Keller Williams realty cuts 23 jobs at Austin headquarters

Amid Central Texas’ cooling housing market, Keller Williams Realty said Friday that it has cut 23 jobs — 4.6% of the 498 employees in its Austin headquarters.

The layoffs took place Thursday, the company said. Keller Williams describes itself as the world’s largest real estate technology franchise by number of agents. The firm has more than 1,100 offices and 200,000 associates worldwide, and also is the nation’s top franchise by sales volume.

It appears to be the first real estate brokerage in Austin to confirm job cuts as the housing market in the five-county Austin region — like other housing markets around the country — has continued to cool amid rising mortgage interest rates. In the Austin area, housing supply has been increasing and homes have been staying on the market longer, as some would-be buyers hit pause on their purchasing decisions.

But many local real estate agents and officials with the Austin Board of Realtors say the local market is merely “stabilizing” and “normalizing” from its previous frenzied levels — a positive sign, they say, because the red-hot market was neither healthy nor sustainable.

More:Austin housing market ‘normalizing,’ tilting back in buyers’ favor, latest numbers show

Still, Sajag Patel, Keller Williams’ chief operating officer, pinned the layoffs on the changing conditions in an e-mail to employees early Thursday afternoon.

“As we communicated at the last KWRI (Keller Williams Realty Inc.) meeting, the market has shifted dramatically. And, we’ve had to make some really tough decisions,” Patel wrote.

“This morning we restructured a range of departments within KWRI,” he said. “We did this to best align initiatives that drive agent and market center productivity and success.  We value our team members, so these decisions are never easy. We are committed to assisting our impacted employees and wish them the best.”

The staff members who were laid off were offered severance pay, and will receive health benefits through September, said Darryl Frost, a company spokesman.

Frost said all employees who were affected “are welcome to apply for other positions” with the firm.

The job cuts come as Keller Williams is about to hold its annual conference for agents — called the Mega Agent Camp — which starts on Monday in Austin and is taking place after two years in which it was held virtually.

In the Austin-area market, prospective buyers now have more inventory from which to choose, as well as more bargaining power than in the past couple of years. The pace of growth in home prices also is slowing, another welcome trend for would-be buyers, who previously found themselves facing multiple-offer situations and losing out to people who bid above asking prices.

More:Apartment rents hit all-time highs in Austin’s evolving market

“On top of rising housing inventory, home-price growth is much closer to the 4% to 5% annual growth that is typical for a healthy market,” Cord Shiflet, president of the Austin Board of Realtors, said in a statement this week. “In addition, homes sold slightly below list price for the first time since December 2020, proving that buyers are gaining negotiating power in the market.”

In July, home prices in the five-county Austin metro area grew at their slowest rate in nearly two years, the board said this week. For the fifth month in row, the number of homes sold also declined, both for the full metro area and within Austin’s city limits.

Median home prices still hit record highs for a July — $515,000 for the full region from Georgetown to San Marcos, and $633,000 inside Austin’s city limits.

The $515,000 median price for the metro area was up 8% from July 2021, the first time the region’s year-over-year price growth has dropped below 10% since June 2020, the board said. The region’s housing inventory reached 2.7 months of supply, which is the highest level of inventory for the area since November 2018.

The number of homes sold, meanwhile, plunged 28.3% in July from the same month in 2021. Within Austin’s city limits, sales plummeted 35.3% compared with July 2021.

In his email, Keller Williams’ Patel said the company “looks forward to coming out of this shifting market even stronger together.”

“Looking ahead, we remain confident in our strong team. And, we will continue to deliver our industry’s best training, coaching, and tech solutions that allow real estate entrepreneurs to thrive — no matter the market,” he said.