How's the Market in Steiner Ranch - 2019 Year End

2019 was an interesting year for real estate in Steiner Ranch.  The year-end edition of How's the Market in Steiner Ranch recaps the full year's stats and I look forward into 2020.  Below the video, you can find the same information in chart and text formats.

Extra sales statistics mentioned in the video can be found here:
Price changes for each Steiner Ranch neighborhood.
Complete set of graphs with 5-year comparison data.

To view summary and detailed sales information for all Steiner Ranch neighborhoods, check out the Neighborhood Home Sale Data section of my website. If you are looking to buy or sell a home in Steiner Ranch, contact me via email or at 512-650-7300. Previous editions of How’s the Market in Steiner Ranch are also available.  If you prefer to read instead of watch, here are the chart and transcript.

Greetings!  I'm Craig Smyser with 1835 Realty.  Welcome to the 2019 Year End edition of "How's the Market in Steiner Ranch.”

First, I want to remind you that all of these figures are for resale homes only.  There are still a few new construction homes in Steiner Ranch, but I am not including them in these statistics.  In 2019, 274 homes closed in Steiner Ranch which was down 3.9% from 2018.  The median price of a resale home decreased 4.4% to $485,000, the average price increased 1.1% to $589,881, and the average price per square foot increased 6.9% to $177.48.  In real estate, the bellwether measurement for home prices is the median price so when we talk about the price of homes in Steiner Ranch for 2019, we’ll say that the prices declined by 4.4%. But why is that?  Well, as I said throughout 2019, I believe it is just a statistical anomaly because of the distribution of homes that sold.  You see, in 2018, we had more higher end homes sell than usual and fewer entry level homes sell than usual which resulted in the numbers skewing higher.  In 2019, we returned to a more typical distribution – meaning we had fewer higher end homes sell and more entry level homes.  Therefore, when you compare the 2019 to 2018 figures, they appear lower.  But if you look on a neighborhood by neighborhood basis, the prices rose in many of them.  For example, median prices were up almost 4.4% in Canyon Glen (an entry level part of Steiner), over 11% in Summer Vista (a mid-level neighborhood), and 1.7% in River Heights Overlook (a higher-end neighborhood).  In fact, if I look at the median prices neighborhood by neighborhood within Steiner, the average of the median price changes shows a 3.9% increase.  Let me repeat that because it is a bit confusing.  I looked at the median price change in every Steiner neighborhood.  Then I averaged those out.  The result was 3.9% price increase.  Now, that’s not the way we actually measure median prices in real estate, which is why 2019 shows a decline in price but I argue that prices are actually rising in Steiner Ranch despite the statistical illusion to the contrary.  If you would like to see the list of each Steiner neighborhood and its annual price change, there is a link below where you launched this video or simply visit SteinerStats.com.

So I mentioned that our 3.9% drop in home sales.  But, again, there is more to the story.  That drop in the number of homes sold corresponds exactly to the drop in the number of homes listed for sale in Steiner in 2019.  There were 343 homes listed for sale, down 3.9% from 2018.

Last year, the sale prices in Steiner ranged from a low of $326,500 to a high of $4,775,000.  One observation about the lowest price being $326,500.  In 2009, the median price of a resale home in Steiner Ranch was $325,000.  So ten years later you can’t even buy a home for what used to be the median price.  Back to 2019 numbers, the average sales price to list price ratio was 98.9%  For homes that closed, the average days on market was 37, down from 50 in 2018.

As always, my website allows you to look at summary and detailed data for each home that sold in Steiner Ranch.  Simply go to RealEstateInAustin.com and click on the big red ‘Search Sold Data’ button which is found towards the bottom of the page.

I do have some more detailed statistics and graphs making comparisons back five years available here.

Now we arrive at the point in the video where I make predictions.  I really don’t know why I continue to do this as I rarely seem to get it right.  So let me point out that while I can’t predict the future too well, I am great at understanding and analyzing the current market which is really what you need when you are ready to buy or sell in Steiner.  But first, let’s see how bad I did with my 2019 forecasting.  I predicted that the number of resale homes sold in Steiner Ranch would increase by 3.2%, but we saw a 3.9% drop instead. I also predicted that prices would increase by 2.5%, while the prices actually fell 4.4%.  As you know, I asterisk that decline, but nonetheless, my prediction was woefully off the mark.  So let’s look at 2020.  I believe the number of homes offered for sale will remain low and therefore the sales will follow suit.  I predict another down year in homes sold, but by just 2%.  I believe the prices will actually look as good as they are and prices will increase by 3.5%.

If you are thinking of buying or selling in Steiner Ranch in 2020, I would love the opportunity to earn your business.  To find out why I am consistently one of the top real estate agents serving Steiner Ranch and how you can use that to your advantage, call me at 512-650-7300 or email me at [email protected].  Thanks for reading “How’s The Market in Steiner Ranch.”

Statistics based upon information from ACTRIS for the periods cited.