October flood impacts Highland Lakes housing market
STAFF WRITER JARED FIELDS
November’s local housing report offers the first full month of data to gauge the October flood’s impact on the Highland Lakes housing market.
Burnet County’s median price fell 14.6 percent to $226,450 from November 2017, while Llano County’s median price rose 26.3 percent to $379,000.
The number of closed sales, however, only varied slightly from the previous year. Closed sales dipped 7.6 percent to 49 total in Burnet County and rose 2.4 percent to 42 in Llano County.
The amount of inventory in each county rose slightly. Burnet County inventory is up to 5.6 months from 4.5 last year. Llano County inventory rose to 7.7 months from 6.8.
Betty Ward, incoming president for the Highland Lakes Board of Realtors in 2019, addressed the flood’s impact on the November report.
“Generally, going into the holidays, housing sales are slow, but our area was also affected by the flood in October. This also had an impact,” Ward said. “I remain optimistic for the future of the housing industry in the Highland Lakes. Our communities have so much to offer, and we will see continued growth.”
At the city level, Horseshoe Bay leads the market as it does each month with 25 closed sales, a 31.6 percent increase from November 2017. The median price rose 13.9 percent to $410,000, also the highest in the area.
All other cities recorded only single-digit closed sales for the month. Many cities saw an increase in active listings, including Burnet (100 percent), Cottonwood Shores (85.7 percent), Meadowlakes (33.3 percent), Marble Falls (15.8 percent), and Horseshoe Bay (5.7 percent).
Two cities along the Llano River — Kingsland and Llano — saw a sharp decline in active listings. Llano active listings fell 17.9 percent. In Kingsland, they were down 11.7 percent.
Full county and city market data can be viewed online at the Highland Lakes Association of Realtors website.