Steiner Ranch Housing Report - June 2015

In this edition of “How’s the Market in Steiner Ranch,” I talk about the May stats and I’ll take another look at pricing trends.  Below the video, you can find the same information in chart and text formats.

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.  Welcome to the June 2015 edition of “How’s the Market in Steiner Ranch.”  This month I’ll take another close look at pricing and upcoming trends that I see.

In May, 32 homes closed in Steiner Ranch which was down 27.3% from May 2014.  This marks the third month in a row of lower year-over-year sales.  The median price increased 1.3% to $422,875.  The average price of a resale home increased 4.8% to $491,425.  Increases in both of these numbers breaks a three month streak of declines.  The average price per square foot declined by 0.3% to $154.29.  In order to get a better picture of the market, let’s look at the last six months and compare it to the corresponding six-month period from a year earlier.  The median price of a resale home decreased 2.6% to $424,500.  The average price decreased also by 2.6% to $490,922.  The average price per square foot increased by 0.1% to $151.20.  Last month I talked about two different markets in Steiner Ranch, with the separation point being at $600,000.  If you recall, the houses below that point were selling well while those above beginning to show signs of slowness.  This month the story is the same, but I will lower the split point to $550,000.  Before analyzing the numbers for May, I thought I would have to talk about the fact that prices are trending downward in Steiner Ranch.  I’m in this market every day and it looks to me like the Steiner market is weakening.  However, the stats ticked up a bit last month. Still thinking the current market is pulling back, I decided to look at the houses that are currently under contract and will close in June or July.  I was again surprised to see that these point to higher sales prices.  So why do I think we are softening?  Several reasons.  First, the number of properties reducing prices during the first few days of June has been far higher than I can recall.  I don’t specifically track this stat, but every price reduction in Steiner passes through my email so I usually have a good handle on this.  Second, the days on market for active homes has been inching higher for months.  Third, we are floating high inventories above $550,000.  Based on this, I expect we will see a short term increase in prices based on the contracts currently in the pipeline.  After that, though, I think we’ll see prices drop a bit.  It is an interesting time for Steiner Ranch – especially as we watch the overall Austin market continue to market higher.  Whether buying or selling, you need someone who understands the nuances of the market and can guide you appropriately.  I am that person so contact me today.

The number of available resale homes at the beginning of May was 95, up 14.5% from last May.  As the number of homes available changes every day, I can tell you the numbers continue to increase – as I record this in early June, we are over 100 active homes.  To be clear, that does not include homes that are under contract.

Across Steiner, the May sales ranged from a low of $299,000 to a high of $925,000.   The average sales price to list price ratio was 98.6%.  For homes that closed in May, the average days on market was 34.  As always, my website allows you to look at summary and detailed data for each Steiner Ranch neighborhood.  Simply go to RealEstateInAustin.com and click on the big red “Search Sold Data” button towards the bottom of the page.   I say that every month, but you may wonder what I mean by it.  For every neighborhood in Steiner Ranch, you can view the summary sales data for this month, this year, last year, etc.  If you register, which is free, you can see the addresses, sales prices, bedrooms, baths, etc. for each house that closed.  Valuable information for sure, so check it out.

If you have any real estate related questions, please don’t hesitate to 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.