Austin is “Strongly in a Buyer’s Market”

Austin, once the fastest-growing residential market in Texas, is now one of the most lopsided markets in the country.

There were 18,202 sellers to 8,134 buyers in Austin last month, or 124 percent more sellers than buyers, according to Redfin. Only Miami and Fort Lauderdale exceeded Austin’s rate, with 161 percent and 151 percent more sellers than buyers.

Austin more than meets Redfin’s threshold of a buyer’s market: where there are 10 percent more sellers than buyers. There are other economic definitions of a buyer’s market, such as months of inventory, that Austin skirts if you squint. The Austin-Round Rock-San Marcos MSA had 6.1 months of inventory in July, according to Unlock MLS, which doesn’t quite tip the limbo pole of seven months recognized by Rocket Mortgage and Zillow.

Submarkets in the area vary, but sellers are out of advantages in Austin, said Mike Ray of Keller Williams Austin.

Single-family homes on the cheaper side, especially in the suburbs, aren’t suffering as much, Ray said.

“Luxury and condo markets are tough right now,” Ray said. “Some of our luxury in some pockets, like out on Lake Travis, they have a lot of supply and inventory.”

Austin’s condo market has a whopping 19 months of inventory — “definitely a high buyer’s market,” Ray said.

Certain property classes and price points are generating more demand than others, but no submarket of Austin remains a seller’s market, Ray said.

“I don’t know at this point anywhere in Austin that doesn’t have supply of inventory that would be classified as a seller’s market,” he said. “There’s enough inventory at this point to put us strongly in a buyer’s market everywhere.”

Agents in stagnating markets report that sellers are clinging to the memory of the 2021 buyer frenzy. That was an especially productive year for Austin; the city enjoyed a record high rate of price increase in 2021, with the average annual home jumping 30 percent in the fourth quarter of the year, according to the Dallas Fed. The year before, the city clocked the largest rise in median list price among the country’s 50 biggest markets, according to Zillow.

Now, Austin is undergoing one of the country’s biggest year-over-year declines in home prices. The median sale price last month was 3.3 percent lower than in July 2024, the third-biggest drop in America, according to Redfin. By comparison, the national median sale price grew by 1.4 percent.

Oakland, California, suffered the biggest decline in sale prices with a 6.2 percent drop. West Palm Beach, Florida, barely beat Austin for second place with a 3.5 percent decline.