Austin Real Estate

The Austin area has turned for the better over the past two years after a three-year period of near zero growth from 2001-2004. Austin remains highly affordable, and there are few concerns about a price bubble here.

The downtown Austin area is exploding with growth lately, with new residential and mixed-use buildings springing up everywhere. This is a ripe investment opportunity for condos and lofts in the low-to-mid range ($250 - 350K). Any such investment should be viewed from a long-range perspective.

Based on analysis from the National Association of Realtors, the affordable home prices and the associated low mortgage servicing costs in this area suggest that there is a good possibility of "better-than-average" price growth in the coming years.

New home construction continues at a brisk but manageable pace, bucking the national trend of homebuilders cutting back on production.

Local job growth has been on a strong recovery with steadily improving numbers. The last 12 months provided a 3.2% growth rate (more than DOUBLE the national average). Clearly, this job growth is bringing more and more buyers into the Austin market.

The high-tech industry has also strongly recovered following the heavy fallout in the aftermath of the dot-com collapse in 2000-2001. Overall, the next several years are shaping up to be very strong for Austin and for central Texas.