Austin House Market Still Nuts

Austin's real estate market is still as crazy as ever, with the median house price now just shy of $170,000, according to numbers published by the Austin Board of Realtors and reported by the Statesman today. Along with the price increase is a jump in the number of houses sold -- a whopping 15 percent rise in existing home sales from last February. Coupled with the decreasing number of homes available on the market (down 11 percent last month), it looks like we're soon heading into an even worse buyer's frenzy:

Buying a house in some areas has become very competitive, according to Stanberry & Associates broker associate Tom Polk.

"The hardest to find is in inner Austin because people are fighting over those houses," Polk said. "You can find one but getting it is another story."

This increased demand for houses close into town, though, is spreading beyond Austin's oldest central neighborhoods.

"I think that the wave is moving down beyond Ben White and north of 51st Street," Polk said. "Some of those properties are now starting to get multiple offers, where people are going to be fighting over them."

Meanwhile, new loft developments continue to sprout up around town: where Tambaleo and Gallery Lombardi now stand will be a new highrise structure, and several more have shown up in the papers in the last few weeks. CNN Money today commented on the "recycling" of America's industrial past -- seeing as how we don't actually have one here in Central Texas, they were apt to point out:

Today Soho is more than a neighborhood; it's a lifestyle, one that, increasingly, developers recreate all over the country. Even places that have no legacy of industrial lofts to draw on, build them new; now one can find brand new pseudo-industrial loft residencies in places like Austin, Texas and Gainesville, Florida.