A report issued Thursday by the Austin Board of Realtors finds that, while home sales in the Austin metro area dropped 3.1 percent in October, compared to the same period in 2015, sales within Austin city limits increased 7.5 percent.
That’s a different direction from the one ABOR has been reporting for the past several months, when home-buying was more robust in the suburbs than in the central city.
New home sales for 2016 to date are up 38 percent in the city of Austin, and ABOR President Aaron Farmer noted that a fall sales surge is unusual; it’s more common to see a slowdown during the season.
Austin metro area median home sales prices increased 9.3 percent, to $279,000; within city limits, it increased at a lower rate—6.5 percent—but to the higher amount of $332,250.
The ABOR report also noted that the number of home listings in Austin have increased since last year, that homes in the metro area are spending slightly more time on the market compared to last year, and that recently booming Williamson County saw a sales drop of 12.2 percent since last October.