Steiner Ranch Housing Report - September 2021

In this month's edition of How's the Market in Steiner Ranch I review the August sales stats and compare the year-to-date statistics. The numbers are strong, but it looks like a slowdown has already started.  Below the video, you can find the same information in chart and text formats.

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 September 2021 edition of "How's the Market in Steiner Ranch.”  The real estate market in Steiner is most definitely slowing down.  Let’s dive in and take a look.

In August, 28 resale homes closed in Steiner Ranch which was down 17.6% from August 2020.  The median price increased 34.8% to $868,350.  The average price of a home increased 34.2% to $954,065.  The average price per square foot increased by 47.5% to $291.14.  Obviously, these numbers are incredible, but the percentage increase is slowing down.  Let’s take a look at the year-to-date numbers which help us get a broader, long-term picture of the market.  The number of resale homes sold so far in 2021 is 202, down 8.2% from the time period last year.  A big part of that is fewer homes offered for sale that year – in fact, the number of listings during the first 8 months is 245, down 6.5% from last August.  The median price of a home has increased 46.4% to $827,000.  The average price increased by 46.1% to $950,789.  The average price per square foot increased 49.8% to $283.97.  As a reminder, the key number we use in real estate is the median price.  Again, looking at all resale homes sold in Steiner this year through the end of August, that’s up over 46% to $827,000.  It is not surprising that this figure is lower than the individual months of July or August, because prices are still climbing.  Across Steiner, the August sales ranged from a low of $575,000 to a high of $1,900,000.  The average sales price to list price ratio was 104.5% which, of course, means homes are selling above list price.

So with strongly increasing numbers, why do I say the market is slowing down.  Well, these stats that I provide each month are backward-looking.  Here we are in September and I’m telling you about sales in August.  Well, those homes likely went under contract in July.  So I can give you the historic information, but I can also share what I am observing in today’s market and that story is starting to change.

The number of available resale homes at the end of August was 21, up 40.0% from last August.  That is the highest end-of-month number since June 2020.  For the last couple of weeks, we’ve usually had 20 to 25 available resale homes at any given time.  As the inventory increases, basic laws of supply and demand tell us we can’t keep up the torrid pace of price appreciation.  If we look at homes that closed in August, the average days on market was 11, down from 20 last August.  Now, 11 days is very fast for the average length of time to sell a home.  But, it is the highest monthly number we’ve seen since February of this year.  As I record this, the average number of days of the homes currently for sale is 25 so in the coming months, expect this number to keep growing.  With inventory increasing and days on market increasing, the rate of appreciation will drop.  In fact, I am expecting that we will see prices pull back a bit from these current highs.  It may not happen across Steiner as a whole, but certain price points.  First will be the entry level homes.  And, boy, has this price point changed.  Entry level in Steiner is now above half a million.  Do you want to know how many homes in Steiner have sold under $500,000 this year?  Just 3.  Crazy, isn’t it.  Last year at this point, 74 had sold under $500,000..  When you look at what would be considered the entry level neighborhoods in Steiner, those prices are now $550,000 to $750,000.  But with more than half of the available homes in Steiner currently sitting in this entry level range right now, many of them for weeks and a few for several months, I expect prices will pull back.  Now, to be clear, I’m not expecting a big drop in prices, but I do expect them to taper off a bit.  Which, by the way, is very typical of this time of year.  Last year was an exception to that, but it appears to be in store for us this year.  So what does that mean if you want to sell your home now?  Well, it’s still a sellers market and I expect you’ll be happy with how much I can sell your home for today, but the days of getting 20 offers above list price are behind us (for now, at least).  If you are a buyer in this market, nice homes priced where they should be are still selling within a week, sometimes with multiple offers, and sometimes above list price.  But it’s not frenzied like earlier this year and you’ve got more choices than here have been in a long time.  But it isn’t a buyer’s market, either.  The best thing to do is reach out to me directly so we can talk about your specific situation.

Now I have a big change to announce.  This is the part of the video in which I usually tell you that summary and detailed data for each Steiner Ranch neighborhood is available on my website.  But, sadly, that information is no longer available.  You see, for 12 years I was exploiting a loophole in the MLS rules that allowed me to show individual sales prices to you.  It worked great for a long time. But, eventually big players like Zillow and Redfin exploited the same loophole.  As such, the MLS implemented new rules this month which prohibit me from sharing the sales prices of individual homes in this manner.  I see no loophole available anymore, so I have taken that part of my site down.  I’m looking at something new to at least share summary data on the neighborhood level, but nothing is ready yet.

Finally, if you are thinking of selling, reach out to me and let’s talk about what you can expect.  Of course, 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 watching “How’s The Market in Steiner Ranch.”

Statistics based upon information from ACTRIS for the periods cited.