Austin housing market, August 2026: the Unlock MLS report, county by county

What did the Unlock MLS August 2026 report say about the Austin housing market?

Unlock MLS's August 2026 Central Texas Housing Report, released September 15, 2026, lists 2,501 closed sales across the Austin–Round Rock–San Marcos metro, down 7.3 percent from August 2025, at a median sale price of $412,000, down 6.4 percent. Inside the City of Austin the report lists 844 closed sales, down 10.3 percent, at a median of $560,000, down 4.3 percent. Pending sales moved in opposite directions: up 1.5 percent to 2,623 in the metro, down 9.2 percent to 814 in the city.

Supply tightened on paper even as sales slowed. Active listings fell 6.5 percent to 13,676 in the metro and 14.5 percent to 4,554 in the city, new listings fell 7.0 percent and 5.7 percent, and months of inventory came in at 5.1 for the metro, down 0.4 months, and 4.6 for the city, down 1.1 months. The average sale closed at 93.2 percent of its list price in the metro, up from 92.2 percent a year earlier, and 93.3 percent in the city, up from 91.6 percent.

Vaike O'Grady, market research advisor at Unlock MLS, said in the release: “Austin is not immune to what is happening across the rest of the country, and August's housing data reflects some of the same affordability and interest rate pressures we're seeing nationwide. Still, Austin is resilient.” John Crowe, the 2026 Unlock MLS and ABoR president, added that “The ebbs and flows we're seeing are normal in a changing housing market.” Unlock MLS describes its monthly reports as MLS-only data on single-family homes, condos and townhomes, compared year over year, so sales that never entered the MLS are not counted.

Sources: Unlock MLS ↗

How did each Austin-area county perform in August 2026?

The Austin housing market in August 2026 ranged from a $270,000 median sale price in Caldwell County to $560,000 in the City of Austin, with Travis County at $489,000, Williamson at $399,900, Hays at $355,000 and Bastrop at $342,495, per the Unlock MLS release. Months of inventory ran from 4.6 in Williamson County and the city to 7.4 in Bastrop and 7.3 in Caldwell.

The year-over-year columns do not move together. Travis County's median fell 6.4 percent on 1,111 closed sales, themselves down 9.5 percent, while Hays County's median slipped only 1.4 percent. Williamson County was the busiest county outside Travis, with 855 closed sales, pending sales up 9.3 percent, 4.6 months of inventory and the highest close-to-list ratio in the release at 93.6 percent. Caldwell County's median rose 17.4 percent and its active listings rose 62 percent, but on 41 closed sales, a base small enough that a few new-construction closings can move every figure.

Dollar volume tells the same story from a different angle: $1,400,025,097 changed hands across the metro, down 11.1 percent, and $780,140,633 in Travis County, down 11.6 percent. Dividing the metro's volume by its 2,501 sales gives an average sale of about $559,800, computed by us, well above the $412,000 median because of the high end of the market. Buyers weighing the outer counties' new subdivisions should read the guide to buying new construction in Austin, where builder incentives change the effective price in ways a median never shows.

Sources: Unlock MLS ↗

What did Austin rents do in August 2026?

Austin rents in August 2026 were flat to lower: Unlock MLS reports a median rent of $2,150 across the metro for leases closed through the MLS, unchanged from a year earlier, and $2,200 in the City of Austin, down 4.3 percent. Closed leases fell 6.2 percent to 2,920 in the metro and 3.7 percent to 1,601 in the city.

The lease side is far tighter than the sale side. Active lease listings fell 27.9 percent to 4,296 across the metro and 28.8 percent to 2,005 in the city, leaving 1.6 and 1.5 months of inventory, and the average lease closed at 96.8 percent of its asking rent in the metro, up from 95.7 percent. These are leases that ran through the MLS, not a survey of every apartment community, so a specific building can price differently; the cost of living in Austin post puts the rent figures beside utilities and taxes.

Sources: Unlock MLS ↗

What does Realtor.com's August 2026 listing data add?

Realtor.com's listing-based series for the Austin metro, published on FRED, put the median asking price at $450,000 in August 2026, down from $461,966 in July and from $499,000 in August 2025, a 9.8 percent decline computed from the two observations. Its count of 12,517 active listings was level with the 12,475 of August 2025, new listings fell to 2,932 from 3,112 in July, and 5,252 listings carried a price reduction, about 42 percent of active listings when the two counts are compared.

