Go east, young man: East Austin housing booms

AUSTIN – Median home value data released by the Census shows booming growth in East Austin between 2010 and 2012. The Census only releases its most accurate tract-level estimates of median home value every two years, so this is the latest data available.

Some of the tracts with the greatest gain in median home value include:

•  The area south of E. Cesar Chavez St. between I-35 and Springdale Rd., where median home values rose 44 percent to $241,400, up from $159,000. It is the greatest gain in the Austin area.

•  The area bound by East Martin Luther King, Jr. Blvd., Airport Blvd., Oak Spring Dr., Webberville Rd., Northwestern Ave., Chestnut Ave., E. 12th St. and the Capital Metro tracks, where median home values rose 39.67 percent to $174,600 up from $116,800, the third greatest gain in the Austin area.

•  The tract that encompasses Central San Marcos saw median home values rise 34 percent to $127,300 from $89,900, the fifth-highest gain in the Austin area.

On average, median home value in the four counties which make up the Census Bureau’s Austin-Round Rock-San Marcos statistical area rose 4.76 percent between 2010 and 2012.

Demographically, speaking, the areas which gained the most value are relatively consistent with the demographics of Central Texas as a whole, which has a population that is 75 percent white, 7 percent African-American, and 31 percent Hispanic.

The ten tracts that saw the highest percent gains in median home value were, on average only slightly more diverse, with a population 72 percent white, 10 percent African-American and 37 percent Hispanic.