AUSTIN (KXAN) — A new report from the Texas Realtors showed the statewide real estate market in 2021 was hot, but the Austin-Round Rock market was even hotter.
While statewide median home prices jumped 15.7% from 2020 to $300,000, the report said median home prices in Austin-Round Rock shot up nearly 31% to $450,000 since 2020. Since 2018, median home prices have climbed $145,000 — meaning the median home price just four years ago was $305,000.
It was the seventh consecutive year the median home price in Texas rose, the report said.
The report, which is the 2021 year-end report by Texas Realtors, said Austin has the highest average rent of anywhere in Texas with a starting rent of $1,450. Dallas isn’t far behind with an average starting rent of $1,378.
The Austin-Round Rock area also had the largest percentage of homes that sold for more than $1 million in Texas. A whopping 7.8% of homes sold went for seven figures or more, and an additional 9% were sold between $750,000-$999,999. Almost 18% of all homes sold in the market went for $750,000 or more. Across Texas, only 3% of homes were sold for more than $1 million and 3.3% were sold for the range below that.
The highest percentage of homes in the Austin area, 24.9%, were sold for $500,000-$749,999, the report said.
Taking a statewide approach to the real estate market, the 2022 chairman of Texas Realtors said, “some buyers found it a frustrating environment.”
“Demand for housing hit an all-time high, and we saw many multiple-offer situations, including homes that attracted dozens of offers and sold for well above asking price,” Russell Berry said. “We’re seeing a lot of new-home construction in the state, but the Texas population continues to grow as well.”
Inventory across Texas sat at 1.2 months at the end of 2021, a decrease of 0.4 from the year prior. According to the Texas Real Estate Research Center, a market balanced between supply and demand should have around six months worth of inventory.
“The housing market will remain strong with the major headwind being the low inventory of homes for sale especially in the lower price ranges,” said Luis Torres, Ph.D., a research economist with the center. “Homebuilders are trying to catch up with demand, but are facing steep prices for land, materials and labor.”
Torres also said rising mortgage rates could weaken demand in 2022, but improvement in supply chain issues could also mitigate costs passed on to buyers from builders.
