746).** Rollingwood, Lost Creek, Rob Roy. Known for eanes ISD, Hill Country views, luxury. It fits families prioritizing schools, and runs $800K to $5M+.

The metro numbers above are an average of a very unequal city, Westlake does not move in lockstep with Kyle or Leander, and the gap between ZIPs widens in exactly the months the metro looks calm. There is a longer, more honest write-up at [/neighborhoods/westlake/](/neighborhoods/westlake/), including what is wrong with it.

## On in Austin, February 2016

| When | What | Why it matters to a listing |
| --- | --- | --- |
| Mid-February | **Austin Marathon**, Downtown / central | Road closures across downtown and central Austin from before dawn until early afternoon. The one Sunday of the year not to schedule a central open house. |

## What is coming next

SXSW runs March 11 through 20. For a seller near the core it is the year's strangest fortnight: short-term rental money, closed streets, and buyers who are in town for something else entirely.

## Common questions

### I am moving to Austin from California. What actually surprises people?

Four things, in order of how much money they cost. Property taxes, which run roughly 1.8-2.5% and have no Proposition 13-style cap beyond the 10% homestead limit. Homeowners insurance, which is among the highest in the country because of hail. Summer utility bills in an underinsulated house. And foundations: much of the region sits on expansive clay that moves with drought and rain, so watering your foundation is a real practice here and a structural engineer's report is money well spent on any older slab home.

### How much do I need to earn to buy a median-priced Austin home?

At $270,000 with 20% down at 3.66%, the all-in monthly payment is roughly $1,619 including estimated taxes and insurance. At a 30% housing-to-income ratio that implies household income around **$65,000**. Lenders will approve you well above that; whether you should go there is a different question. Property taxes are estimated at 2.0% of value, verify the actual rate for the specific address, because a MUD can push it past 3%.

### When is the best time of year to buy a house in Austin?

October through January, consistently. Austin's listing calendar runs about six weeks ahead of the national one. The best selection appears in March and April, and so does the most competition. By late fall, spring listings are six months old, sellers have adjusted their expectations, and days on market runs 30 to 50 days longer than it did in April. You get less to choose from and far more leverage over what is left.

### What is the average home price in Austin?

The median single-family sale across the Austin metro in February 2016 was $270,000. Median is the more useful number than average here. A handful of Westlake and Tarrytown sales pull an average upward in a way that tells you nothing about what you will pay. Note also that the metro figure covers Travis, Williamson, Hays, Bastrop and Caldwell counties; the City of Austin proper runs meaningfully higher, and the suburbs meaningfully lower.

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*Part of a retrospective series on the Austin market, one post per month since 2016, compiled from the historical record. This edition covers February 2016; every figure is as reported for that month, and nothing in it looks past it.*

*Source: Redfin Data Center metro market tracker: single-family, Austin-Round Rock-San Marcos metro, not seasonally adjusted. Mortgage rates are the monthly average of the Freddie Mac Primary Mortgage Market Survey 30-year fixed rate. Payment, tax and insurance figures are estimates for illustration and are not a quote. Median sale price is not a guarantee of value for any specific property.*

*Written by Mike Vilece, a licensed Texas real estate agent with Compass in Austin. If you want the version of this that applies to your street and your budget, [ask me directly](/#contact).*

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