HOME SALES GROWING, BUT AT A SLOWER PACE THAN ’16

Sales rose 2.8 percent over first half of 2016, according to board.

Central Texas home sales slowed their growth rate in the first half of 2017, but home prices continued to rise at a steady clip, the Austin Board of Realtors said Thursday.

Through the end of June, single-family sales in the five-county Austin metro area — stretching from Georgetown to San Marcos — rose 2.8 percent over the same period in 2016, totaling 14,958 sales. The median price of those sales was $300,000, a 6.4 percent increase year-over-year, according to the board.

“The Central Texas housing market continued to show signs of normalization in the first half of the year, with positive but more moderate gains in sales activity,” Brandy Guthrie, president of the Austin Board of Realtors, said in releasing the board’s midyear housing report. “Homes are spending more time on the market and housing inventory levels have slowly increased throughout the year. While it could take years for the region’s housing market to achieve balance between homebuying and selling activity, these trends indicate that the Central Texas housing market could finally be moving in that direction.”

With the number of homes growing, “buyers have a little more choice and are a little bit pickier, and that’s a good thing,” said Pam Cirkiel, broker and owner of M.E. “Gene” Johnson Realtors in Austin.

The board also released monthly statistics for June, which registered 3,415 sales, up 4.4 percent compared to June 2016. Last month’s median price ticked up 6.6 percent year-over-year, with half of the homes selling for more than $314,000 and half for less.

Guthrie said rising home prices are pushing more and more Austin residents into surrounding areas to find an affordable home.

Cirkiel noted that homes priced at $240,000 and below “are selling like hotcakes.”