Austin home prices up, sales down

AUSTIN (KXAN) - Dinah Welsh's Travis Heights home has been on the market since June. Even after dropping the price a few times, the Welsh's still weren’t getting any bites. "I just never guessed that we would be trying to sell our house," said Welsh. "Still after five months of it being on the market, and really very little even nibbles on it."

The Welshes were not alone. The October Multiple Listing Service report from the Austin Board of Realtors showed that the median home price in Austin was actually up 7 percent from October 2007. Yet, home sales have plummeted down 25 percent. Realtors said it is no coincidence that in contrast, the leasing sector has jumped up 26 percent.

"A lot of people are trying to wait and see what happens in time," said Socar Chatmon-Thomas, Chairman of the Austin Board of Realtors, "They think, "Well, I'll wait a year and see what the market is like in a year.'''  The Welsh family has already moved into a new home. Dinah said the longer the old home is on the market, the more attractive leasing becomes.

 "Being able to afford two mortgages is gonna become more and more challenging," she said.
Other figures from Austin's October MLS report: pending sales down 37 percent, new listings down 14 percent and single family home sales contributing 24 percent less to Austin's economy from October 2007.
Yet, according to Chatmon-Thomas, Austin was still leading the state, and Texas the nation, when it came to the housing market. "We're still in a really good market because we still have job growth here in Austin, and with jobs come people, and people need some place to live," she said.