It's time to do a little catch-up on the week that was in real estate, given that some interesting national statistics were released this week.

According to the US Commerce Department the median price of a single family home was down 2.5% from September 2005 to $219,800, the largest year-over-year price decline in records going back four decades.(from the National Association of Realtors).  Even more staggering was the news for new home sales, which saw a decline of 9.7% on the median price to $217,000 (also the largest year-over-year decline since 1970).  The number of new homes sold did rise 5.3% in September but new home sales are down 14.2% in the past year.  Nationally there was a 6.4 month inventory/supply of homes, given the sales rate in September.  Mortgage rates inched up to a 6.40% average for the week of October 26.  I read recently that rates were thought to be headed to 7% by the end of the year but now the thought is that it won't get to that point, at least not yet.  The Federal Reserve's decision Wednesday not to raise rates was at least part based on the housing market slowdown.

September in Austin looked like this:

Current Market Summary
September 2006

All Single Family Sales

2006 2005

2,341 2,280

+  3%

All Active Single Family Listings

2006 2005

8,203 7,835

-  5%

Single Family Median Price

2006 2005

$167,000 $161,750

+  3%

Single Family Pending Sales

2006 2005

2,332 2,030

+ 15%

The average home price in Austin was up 6.5% year-over-year to $227,948 from $213,946.  These are all certainly respectable numbers in light of the sharp declines in national numbers.  Of course, as I always say, all real estate is local.  It is interesting however to keep track of how the national averages shake out.  It will also be interesting to see how long this downturn in the national numbers will continue.