Austin Housing Demand Still Higher than Average

By OLGA CAMPOS KVUE News

Nationally, home sales in January fell to the lowest level in nearly a decade while the median price for a home continues to decline. But in Austin, it's the opposite. While sales are down from year to year, 2007 is still on record as the second best ever for home sales with an increase in the median price.

In Austin sales are up 4 percent, the median price is up by 7 percent with houses staying on the market for about four months. While nationally home sales dropped by 13 percent with the median price down by 6 percent. Houses are staying on the market for more than nine months before selling.

The Austin Board of Realtors says homes sales in January 2008 are down 10 percent from January of the previous year, but even with that month-to-month decline, Gay Puckett, of J.B. Goodwin Realtors, says Austin is a hot housing market. "It was the second best year in the history of Austin real estate," says Puckett.

She says new homes are selling, others are being remodeled and local businesses are booming in neighborhoods like Crestview.
"It makes me thrilled because we just bought our house a year ago," said Jaime Brydson. Brydson is tracking the value of her new home in her North Central Austin neighborhood.
"I read the paper and I'll see how percentage wise our property has already gone up in the past year. I feel like not only did we get a great house, but we made a fantastic investment," she said.
Experts predict 41,000 new jobs will be created over the next two years making increasing population and new employment the key reasons why the local housing market stays in better shape than the national average.

Here are more housing stats: 1,321 single family homes sold last month and the Median price of a home was $183,000.

05:47 PM CST on Monday, February 25, 2008