downtown condos

We reported 9 days ago that downtown Austin condo sales were up 44% year-over-year while prices were down 3%.

This was good news but not necessarily indicative of the broader Austin market. Today, newly released MLS numbers show that central Texas existing home sales soared 38% in October with 1,823 houses selling compared with 1,322 a year ago.

Over the last ten years, the Austin metropolitan area population has grown by 500,000 people.

Over the last three years, 100,000 more people have moved to Austin than have left the city. In 2008 alone, the Austin population increased by more than 60,000 people.

First Brazos Place. Then Bel Air. Now the Sage.

This week the Sage Condos in South Austin -- 1702 South Lamar -- announced that they will be selling the remaining 23 units through an auction on August 22.

This is the third major auction in the Austin market. In May, the Brazos Place auctions saw strong demand.

The second auction, for the Bel Air condos in far south Austin, is scheduled for this coming weekend.

The 19 remaining Brazos Place condominiums sold at auction on Sunday for $282/sf, a 29% discount to the original list prices.

The 19 remaining Brazos Place condominiums sold at auction on Sunday for $282/sf, a 29% discount to the original list prices.

Jeff Ward fell for it, big-time. So did 100% of his callers on Friday afternoon.

You know what I'm talking about; the "OMG! All these people moving downtown are complaining about live music!" crap.

In conversations with realtors and developers who focus on downtown Austin, everyone agrees that the last few months have been really tough.

Ever since the fall economic collapse, the downtown real estate market has essentially ground to a halt. Surprisingly enough, everyone also seems to agree that there was a noticeable uptick in January.

An article in yesterday’s New York Times analyzed downtown Austin as a second home location. The enthusiastic article shed light on an important trend in the downtown market: the popularity of downtown condos with out-of-town buyers looking for a weekend getaway.

We have heard first-hand from many developers that affluent Houston and Dallas residents, especially this with children attending UT, have been active buyers in the downtown Austin condo market.

With the opening of Milago, the Shore, and 360 over the last year or two, a few more kids have moved into downtown condos with their parents.

This is great news for downtown diversity, given that -- amazingly enough -- almost no kids lived downtown prior to the recent wave of development.

Katherine Gregor at the Chronicle covered the opening of the 360 condos in downtown Austin last week.  Embedded in the ogling coverage of the "thirtysomething lovelies" was this interesting fact:  75% of 360's buyers are Austin residents.   360 has 430 units, which means that Austin residents have taken around 320 of the units.