A waterfront home asking $5 million was one of Austin’s most-expensive sales last week — with 400 days on the market, a $1.5 million price cut, one pontoon boat and zero pictures of the home’s interior.
The acre lot at 1604 Bruton Springs Road has a well-maintained, two-bedroom, three-bathroom home built in 1965, said Aimee Chilton with eXp Realty, who had the listing. However, Chilton didn’t market the interior of the home, assuming the right buyer would want to teardown and rebuild.
“The main draw for this property is obviously the land itself,” Chilton said.
However, the buyer is keeping the house, she said.
Austin is “definitely in a buyer’s market,” Chilton said. While the signs are clear now, the city hasn’t rebounded to its pandemic-era growth, Chilton claims.
“This property would have easily sold for $7 million in 2022 or 2021,” Chilton said.
The home listed in August of last year for $6.5 million. The price fell to $6 million in December and to $5 million in May. A 2021 Xcursion pontoon boat was included in the deal.
The Austin market is shedding some luxury buyers, as people who moved here during the pandemic from places like California are moving back, Chilton said.
“That’s affected the market in addition to our pendulum swing downward. The people who came here are now leaving,” Chilton said.
Austin luxury homes, particularly on Lake Travis, have lingered on the market this year. Luxury condos are also selling more slowly than in recent years. The top sale in Austin last week, a 2023 mansion on 2 acres at 4800 Mondonedo Cove, also had a modest price cut from $6 million when it listed in April to $5.9 million.It’s not the first noteworthy Austin luxury property to welcome teardowns. The agent for the “Bouldin Treehouse,” an idiosyncratic build at 801 Post Oak Street, showed the home on HGTV’s “Zillow Gone Wild” but marketed the lot’s redevelopment potential in the listing.
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