Austin’s Hottest Areas

By now you probably know that I like data. If I’m going to buy, sell or invest in real estate I want to know as much about the market as possible. After all, there’s usually a lot of money at stake. If you’re 1% off on a $300,000 sale that’s $3,000 at stake.

Like many of us I’m also a visual person. I like pictures, charts and graphs that help to illustrate the dynamics of a market. Are prices going up or down? Where are the best areas to look for opportunities?

Here’s an example that I recently put together. It shows a heat map of year to date sales of single family homes that were listed on the MLS as located in Austin. The red areas mean that there were a lot of sales. Green, less.

What does this tell me? Notice the little cloud out by Garfield? That’s probably the result of the racetrack development. There’s also quite a bit of activity on the North Shore of Lake Travis. And South Austin is really hot.

Have an idea for a visualization of the local real estate market? Send it along and I’ll see what I can do. In the mean time, when you or someone you know has a question about Austin real estate don’t hesitate to call. We’re never too busy to help.