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Dallas-Fort Worth has been the longtime leader in luxury home sales, but it has a strong competitor further south on Interstate 35.
In the Houston, Dallas-Fort Worth and San Antonio areas, the number of homes sold for $1 million or more in the first five months of 2022 was about on par with the number sold in all of 2018, according to a new report from the Texas Real Estate Research Center at Texas A&M University. But in Austin area, the number of home sales is already double its 2018 total.
Four years ago, the Austin area had half the number of home sales of Houston and D-FW. By 2021, though, the city was just behind Houston, and so far this year, Austin and Houston are neck in neck.
“D-FW is definitely an international city, but the name Austin definitely attracts more attention,” said Joshua Roberson, lead data analyst at the Texas Real Estate Research Center. “We kind of joke that it’s turning into another coastal city. Just look at the prices, they’re starting to reflect it.”
Roberson said Austin is poised to surpass Houston, even as its population is just a sixth’s of Houston’s.
“Austin is catching up, but Dallas for the most part has been the consistent leader in luxury homes,” Roberson said, adding that the North Texas region is much larger, giving it an advantage in numbers over Austin. “I would imagine D-FW would continue to remain in the top spot.”
The movement of high-income households to Texas during the pandemic, especially to North Texas and Austin, has helped to propel Texas’ luxury market. Low mortgage rates especially convinced people to move and buy homes.
“The people who moved were higher income,” Roberson said. “They came from the coastal states, where housing was so much more expensive.”
Also, the tight housing market during the pandemic boosted home prices across the board, leading to more homes falling in the million-plus range. Last spring, high-end home sales in Dallas-Fort Worth were up 78% from the year before, according to Redfin.
This year’s luxury sales are so far on pace to surpass pre-pandemic sales, but it’s too early to tell if they will be on par with last year’s, Texas A&M’s researchers wrote. Roberson said he expects activity to be more comparable to 2018 and 2019 moving forward.
“2020 and 2021 was a very unique market, and I don’t expect it to be replicated anytime soon,” Roberson said.
Source: The Dallas Morning News
Posted by Grossman & Jones Group on
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