2021, a Year of Unprecedented Growth in the Austin Real Estate Market

Now that 2021 has finally come to an end, we can finally assess the state of the Austin real estate market over the past year in its entirety. It felt wild, and now the stats show it truly was one for the records.  Home prices appreciated far more in 2021 than ever before.  We saw median sales prices rise more than $100K in almost every city in the metro area, and homes sold at record paces too.

In the City of Austin, the median sales price for single family homes rose to $605,000.  That’s up more than 30% since last year.  From 2015 to 2019 it was typical to see single digit percentage increases in this median sales price jump year over year. While we saw an annual median sales price of $605K for single family homes in the city limits, the median sales price was actually higher than this many months throughout the year.  In 2021, we saw a return to our normal real estate sales cycle, with the highest median sales price occurring in June and July where the median sales price for single family homes peaked at $650,000.  This is typical for our market, yet a stark comparison to 2020 when we strangely saw peak median sales prices in December.

These record breaking jumps in median sales prices were not isolated to the Austin city limits.  In the entire Austin-Round Rock MSA which encompasses all of Travis, Williamson, Bastrop, Caldwell and Hays counties we saw a 33.29% increase in the median sales price for single-family homes.  In many cities, we saw the median sales price increase by even more.  In Dripping Springs, the median sales price for single family homes in 2020 was $470k, last year it increased 47.87% to $695,000.  In Cedar Park, home prices increased more than 43%.  Even in areas with relatively high median sales prices, we saw significant increases in the median sales price.  Homes in Westlake Hills appreciated more than 37%, bringing the median sales price for homes in this coveted neighborhood to $2,350,000.

Throughout the five county metro area we simultaneously saw the amount of time it takes for a home to sell to go down, way down.  In 2020, the average days on market for a single home was 40, in 2021, that figure dropped to 16.  If you were looking for a home in 2021, you may be shocked by that number since it felt like the day a home hit the market it was already gone.

So, what does all of this mean for 2022?  Let me pull out my Magic 8 Ball.  Will home prices decrease in 2022? Don’t count on it.  Will home prices increase in 2022 as much as they did in 2021? My sources say no. Will we see home prices peak in the late spring/early summer as we usually do? Most likely.  

Do you have more questions about the Austin real estate market that a standard Magic 8 Ball can’t answer?  Contact me for detailed intel on what’s happening in the ATX market.