Is it a good time to buy a house in Austin?
Prices are lower than a year ago and there is more to choose from than there was at the peak. Every figure below names its source and its date.
The Austin market
For a buyer, yes, and the numbers say so plainly: the Austin-Round Rock-San Marcos median sale price was $412,000 in August 2026, down 6.4% year over year, with 5.1 months of inventory, according to the Unlock MLS, August 2026 Central Texas Housing Report released 15 September 2026. Prices are lower than a year ago and there is more to choose from than there was at the peak, which is the opposite of the market most published Austin guides still describe.
Metro figures from Unlock MLS, August 2026 Central Texas Housing Report. Central Austin figures below are live from the MLS feed, as of October 17, 2026 at 11:28 AM CDT.
These metro and county figures are from the August 2026 report, released 15 September 2026. Unlock MLS publishes around the 15th of each month, so a newer report may now be out and this page has not been updated to it yet. The central Austin figures below are unaffected: they come from the MLS feed and carry their own timestamp.
Every number herecarries its sourceand its date.
The metro, by county
Four of the five counties are down, and one is not
These are the five counties I cover, which are also the five Unlock MLS reports on. They did not all move the same way, which is the kind of thing a metro-wide median hides completely. A single figure for the metro is an average across five markets that do not take turns.
| County | Median sale price | Year over year |
|---|---|---|
| Travis | $489,000 | down 6.4% |
| Williamson | $399,900 | down 5.9% |
| Hays | $355,000 | down 1.4% |
| Bastrop | $342,495 | down 5.1% |
| Caldwell | $270,000 | up 17.4% |
August 2026. Unlock MLS, August 2026 Central Texas Housing Report, released 15 September 2026. Inside the City of Austin the median was $560,000, down 4.3%.
And central Austin is a different market inside it
The county figures above are closed sales, reported monthly. What follows is what is actually on the market right now in the five ZIP codes I work, straight from the feed, which is a different question and often a different answer.
There are 959 active listings and 51 under contract across 5 central ZIP codes. The median asking price is $650,000, at $515 per square foot, and the median listing has been on the market 87 days.
61% of it is condominiums. That single fact is why a metro median is the wrong tool downtown. Houses in these ZIPs ask a median of $995,000 and condominiums $477,000, so the blended figure describes neither.
| ZIP | Active | Median asking | Per sq ft | Days on market |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 78701 | 215 | $650,000 | $705 | 121 |
| 78702 | 203 | $650,000 | $460 | 79 |
| 78703 | 113 | $1,340,000 | $678 | 58 |
| 78704 | 304 | $727,000 | $500 | 68 |
| 78705 | 124 | $319,450 | $389 | 123 |
Asking prices, not sold prices. Live from the MLS feed as of October 17, 2026 at 11:28 AM CDT.
How I work with buyersThe limits
What these numbers cannot say
They cannot tell you months of inventory for a ZIP code or a neighborhood. That calculation needs a rate of closed sales, and Unlock MLS does not permit a site like this one to display closed prices, so the feed carries none. The 5.1 monthsabove is the metro figure from the association’s own report and it is the only one on this page. Anybody showing you months of inventory for a single neighborhood is estimating.
They do not include a mortgage rate. The rate moves weekly and a page like this cannot hold it. The research behind this page found a competitor quoting a rate sourced to a document that contains no rate at all, by which time the published survey had moved most of a percentage point. Freddie Mac publishes the survey every Thursday and that is where a rate should be read.
And a median is not your house. Four of five counties fell last month and one rose 17.4%, which is the same arithmetic at work: an average across unlike things describes none of them. The only honest version of this question for a specific address is a comparable set, which is what a valuation is for.
Questions buyers ask about this market
Is Austin a buyer's market right now?
By the two measures that matter, yes. The Unlock MLS, August 2026 Central Texas Housing Report released 15 September 2026 puts the Austin-Round Rock-San Marcos median sale price at $412,000 for August 2026, down 6.4% year over year, with 5.1 monthsof inventory. Falling prices alongside rising supply is what a buyer’s market is, and those are the two numbers to watch rather than anyone’s adjective. It does not follow that every submarket moves together, which is what the county table on this page is for.
Are Austin home prices still falling?
In August 2026 the metro median was down 6.4% against a year earlier, per the Unlock MLS, August 2026 Central Texas Housing Report. Within that, 4 of the 5 counties I cover were lower and 1 were higher. A single metro figure answers this question badly, which is why the breakdown sits above rather than a headline.
Why do the numbers here differ from the ones I read elsewhere?
Usually because the other page is old and does not say so. Several widely read Austin guides still publish a metro median near $440,000 and describe the market as stable. Every figure on this page names its source and the date that source was issued, and the central Austin table is generated from the MLS feed rather than typed, so it cannot drift without the timestamp drifting with it.
How many homes are for sale in central Austin?
The live count, the median asking price and the days on market for each of the five central ZIP codes are in the table above, generated from the feed rather than written down. Those are asking prices rather than sold prices, which is the distinction most market pages blur.
Ask about an area
Tell me where you are looking and I will send what the feed shows there, with the same sourcing as this page.
Listings courtesy of Unlock MLS as distributed by MLS GRID
Based on information submitted to the MLS GRID as of October 17, 2026 at 11:28 AM CDT. All data obtained from various sources and may not have been verified by broker or MLS GRID.
Any use or search of data on the website, other than by a consumer looking to purchase real estate, is prohibited.