Pumped-up price tag
Out-of-town buyers throw more cash at Austin homes than locals, says Redfin
In another sign of how blazing hot the Austin area’s housing market has been, out-of-towners moving here recently spent $22,500 more on a home than locals did.
A data analysis by residential real estate brokerage Redfin found that the typical home purchased in the Austin area by out-of-towners from July 1, 2020, through June 30, 2021, sold for $470,000. By comparison, the same figure for local buyers stood at $447,500.
The analysis says homebuyers who’ve relocated to Austin during the pandemic paid an average of 7.8 percent above the asking price, compared with 3.7 percent above the asking price for locals.
Out-of-towners also tend to buy homes that are priced higher from the outset, according to Redfin: The typical list price for an Austin home bought by out-of-towners was $439,900 versus $425,000 for locals. Newcomers also put down more money than locals: a median of $111,500 for out-of-towners versus $83,725 for locals.
Redfin explains that out-of-town homebuyers often pay more than locals in destinations like Austin because they’re frequently relocating from more expensive areas. In Austin, the seventh most popular destination for Redfin.com users looking to relocate, the typical home sold for $485,000 in June. Although Austin home prices have risen 43 percent over the last year, they’re still significantly more affordable than the $1.59 million median sale price in San Francisco, the top place of origin on Redfin for prospective Austin homebuyers.
“People moving into Austin from out of town tend to come with a lot of cash from selling homes in expensive West Coast cities — especially the Bay Area,” Austin Redfin agent Andrew Vallejo says in a July 26 news release. “And those of them who can work remotely often come with high West Coast salaries, too. They typically have a lot more buying power than locals, and they can afford to search for and ultimately buy bigger, pricier homes.”
