Here's your (almost) mid-2026 Austin real estate update

By now you know how much I love counting what I call the "right now buyer demand" number every week - how many homes go under contract.  The good news?  We have more buyer activity this year than last.  Most weeks, we have more buyer activity than the year before, and on average we're seeing an uptick of almost 5%.

The bad news?  The activity is coming at lower prices.  Right now, our median sales price is lagging ~ 4% behind last year.  Not terrible, but not great.

This of course leads to one of the more frequently asked questions - what do I see for the future?  I don't know.  3 years ago I would have told you I'd expect us to turn back up in the next 3-5 years, but we're there now, and I still don't see it happening.  What I do know is, when a big market turn happens, no one ever predicts it.  Until after it happens.  

So in the meantime, let me paraphrase the dude from Ted Lasso and say "real estate is life".  We mostly make our housing decisions based on our lives and where we are in them.  And if you're looking at it from the investment side, I'll quote myself and say "I like to buy when no one else wants to".

Thanks for listening.  Let me know if there's ever anything I can do to help you, even if it's as simple as "do you have a good HVAC guy?".