Austin Housing Market Mid-Year Report

Culturemap Austin reports Austin home sales slowed down in the first half of the year, the new mid-year sales report from the Austin Board of Realtors reveals.

Sales in the Austin-Round Rock area only went up by 2.8 percent between January and June of this year.  The median home price did increase, though, by 6.4 percent to $300,000.

June home sales were up 4.4 percent over last June.  3,415 homes sold in the area last month.  The Median home price was up to $314,000, an increase of 6.6 percent.

In the city of Austin, home sales were up 4.3 percent over last year in the first half of the year, for a total of 4,680 homes sold.  The median price in Austin was $365,000, an increase of 7.7 percent from last year and over $26,000 more expensive than during the same time last year.

Last month, 1,015 homes sold in Austin, 2.1 percent more than last year.  However, the median home price was up to $393,500, a 13.2 percent increase from last June.

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Forbes Says Austin's Housing Market is Overvalued

According to a new report by Forbes, Austin’s housing market is the 2nd most overvalued in the country, KXAN reports.  San Antonio was ranked the most overvalued market in the US.

Forbes said Austin’s market is 17 percent overvalued. The median home price in Austin is $286,400.  San Antonio’s median home price is $202,600, which Forbes said was 18.6 percent overvalued.

Forbes looked at a city’s nominal income growth, population growth, unemployment, change in rental prices and change in home prices to determine its ratings.  

Home builders are putting new homes mostly in Northwest and Southeast Austin and home builders share the concern that the market is overvalued.  Homes are getting more and more expensive to build and many buyers are having to spend 30 to 40 percent of their income on their home costs.  Most experts recommend putting 25 percent of income towards home costs.

In the last ten years, home prices have skyrocketing in Austin.  In 2006, the median price of a home here was $182,000.  In 2012, prices started climbing and the current median home price is almost $100,000 more than it was in 2006.

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Austin's Retail Growth

Austin’s retail boom continues, the Austin American Statesman reports, with the best retail occupancy rate in the country.

The current retail occupancy rate in Austin is 96 percent.  Some stores have closed recently, including Chair King in the Mueller development, but those locations are quickly snapped up by other companies looking for space.

Last year, Central Texas saw an additional 1.1 million square feet of space for retail and is on target to add 890,000 square feet more in 2017.

Some of the biggest expansions are in the grocery market.  Grocery stores often serve as anchors for new developments and attract other retailers.

While HEB is the biggest grocer in the area, Randall’s also has plans to open a store in Georgetown. 99 Ranch Market, an Asian grocer, will bring its first store to Austin at North Lamar and Airport Boulevard.  Target is brining a small version of their stores to Dobie mall by the UT campus, and Aldi and Lidl, a German discount grocery store, is planning to come to Pflugerville and Kyle as well.  

The demand for space has led to an increase in rent.  Increased property taxes also force owners to pass those costs onto tenants in the form of higher rent.

Despite a lot of restaurants closing in the city, many due to the increase in rent, more food purveyors are waiting in the wings to take over those spaces.  They are taking advantage of the fact that the previous tenants already did much of the work on building out spaces so the new restaurant can save on start-up costs.

The hottest neighborhoods for retail in Austin are Mueller, The Domain, and downtown, particularly near the new central library on Cesar Chavez.  East Austin’s explosive growth, on the other hand, seems to be slowing down.

Watch for more growth in the city, especially as Plaza Saltillo and the former Brackenridge tract are developed.

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Austin Population Age 20-24 Declines

The number of young people aged 20 to 24 in the Austin area was down between 2010 and 2016, the Austin Business Journal reports.

The area lost over 2,000 young people in that time and overall the population of Austin is getting older.  

Travis County lost 15,940 Austinites between the ages of 20 and 24 from 2010-2016.  Williamson County gained 7,160 20-24 year olds during the same time, Hays County added 5,492 more, Bastrop County added 930, and Caldwell County added 355.

This age range now makes up 7 percent of the population in the area, down from 8.5 percent in 2010.  

Austin is in generally losing its young and adding to its population at the other end of the spectrum.  The number of residents under age 24 was down compared to the overall population and Austinites are having less children as well.  The number of children under age five was down .8 percent and the birth rate per year was down from 66 per 1,000 women between the ages of 15 to 50 in 2005 to 41 per 1,000 women in that same age group in 2015.

There was a small increase in the population that is 25 to 44 and a slight decrease in the number of residents between 45 and 54.

The biggest population gain was seen in the 55+ age group, which contributed to making the median age in the region go from 32 to 33.6 from 2010 to 2016.

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Plaza Saltillo District Breaks Ground

The new Plaza Saltillo District has broken ground, CultureMap Austin reports.

The 10 acre lot sits between I-35, Comal Street, East 4th Street, and East 5th Street and will be transformed into a huge mixed-use development that aims to become the hub of east Austin.  It will feature 800 residential units (140 of them affordable), 140,000 square feet of office space in an 8 story building, 110,000 square feet of retail, and 1.4 acres dedicated to green space.  Over 1,700 people are forecast to use the space for living or working once it is complete.

The district will be centered around the Plaza Saltillo Capital Metro Station that currently has the Red Line Commuter train and eventually will have more Austin B-cycles, an extension of the Lance Armstrong Bikeway, car2go access, and parking that will be below the development.

The stakeholders in the project are excited to see their vision address two of the biggest problems in Austin: mobility and affordability, after 20 years of planning.

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