AUSTIN, Texas — We all know how expensive it is to live in Austin, especially if you're looking for a home. But some experts say there may be good news on the horizon for homebuyers.
A new report from Realtor.com predicts home prices in the U.S. will dip by 1.7% in 2024. But what's surprising is its prediction that the Austin area will see a 12.2% drop in home prices next year.
"I just don't see them going that low," Ian Grossman said.
Grossman is a local realtor. He said that number is just too far-fetched, especially when the median home price in the Austin area is sitting at $435,000 as of October.
"A 12% drop from where we're at now would take us around $375,000. And we just – we weren't there. We haven't been there since the end of 2020, early 2021," Grossman said.
He predicts home prices will actually go up a little next year.
As for how the market is doing now?
"We're still seeing buyers out there, even with rates in the sevens, just not at the high volume that we did, you know, when they were in the threes, fours and fives," Grossman said.
With the higher interest rates, he said some buyers are still waiting it out. But he has seen listing agents get creative to help make sales happen.
"A lot of builders are offering incentives where they're contributing toward a buyer's closing costs to help them buy down their rates," Grossman said. "There are some long-term rate buy-downs and some short-term rate buy-downs, which, basically what that means is if today's rate is 7%, you could get a temporary rate of four, five, 6%. That's paid for by the builder or by the seller."
It's unclear what next year holds for Austin's housing market, but experts say it will give us a better understanding of what a stabilized market looks like.
Boomtown is KVUE's series covering the explosive growth in Central Texas. For more Boomtown stories, head to KVUE.com/Boomtown.