Should you sell your Central Austin home now, or wait a year?
Quick answer
Now, if your home is ready to show and your asking price is based on this year’s closed sales, not last year’s. Waiting a year did not lift Central Austin prices, and the typical sale this past year came in almost exactly where it did the year before.
Public-record median: $550,000 for Central Austin sales recorded in the MLS, twelve months ending October 20, 2026. The public record understates this market. The sales that would pull this number up trade privately and never reach the MLS, and a downtown lot alone rarely changes hands under a million dollars.
What we analyzed
- 734 homes sold in Central Austin in the twelve months ending October 20, 2026
- 518 homes for sale in Central Austin as of October 21, 2026, 59 of them builder listings
- 8.5 months of inventory in Central Austin, against 5.5 in the Austin metro
- Typical sale price $550,000 for the twelve months ending October 20, 2026, against $549,000 the year before
- 36 homes active under contract and 27 pending in Central Austin as of October 21, 2026
Sources: Unlock MLS, pulled October 21, 2026.
Selling above $1M? Part of this market never goes online
The figures on this page describe the public side of this market, the sales that were listed in the MLS. Above $1M in the Austin area, a large share of sales are never listed there and never appear online.
Those sales trade on a broker-to-broker private network, and I am a participating broker. Only the agents and brokers who do most of the business at this price point use it, and a surprising number of agents do not know it exists because they do not sell in this range. It covers homes, lots, ranches and condos priced over $1M, and much of it is waterfront or in the Austin core, West Austin, Westlake and Rollingwood, where prices run past $1.5M.
Sellers and their brokers use it for privacy: no public photos or floor plans, and no showings to buyers who have not been qualified.
Contact me for off-market private luxury listings you will never see online
57 Central Austin homeowners have trusted my real estate team to sell their home in the MLS, and that count doesn’t include a single buyer we’ve represented. Everything on this page comes from the same MLS record we used to price those homes.
What these numbers mean if you are selling is on the Central Austin, TX market report, and every number on this page is also broken out ZIP by ZIP on the scoreboard pages for 78701, 78705, 78751, 78752, 78756.
Last updated October 21, 2026. Sales data covers the twelve months ending October 20, 2026 (Unlock MLS via MLS Grid, the public MLS side only); listing inventory as of October 21, 2026. This page refreshes annually.
Did waiting a year pay off for Central Austin sellers?
Not on price. A seller who held off from last fall to this one sold into the same market, at $451 a square foot this past year against $450 the year before.
What changed was the number of buyers who closed. Sales rose to 734 this past year from 705 the year before, and the chart below sets the two years side by side.
What does a buyer’s market mean for timing here?
It means the price you open with matters more than the month you pick. Central Austin homes sold for 93.9% of original asking this past year, a buyer’s market for the area overall, though your price point can change that.
Only 111 sales, 15.1% of the total, closed at or above the first asking price.
Waiting does not change that math. A listing that opens high in this market usually ends up cutting, and 51.5% of today’s listings already have.
Does your price range change the answer?
Yes, and in Central Austin it changes it a lot. The middle ranges were mostly balanced this past year, while several ranges above $1M were buyer’s markets for those ranges on the public record, and your price point decides which applies.
Homes from $700,000 to $999,999 held up best. Every range in that stretch closed as a balanced market.
Above $1M the record is incomplete, since many of those sales trade privately, so I would not time a luxury sale off these ranges. Each ZIP’s ranges are on its own page:
- Is 78701 a buyer’s or seller’s market for Downtown condo owners?
- How hard are buyers bargaining near campus in 78705 this year?
- How is 78751 treating Hyde Park and Highlands sellers this year?
- Which side of the 78752 market is your price on?
- How much room does a Rosedale seller in 78756 have on price?
What do the homes under contract say about this fall?
Right now 36 Central Austin homes are under contract while still marked active, and 27 more are pending. Every one of those contracts was written against this year’s prices, which is the market you would sell into.
If you are weighing whether your home can compete with what is already listed, start with Which homes will your buyer tour before your Central Austin home? Why some listings here never sell is on Why are so many Central Austin listings failing to sell?, and the full area picture is on What should Central Austin homeowners know before they sell?
Sell now, or wait?
The area numbers lean one way, and your house settles it. Run your address for the homes a buyer would see next to yours.
- Sell now if the home shows well today and your price comes from this year’s closings.
- Sell now if you are between $700,000 and $999,999, the steadiest part of the area this year.
- Wait if an inspection would turn up repairs. Fixing them beats picking a month, and the Watters Ready-Fund offers up to $50,000 toward repairs, upgrades, staging and moving as a pay-at-close line of credit with a monthly rate and an origination fee, repaid at closing or at 12 months. Eligibility is on the program page.
- Wait if your next purchase depends on a price this year’s sales have not reached.
While the home is in the coming-soon stage, I market it to my own buyer network first: 4,000 cash buyers in the black book, not counting buyers using traditional financing, and more than 100,000 buyers in my database. You see every option, and the choice is yours. What a home like yours is worth today is on What is your Central Austin home worth beyond the public record?
Your situation
Central Austin is selling more homes at the prices it sold them for a year ago. In my experience the sellers who struggle are the ones who open above what buyers have already paid.
That leaves one test for your home: at your first price, is it the best house a buyer will see that week?
Before You Put Your Home on the Market, See the Homes You’ll Have to Beat
If you are deciding between listing this fall and holding off, the homes you would be up against are the place to start. Request my complimentary Home Competitor Analysis for your address. You get:
- The Central Austin listings a buyer would likely tour alongside yours
- How quickly homes like yours have been going under contract on your side of the area
- How the walkthrough works and what we look at in your home
No obligation. The report for your part of Central Austin arrives within a minute; the pricing analysis comes after we walk the home. Nothing here promises a price, a timeline, or an outcome. 57 homes sold by Watters International Realty in Central Austin (Unlock MLS, all time).
About Watters International Realty in Central Austin
Watters International Realty is a Texas real estate brokerage, and I am its broker of record. This page is based on Unlock MLS data analyzed on October 21, 2026. 57 homes sold by Watters International Realty in Central Austin (Unlock MLS, all time).
See the homes you’d be competing against
You get the listings you would compete with, how fast similar homes nearby have sold, and a walkthrough before we talk price.
Contact me for off-market private luxury listings you will never see online.
No obligation. The report arrives within a minute; the pricing analysis comes after we walk the home. Nothing here promises a price, a timeline, or an outcome.
More for Central Austin sellers
- What should Central Austin homeowners know before they sell?
- Is 78701 a buyer’s or seller’s market for Downtown condo owners?
- How hard are buyers bargaining near campus in 78705 this year?
- How is 78751 treating Hyde Park and Highlands sellers this year?
- Which side of the 78752 market is your price on?
- How much room does a Rosedale seller in 78756 have on price?
- Which homes will your buyer tour before your Central Austin home?
- Why are so many Central Austin listings failing to sell?
- What is your Central Austin home worth beyond the public record?
- The Austin seller hub
