Why Austin leads nation in luxury home price decline

Data: Redfin; Note: Luxury homes are in the top 5% by metro-area market value, while non-luxury homes are in the 35th to 65th percentile; Chart: Axios Visuals

Austin saw the biggest decline nationally in the sales price of luxury homes, according to the latest Redfin data.

Why it matters: Just as the giddy highs of the pandemic housing market touched everyone in town, apparently the decline is, too.

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Zoom in: The typical Austin-area luxury home sold for $1.69 million in the fourth quarter of 2023, an 8.6% year-over-year drop, per Redfin.

Worth mentioning: The Redfin report defined luxury homes as those estimated to be in the top 5% of their respective metro area based on market value. Also: Nationally, the total number of luxury listings increased most in Austin — 44.5% year over year — as a glut of houses stuck around the buyers' market. The big picture: Wealthy home shoppers , especially those paying with cash , are making up a growing share of the U.S. housing market , Axios' Sami Sparber reports .

Meanwhile: Higher mortgage rates hit first-time and middle-income homebuyers hardest, according to Redfin.

• With more of them shut out from homeownership, price jumps for non-luxury U.S. homes moderated.

State of play: Luxury prices rose nearly twice as much nationally (+8.8%) as non-luxury prices (+4.6%) at the end of 2023, according to Redfin.

• That's partly because many high-end homebuyers are coming in with cash and not worried about mortgage rates, per Redfin.

Go deeper: A record share of U.S. homes are mortgage-free

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