The average price of a single family home sold through the Austin MLS is up 10% from October of last year, and we’re up 9% year to date. I created a graph below to illustrate what real estate appreciation in Austin has looked like over the past 7 years. As you can see, we enjoyed a 17% appreciation rate from 1999 to 2000, which was the tail end of our last real estate boom in Austin, then the market hit the skids in 2000 with 3% appreciation (stock market started to crater about March of 2000) and then we were flat as a pancake from 2001 through 2004, with falling prices in both 2002 and 2003. From 2001 to 2004, our net appreciation over those years combined was an unremarkable 0.7%.
I threw in Condos and Townhomes on this graph, but as usual include only single family homes in the overall stats on the other charts below. The Austin MLS includes all residential sales in the stats they report, but I like to keep single family homes separate since that’s what most people own and buy.
I remember in 2001 and 2002 when I started receiving a lot of calls from investors looking to “park some money” anywhere other than the stock market, which was in freefall and investors were watching the wealth shrink. At that time, I would ask “why do you want to invest in Austin? Our market is dead and rent values are plunging?” Those who did invest in 2001/2002, purchased a home that did not increase in value over the next several years and that was very difficult to rent and even saw rents fall each year.
I’ve overlayed the rent values over this time period (times 100 for easier viewing) onto the graph below and you can see what a slow sales market did to our rental market. Sellers who couldn’t sell were forced to rent, which flooded the rental market with excess inventory. Builders, who had no buyers left to sell to due to job losses, started agressively going after renters. So we had a simultaneous increase in rental inventory and a decrease in renters. You can see the result below.
In the graph above, “rents x 100” means that the 125,800 you see in Oct is a rent value of $1258. The graph would have been too spread out otherwise, but it’s the relationship of the lines to one another that tell the story.
OK, on the the rest of this month’s sales update. See additional charts below. Austin is experiencing a healthy climb in real estate values. The increase in the number of homes sold is slowing somewhat, but still up 2.5% over October last year. Homes continue to sell faster as the number of days on market decreased slightly over a year ago. It was about this time last year that a noticable change in the market occured for us. I started seeing multiple offers, and full price sales, which had been virtually unheard of in the Buyer’s market from which we were just beginning to emerge.
September 2006
|
October 2006
|
October 2005
|
Yr % Change
|
|
# Sold |
2150
|
1899
|
1853
|
+2.5%
|
Avg List Price |
$238,143
|
$242,020
|
$222,076
|
+9%
|
Median List Price |
$174,900
|
$179,900
|
$165,000
|
+9%
|
Avg Sold Price |
$232,128
|
$236,053
|
$215,702
|
+9%
|
Med Sold Price |
$169,802
|
$177,000
|
$164,000
|
+8%
|
Avg Size SQFT |
2069
|
2089
|
2040
|
+2.4%
|
Median SQFT |
1866
|
1907
|
1869
|
+2%
|
Avg $ per SQFT |
$112
|
$113
|
$106
|
+6.6%
|
Avg Days on Mkt |
57
|
65
|
67
|
-3%
|
Median Days on Mkt |
37
|
46
|
47
|
-2%
|
YTD Oct
2006 |
YTD Oct 2005
|
Yr % Change
|
|
# Sold |
22230
|
20182
|
+10%
|
Avg List Price |
$245,576
|
$223,828
|
+9.7%
|
Median List Price |
$179,900
|
$169,000
|
+6.4%
|
Avg Sold Price |
$239,431
|
$217,525
|
+10%
|
Med Sold Price |
$175,750
|
$165,000
|
+6.3%
|
Avg Size SQFT |
2110
|
2081
|
+1.3%
|
Median SQFT |
1919
|
1894
|
+1.3%
|
Avg $ per SQFT |
$114
|
$105
|
+8.6%
|
Avg Days on Mkt |
62
|
70
|
-13%
|
Median Days on Mkt |
37
|
47
|
-21%
|
Below is a breakout by MLS area. As usual, this is meant to show how our market increases are spread out month-to-month, but not meant to indicate that one area is necessarily performing better than another area overall. All it takes is one or two high-dollar (or low-dollar) sales to skew an area in any given month. New home subdivisions selling above or below the medians in an area can also skew the numbers. Nevertheless, the numbers are valuable to look at if you keep in context the fact that any given month’s stats can be misleading.
