The cost of Austin-area homes has increased 5.6 percent in the last 12 months as prices on the national stage dropped 1.5 percent, a report released Wednesday shows.
The median price for a home in the Austin-Round Rock metropolitan market stood at $186,600 at the end of the second quarter, up from $176,700 in the second quarter of 2006, according to the National Association of Realtors' quarterly housing report.
Austin is among the 97 U.S. metropolitan markets out of the 149 examined that saw increases in median existing-single family home prices in the last year. Nine of those markets had double-digit gains. However, prices fell in 50 markets-- another telltale sign that last year's rosy U.S. homebuilding landscape is no more. Prices in two of the 149 markets remained unchanged.
"Although home prices are relatively flat, more metro areas are showing price gains with general improvement since bottoming out in the fourth quarter of 2006," says Lawrence Yun, a senior economist with NAR. "Recent mortgage disruptions will hold back sales temporarily, but the fundamental momentum clearly suggests stabilizing price trends in many local markets."
The national median existing single-family home price was $223,800 in the second quarter, down from the second quarter of 2006 when the median price was $227,100. The median is a typical market price where half of the homes sold for more and half sold for less, but NAR points out that there has been a downward skew in the national comparison since sales have declined in many high-cost areas while rising in some lower cost markets.
"Since all real estate is local, this report on metro area home prices is more meaningful than our monthly data on national prices because metro areas are less subject to price distortion that can result from geographic changes in the composition of sales," says Yun.
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