AUSTIN (Talk1370.com) -- The Austin real estate market continues to set new records each month, only accelerated by the COVID-19 pandemic - and a new report shows that buyers are willing to pay a premium to lock in a purchase.
New data from real estate brokerage Redfin shows that the average Austin home sold for more than 7 percent above the asking price for the four weeks ending March 14. It's the biggest premium out of any major U.S. city in the 47 metro areas that were surveyed.
Austin also saw the biggest gain year-over-year; in 2020, the average Austin home sold for 0.9% below its asking price.
Austin Redfin agent April Miller pointed out the difficulties some buyers are facing, with some offering more than 20 percent over asking price. "I recently submitted an offer on behalf of a client for a remodeled three-bedroom, two-bathroom home listed at $515,000," Miller said. "We offered $100,000 over asking price and waived the appraisal and financing contingencies, and we still came in third out of 38 total offers. Every single potential buyer offered more than the asking price, and four of the offers were $100,000 or more over."
Behind Austin in the survey, San Jose, Calif., Seattle, Wash., San Francisco, Calif., and Sacramento, Calif. round out the top five.
According to the survey, Austin is perennially one of the most popular destinations for Redfin.com users looking to move from one metro area to another, and its popularity has skyrocketed over the last year. Nearly three times more out-of-towners looked to move into Austin in January than the year before. Affluent migrants are one reason for Austin's competitive market and soaring home prices. In Austin, the average out-of-towner had an $852,500 homebuying budget in 2020, 32% higher than locals.
Austin has had one of the hottest housing markets of the pandemic era, with the typical home selling for 23% more than the year before in February, and the typical home selling in 30 days, 12 days faster than the year before.
Nationwide, the average home in the U.S. sold for exactly 100% of its list price during the four weeks ending March 14—an all-time high. That compares with an average of 1.8% below its list price a year earlier. This is the first time the average U.S. home has sold for the same as or above its list price since Redfin started tracking this data in 2016.
At the other end of the scale, the average home in the Miami metro sold for 4% below its asking price in the four weeks ending March 14, the biggest discount of the metros tracked by Redfin. Miami is followed by New Orleans (2.5% below asking), Pittsburgh (-2%), Orlando (-1.7%) and Chicago (-1.6%).
More details on the 47 markets that Redfin tracks can be found on their website.