Austin housing: $561,969 median, 5,815 visible listings, and a higher city tax rate

Austin's July market is giving buyers a mixed signal. Redfin's latest three-month closing window puts the median sale price at $561,969, up 0.8% from a year earlier, while Zillow's July 31 Home Value Index puts the typical Austin home at $504,148, down 4.4% year over year. The two figures use different models and measures, so the gap is a reminder to read the market through both closed sales and repeat-value estimates. 12

The table mixes a closing window, an index update, and a live shopping-page count. The distinction matters: the first two describe measured market outcomes, while the last number describes the homes a shopper could see on the page when checked.

Redfin's July data shows a market that has stopped falling on its closed-sale measure. Austin's median sale price rose 0.8% year over year, and 2,922 homes sold in July compared with 2,512 in July 2025. Homes spent about 52 days on the market, versus 55 days a year earlier. Redfin also reports a 97.4% sale-to-list ratio, up 0.5 percentage points from a year earlier. 1

Zillow's ZHVI tells a slower story. The index measures changes in property-level Zestimates across housing types, rather than the price mix of homes that closed in one month. Zillow's July 31 reading was $504,148, down 4.4% over the prior year, with homes going pending in about 42 days. The difference between the two series can come from their different populations, timing, and methods; it is safer to treat Redfin as the current closed-sale pulse and Zillow as a repeat-value trend. 2

Redfin's Austin shopping page showed 5,815 homes plus 144 early-access listings on Sept. 7. That count gives buyers a sense of the current choice set, but it changes as listings are added, removed, or reclassified. 3

A formal months-of-inventory figure would connect active listings with the recent sales pace. The official July 2026 Central Texas Housing Report from Unlock MLS was not readable as a numeric table in this issue's source pull, so this brief does not substitute the Redfin page count for a formal inventory ratio. The practical reading is narrower: Austin shoppers have thousands of visible choices, while the exact official months-of-inventory measure needs a directly readable MLS table.

Freddie Mac's survey for the week of Sept. 3 put the national average at 6.71% for a 30-year fixed mortgage and 6.04% for a 15-year fixed loan. The 30-year rate was 6.66% the week before and 6.50% a year earlier. 4

At Austin's Redfin median price of $561,969, a 20% down payment leaves a loan of about $449,575. Principal and interest at 6.71% for 30 years is about $2,904 a month. At the prior week's 6.66%, the same loan would be about $2,889, a difference of roughly $15 a month. The illustration excludes property taxes, insurance, HOA dues, mortgage insurance, and closing costs. The rate moved only five basis points, yet the balance of the loan makes even a small rate change visible in the payment. 14

Austin's FY 2026-27 budget has been adopted. The City of Austin lists a property-tax rate of $0.579948 per $100 of taxable value, up from $0.524017 in FY 2025-26. The city says the new budget will raise $89,349,535 more in property-tax revenue than the prior year's budget, a 7.4% increase. 5

The city's Aug. 12 budget announcement estimates an increase of $9.48 per month, or $113.76 per year, in property tax for the typical Austin taxpayer. The same announcement estimates another $14.34 per month in city rates and fees, including electricity, trash, water, drainage, and the clean community fee. The two amounts belong to different parts of the household bill: the property-tax increase is tied to the adopted rate, while the fee estimate covers proposed or adjusted city charges. 6

Austin's current read is therefore split. Closed-sale prices are roughly flat to slightly higher, Zillow's repeat-value measure remains lower, and the visible listing shelf is large even though a formal MLS supply ratio is unavailable in this issue. Buyers should compare the payment with the full tax-and-fee bill; sellers should read the 52-day marketing time alongside the 97.4% sale-to-list ratio. The next useful checkpoints are the next Redfin closing window, a directly readable Unlock MLS inventory table, Freddie Mac's rate path, and the first tax bills under the new fiscal-year rate.