September 2006
|
October 2006
|
October 2005
|
Yr. Chg
|
||||
MLS Area
|
# Sold
|
Avg Sold
|
# Sold
|
Avg Sold
|
# Sold
|
Avg Sold
|
% +/-
|
Area 1A
|
31
|
$495,424
|
40
|
$501,909
|
26
|
$455,152
|
+10%
|
Area 1B
|
42
|
$519,343
|
34
|
$485,232
|
40
|
$449,479
|
+8%
|
Area 1N
|
63
|
$264,928
|
36
|
$325,591
|
50
|
$238,718
|
+36%
|
Area 2
|
39
|
$227,702
|
36
|
$232,286
|
29
|
$184,409
|
+26%
|
Area 2N
|
28
|
$133,622
|
22
|
$133,887
|
29
|
$127,600
|
+5%
|
Area 3
|
33
|
$200,340
|
24
|
$192,039
|
27
|
$163,685
|
+17%
|
Area 3E
|
15
|
$115,449
|
13
|
$108,215
|
9
|
$79,962
|
+35%
|
Area 4
|
12
|
$333,375
|
18
|
$288,315
|
14
|
$238,021
|
+21%
|
Area 5
|
34
|
$165,519
|
27
|
$151,651
|
31
|
$119,864
|
+26%
|
Area 5E
|
8
|
$116,362
|
10
|
$110,949
|
10
|
$106,622
|
+4%
|
Area 6
|
21
|
$363,876
|
28
|
$372,178
|
29
|
$321,347
|
+16%
|
Area 7
|
12
|
$359,783
|
4
|
$343,981
|
10
|
$338,080
|
+2%
|
Area 8E
|
17
|
$757,349
|
18
|
$617,987
|
19
|
$561,329
|
+10%
|
Area 8W
|
33
|
$622,096
|
31
|
$531,059
|
28
|
$496,010
|
+7%
|
Area 9
|
4
|
$141,032
|
6
|
$110,444
|
10
|
$160,589
|
-31%
|
Area 10
|
128
|
$158,405
|
94
|
$161,371
|
107
|
$138,611
|
+16%
|
Area 11 |
26
|
$99,354
|
21
|
$99,633
|
30
|
$100,599
|
-1%
|
Area BA |
35
|
$145,828
|
32
|
$143,927
|
27
|
$107,733
|
+34%
|
Area BL |
7
|
$145,342
|
6
|
$229,025
|
3
|
$199,066
|
+15%
|
Area BU |
26
|
$206,976
|
19
|
$270,797
|
16
|
$292,416
|
-7%
|
Area BW |
17
|
$183,615
|
16
|
$182,429
|
5
|
$108,257
|
+69%
|
Area CC |
18
|
$100,648
|
17
|
$107,983
|
13
|
$92,630
|
+17%
|
Area CL |
211
|
$174,122
|
176
|
181,826
|
191
|
$158,355
|
+15%
|
Area EL |
17
|
$110,856
|
18
|
$116,878
|
11
|
$116,439
|
0%
|
Area FC |
0
|
0
|
2
|
$282,500
|
0
|
0
|
N/A
|
Area GP |
0
|
0
|
0
|
0
|
0
|
0
|
N/A
|
Area GT |
105
|
$213,040
|
114
|
$205,478
|
89
|
$206,713
|
-1%
|
Area HD |
32
|
$339,221
|
31
|
$389,383
|
29
|
$274,657
|
+42%
|
Area HH |
101
|
$160,614
|
61
|
$155,211
|
73
|
$159,268
|
-3%
|
Area HS |
13
|
$187,832
|
12
|
$204,800
|
10
|
$113,365
|
+81%
|
Area HU |
60
|
$134,389
|
42
|
$153,556
|
33
|
$141,330
|
+9%
|
Area HW |
25
|
$218,695
|
27
|
$236,612
|
17
|
$171,108
|
+38%
|
Area JA |
19
|
$205,094
|
10
|
$175,305
|
8
|
176,662
|
-1%
|
Area LC |
8
|
$209,675
|
5
|
$108,100
|
0
|
0
|
N/A
|
Area LH |
15
|
$229,459
|
18
|
$255,359
|
13
|
$251,715
|
+1%
|
Area LL |
7
|
$310,089
|
6
|
$291,833
|
5
|
$130,180
|
+124%
|
Area LN |
46
|
$362,449
|
29
|
$274,448
|
47
|
$271,341
|
-1%
|
Area LS |
52
|
$523,283
|
61
|
$405,706
|
63
|
$450,678
|
-10%
|
Area MA |
33
|
$137,216
|
30
|
$152,504
|
19
|
$168,323
|
-9%
|
Area MC |
4
|
$81,950
|
6
|
$114,800
|
0
|
0
|
N/A
|
Area N |
27
|
$187,360
|
37
|
$178,116
|
42
|
$165,130
|
+8%
|
Area NE |
29
|
$141,860
|
26
|
$146,804
|
30
|
$131,840
|
+11%
|
Area NW |
52
|
$229,443
|
58
|
$233,537
|
68
|
$218,760
|
+7%
|
Area PF |
134
|
$155,780
|
125
|
$158,862
|
102
|
$149,259
|
+6%
|
Area RN |
39
|
$527,464
|
43
|
$569,212
|
36
|
$405,692
|
+40%
|
Area RR |
259
|
$195,241
|
231
|
$194,505
|
206
|
$187,522
|
+4%
|
Area SC |
19
|
$181,281
|
17
|
$191,774
|
20
|
$171,959
|
+12%
|
Area SE |
22
|
$106,902
|
10
|
$113,561
|
15
|
$116,414
|
-3%
|
Area SV |
11
|
$174,990
|
10
|
$135,597
|
6
|
$127,070
|
+7%
|
Area SW |
109
|
$262,909
|
86
|
$252,792
|
121
|
$237,361
|
+7%
|
Area TC |
22
|
$113,454
|
20
|
$113,782
|
15
|
$92,833
|
+23%
|
Area W |
28
|
$447,064
|
22
|
$531,917
|
25
|
$471,384
|
+13%
|
Area WE |
2
|
$122,750
|
5
|
$76,700
|
2
|
$69,575
|
+10%
|
Area WW |
1
|
$65,000
|
3
|
$165,000
|
2
|
$118,750
|
+39%
|
Area OT |
2
|
$158,750
|
3
|
$485,000
|
5
|
$163,800
|
+196%
|
Below is a Map of Austin’s MLS Areas. A new map will go into use January 2007.
thanks
Thank you for this post. This is terrific information to share with the consumer!