December 2018

November 2018 Home Sales Notch Austin Area Closer to Record Year

The Austin-area housing market looks to be on track for another record-breaking year, following a slight increase in sales volume in November 2018. Sales volume in the Austin-Round Rock Metropolitan Statistical Area increased 0.7 percent compared to November 2017, according to the Austin Board of REALTORS® Central Texas Housing Market Report. Sales dollar volume increased 5.6 percent, while median price ticked up 2.2 percent to $301,391.

"Sales are up 3.3 percent year-to-date for 2018,” ABOR President Steve Crorey. “Pending sales volume in December, the Central Texas housing market is on track to have one of the highest-grossing years on record."

For the month of November 2018,

Double digit increases in both Texas luxury home sales and home sales volume made this segment of homes “a strong driver of the Texas housing market” during the first 10 months of 2018, according to a release from the Texas Association of REALTORS® based on information in the 2018 Texas Luxury Home Sales Report.

Homes priced $1 million and higher that sold in the Austin, Dallas-Fort Worth, Houston, and San Antonio metropolitan statistical areas increased 11.5 percent to a total of 5,123 sales from October 2017 to November 2018, and total sales dollar volume experienced a double digit increase of 11.3 percent, reaching $8,361,918,994.

In Austin, luxury home sales volume increased 12.6 percent to a total of 968 sales from November 2017 to October

Homebuyers today are relying heavily on both technological resources and their Realtors® as they navigate the process of home shopping and closing, according to the National Association of Realtors®' Real Estate in a Digital Age report.

According to the report, finding the right home ranked as the most difficult step in purchasing a home, and 44 percent of buyers in 2018 started their home search by looking at properties online. This was the same level as in 2017. Rates of utilizing the internet varied by age: 99 percent of millennials used the internet to search homes, as did 90 percent of older boomers, while older boomers used mobile devices at only 21 percent compared to 58 percent of boomers.

Even with the boost of technology, however, 87