2023 – Year-end roundup

From the Austin Board of REALTORS®, I am glad to share some key statistics to summarize our residential real estate market as of the end of 2023. First, here’s how the entire 12-month period compared to the previous year, and how December 2023 compared to the same month in 2022:

Notice that in the year-to-date view (left), the median sale price for all of 2023 was $450,000, down 10% from 2022. The number of closed sales was down, and the annualized number of new listings was down as well, along with the number of pending sales. The number of active listings, on the other hand, was WAY up — 49%! — and the average days that homes were on the market soared from 38 days in 2022 to 70 days in 2023. The total dollar volume of home sales last year was down 17% compared to the previous year — reflecting downturns in both unit sales and sale prices.

Comparing just December-to-December monthly data (right) shows that the median sale price was down just 1%. The average days on market for December 2023 was longer than the year’s average. Growth in year-end listing activity is clear, as is the higher number of pending listings, but the most important number in chart at the right is the increase in Months of Inventory from 0.4 months in December 2022 to 3.0 months in December 2023!

The following charts focus on the City of Austin and on the counties that comprise the Austin Metropolitan Statistical Area. As highlighed above, the most important change going forward is the huge increase in Months of Inventory:

Most industry-watchers still consider 6 months’ inventory to be a feature of balanced market conditions, so technically we remain in a sellers’ market. That is difficult to reconcile with declines in unit sales across the metro, the growth in days on market everywhere but Caldwell County, and insignificant price growth in only three of the five counties. 

I will provide a lot more information and analysis as the year progresses. This will be another transitional year.