Downtown home-buying costs right now

What does it cost to buy a home Downtown (runner-up neighborhood of the year in Curbed Cup 2016) 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 to find out.

Downtown Austin is generally considered to range from East Martin Luther King Jr. Boulevard to Lady Bird Lake (north to south), with the eastern and western boundaries being I-35 and North Lamar Boulevard, respectively.

The current average asking price for Downtown is $590 per square foot. However, according to NeighborhoodX co-founder Constantine Valhouli, it has one of the largest ranges of home prices, when measured by square foot, in the city.

The properties that make up this average range from $158 per square foot (1700 West Avenue, a planned remodel of a large, single-family home built in 1922 in Judge’s Hill) to $1,301 per square foot (a condo in the W Residences at 210 Lavaca Street).

For context, one of the only other neighborhoods among those that NeighborhoodX has analyzed has a similar spread in price range: West Lake Hills. Market properties there range from $260 per square foot to $1,640 per square foot. “The highest-priced property costs 6.3 times the price of the lowest-priced one in the neighborhood, compared to 8.23 times for Downtown," said Valhouli.