If you are a real estate investor, you’ll want to learn about a market in a city or state. If you are finding Austin, Texas as one of your target locations, this guide will focus on the real estate market for that area. We’ll discuss the benefits, risks, and prices.
Before we continue, it’s important to reach out to Teifke Real Estate. They are one of the best Austin real estate brokers that will have the information you need about the city and the local market. Let’s dive right in and tell you everything we know about Austin’s real estate market.
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The benefits of the Austin real estate market
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There are plenty of benefits with investing in real estate in the state capital of Texas. For one, it is one of the fastest growing cities in the country. Many people from all over the United States are flocking to Texas for one of many reasons.
Austin is seeing an increase in population due to its growing presence in the tech industry. Companies like Tesla and Apple have established major hubs in Austin. Because of this, more jobs have been created and many people are moving here to fulfill them.
Austin’s real estate market is also one of the hottest markets in the country at the moment. With home values and rental rates rising, real estate investors are looking for excellent acquisition opportunities. We’ll be taking a look at the home and rental prices later on in this guide.
Another excellent benefit for the real estate market is that many rental properties are available. Not just in the downtown area, but also in many of the suburbs outside of Austin proper. If you can’t get anything inside the city, you might want to look farther out in places such as Pflugerville or Round Rock.
Risks of the Austin real estate market
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One of the major risks of the Austin real estate market is that it may be a seller’s market at this point in time. Meaning that people who are selling their homes may be asking for something above the listed price. This can be a huge challenge among those who are first time real estate investors.
If you are experienced and have a bit of financial breathing room, then you may buy a house that you can rent to a tenant. There is also another risk involving the supply of single-family homes. With the cost of building materials seeing an uptick, this may slow down future housing projects.
For that reason, the increase in ‘supply’ (i.e – newly built houses) may slow down. This may be one more reason why you may want to consider apartments and condo buildings instead of single family homes. There is always a silver lining in these clouds known as the ‘risks’ of a real estate market.
What are the prices for homes and apartments in Austin?
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The price of homes and apartments in Austin have been in an uptick in recent years. As of October 2023, the medium home price is $625000. At one point, it hovered around $650000 in the middle of 2023 but took a slight decline.
Nevertheless, the trend has increased and may stay in this range for a while. For rentals, the average rent is around $1825. At one point, it was around $1300 on average for rent.
The average prices will depend on the neighborhoods of Austin. For example, the highest average rent for the city was in the downtown area with the rate at $3380. Apartments near the University of Texas had rental rates of $2940. East Cesar Chavez, Chestnut, and Central East Austin both have rental averages of $2545.
There are lower priced rents on the outskirts of Austin including the neighborhoods of Harris Ridge, Georgian Acres, and Coronado Hills (among others). The rental rates are well below the average for the Austin area.
Breaking down the most expensive, the downtown area, Clarksville and Tarrytown West Austin are the top three neighborhoods commanding the highest rental rates. Clarksville and Tarrytown West Austin were tied for the second highest rent in the city with $3325.
Currently, Austin’s rental rate averages are the highest of any city in Texas. Dallas has an average rent of $1570 while Houston (the largest city in Texas) has an average rent of $1300. This is proof that Austin may be considered one of the hotbed cities for investors to check out.
These average rents are based on the monthly rental rate for a one-bedroom apartment. With all the well-paying tech jobs, it may come as no surprise that many employees of these companies won’t have any trouble making rental payments each month.
Is Austin the best place for you?
As a real estate investor, you might see opportunities for rental income if you are starting out. However, you may want to jump on it now before the competition gets fierce. With the highest rental average in the state, you may be finding excellent opportunities to find the tenants who will fulfill the apartment vacancies you may have.
It may be a good option for you as an experienced investor. Especially if you have money to buy houses in a seller’s market. There may come a time when you can buy the houses and hold onto them for a longer period.
Keep in mind that markets will swing like a pendulum. Which means a buyer’s market can happen. And then it can swing back to a seller’s market.
During the next seller’s market, you may want to sell the property at a higher price point.
Final Thoughts
Austin’s real estate market is as hot as it gets for the moment. You may be caught in the middle of a growth phase the city has never seen in a long time. With more people flocking to Texas from places like California or New York, the state itself is growing in population.
And Austin is becoming one of the places to be for many people and industries. Get in on it while you can. Otherwise, things might cool off and you might be low on opportunities.
