After living in Austin for twenty plus years I have tried living in several neighborhoods and my favorite by far is still Zilker/Barton Hills. I enjoyed living here for several years and I love working in this neighborhood. The funny thing about these two neighborhoods are they can be fairly confusing. The general area is bordered by South Lamar, South MOPAC, Barton Springs Road and WestRock to the south. Within these streets lay several "Subdivisions", now this is where it gets tricky. I am listing the subdivisions to help you see the issue. We will start with the obvious: Barton Hills, Barton Heights, Barton Heights Annex, Avon Heights, Cannizo,Glen Cliff, Horeshoe Bend, Knox Wright Subdivision, Lund Park, Oak Hill, Oakie Heights, Rabb Inwood Hills, Ridgeview West and South Lund. Obviously there are far too many names to enter the subdivision into the search criteria.
This area around Barton Springs Road and South Lamar was developed in the 1930's. As the population of Austin grew so did the area. About every ten years the construction moved about 8-10 blocks further south. So you can roughly gage the age of the homes by that record. Homes around Josephine Street were built in the 1940-1950's, go a little further south to Barton Skywayand they are the 1960's and when you hit WestRock and Kassarine Pass welcome to the 1970's.
Barton Hills homestend to have slightly larger 1/3 acre or larger lots whereas Zilker area homes are more petite under a quarter acre. The developers keep snatching up the homes on the larger lots and tearing down the existing ranch style homes and mid-century modern/atomic ranch style homes and building condos, which makes it a real challenge to find a nice older home on a large lot. If you like condos or duplex living you have a multitude of choices because the builders are almost exclusively building this type of property.
Market stats for Barton Hills/Zilker are: 42 homes listed for Sale, 10 homes are Pending/Under Contract, and 3 homes that Sold from June 1-to July 1, 2009. The Price per square foot ranged from a Low PPSF $210.79, Average PPSF $176.70, and High PPSF $$231.79. The number of days on the market are: Low 3, Average 49 and the Longest time to sell was 117 days.
An easy way to search homes is to look in the Multiple Listing Service area 7, or search the famous 78704 zip code. Then you have to weed out the streets that are further east than South Lamar. The easiest thing to do is work with a reputable Realtor that can help you navigate the confusing parts. A Realtor can also tell you which other homes are for sale and help you determine the average sold price per square foot for the homes in the neighborhood. Why do you need to know the sold price per square foot? So you will know if your offer stands a chance of landing you the perfect home in this hot neighborhood. If your considering a move into Austin's hippest zip call me.
Betina Foreman Realtor
512-771-6318
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