Austin real estate professionals and home buyers who lament the lack of residential housing inventory—number of homes for sale—in the local market will be happy to learn that situation might be changing, though not as fast as they'd like.
According to new data just released by national real estate brokerage Redfin, new listings in the Austin area (which includes Round Rock and San Marcos) surged in February, coming in at 3,023, or 13.6% more than in February 2015.
The area's total 5,028 homes for sale represent a more modest increase in inventory—0.6% over last year's total for the same month. Slightly fewer homes (-1%) were sold than in last February, but the median sales price—$250,000—was 8% higher than for the same period in 2015.
Nationally, new home listings grew 11.9% over those February 2015, while overall inventory dropped 3.7%. National median home sale price was up 4.8%, to $251,700.