AUSTIN, Texas — Looking for a home in Austin is a challenge, due to low inventory and high demand. 

“If you look at our stats from 2020, you can see that we were very steady,” Susan Horton, president of the Austin Board of Realtors said. “Come January the 1 of 2021, I have never seen anything like it.” 

Horton says when January hit, homes started being sold for 10% to 15% over its asking price and in March it jumped as much as 20% to 25%.  

According to the real estate company, Redfin, homes in the Austin metroplex sold for 7% above its asking price between February 14 and March 14.  

A report from ABoR shows homes in the Austin-Round Rock market were on the market 26 days, a five day decrease from February.  

According to Redfin, people moving in from out of state can afford $200,000 more than those in Austin looking for a home.  

“I have been working with this one family for six and a half months now. We have put in numerous offers,” Horton said. “We've been beat out by as much as $100,000 and it just makes it difficult.”  

One Austin resident has been on the hunt for more than four months and he’s almost given up.  

“It's frustrating that even though you had an above asking price offer that still wasn't good enough,” Blake Tripplet, a resident in the Mueller community of Austin said.  

Tripplet has been in Austin for five years, and has lived in the same home for three of those years. He’s been searching for a new home since November 2020, a time when he says low interest rates drew him to the market. 

Tripplet started putting bids in for homes, thinking his offer would be picked, but he soon realized competitors coming out of state were offering as much as $100,000 over the asking price. Now four months later, he said it’s hard not to give up on the search. He sometimes glances at his home, wondering if he should stay put.  

“I'm also starting to think like, you know, things are pretty good where you are right now, do you really need to do that?” Tripplet said. 

Just like the spring marks a change in season, he’s hoping the housing market will change, so he can finally find his new home.