Austin outpaces other Texas cities in luxury home sales

Austin is seeing an increase in luxury home sales of almost two times the Texas average, according to the latest Texas luxury home sales report.

The report analyzed luxury home sales, or homes priced at $1 million and higher, from November 2019 through October 2020 for the Austin, Dallas-Fort Worth, Houston and San Antonio areas. Despite Austin luxury housing being more expensive per square foot at $443 compared to the statewide average of $360, it still continues to outperform every other major Texas city.

The Austin metropolitan statistical area, or MSA, has had 1,534 homes sell for over $1 million between November 2019 and October 2020. This is a 41% increase over the previous year compared to the Texas average of just under 24%.

Luxury homes in the area also spend less time on the market than other major cities. While Dallas, Houston and San Antonio's homes spend, respectively, averages of 78, 79 and 133 days on the market, Austin-area homes only spend an average of 71 days sitting empty.

The relocation of celebrities such as Joe Rogan, James Van Der Beek and now Chris Harrison to Austin contributes to the increased demand for high-end real estate. Realtors have had to resort to more creative efforts to bring homes to their buyers when there is sometimes only one $20 million home on the market at a time, a realtor told Austonia last month.

Austin is seriously falling behind in housing inventory. While a healthy housing market is defined by experts as having six months of housing inventory, Austin has just under four. Dallas has the healthiest inventory with seven months worth of housing on the market.

Given the decline in housing inventory, it is no wonder why Austin housing is getting costlier. Austin Board of Realtors President Romeo Manzanilla said in a statement this last month that Austin's falling inventory "will put enormous pressure on home prices" and encouraged city leaders to think about ways to make the market more sustainable in its longterm growth.

More on luxury real estate:

Elon Musk isn't the only billionaire Californian to move to Texas. Does Austin have the real estate they want? (Kent Wang/CC)