HPWBANA Residential Home Sales Trends
by Rebecca Wolfe Spratlin
January 2017
Another year has rolled by and once again, it is time to look at how homes in our neighborhood have been performing during the past five years. These years have been exceptional for growth in the Austin economy and have strengthened our residential real estate market. In the accompanying graphs, we see the trends for Net Sold Prices, Net Sold Prices per Square Foot and Days on Market for homes in the Highland Park West, Balcones Park and Area Neighborhoods.
The Net Sold Price (sold price minus repairs and closing costs paid by the seller for the buyer) trends continued upward from 2012 through 2016 with a slight peek in average and median Net Sold Prices in 2015. There was a very wide range of net sale prices in our neighborhoods. The highest priced home sold during the past five years was sold in 2012 for $7,000,000, while the lowest priced home sold during that time was also sold in 2012 for $151,100. Both average and median statistics are meaningful, but since the median statistics knock out the extremes of highs and lows, these are the numbers that tell a clearer story.
The Net Sold Price per Square Foot trends have been going up during this period, as well. The median Net Sold Price Per Square Foot did dip a bit in 2016 compared to 2015, moving from $322 in 2015 to $307 in 2016. This shows a softening of the market toward the end of last year that is expected to continue into 2017 as interest rates trend upward.
The Days on the Market mark the time between when properties were listed on the Multiple Listing Service (MLS) and the time the properties went under contracts that eventually closed. The average Days on Market during 2016 were 79 and the median number of days were 57. These were the longest periods for home sales in our neighborhoods during the past five years. 2015 was unusually low with an average of 44 days and median of 22 days. Keep in mind that after homes go under contract, they generally take about 35 days to close, so to get a clear read on the time from the MLS listing date to the closing and funding date, add 35 days onto the Days on the Market.
