It was pretty obvious around March that the **** was hitting the fan here with homes and housing. SXSW temporary rentals were astronomically high, several thousand for a few days rent. Local message boards like Craigslist and Reddit were complaining there was no housing to be found. I follow the real estate numbers for my zip code closely. Last month (June), the average number of days on market was 40. I'm thinking about renting my house out for Formula One and actually offering to chauffeur for $4000 or so.

http://www.statesman.com/business/real-e....

Quote:

Central Texas home sales rose 20 percent in July, the 14th straight month of year-over-year increases, the Austin Board of Realtors said Monday.

The median sales price also was up, rising 9 percent to $214,000 and marking the sixth straight month the median increased compared with the same month last year.

Escalating apartment rents have also been a factor pushing home sales higher, Rude and other experts say.

Austin's midyear apartment occupancy rate stood at a record 97.8 percent, the highest since at least 1991, according to Capitol Market Research. The area's average apartment rent was a record $953 a month across all unit types.

"With apartment rents increasing 15 percent in the last two years in the Austin area, many renters are looking more and more at purchasing a home as an alternative to higher rents," Rude said.

Rude said July's numbers for the resale market are consistent with Metrostudy's most recent Sales and Traffic survey in the Austin market, which showed net sales for the region's home builders are up 31 percent for the first seven months of 2012 compared to the same period in 2011.

The Austin market had a 4.3-month supply of homes in July, two months fewer than in July 2011, the board reported.