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Texas luxury home sales continue growth in 2015

Texas REALTORS® releases 2016 Texas Luxury Home Sales Report

January 25, 2016 — Austin

Luxury home sales continued to be one of the fastest growing housing segments in Texas’s largest markets in 2015, according to the 2016 Texas Luxury Home Sales Report released today by the Texas REALTORS®. The report cites sales volume increases from 4.5% to 36.4% for homes sold at $1 million or more in the four major Texas markets.

Leslie Rouda Smith, chairman of the Texas REALTORS®, commented, “Texas’s economic prosperity continues to make luxury home sales one of the strongest sectors of the Texas housing market, particularly in the $1 million to $1.5 million range. In some neighborhoods, the lot alone is well worth $1 million and up.”

A popular trend for homebuyers in this price class is to purchase homes on smaller lots but in more desirable locations and with higher-end amenities.

Jim Gaines, Ph.D., economist at the Real Estate Center at Texas A&M University said, “Rising land and development costs are changing what today’s luxury market looks like, and many developers are now entering the high-end custom homebuilding market due to more expensive lot costs. Rising home prices across the state are also pushing more higher-end homes into the luxury market. Many homes priced in the $800,000 to $900,000 range a few years ago will now sell for more than a million.”

According to the report, the price-per-square-foot for luxury homes is often double or triple that of a typical single-family home, due to higher-end building materials and amenities. Furthermore, some homebuyers are purchasing older homes in prime locations for less than $1 million to demolish and rebuild a new home in its place.

The following describes trends in specific markets of Texas real estate:

  • The Houston market saw the highest amount of luxury home sales at 1,284 from January to October 2015, an increase of 4.5% compared to the same period in 2014. These sales represented almost two percent of overall home sales in this market.
  • Sales of $1 million-plus homes in Austin represented more than 2% of the overall housing market and saw a 16.3% increase in sales volume year-over-year. The median price for Austin homes in the luxury price class was $1,381,252, and the average amount of time it took to sell a luxury home was almost two months longer than the typical home.
  • In Dallas-Fort Worth, luxury sales grew 12.4%, rising to 1,088 homes sales from January to October 2015. The median price for luxury homes in Dallas reached $1,400,000. It took 37 more days for a luxury home in Dallas to sell compared to a typical home.
  • In San Antonio, $1 million-plus homes saw a 36.4% increase compared to the same time period in 2014. Although luxury homes accounted for less than 1% of the market, active listings increased 33% and median price was $1,298,375, the lowest compared to Austin, Houston, and Dallas. 
About the Sales of Million-Dollar Homes in Texas Report

The Sales of Million-Dollar Homes in Texas Report, previously known as the Texas Luxury Home Sales Report, is provided by the Data Relevance Project, a partnership among Texas REALTORS® and local REALTOR® associations throughout the state. Data analysis is provided by the Texas Real Estate Research Center at Texas A&M University. The report analyzes home sales priced $1 million and higher from November 2021 through October 2022 statewide and includes local data for the Austin, Dallas-Fort Worth, Houston, and San Antonio MSAs.