Timing and Pricing: Key Insights for Austin Home Sellers

Near the end of Austin Market — a broader look I included a link to an article about the importance of pricing your home properly, noting that the longer a home is on the market the more deeply the ultimate sale price is likely to be discounted. That post dealt with national U.S. trends. This post focuses on the Austin area.

The relationship to between price and time-on-market is not unique to this market cycle, but it is important in the Austin market at this time, given our specific market environment (see Austin vs. National Real Estate (February 3), Austin Market Trails U.S. (March 20), and How Did We Get Here? (April 5).

Now, using MLS data for the Austin metropolitan area, this chart shows the discounting we see clearly in for much of the past two-plus years:

The blue bars show monthly median sale prices for the past five years, with the 3-month moving average shown by the dotted line. The frenzied market during the time of Covid is clear, and the yearly peaks in 2023 and 2024 were below both the peaks in 2021 and 2022.

Since late 2023, final sale prices have averaged about 95% of original list price. That amounts to a $20,000 price reduction on a $400,000 sale. The discount off the final list price has averaged 98% during most of the same three years. That’s only $8,000 off the same $400,000 sales, but the chart below highlights a critical consideration:

The orange bars show the ratio of the number of Active listings to the number of Sold listings each month — Months’ Supply of available inventory. The blue line makes clear the correlation between inventory and time to sell. At the low point in May of 2022 the average sale took 13 days (active-to-under contract). By February of 2023 the average was 72 days. In January 2025, the average sale took 86 days. That’s time most of those owners made mortgage payments and accrued property tax, insurance, and maintenance expenses. The effect of pricing is very real, and worth considering before listing.

If you’re preparing to sell your home, get professional consultation in the process, and be realistic about pricing sooner rather than later in the process.