The number of residential single family home sales in Austin took a 28% dip for Oct 2008 compared to a year ago. The number of "Not Solds" (expired or withdrawn) took a big jump also, to 59% of all listings that departed the Austin MLS in October. These are grim numbers, but the remaining metrics that we track are again holding up pretty well nonetheless. In short, fewer homes are selling, but the ones that do sell are fetching prices near or or above last year's sales. Most sales currently are for homes selling below $200K.

Let's look at the breakdown:

 · Number of homes sold is down 28% (was down 14% last month) from 1,717 Oct 2007 to 1,227 Oct 2008. Last month (Sept) saw a decrease in the slowing of sales, but this month (Oct) headed back the other way again. I think the remainder of this year is going to be very slow as well.

· Average list prices in Austin were up 1.16% over the same month last year to $259,128.

· Average sold prices in Austin were down 0.29% over the same month last year to $247,687.

· Median sold price was up 5.46% to $195,000.

· Average List to Sold price ratio is 95.58%, down from 96.42% the same month last year.

· Avg sold price per square foot is down 2.13% to $115 compared to $117 a year ago in October.

· Avg days on market is up 4 days (6.15%) from 65 last year to 69 this October.

· Median days on market is up 7 days (16%) from 43 days last year to 50 this year.

• Number of "Not Sold" (exp or withdrawn) is up 29% over the same month last year, to 59% of all removed listings compared to 46% for the same month last year.

The stats outlined above are shown in the chart below.

 The Year-to-Date figures through Oct 2008 tell a similar story, though less pronounced than Oct. See the chart below:
 

Let's look at the breakdown of sales by price range, and we'll see that 52% of all sales in Austin for October were in the sub $200K price range. Stunningly, there are 503 listings priced at over $1M, yet only 14 in that price range sold in Oct. The $1M price range in Austin is grossley over-supplied at present.
 

So what's in store for November and December as we ride out the end of 2008? I suspect that sales activity will come to a grinding halt. Removed listings (expired or withdrawn) may top 70% for December as sellers finally give up and pull listings for the holidays. I haven't researched past stats, but I can't imagine we've ever had a month in which 70% of listings departed the Austin MLS unsold, so it's not a fun prediction to make, but we'll see.