What is your Central Austin home worth beyond the public record?
Quick answer
About what similar homes nearby sold for this year, adjusted for size and condition. Central Austin resales and new builds sold for nearly the same price per square foot over the past twelve months, so a new build nearby does not set your value by itself.
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
- Resales and new builds among the 734 Central Austin closings, twelve months ending October 20, 2026
- Builder and resale asking prices for homes for sale as of October 21, 2026
Sources: Unlock MLS, pulled October 21, 2026; Travis Central Appraisal District (traviscad.org) for the parcel record.
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.
Does a new build nearby lower my home’s value?
Not by the square foot. Central Austin resales sold at a median $452 a square foot this past year. The new builds that closed sold at $450.
New builds sold for more in total, a median $870,000, because buyers got more house for it, so a sale-price comparison makes a resale look weaker than it is.
What are builders asking in Central Austin?
Builder listings ask a median $785,000, or $562 a square foot. Much of that comes from downtown towers, so it says little about an older house in Rosedale or Hyde Park.
Is my appraised value what my home is worth?
Rarely to the dollar. The Travis County roll is a tax figure fixed on a past date, while a buyer in Hyde Park or a Downtown tower is reacting to what is listed this month.
Watters International Realty is a real estate brokerage and not a tax or legal adviser. Questions about your own appraised value, your homestead cap, whether to protest, a PID or MUD assessment on your lot, or what a bond election would do to your own tax bill belong with a tax professional, and the record for your specific parcel is held by the Travis Central Appraisal District (https://traviscad.org). What Watters International Realty can tell you is what a buyer would pay.
Is a Downtown condo valued the same way as a Hyde Park house?
No, and the price per foot shows it. Over the past twelve months 78701 sold at $690 a square foot, while 78751, home to Hyde Park and the Highlands, sold at $449.
A Downtown condo is priced against the other units in its own tower and the towers beside it. Buyers compare the floor, the view, the age of the building and the monthly dues, so two units of the same size can sell far apart.
A house in Hyde Park or Rosedale is priced on its lot, its street and how much of the original house is left. Hyde Park’s oldest section has a median build year of 1925, and buyers there pay for the character and then look hard at the foundation, the wiring and the plumbing.
Why is the 78701 median not the value of a Downtown home?
Because the public record misses the top of that market. The 78701 public-record median was $635,625 this past year, and many of the sales that would lift it trade privately and never reach the MLS.
The towers also pull in opposite directions. 360 Condominiums closed at a median $525,000, while the Austonian closed at a median $1,875,500, so one ZIP median blends very different homes.
For a Downtown owner the useful comparison is the last few sales in your own building and the units listed in it now.
What did size and condition do to price per foot this past year?
Across Central Austin price per foot held flat, $451 this past year against $450 the year before. The typical home that sold was small, at 1,224 square feet, because condos make up so much of the record.
That flat line hides the spread underneath it. Small condos and updated bungalows carry a high price per foot, and larger houses that need work carry a lower one, since a buyer pays less for each extra foot and marks down for the repairs.
In my experience condition moves a Central Austin price more than the calendar does. An older Rosedale or Ridgetop house with the systems already done competes with new infill, and the same house with its original wiring competes with the listings that have cut.
What did Central Austin buyers actually pay against asking?
The typical sale closed at 93.9% of original asking this past year, a buyer’s market for the area overall.
That gap matters more to your number than any online estimate. A price set from this year’s closed sales, not last year’s, starts where buyers already are.
Size changes the answer too. The typical home that sold had 1,224 square feet, so a larger house on the same street is a different sale.
Where does your ZIP code sit?
Price per square foot varies widely across the five ZIP codes, so start with yours:
- 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?
Will your Central Austin home hold its value against the listings near it?
That depends on condition and on where your price lands. Run your address for the new and resale homes your buyer will compare.
- Stronger if the house is move-in ready and the systems are recent.
- Stronger if the lot, the trees or the street give it something a new build can’t.
- Weaker if a downtown tower has several similar units listed below yours.
- Weaker if the home is $1M or more and you price only from the public record.
Why listings stall is on Why are so many Central Austin listings failing to sell?, and who you compete with is on Which homes will your buyer tour before your Central Austin home?
Your situation
Hundreds of Central Austin sales feed these medians, and none of them is your house. Your price comes from the few listings a buyer can see the same week.
So the question to answer is how your home stands against those particular listings at the price you have in mind.
Before You Put Your Home on the Market, See the Homes You’ll Have to Beat
The figures on this page come from hundreds of Central Austin sales, and your home is not one of them. Request my complimentary Home Competitor Analysis for your address. You get:
- The Central Austin listings a buyer would likely tour alongside yours
- What recent resales and new builds on your side of the area sold for against their asking price
- 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).
What do your appraised value and recent sales really tell you?
Chris Watters’s position, stated September 9, 2026. Watters International Realty does not forecast prices; the figures on this page are one period’s measurements.
Your appraised value and recent sold comparable sales is where the market was yesterday. Tomorrow, the market is where your competition stands on price and features.
In Central Austin that competition is mostly other resales, and 267 of the 518 homes for sale have already cut their price.
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 competing listings near you, what nearby homes sold for against their asking price, 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?
- Should you sell your Central Austin home now, or wait a year?
- Which homes will your buyer tour before your Central Austin home?
- Why are so many Central Austin listings failing to sell?
- The Austin seller hub
