Austin Real Estate Blog

I compiled the statistics for Austin Real Estate market by MLS Area which are located here Austin Real Estate statistics. We looked at 13 different Austin MLS areas that for the most part comprise central Austin. Compared to last year, every single mls area that we looked at went up. And they went up whether you looked at Average Sold Price, Price Per Square Foot, or Median Sold Price. But that is kind of boring so lets look at some of the areas in more detail.

First off before we start talking about MLS areas, the general rule still applies that the central Austin real estate market is outperforming the suburbs in regards to appreciation. And this has held true in the past whether we are in a strong or weak market.

Here is a map of the Austin MLS areas for reference.

I keep waiting for area 9 to pop up in value. Not that it hasn't gone up in value over the last year. It's just one of the last places you can still buy a house for under 100k which seems pretty cheap. The subprime mess will probably have a bigger effect on area 9 than the other MLS areas we looked at because a lot of the buyers in the past have been subprime.

The average prices in 8E, which includes Westlake, came up a lot in the last 6 months. I have been watching Westlake. Over the last 2 years, the area has appreciated but at a slower rate than the rest of Austin. But over the last 6 months, the prices have been on the rise. So if you live in Westlake break out a bottle of champagne or whatever you guys do to celebrate. Here are average price per square foot for the last 2 and half years

2005 First Half - 204.49
2005 Second Half - 208.68
2006 First Half - 228.27
2006 Second Half - 226.19
2007 First Half - 260.22

Area 8W probably had slowest appreciation over the last year going from 182.91 to 189.83. I don't think this is anything particular with 8W but probably has to do more with the fact that 8W was the least central of the Austin MLS areas we included in our survey.

10N jumped quite a bit. The high prices in areas 6 and 7 are pushing people over Ben White to look for houses under 200k. And yes that leads us to area 6 and 7 which are still pretty strong. The average price per square foot jumped in mls areas 6 and 7 from 209.55, 203.83 respectively in the first half of 2006 to 231.84, 237.37 for the first half of 2007.

The east side is continuing to see strong appreciation over the last 2 or 3 years. We are actually starting to see the neighborhoods catch up with the prices. To be certain, people are still paying for what the neighborhood is going to look like and not what it looks like currently. But that said, the difference between prices and the current state of the neighborhood seems to be smaller than it was last year.

If you are looking for more stats, here are general stats on the Austin real estate market, and over here are the houses currently for sale in the Austin MLS.