What should you know before selling a home in Northwest Austin?
Quick answer
That Northwest Austin is a balanced market, so neither buyers nor sellers hold the edge for the area as a whole, though your price range or ZIP code can put you in a different one. The typical sale is higher than a year ago while each square foot brought a little less, and more than half of the homes listed today have already cut their price. Above a million dollars, part of this market trades privately and never shows up in the record.
Public-record median: $715,000 for Northwest Austin sales recorded in the MLS, 90 days ending October 20, 2026. Read that figure as the floor of the public record, never the value of a home here. The sales that would lift it trade privately and never reach the MLS, and on the Balcones and Northwest Hills side a lot alone rarely changes hands for under a million dollars.
What we analyzed
- 361 homes sold in Northwest Austin in the 90 days ending October 20, 2026
- 426 homes for sale in Northwest Austin as of October 21, 2026, 28 of them builder listings
- 3.5 months of inventory in Northwest Austin, against 5.9 in the Austin metro
- Northwest Austin closings for the twelve months ending October 20, 2026, against the twelve months before
- Each of the six ZIP codes, from 78717 to 78759, on its own scoreboard page
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
134 Northwest 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.
Every number on this page is also broken out ZIP by ZIP on the scoreboard pages for 78717, 78726, 78730, 78731, 78750, 78759.
Last updated October 21, 2026. Sales data covers the 90 days ending October 20, 2026 and the twelve months ending the same day (Unlock MLS via MLS Grid); listing inventory as of October 21, 2026.
What kind of market is Northwest Austin for a seller right now?
A balanced one. Homes that sold over the last three months closed at 94.7% of their original asking price, inside the range my rule calls balanced, and that reading is for the area as a whole; one price point or one ZIP code can sit on either side of it.
Supply is lighter here than across the metro. At the current pace the homes for sale would take 3.5 months to sell, against 5.9 for the Austin metro. Even so, more than half of today’s listings have already come down from their first price, so a quick market for the right house is a hard one for the wrong first number.
Hardly anyone here says they live in Northwest Austin. People say Avery Ranch, Great Hills, River Place, Northwest Hills or Balcones, and the chart below shows how far months of supply moves from one ZIP code to the next.
Are Northwest Austin home prices higher than a year ago?
The typical sale is. Over the past twelve months the public-record median came to $725,000, against $704,500 in the twelve months before.
Price per square foot went the other way across those same two years, $302 against $307, so buyers paid more for the middle house and a little less for each foot of it. A median is the middle sale, and a change in which homes sold can lift it without any one house gaining value.
More homes changed hands as well, with 1,532 closings this past year against 1,349 the year before.
How do the Northwest Austin ZIP codes differ for a seller?
Enough that the area figure is only where you start. Each ZIP code has its own scoreboard page with every table.
Avery Ranch makes up most of 78717, along with Davis Spring and the Brushy Creek edge, and it carries more supply than most of the area at 4.7 months. Its page is Is 78717 a buyer’s or seller’s market for Avery Ranch owners?
78726 is the Four Points and Canyon Creek corner and the smallest ZIP code here by sales, with 19 closings in the last three months. Supply runs heaviest of the six at 5.2 months; see What are 78726 buyers paying in Canyon Creek and Four Points?
78730 runs along Lake Austin from River Place down toward the Four Seasons, and its public-record median passed a million dollars, so its page reads the full twelve months: How should a River Place owner read the 78730 market?
78731 is the Balcones and Northwest Hills side, with The Grove inside it, and it sold the most homes of any ZIP code here, 358 over twelve months. It is also the one buyer’s market of the six for the ZIP overall, at 93.7% of original asking. Read How is the 78731 market for Northwest Hills homeowners?
78750, around Jester, Spicewood and Anderson Mill, has the tightest supply in the area at 2.7 months, and its page is How fast are 78750 homes selling around Jester and Spicewood?
78759 takes in Great Hills, Walnut Crossing, Barrington Oaks and Mesa Park, and nearly every home that sold there in the last three months was built before 2000. The detail is on What does 78759 mean for a Great Hills or Mesa Park seller?
How much of Northwest Austin is new construction?
Very little. Builders hold 28 of the 426 homes for sale, so nearly every seller here is up against another owner. Most of the builder homes are custom builds priced well above the typical resale, and the names are on Which homes is your Northwest Austin buyer touring besides yours?
