Strong July Condo Sales Drive New Full-Year Record

Despite mixed economic news dominating the headlines, the downtown Austin condo market continues to strengthen. We’ve updated the AustinTowers | TOWERS Realty Downtown Austin Condo Market Index for July, 2011 — a very strong month. With July’s results, our seasonally neutral 12-month tracking index set a record for the highest average monthly sales and the shortest average days on market. This is good news for condo owners: liquidity is clearly increasing for inexpensive and recently constructed units.

In July, condo sales increased 29% from the same month last year — from 14 units in 2010 to 18 in 2011. While average selling price decreased slightly, the more important $/square foot increased 6% from $298 to $317. In general, units were slightly smaller and older than during the prior year period. Average days on market dropped 7% from 74 to 69.

July 2011 MLS Downtown Condo Sales Statistics

The July data shows a couple of interesting trends. First, 15 of the 18 units were priced under $400,000, again demonstrating that value buyers are driving most of the transactions. However, there was only one unit sold for less than $200,000 — showing that the supply of very low price units is dwindling as the market heats up.

The sales were in a variety of projects. As usual, the biggest seller was one of the biggest projects: six units were sold in 360 during the month. Shore was next with 3 sales and Nokonah with 2. The remaining seven sales were in seven different buildings. The most expensive unit sold during the month was in Spring: a giant 1,700+ square foot 3/3 which sold for $730,000 ($428/SF).

As usual, private sales — which are not reflected in the MLS data — continued to close at Spring, Four Seasons, the W, and the Austonian.

See the full index here.

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