Home sales up, Prices down

The Austin-area residential market has changed a lot over the past few years. In an e-newsletter earlier this year (Understanding the 2025 Austin Housing Market Shift) I recapped the environment we experienced in recent years and commented on some important changes. In short, home sales trended downward from mid-2021 through 2023, and flattened over the next two years, even as listing inventory soared from about 9.500 homes to almost 15,000. Over those years, median sale prices declined from their peak in early 2022. The pandemic years, multiple sources of buyer uncerrtainty, and tremendous changes in mortgage interest rates combined to create the challenging market we are still working through in 2026.

An article appeared this week in the Austin American-Statesman that is relevant and informative:

Lower prices, more options: What Austin homebuyers should know about the market right now

If you’re a Statesman subscriber, you can access that link. For those who cannot, here are some important highlights:

“[April 2026] Sales in the Austin-Round Rock-San Marcos metro area increased 2% from a year earlier to 2,648, while the median price fell 1.9% to $440,000 …. Pending sales, which are deals under contract but not yet closed, jumped 15.4% to 3,411, suggesting the spring homebuying season is picking up.”

“In Austin, sales increased 8.5% from a year earlier to 980 while the median price fell 3.2% to $573,750. Pending sales jumped 20% and active listings dropped 24.3%.

“Across Travis County, activity also was stronger. Sales rose 4.7% from a year earlier to 1,249 while the median price fell 1.9% to $505,000. Pending sales jumped 20.4% and months of inventory fell to 4.8.

“In Williamson County, 878 homes sold, down 1.3%, while the median price fell 4.1% to $412,490. Pending sales climbed nearly 19%.

“Hays County saw 350 homes sold, down 3% from April 2025, while the median price rose roughly 9% to $419,990. Pending sales dropped 14.3%, making Hays one of the few areas in the region where buyer activity slowed.

In Bastrop County, sales rose almost 10% and the median price increased about 3% to $350,000. Pending sales jumped 45.5%, though inventory remained high at 7.3 months. In Caldwell County, sales rose 23.1% while the median price fell 12.3% to $262,994. Pending sales surged more than 72%.”

Those snippets note that April 2026 home prices were down year-over-year in Austin, Travis County, and Williamson County, and up in Hays County and Bastrop County. This chart provides important context for considering historic price trends in the metro area:

Increases in Pending contracts offer optimism for the Spring-Summer home selling season, but trends have been notably unpredictable for years now. Continued gridlock is keeping would-be sellers out of the market, and price competition from builders of new homes suggest that caution is appropriate.

I’ll keep watching and reporting on the market based on my own daily experience in the field and on constant study of market data from a variety of credible sources. More to come ….