austin mls

Of the 48 Austin MLS areas reported below, 18 are up from a year ago, 14 are down, and 16... (via Austin Real Estate Blog)

In the year between the summer of 2008 and the summer of 2009, a typical month saw 8 downtown condo sales captured in the Austin MLS.

In four of those months, only 4 units sold. In the best month, 13 units sold.

Last month, at the peak of the national economic crisis (so far), Austin home sales dropped 39% from last November, dropping from 1,805 units in 2007 to 1,086 today.

During the same one year period, the median sales price fell 2.9% from $185,200 to $179,900.

Since many of the large new condo projects are being privately marketed through in-house sales agents, the only way to get unit details and pricing is to schedule a meeting and visit the sales center.

Recently, however, the Four Seasons Residences has added a number of units to the Austin MLS -- making the details publicly available for the first time.

An incredible 75% of the 430 units in Novare Groups' 44-story 360 project are now under contract after just 3 weeks on the market.

The units, which are mostly priced between $190K and $550K, rank among the most affordable units in the current downtown condo boom.

This demonstrates, once again, that there is tremendous pent-up demand for reasonably priced units in central Austin.

The market for high-end homes has been one of the fastest growing segements in the Austin market.