Everyone knows that home sales in the Austin area have slowed in 2008 and 2009.  The south Lake Travis area has slowed more than many other parts of Austin.  I have taken stats from the MLS to show this and will offer some of my thoughts as to why this has happened and why the three neighborhoods being compared differ so much.  What I will show and talk about is single-family homes.  When I talk about new, I will talk about homes built within the last 12-15 months.  So new for 2009 will be any home built in 2008 or 2009.  The stats are all for the first 90 days of each year stated follow below.  Sales is the number of homes sold, price is the average selling price and per foot is the average sold price per square foot.

Home sale price stats for Lakeway, Steiner Ranch and Lake Pointe

The discussion – let’s start with Lakeway.  Lakeway saw a lot of new construction in 2006 and 2007.  The part of Lakeway on the west side of RR 620 was almost built out, so most of the new construction was on the other side of 620 in the Preserve at Lakeway, Alta Vista and a couple of other areas.

As can be seen, home sales in Lakeway dropped in 2008 and really dropped in 2009. Although the number of homes sold in Lakeway in the first quarter of 2008 was lower than the first quarter of 2007, sales were strong and prices were up.  Keep in mind that the first quarter of 2008 was before the credit crunch was even a thought.  Builders were taking advantage of robust sales a year earlier and prices were up because of higher supply costs in addition to demand.  Then in 2009, we felt the effects of tighter borrowing requirements, which included jumbo loans, and sales took a nose-dive.  Because of the lack of demand, prices came down.  Take a look at new home sales.  It is shocking to see such a drop in sales price and price per square foot.  Builders were desperate and took big financial hits just to get inventory sold.  That is still happening today.

Steiner Ranch is about 15 minutes northeast of Lakeway.  Although Steiner Ranch doesn’t have Lake Travis waterfront like Lakeway does, it has some dramatic views and some Lake Austin water frontage.  In addition, Steiner still has many lots on which to build.  Fir first 2 quarters of 2007 and 2008 were relatively similar in Steiner Ranch in terms of prices even though the number of homes sold dropped.  New construction was very similar in the number of homes sold, but prices were up.  New homes sales in Steiner Ranch dropped dramatically and the price per foot was way down. I looked at new homes in Steiner Ranch in late 2008 and builders were slashing prices.  I saw two identical houses on the same block listed for sale.  The resale was listed for $350,000 and the new home that wasn’t even completed was listed for $319,000.  That kind of thing kills resales.

Lake Pointe is closer to downtown Austin than Lakeway or Steiner Ranch and there is not much in terms of new construction in the neighborhood except at the $800,000 and up price range.  Many of the expensive new homes were pulled off the sales market and leased because builders couldn’t get the prices they wanted when trying to sell.  There really wasn’t much activity in Lake Pointe and prices took a big hit in 2009.  In general, Lake Pointe is an older neighborhood than Steiner Ranch and I would expect that a lot of the homes that sold in 2009 were in need of updating.