Austin Market Dashboard – update

Followers of my blog know that I have not been keeping up with this space over the past several weeks — a testament to the busy-ness of the Austin/Central Texas real estate market.  Amidst continuing discouragement from national news reports, our local economy is growing and creating jobs, and the real estate market is moving well as a result.

I have posted a complete discussion at www.AustinMarketDashboard.com, but I’ll offer a couple of highlights here.

First, for three consecutive months — July, August, and September — 2011 home sales were up more than 30% compared to the same months in 2010:

That is good news, especially considering that this is the first year in three years in which seasonal sales patterns were not distorted by temporary tax incentives aimed at encouraging home purchases.

Second, although sales and average prices have dipped recently those changes represent very typical seasonal market behavior.  The market indicator that I find more meaningful is the absorption rate, or “odds of selling”:

That absorption rate has dipped over the past couple of months too, but this is the fiirst time since 2005 that we have seen this metric bouncing around the long-term average of 21% rather than a much lower level.  With continuing uncertainties in the U.S. political and economic scene, and in the world economy, these Winter months may remain a little soft, but if history is an indication then we are poised to enter a new growth phase in the local real estate market.

Feel free to visit www.AustinMarketDashboard.com for more detail and discussion, or just call or text or email me if you have any questions.