It's well known that the value of a condo is mostly determined by the value of the building. No matter what improvements you make to your Railyard condo unit, it will sell for less on a $/SF basis than a unit in the Austonian. For this reason, we've crunched our full-year 2011 data to see how various buildings performed in terms of realized pricing and appreciation over the last year. If you live downtown, view this as a handy guide to the likely value of your unit.

Here is what we learned:
- The most expensive projects are all new: the W ($620/SF), the Austonian ($557/SF), and Spring ($436 / SF).
- Units in the W averaged an insanely high $1.24M each
- 360, the largest downtown project, had the most annual sales at 46: almost one per week
- Greenwood saw the highest rate of year-over-year price appreciation at 16.8%, followed by the Nokonah at 15.9%.
- Two condo conversion projects, the Brown Building and Brazos Place, saw the largest yea-over-year price declines (-11.0% and -10.5% respectively)
- Greenwood, Towers on Town Lake and Sabine were the most affordable downtown projects and also some of the fastest appreciating
- The two biggest selling projects, 360 and Shore, saw relatively flat price appreciation
- Milago stood out as a high performer with solid sales volumes, price appreciation, and very rapid sales

Here is the full analysis:

2011 MLS Sales Result by Building: Price & Sales Trends

Project	Sales	Avg $	$/SF	2010 $/SF	Y/Y %	Avg SF	% Ask	ADOM
W Austin Hotel & Residences	6	$1,244,331	$620	n/a	n/a	1,958	98.1%	156
Austonian	3	$948,333	$557	n/a	n/a	1,711	94.2%	84
Spring Condo	9	$471,056	$436	n/a	n/a	1,076	94.3%	46
Nokonah	8	$555,451	$390	$337	15.9%	1,325	95.3%	133
360 Condominiums	46	$355,745	$377	$378	-0.5%	935	97.2%	67
Austin City Lofts	8	$664,125	$363	$373	-2.8%	1,775	95.4%	74
904 West	10	$241,126	$352	n/a	n/a	684	98.7%	116
Shore A Condo	19	$350,850	$311	$306	1.8%	1,113	95.6%	89
Brazos Lofts Condo Amd	4	$380,375	$302	$305	-1.0%	1,256	96.4%	128
Plaza Lofts	3	$515,000	$301	$288	4.3%	1,679	94.6%	260
Five Fifty 05	8	$426,813	$300	$299	0.5%	1,423	95.3%	80
Milago	17	$335,293	$285	$265	7.5%	1,135	97.9%	31
Railyard Condo	8	$200,027	$266	$251	6.2%	776	97.1%	68
Brown Building	8	$321,119	$259	$291	-11.0%	1,243	96.9%	84
Cambridge Condo	7	$335,301	$233	$254	-8.0%	1,440	93.5%	117
Brazos Place	4	$217,850	$228	$255	-10.5%	943	98.4%	70
Avenue Lofts	4	$302,125	$228	$242	-5.8%	1,299	95.2%	131
Sabine On 5th	4	$215,000	$213	$205	3.7%	1,017	95.4%	95
Towers Town Lake	11	$299,636	$207	$194	6.8%	1,428	96.0%	137
Greenwood	5	$108,500	$178	$153	16.8%	610	95.7%	29

2011 MLS Sales Results by Building: Least and Most Expensive Units

Project	MIN $	SF	$/SF	Max $	SF	$/SF
W Austin Hotel & Residences	$540,000	840	$643	$2,325,000	3229	$720
Austonian	$925,000	1606	$576	$970,000	1918	$506
Spring Condo	$230,000	565	$407	$775,000	1704	$455
Nokonah	$210,000	771	$272	$1,200,000	2497	$481
360 Condominiums	$245,500	728	$337	$555,000	1280	$434
Austin City Lofts	$385,000	1087	$354	$1,081,500	2747	$394
904 West	$189,000	577	$328	$315,000	891	$354
Shore A Condo	$168,400	535	$315	$616,250	1513	$407
Brazos Lofts Condo Amd	$306,500	1084	$283	$470,000	1476	$318
Plaza Lofts	$315,000	1243	$253	$625,000	1897	$329
Five Fifty 05	$275,000	1117	$246	$830,000	2832	$293
Milago	$188,000	865	$217	$855,000	1927	$444
Railyard Condo	$139,000	494	$281	$274,000	1125	$244
Brown Building	$190,000	754	$252	$476,250	2029	$235
Cambridge Condo	$248,000	1189	$209	$424,000	1912	$222
Brazos Place	$169,900	723	$235	$340,000	1324	$257
Avenue Lofts	$225,000	1152	$195	$485,000	1614	$300
Sabine On 5th	$180,000	951	$189	$310,000	1454	$213
Towers Town Lake	$219,500	1357	$162	$570,000	1743	$327
Greenwood	$100,000	608	$164	$120,000	594	$202

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