Economic headwinds holding back seasonal new-home sales in Austin market, expert says.

Good afternoon, and thank you for subscribing to Building Austin, our weekly newsletter focused on real estate, growth and development in the Austin region. I'm Shonda Novak, the American-Statesman's real estate reporter.

This just in from Ben Caballero, a top-ranked real estate agent who tracks the new-home market in the Austin area and across Texas:

Although new-home sales in the Austin area were slightly higher in March over February, the spring homebuying season is “underperforming,” Caballero, founder and CEO of Dallas-based HomesUSA.com, says in his latest report.

The report uses Multiple Listing Service data from the Realtor associations in Texas' four largest metros — Austin, Houston, North Texas (Dallas-Fort Worth) and San Antonio.

In the Austin region, the three-month moving average for new home sales in March totaled 850, up from 816 in February. New home sales also increased in the three other largest metros.

Despite the uptick in new home sales in the Austin region, Caballero says economic headwinds are holding back seasonally strong sales.

“The spring homebuying season is underperforming as the new home sales recovery has been unimpressive in Austin,” Caballero says. “New home markets throughout Texas are struggling to return to normal seasonality."

“We are grateful for our strong economy, which is keeping builders viable, but we need lower and more stable mortgage rates to improve affordability,” Caballero says.

According to Caballero's three-month moving average, which tracks market seasonality, the number of days new homes spent on the market decreased in the Austin area last month, to just over 103 days compared with almost 108 days in February. (New homes have significantly higher days on market than existing homes because most are listed while under construction).

The average price of a new home last month in Austin was higher at $509,847 versus $502,264 in February.

Pending sales in Austin were higher for the third consecutive month, as the three-month moving average for pending sales in March totaled 1,340 compared with 1,230 in February.

Active new home listings remained relatively flat again for the sixth month in a row, as new inventory also remained stable. The March three-month average active listings inventory in Austin was 5,661 compared with 5,590 in February.

Caballero's report uses both three-month and 12-month moving averages for the housing market data. The three-month moving average takes into account market seasonality, while the 12-month average removes the seasonality and tracks the longer trend.

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This article originally appeared on Austin American-Statesman: new home sales home prices housing market Central Texas Austin