What it costs to buy in Rosewood these days

What does it cost to buy a home in Rosewood right now?

In an ongoing series with Curbed Austin, real-estate analytics site NeighborhoodX takes a close look at the range of sales asking prices in the area, ranked by cost per square foot, to find out.

This might be the first time we’ve done this kind of price comparison for Rosewood, a Central East Austin neighborhood with which many are familiar while not realizing it has its own name and identity.

Rosewood is bounded on the east by Airport Boulevard, the north by Manor Road, and the East by Webberville Road and Rosewood Avenue. The western edge runs along Stafford Street to Martin Luther King Jr. Boulevard, then cuts east to Alexander Avenue and runs along the Capitol Metro tracks south from there, picking up East 12th back west to Chicon Street, where it heads south to meet Rosewood Avenue.

Rosewood has been an established, predominantly African-American neighborhood for decades. It contains a large park, the historic Downs Mabson baseball fields, historic churches, and schools.

As with many Eastside neighborhoods with proximity to downtown, the University of Texas, and the developing transit-oriented corridor along the commuter rail track that runs through it, the area has seen an increasing in housing prices and cost of living in recent years.

The current average listing rice in Rosewood is $296 per square foot, although the individual properties that contribute to that average range from $207 per square foot (1905 S.L. Davis Avenue, a four-bedroom home asking $425,00) to $394 per square foot (2803 East 22nd Street, a Tudor-style home we featured recently).

"Our analysis excluded foreclosures and short sales, as well as properties that were primarily positioned as development sites," said NeighborhoodX co-founder Valhouli. "This was to keep the data clean and easy to compare —so that we were truly looking at how the price of one existing square foot changes throughout the neighborhood."