How is the West Austin housing market treating sellers this year?
Quick answer
Fairly, with buyers holding a slim edge on the public side, while much of the top of the market never shows up in the record at all. A large share of West Austin’s priciest sales trade privately and never reach the MLS, so the record shows only the public half. That public half reads as a buyer’s market by the narrowest margin, with about half of today’s listings already cut, and your price range or ZIP code can put you in a different market.
Public-record median: $990,000 for West Austin sales recorded in the MLS, twelve months ending October 20, 2026. Read that median as the bottom of the record. The sales that would pull it up trade privately and never reach the MLS, and in most of these ZIP codes a lot alone rarely sells for less than a million dollars.
What we analyzed
- 1,621 homes sold in West Austin in the twelve months ending October 20, 2026
- 682 homes for sale in West Austin as of October 21, 2026, 55 of them builder listings
- 5.0 months of inventory in West Austin, against 5.5 in the Austin metro
- West Austin closings for the twelve months ending October 20, 2026, against the twelve months before
- Every West Austin ZIP code on the same twelve-month basis, from 78703 to 78746
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
79 West 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 78703, 78732, 78733, 78734, 78735, 78738, 78746.
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.
What kind of market is West Austin for a homeowner thinking of selling?
Buyers hold a slim edge across West Austin as a whole. Homes that sold over the past twelve months closed at 94.0% of their original asking price, which sits a fraction below the 94% line where my rule calls it a buyer’s market. That reading is for the whole area, and a single price range or ZIP code can land on the other side of it.
Supply backs that up only loosely. At this year’s pace the homes listed now would sell out in 5.0 months, a little quicker than the Austin metro. Even so, about half of the current listings have already come down from their first price, which tells you how many sellers opened too high.
Owners here rarely say they live in West Austin. They say Tarrytown, Pemberton, Bryker Woods, Westlake or Steiner Ranch, and the chart below shows why the distinction matters: months of supply runs from tight to heavy depending on the ZIP code.
Are West Austin home prices higher than a year ago?
The typical sale is higher and the square foot is about flat. The public-record median rose to $990,000 this past year from $960,000 the year before.
Price per square foot moved the other way by a few dollars, $347 against $351, so buyers paid a little more for the middle house and slightly less for each foot of it. A median is the middle sale, and a shift in which homes sold can move it without any one house gaining value.
Fewer homes changed hands, too. Closings came to 1,621 against 1,657 a year earlier, a small dip in a market where the record already leaves out the private sales.
How do the West Austin ZIP codes differ for a seller?
Enough that the area figure is only a starting point. Each ZIP code below has its own scoreboard page with every table.
In 78703, the Tarrytown, Pemberton Heights, Bryker Woods and Clarksville side of town, homes closed at 92.4% of original asking, a buyer’s market for that ZIP overall. Its own page is How is 78703 treating sellers in Tarrytown and Pemberton Heights?
Steiner Ranch makes up most of 78732, a balanced market overall at 94.5% of original asking. More homes sold there this year than last, and the detail is on Is 78732 a buyer’s or seller’s market for Steiner Ranch owners?
78733 is the smallest ZIP by sales, the Barton Creek West, Austin Lake Hills and Rob Roy on the Lake stretch along Lake Austin. It carries the tightest supply in the area at 3.4 months; see What are 78733 buyers paying near Barton Creek West?
The Lake Travis side of 78734, Apache Shores and Hudson Bend among it, has the heaviest supply of the seven at 9.8 months. Its page is Is 78734 a buyer’s or seller’s market for Lake Travis homeowners?
78735 is the Westlake area that takes in Travis Country and Barton Creek, and it closed at 95.0% of original asking, balanced. Read it on How is 78735 treating sellers in Travis Country and Barton Creek?
78738 sold the most homes of any West Austin ZIP, and it is the one place builders matter, in Provence and Sweetwater. Its page is How do Lakeway and Bee Cave resales compete in 78738?
78746, Westlake and Rollingwood, carries the highest public-record median in the area and closed at 92.3% of original asking, a buyer’s market for the ZIP overall. See How is the Westlake and Rollingwood market in 78746?
How much of West Austin is new construction?
Very little. Builders hold 55 of the 682 homes for sale, spread across dozens of builder names, so nearly every seller here is up against another resale. The builder names, and where they cluster, are on What is your West Austin home really competing against?
What are the biggest risks for a West Austin seller right now?
Opening too high is the first. With half the listings already cut, a buyer touring your street has usually watched a neighbor come down, and that buyer reads your first price against it. How the homes that closed handled their first month is on Why do some West Austin homes sell while others sit?
The second is pricing off the public median. In most of these ZIP codes the MLS figure sits below where the market actually trades, because the private sales never enter it. What a buyer would pay for your house is the subject of What is your West Austin home worth when top sales stay private?
The third is assuming the area’s reading is the one at your price. Ranges below about $900,000 mostly closed as balanced markets this past year, and most busy ranges above that closed as buyer’s markets. Whether to list this season or hold is on Should you sell your West Austin home now, or wait for next year?
Does this market report describe your home?
It describes the public side of West Austin, and your house is one sale inside it. Run your address and we will pull the listings your buyer would set beside it.
- It fits well if your home would list between the high $600,000s and the $800,000s, the busiest stretch of the record.
- It fits loosely above a million dollars, where many sales never reach the MLS and the private network sets much of the pace.
- It fits poorly if you are in 78734 or 78738, where supply and builders tell their own story.
- It fits best for a move-in ready house with an asking price based on this year’s closed sales, not last year’s.
Your situation
West Austin is several markets sharing one name. The record shows a buyer’s market by a hair overall, prices about level by the foot, and a large share of sellers who cut before they sold. Above a million dollars, part of the market does not show up at all.
So the question for your house is narrower than the area: at your price, on your street, which homes will a buyer compare yours with, and are some of them sales 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 record describes your house, start with the homes a buyer would compare it with, 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 part of West Austin compare with the area as a whole
- How the walkthrough works and what we look at in your home
No obligation. The report for your part of West Austin arrives within a minute; the pricing analysis comes after we walk the home. Nothing here promises a price, a timeline, or an outcome. 79 homes sold by Watters International Realty in West Austin (Unlock MLS, all time).
Why are so many West Austin buyers holding back?
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.
West Austin shows the gap. Sellers held the typical price up this year while about half of today’s listings have already had to come down to meet buyers.
About Watters International Realty in West 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 for the seven West Austin ZIP codes over the last 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. 79 homes sold by Watters International Realty in West 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 exist for the subdivisions with enough recorded sales; the rest of West 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 ZIP code compares with the rest of West 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 West Austin sellers
- How is 78703 treating sellers in Tarrytown and Pemberton Heights?
- Is 78732 a buyer’s or seller’s market for Steiner Ranch owners?
- What are 78733 buyers paying near Barton Creek West?
- Is 78734 a buyer’s or seller’s market for Lake Travis homeowners?
- How is 78735 treating sellers in Travis Country and Barton Creek?
- How do Lakeway and Bee Cave resales compete in 78738?
- How is the Westlake and Rollingwood market in 78746?
- Should you sell your West Austin home now, or wait for next year?
- What is your West Austin home really competing against?
- Why do some West Austin homes sell while others sit?
- What is your West Austin home worth when top sales stay private?
- The Austin seller hub