The median listing had been on the market 73 days in August, up from 67 in July and 51 in April, the year's low, and one day longer than August 2025. Unlock MLS publishes no days-on-market figure, so the 73-day number is Realtor.com's listing-based measure, and the two publishers' inventory counts differ because they cover different sets of listings. The month-by-month table shows the seasonal shape: inventory and price cuts build from February to June, then thin toward December while days on market climb.

The August-by-year view is the one to keep. Realtor.com's August median asking price was $362,187 in 2019, jumped to $545,868 in 2021 and $575,000 in 2022, and has fallen every August since: $568,279 in 2023, $525,000 in 2024, $499,000 in 2025 and $450,000 in 2026. Active listings in August went from 3,537 in 2021 to 12,517 in 2026, and median days on market from 23 to 73. The September 2026 market post carries the same series forward a month, along with the rate move that followed.

Sources: FRED ↗

What were mortgage rates during August 2026, and what did they cost?

Freddie Mac's 30-year average held between 6.65 and 6.69 percent through August 2026: 6.69 percent on August 6, 6.67 on August 13, 6.65 on August 20 and 6.66 on August 27, per the weekly series on FRED, against 6.56 percent in the last week of August 2025. By September 24 the average had climbed to 7.03 percent, so the August weekly averages sat about a third of a point below what a buyer faced at the end of September.

On the metro's $412,000 median with 20 percent down, a $329,600 loan cost about $2,118 a month in principal and interest at August's 6.66 percent and about $2,199 at 7.03 percent, computed from the standard amortization formula: $81 more a month for the same house. On the city's $560,000 median, a $448,000 loan moved from about $2,879 to $2,990. These exclude property taxes, insurance and HOA dues; the payment estimator on the homes page runs the same math on a real listing.

Sources: FRED ↗ · Freddie Mac ↗ · Unlock MLS ↗

Was the Austin economy still supporting the housing market in August 2026?

The Austin economy behind the August 2026 housing numbers was still growing. The Bureau of Labor Statistics counted 1,424,000 nonfarm jobs in the Austin metro in August 2026, up from 1,407,000 a year earlier, a 1.2 percent gain by our computation, and the metro's unemployment rate was 3.7 percent in July 2026, per the BLS series on FRED.

Builders kept permitting. The Census Bureau recorded 1,924 private housing units authorized by permit in the Austin metro in August 2026, against 1,210 in August 2025, of which 1,147 were single-family homes, close to the 1,153 of a year earlier; July's 2,605 shows how much one month can swing. The FHFA all-transactions house price index for the metro, built from repeat sales and appraisals of the same homes, stood at 506.31 in the second quarter of 2026 against 504.61 a year earlier, essentially flat, which suggests part of the median's decline reflects which homes sold rather than a uniform loss of value.

Sources: FRED ↗

What does a City of Austin median mean for one home?

A median divides August's 844 City of Austin sales into two halves; it does not describe the condition, size or location of any one of them. A home with substantial repair needs and a newly completed one belong to the same $560,000 figure while needing very different analysis, and the city's 93.3 percent average close-to-list ratio is the average gap between asking and closing prices, not a discount any seller must give. Zilker, Bouldin Creek and Tarrytown each have their own closed sales, and none of them is the city median.

Averages mislead in the other direction. Dividing the city's $648,959,724 dollar volume by its 844 sales gives an average of about $768,900, computed by us, roughly $209,000 above the median, because a handful of very expensive closings pull the average up. For a specific home, ask for closed comparable sales chosen for location, type, size, condition and timing, and keep asking prices separate from completed transactions. The Austin neighborhood atlas is where the neighborhood-level picture begins.

Sources: Unlock MLS ↗

What should an Austin buyer or seller take from the August 2026 report?

A buyer reading the August 2026 Austin housing market report has more choice and more time than a buyer did in 2021: 4.6 months of inventory in the city, a metro close-to-list ratio of 93.2 percent, a 73-day median listing and price reductions on about 42 percent of active listings. That is room to inspect carefully and to negotiate repairs and closing costs, while remembering that a median is not a rule and a well-priced home can still sell in days.

A seller should price from closed sales in the report period, not from asking prices, because the gap between the two is what the close-to-list ratio measures, and should note that pending sales rose 1.5 percent across the metro even as closings fell. This is an August snapshot, and Freddie Mac's average has since moved from 6.66 to 7.03 percent; the September 2026 report and the market page carry the story forward. If you want these figures applied to a specific home or street, bring the address and David can pull the comparable closed sales and a current rate scenario for it.

Sources: Unlock MLS ↗ · FRED ↗