25 Percent Of Austin Purchase Are Cash

Is the Austin, Texas market on it's way to a real estate recovery? In an ongoing series, we look at the numbers, and the analysis behind the numbers, to see if the Austin market is truly recovering. The Austin Board of Realtors recently announced that 25 percent of all home sales were cash purchases. Surprisingly, that number isn't far off of the national average of 28 percent cash purchases, which is what the National Association of Realtors reported last year.

What sets Austin apart is nature of the cash purchases. Most of what we see around the country are, for lack of a better term, bottom feeding liquid purchases. Most of the homes purchased for cash, have lost tremendous value in the last five years. Areas with very high cash numbers, largely in Florida, Nevada and Arizona, are experiencing cash purchases on homes that have lost 50 to 80 percent of value. In Austin, and the surrounding area, we have seen minimul drops neighborhoods, but for the most part, values have been stagnant at worst.

One of the most recent sales of Austin Real Estate Agency, saw multiple cash offers on a property, at 98 percent of asking price. The seller in that instance, saw a ten percent appreciation since the home purchase some five years ago. A two percent a year gain isn't tremendous by any means, but once again, we see stability; which in this market, is encouraging.