Austin Real Estate Sales Market Update – Oct 2006

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.

Austin Sales Market Graph

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.

Austin Sales Market Graph

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.

Austin Real Estate Sales Market Update - October 2006
Previous Month and Year Comparison
All Central Texas MLS Areas - Houses Only

 
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%

Austin Sales Stats October 2006
Year to Date Previous Year Comparison
All MLS Areas - Houses Only

 
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.

Austin Sales Stats October 2006
Previous Month and Year Comparison
Average Sales Price By MLS Areas - Houses Only

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.
Austin MLS Map

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