August real estate figures show signs of improvement, year-to-date figures on pace with 2009

Sept. 20, 2010 - PRLog -- According to the Multiple Listing Service (MLS) report released today by the Austin Board of REALTORS®, the impact of the expired homebuyer tax credits is still being felt in the Austin real estate market, yet the gap in year-over-year sales volume narrowed slightly compared to last month.

The volume of Austin area home sales in August 2010 was 1,490, down 15 percent from the same month in 2009. The median price for August 2010 was $200,000, up 5 percent from August 2009. In addition, the number of days on market increased one percent to 77 days for August 2010 when compared to August 2009.

“This continues to be a unique year in evaluating trends in the real estate market due to the impact of the recently expired homebuyer tax credits,” said John Horton, Chairman of the Austin Board of REALTORS®. “Though we’re down in sales volume by 15 percent compared to this month last year, that gap is smaller than we experienced in July and year-to-date figures reveal that we’re generally on pace with 2009 volumes.”

So far this year, 12,729 single-family homes have been sold in Austin, a two percent increase compared to the same time period in 2009. In addition, the median price year-to-date was $195,000, up three percent from 2009, and days on market decreased 11 percent from 2009 to 72 days.

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Founded in 1926, the Austin Board of REALTORS® is a non-profit, voluntary organization representing more than 9,000 licensed REALTORS® in Central Texas.