There Is No "Austin Market" — Your ZIP Code Is the Whole Story

Picture two sellers. Both list the same week. Both have a nice house, a decent agent, and a reasonable expectation of what their home is worth.

One of them is in 78722, where the median price is up 29.8% year over year. The other is in 78758, where it's down 37.5%.

Same metro. Same month. Same economy, same rates, same headlines. Completely different reality.

That's not a thought experiment — that's Austin right now, straight out of the ZIP code data reviewed at the ABoR session I attended this week. And of everything presented that morning, this is the part I keep coming back to, because it's the part that actually changes how somebody should price a house on Tuesday.
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⁠The 62-day gap

Start with the number that frames everything else.

There is a 62-day spread between the fastest- and slowest-selling ZIP code in this metro.

Here's what that looks like on the ground, average days on market for July 2026:

Thirty-four days on one end. Ninety-six on the other.

Think about what that does to a real decision. A seller in Round Rock and a seller in Kyle are both asking "how long will this take?" and the honest answers are two completely different answers. If your agent quotes you a metro-wide average, they've given you a number that is true of almost nobody they represent — including you.

Why this matters to you: days on market isn't trivia. It determines your carrying costs, whether you can buy before you sell, how much negotiating leverage you'll have in week six, and whether you should be pricing aggressively out of the gate or pricing for patience. Get the ZIP-level number or you're planning your move on fiction.

Price direction splits the same way

Of the 52 ZIP codes tracked in the report, 19 posted a higher median price than a year ago. Which means 33 didn't.

Up the most, year-over-year median:

• 78722 — +29.8%
• 78750 — +29.1%
• 78759 — +26.7%
• 78757 — +25.8%

Down the most, year-over-year median:

• 78758 — −37.5%
• 78132 — −34.6%
• 78703 — −27.3%
• 78756 — −26.0%

Look at 78757 and 78756. Those are neighboring ZIP codes in North Central Austin. One is up nearly 26%. The other is down 26%. You could walk between them.

Now the part that keeps agents honest

Here's the caveat the presenter put right on the slide, and I want to repeat it loudly because it's the kind of thing that gets stripped out when these numbers get screenshotted and shared.

Watch the mix, not just the median.

At 20 to 40 sales a month in many of these ZIP codes, a median measures what sold — not what changed. If a handful of large new-construction homes closed in a small ZIP last month, that median jumps. If the only things that moved were entry-level condos, it drops. Neither necessarily means the house you own went up or down by that percentage.

So no, your home in 78758 did not lose 37.5% of its value. And no, if you're in 78722, you can't list 30% over your neighbor's closed sale and expect it to appraise.

What these numbers do tell you is that the composition of demand is shifting street by street, and that a metro-level story is nearly useless for pricing a specific house. As the slide put it: "one market" talk doesn't survive contact with this data.

Why this matters to you: the right move isn't to read your ZIP's percentage and panic or celebrate. It's to ask for a CMA built on genuinely comparable homes in your immediate area, with enough transactions behind it to mean something. That's a conversation, not a chart.

The other split: builders versus resale

There's a second divide layered on top of geography, and right now it's the widest it's been since 2011.

New construction: $385,000 median price · $210/sq. ft. · 35 days on market
Resale: $451,739 median price · $268/sq. ft. · roughly 50 days on market

Builders reprice weekly. Their asking prices have fallen from roughly $500,000 in 2023 to $387,240 today. Resale asks moved far less — from $519,900 to $499,999 — and 51% of active resale listings have already taken a price cut trying to catch up.

That gap is the single biggest competitive fact in this market, and most sellers don't know it exists until their home has sat for six weeks.

If you're selling a resale home in a neighborhood with active new construction nearby, you are not competing against the house down the street. You're competing against a builder with a sales office, a rate buydown, a design center, and the ability to change the price on Monday morning without a family meeting.

If you're buying, that same fact is leverage. The question to ask before you write any offer: what's the builder's effective rate this week, and what credit would my seller need to match that payment? Run both. The answer is frequently not what either side assumed.

What to do with this before Friday

If you're selling: get your ZIP's actual days-on-market and your immediate submarket's price trend before you set a list price. Price to the first 30 days — because 51% of your competition has already learned that a price reduction costs more than the correct list price would have.

If you're buying: pull both the new construction and resale numbers in every neighborhood on your list. If new construction is significantly cheaper per square foot nearby, that's your negotiating position on any resale home in that area — and it's an argument that works because it's true.

If you're just watching: find your ZIP code's number. Not the metro's, not the county's, not the one in the news. Yours. It's probably meaningfully different from what you assumed, in one direction or the other.

If your agent quotes you the metro average: ask them for the ZIP-level number instead. If they don't have it, that tells you something too.

"How long will it take?" is a ZIP code question — 34 days or 96 days, and the metro average is true of almost nobody. I track this at the ZIP level across Austin, Manor, Round Rock, Georgetown, Kyle, Leander, Cedar Park and the rest of Central Texas.

Want your ZIP code's real numbers? Send me your address or your target neighborhood and I'll pull the actual days-on-market, price trend, and comparable sales for that specific area — no obligation, no sales pitch. Just the number that applies to you instead of the one that applies to nobody.
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⁠Disclosure: Roshan Budhathoki is a licensed Texas real estate agent and REALTOR® with Real International, serving Austin, Manor, Round Rock, Georgetown, Pflugerville, Kyle, Buda, Leander, Cedar Park and the greater Central Texas area. Texas Real Estate Commission License #757578. This article is provided for general informational purposes only and does not constitute legal, tax, financial, investment, appraisal, or lending advice. Market data referenced is drawn from Unlock MLS / Austin Board of REALTORS® research presented in September 2026 and reflects conditions as of the date of publication; market conditions change and individual results vary by property, ZIP code, and circumstance. Nothing here is a guarantee of future performance or a promise of any specific outcome. Please consult your own attorney, CPA, lender, or licensed advisor before making a real estate decision. Information deemed reliable but not guaranteed. Equal Housing Opportunity. TREC Information About Brokerage Services and Consumer Protection Notice available at roshanbudhathoki.com.