Austin Home Price Statistics Update
People all over the place are telling me that they don't want to buy in the Austin area right now because they feel that prices will drop more. They may a see a stat like the one I saw today showing home prices down 4% in March. That is across the entire area, but what you need to know is that some areas actually saw prices rise. To illustrate this, you need to see an MLS map so I am placing two below this paragraph.
This Austin MLS map doesn't show all areas. It is limited to areas closer to the main population centers.
The median price of a sold residential unit in the Austin MLS area in March, 2008 was $179,000 and the average price was $227,917. Take a look at the table below for different MLS areas and what happened with Austin home prices.
An area I work a lot in is LS. This is the south side of Lake Travis on the left side of the map. Prices dropped primarily because of new construction. Builders have been taking losses on homes just to unload inventory. PF, which is at the top right of the map, moved a lot of inventory did pretty well. This surprises me a bit because of the number of new homes in the area. I would have expected to see builders taking hits on price in PF. RN did pretty well even with new homes selling for much less than list price.
CLN did very well, moving 69 units and seeing a jump both in average and median price. My thought on this is that with the addition of the tolls road 183A and 45, the commute time is much shorter than it was before these roads were in. The area is also pretty affordable with the median price at just over $161,000 and the average at almost $195,000. This is a great area for first-time home buyers.
So my main point is that when you listen to the news and hear about how bad the housing market is, you shouldn't pay attention if you are interested in a particular area because real estate is market specific. So even when you read about home prices dropping in Austin, you have to look at specific areas to see what is happening. You can't go into CLS, for example, and offer what you think is 5% less than what you might expect a house to sell for because prices are actually rising there. You have to break down the market into smaller pieces.
Questions? Call me at 512-293-2422 or Search Austin Homes. Also, if you are a seller and want to find a way to see your home quickly, click HERE.