my wife and I were back in Austin in April and looked at a lot of houses there. I grew up in Texas and went to school there at UT. You are correct that Austin is a different world from the rest of Texas. But the RE market there is one of those pockets in the country where prices are rising. Austin RE market has always had a habit of zigging when the rest of the country is zagging. It has always been the most expensive market in Texas, largely because of the obstacles to growth that have always won out there. But people love to live there, and for good reason. Most of the cool action there is close-in to downtown and the university. But you can head out to the lake too or hill country for the weekend. We love Fredericksburg. Concerts are always going on in Luckenbach. As the city spreads out to Round Rock and Leander, I worry that it becomes just another big town.
Home prices there are creeping up and the better areas seem to be looking at 350,000 – 400,000 easily now. The agents in the new models we looked at were all saying that fully a third of buyers are coming from CA. We asked about jobs and they all said the job market is great and lot’s of the californians are bringing their businesses with them. Property taxes are high but no state income tax offsets that for the most part.
One worrying sign – a couple of realty sites I surfed indicated that supply is down and investor activity is up in Austin. Let’s hope Austin stays weird and doesn’t become a lagging indicator.
