Texas' multifamily real estate market is strong, but of the four biggest markets in the state one shines brightest by far in terms of sales prices.
Austin.
According to research from CBRE, Austin, the smallest of the big four metros in Texas, has far and away the highest average sales price per multifamily property.
The average sales price in Texas' capitol in 2017 was $32.46 million. Second place was Dallas-Fort Worth and it wasn't even close. The DFW area had an average sales price of $23.62 million last year.
Furthermore, this trend extends to the end of the bell curve with the maximum sale price in Austin at $158.25 million and the second place maximum was $115.5 million (again in DFW).
DFW had the highest volume of sales at 231 sales in 2017, whereas Austin had 59 sales in 2017, but obviously investors are willing to pay a pretty penny, the prettiest penny, for multifamily product in Austin.
CBRE’s report says some of the big price tag for Austin multifamily properties can be accounted for in the youth of the properties. Of the properties sold in Austin, 26% of them were built in the years since 2010, whereas only 13% of the properties sold in the other three major Texas metros were built after 2010.
Though its sales values clearly outshine the rest of Texas, Austin is by no means the only winner in the state of Texas.
All four major Texas metros’ (Austin, Houston, Dallas-Fort Worth and San Antonio) sales prices beat their assessed values in 2017, and now the average assessed values for 2018 roughly match the average sales values of 2017.
These are preliminary numbers, and it remains to be seen whether Texas will continue perform at the level it has been. So far, it looks like it will.