What are the biggest risks for a Northwest Austin seller right now?
Opening above the market comes first. With more than half of the listings already cut, a buyer touring Great Hills or Avery Ranch has usually watched a neighbor come down and reads your first price against it. How the homes that sold handled their first month is on What keeps a Northwest Austin home from selling?
The second is treating the public median as your value. On the River Place and Northwest Hills side the MLS misses the private sales, so its figure sits below where those homes trade. What a buyer would pay for your house is on What is your Northwest Austin home worth to a buyer this fall?
The third is assuming the area’s reading holds at your price. Most ranges from $400,000 up to $1,000,000 closed as balanced markets in the last three months, while the ranges just below and just above that leaned toward buyers. Whether to list this season is on Is this a good time to sell your Northwest Austin home?
Does this report describe your Northwest Austin home?
It describes the public side of the area, and your house is one sale inside it. Start with your address and we will pull the listings a buyer would set next to yours.
- Closely, if your home would list somewhere in the $400,000s through the $900,000s, where most of the area’s sales happen.
- Loosely, above a million dollars in River Place, Northwest Hills or along Lake Austin, where many sales are private.
- Loosely, for a condo, which trades in its own lower ranges with its own buyers.
- Best, for a move-in ready house with an asking price based on this year’s closed sales, not last year’s.
Your situation
Northwest Austin is a resale market with a balanced reading overall, a higher typical sale, a slightly lower price per foot and more than half of its listings cut. Above a million dollars, part of it never appears in the record.
So the question for your house is narrower than the area: at your price and in your neighborhood, which homes will a buyer compare with yours, and are some of them homes you will never see online?
Before You Put Your Home on the Market, See the Homes You’ll Have to Beat
If you are not sure which part of this report fits your house, start with the homes a buyer would weigh it against, listed and private. Request my complimentary Home Competitor Analysis for your address. You get:
- The homes for sale near you that a buyer would likely tour alongside yours
- How recent sales in your neighborhood compare with Northwest Austin as a whole
- How the walkthrough works and what we look at in your home
No obligation. The report for your part of Northwest Austin arrives within a minute; the pricing analysis comes after we walk the home. Nothing here promises a price, a timeline, or an outcome. 134 homes sold by Watters International Realty in Northwest Austin (Unlock MLS, all time).
Why are so many Northwest Austin buyers waiting?
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.
There is pent-up demand in the market. Tons of buyers on the sidelines not purchasing. This is because there is a lack of alignment between the sellers’ personal wants and what a buyer can afford. Affordability has been severely impacted because of interest rates. Interest rates and home prices move in opposite directions in most instances. However, unlike Wall Street, the market is not that fluid. But in reality, it should be.
Northwest Austin shows that gap clearly. Sellers held the typical price up this past year, and more than half of today’s listings have still had to come down to reach what buyers will pay.
About Watters International Realty in Northwest 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 pulled for this report: every Residential closing in the MLS with an Austin city address in the six Northwest Austin ZIP codes over the last 90 days, the twelve months, and the twelve months before that, and every listing for sale on the analysis date, with builder listings identified from the MLS construction fields. 134 homes sold by Watters International Realty in Northwest Austin (Unlock MLS, all time). What this page cannot tell you: the sales that traded on a broker-to-broker private network and never entered the MLS, what any builder will agree to on a specific home, the condition of any one house, and how your own street compares. Neighborhood pages cover the subdivisions with enough recorded sales; the rest of Northwest Austin is covered here and on the ZIP pages.
See the homes you’d be competing against
You get the competing listings near you, how your neighborhood compares with the rest of Northwest Austin, and a walkthrough before any pricing talk.
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 Northwest Austin sellers
- Is 78717 a buyer’s or seller’s market for Avery Ranch owners?
- What are 78726 buyers paying in Canyon Creek and Four Points?
- How should a River Place owner read the 78730 market?
- How is the 78731 market for Northwest Hills homeowners?
- How fast are 78750 homes selling around Jester and Spicewood?
- What does 78759 mean for a Great Hills or Mesa Park seller?
- Is this a good time to sell your Northwest Austin home?
- Which homes is your Northwest Austin buyer touring besides yours?
- What keeps a Northwest Austin home from selling?
- What is your Northwest Austin home worth to a buyer this fall?
- The Austin seller hub
