We keep watching home sales in Austin, Round Rock and surrounding areas and we continue to see statistics for central Texas home sales that are far better than virtually any area across the U.S.

But despite being better than other areas across the U.S., 2009 was not a positive year for home sales in Travis and Williamson counties. Understand that compared to other markets, ours is terrific, but we keep waiting for the day when our market will not just be better compared to other markets, but better when compared basis to our own market.

Well, we had 3 months of improvement, as October, November and December all resulted in more home sales than the same months in 2008.

January, 2010 broke that streak though, as the Austin Multiple Listing Service reported fewer home sales than in January, 2009.

Complete data is not available yet, but it is known that January, 2010 experienced fewer home sales in the Austin real estate market than in 2009. 

However, more homes came on the market than in January, 2009, and predictions are that Austin home sales will see a huge increase in February, March and April due to the Federal Tax credit. Based on market activity in January and early February, I would fully expect those predcitions to hold. 

We'll pass that information on as it comes available.