The April housing statistics were released today (the national numbers are provided by the National Association of Realtors while the Texas numbers are from The Real Estate Center at Texas A&M University). 

Nationally, the numbers show a 7.6% increase in the number of homes sold compared to March 2010.  On a year-over-year basis, the number of homes sold in April 2010 increased by 22.8% over April 2010.  Obviously, the end of the buyer tax credits on April 30th contributed heavily to the increase in sales.  49% of the buyers in April were first-time buyers (15% were investors and 36% were repeat).  Distressed properties (foreclosures and short sales) accounted for 33% of the national sales in April (down from 35% the previous month).  74% of the sales were financed with a mortgage.

The Austin numbers look good.  Compared to April 2009, the number of homes sold was up a very solid 32.0%.  Austin has now shown 8 months in a row of year-over-year comparison increases (prior to this streak we had 27 months in a row of declines for the year-over-year numbers).  I expect that we will see this trend continue in May.  However, I expect this number to turn down in June or July.  With the expiration of the buyer tax credits, the number of contracts being written so far in May is running at about half the rate of April.  Given the time it takes to close on a house, we won't see this drop noted in the stats for another month or two. 

In Texas, the April sales figures were good, but not as great as they were for Austin.  The year-over-year comparison to April 2009 shows that the number of homes sold was up 11.6%.  The median price was up 3.2%

April 2010 Existing Home Sales

  Austin Texas USA
Number of Homes Sold

 

    
vs. April 2009 32.0% 26.2% 22.8%
vs. March 2010 12.9% 11.6% 7.6%
Year-to-Date vs. 2009 23.0% 10.9% *
Year-to-Date vs. 2008 -11.4% -13.9% *
       
Price of Homes Sold      
Average vs. April 2009 1.7% 4.6% 4.7%
Median vs. April 2009 -0.1% 3.2% 4.0%
       
Housing Inventory      
Months Supply vs. April 2009 0.0% 1.4% -2.8%
# Homes for Sale vs. April 2009 7.1% -0.1% 0.1%

* National numbers are seasonally adjusted so no year-to-date numbers are provided.