The median single-family home in the Austin metro sold for $289,875 in October 2017, up 3.5% year over year. Closed volume was 2,203 homes, up 1.2% year over year. Homes took a median of 42 days to sell. Active inventory stood at 6,925 listings, up 10.7% year over year. That made it a market tilted to sellers.
Austin market statistics, October 2017
| Metric | October 2017 |
|---|---|
| Median sale price | $289,875 (+3.5% YoY) |
| Median price per sq ft | $145 (+3.7% YoY) |
| Homes sold | 2,203 (+1.2% YoY) |
| New listings | 2,441 |
| Active inventory | 6,925 (+10.7% YoY) |
| Months of supply | 3.1 |
| Median days on market | 42 |
| Sale-to-list ratio | 98.0% |
| Sold above asking | 15.3% |
| Listings with a price cut | 35.3% |
| 30-year fixed rate (avg) | 3.9% |
What a Corporate Headquarters Actually Does to Prices
Austin filed an Amazon HQ2 bid, joining 238 other cities in a process that was, in hindsight, partly a data-collection exercise. The honest read for buyers: a single headquarters announcement moves sentiment immediately and prices slowly, and the neighborhoods that move first are the ones within twenty minutes of the site.
What changed since September 2017
The median fell $1,101 from September 2017, a 0.4% move. Time on market lengthened by 3 days, to 42. Active inventory shrank by 505 listings, to 6,925. The share of homes selling over asking gained 0.3 points, to 15.3%.
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
| October 2017 | September 2017 | October 2016 | Since Oct 2016 | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Median sale price | $289,875 | $290,976 | $280,000 | range $255,626–$314,500 |
| Median days on market | 42 | 39 | 34 | range 16–44 |
| Active inventory | 6,925 | 7,430 | 6,255 | range 4,660–7,915 |
| Months of supply | 3.1 | 3.2 | 2.9 | range 2.1–3.3 |
| Sold above asking | 15% | 15% | 18% | range 15%–30% |
| 30-year fixed rate | 3.9% | 3.8% | 3.47% | range 3.44%–4.2% |
The right-hand column is the range this series has covered since October 2016. No forecast in it, just where October 2017 falls against every month that came before it.
If you are buying in Austin right now
At 3.1 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 98.0% of asking, so roughly 2.0% under list was the normal outcome, not an insulting one.
The payment math. At $289,875 with 20% down at 3.9%, principal and interest runs about $1,094 a month. Add roughly $483 for property taxes and $193 for insurance and you are near $1,770 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: 42 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
Crestview & Brentwood (78756 & 78757). Little Deli, Brentwood Social House, Crestview Station. Known for old-Austin feel, hidden gems. It fits buyers who want a neighborhood that still feels like old Austin.
The metro numbers above are an average of a very unequal city, Crestview & Brentwood 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/crestview-brentwood/, including what is wrong with it.
On in Austin, October 2017
| When | What | Why it matters to a listing |
|---|---|---|
| Oct 6–15 | ACL Music Festival, Zilker Park | Two weekends. Zilker, Barton Hills and 78704 are closed to normal traffic both of them, and rental demand spikes citywide. |
| Oct 20–22 | Formula 1 United States Grand Prix, Circuit of the Americas, southeast | Race weekend. Southeast Travis County and SH-130 congest from Friday, and downtown hotel rates hit their annual high. |
| Late October | Austin Film Festival, Downtown theatres and hotels | Eight days across downtown venues. Hotel demand overlaps the Grand Prix weekend most years, which is when downtown rates peak. |
| Sep 30–Oct 1 | Pecan Street Festival (Fall), Sixth Street Historic District | The autumn edition, same footprint as May. Sixth Street closed for the weekend, downtown slow, nothing beyond it. |
| Home Saturdays | Texas Longhorns home games, Darrell K Royal-Texas Memorial Stadium | I-35 through central, campus parking and everything within a mile of the stadium stop working by late morning on a home Saturday. A wasted afternoon for an open house in 78705, 78751 or downtown. |
What is coming next
Amazon's shortlist in January. Federal tax reform is also moving, and the version in play caps the state-and-local deduction, which quietly makes no-income-tax Texas more attractive to high earners in California and New York.
Common questions
Should I buy in Austin or in the suburbs?
The honest trade: Round Rock, Cedar Park, Leander, Pflugerville, Georgetown, Kyle and Buda will get you meaningfully more square footage and, in Round Rock ISD, Leander ISD and Lake Travis ISD, schools that rate as well or better than most Austin ISD zones. What you give up is proximity, and in Austin proximity is the scarce good. The drive from Leander to downtown at 8am is not the drive you tested on a Sunday. Check the MUD rate before you compare prices; a suburban house can carry a higher monthly cost than a more expensive central one.
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 $289,875 with 20% down at 3.9%, the all-in monthly payment is roughly $1,770 including estimated taxes and insurance. At a 30% housing-to-income ratio that implies household income around $71,000. 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.
Part of a retrospective series on the Austin market, one post per month since 2016, compiled from the historical record. This edition covers October 2017; 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.