Austin Sees Full Year of Increasing Home Sales

The Central Texas housing market continues to be a strong one, according to numbers released today by the Austin Board of Realtors.

May 2012 was the 12th straight month of sales increases. It’s also the fourth consecutive month of price increases.

“That has to do with our shrinking inventory,” says Board of Realtors chairman Leonard Guerrero, crediting the shrink to “the jobs that have been created in our state and in our local area, Austin, in particular. And the number of people that are coming into the state to fill those positions.”

“It creates a higher demand on those units,” he says. “And with that, generally, the pricing has increased.” While the number of single family homes for sale rose a quarter over this time last year, the median price has also risen by 10 percent. The high occupancy rate of rental properties is also affecting the housing numbers.

Guerrero adds “It’s not unusual to have multiple offers of properties right now, and with that , the highest bidder usually wins.”