The Crestview Neighborhood in Austin
The Crestview neighborhood is a small area of Central Austin that is South of Anderson Lane, West of Lamar, East of Burnet and North of Justin Lane. The homes in this area were primarily built in the 1940s, 1950s and 1960s with a median size of about 1200 square feet.
Year-to-date, through September 20th, 2010, 52 homes have sold in Crestview, with a median sales price of $239,450 for a 3 bedroom 2 bath home. (Median means that half sold at a higher price and half sold at a lower price.) The homes that sold fetched a sales price that was just over 94% of their final list price, or just under 92% of their original list price.
You can read more about the Crestview neighborhood on the Crestview Neighborhood association website.
Crestview Real Estate Sales Charts
Here is the basic sales statictics chart for Crestview from January 1st, through September 20th, 2010 for the 52 homes that sold:
One thing we find in the areas of Austin that have older homes in highly variable states of repair (or disrepair), and that have a wide variety of desireable (or undesireable) features, is that trying to price a home per square foot is an even worse idea than it is in other areas.
(Price per square foot isn’t a good way to determine the value of any home, more specifically, it is really only valid when reporting factual data such as the actual selling price of a home.) We know this is a popular way for consumers (and real estate agents) to try to ascertain the value of a home, but it isn’t an approach that withstands even a little bit of scrutiny. You should read our article called Home Cost per Square Foot: Not a Good Estimate of Value to have a better understanding of why this is the case.
To illustrate the spead or pricing for homes in Crestiview, take a look at this chart that compares the price per square foot of homes that sold in 2010 in this area. See how spread out these data points are? Clearly, the likely selling price of each of these homes needed to be determined by the merits of the specific home, and not based on an average or a median price for the neighborhood.
And here is another chart that shows the huge difference in selling prices for homes in Crestview that are within the typical size for the area (1100 to 1300 square feet):
This data reflects that homes in Crestview can be tiny and run down, tiny and fabulous, or (a few) big and new. Some are updated, some are original, some have been in the same family for decades. Pricing a home in this area for sale is particularly challenging and requires a detailed review of the most recent sales (comaprables) and how they compare with regards to condition and location within the neighborhood.
Photographs of the Crestview Neighborhood in Austin, Texas
