Austin housing boom has homebuilders struggling to keep pace, prices soaring
Home construction is booming at a rapid pace across the Austin region but it s still not fast enough to keep up with torrid demand, builders and local housing market experts say.
Builders started work on a record number of new homes in the Austin area in the first quarter, according to Zonda, a firm that tracks the housing market. But supply has still not caught up with demand, and that lag coupled with factors including higher costs for lumber and other home-construction materials and a surge of newcomers, many of them affluent continues to drive home prices up.
As Travis County homeowners get the 2021 property appraisal notices for their home over the coming weeks, they will confront the double-edged sword that is Austin s housing market.
The values of their properties are soaring which can be great if you are selling your home or plan to in the near future.
But if you are staying put, those rising values cut the other way, with property tax bills jumping by hundreds or even thousands of dollars every year and that s a scenario that s not expected to change anytime soon.
The Travis Central Appraisal District started mailing appraisal notices this week to 389,530 property owners. The notices include the market value of the property based on its status as of Jan. 1, and the taxable value of the property based on its exemptions and all of those numbers are rising quickly.
Continuing the Austin-area housing market s hot streak, home sales and the median price paid for those homes set records for a January, according to new data from the Austin Board of Realtors.
Low mortgage interest rates, high demand and a shortage of homes continue to fuel the market and drive prices higher, experts and real estate agents say.
Sales of single-family homes, townhomes and condos soared almost 24% in January, with 2,523 homes changing hands, a record volume for the month.
Half of the houses sold for more than $365,000 and half sold for less, a January record for the median price and an increase of nearly 20% over January 2020 s median.
Austin-area county unlocking affordable homes for first-time buyers
Austin-area county unlocking affordable homes for first-time buyers Lockhart is just one of the reasons first-time homebuyers are heading to Caldwell County. Caldwell County home to the lowest home prices in the Austin area could be the region’s next frontier for first-time homebuyers, just as Hays and Williamson counties once were. In 2019, the county saw construction start on 36 new homes, according to housing data provider Zonda. That number climbed to 58 in 2020, representing a rise of more than 60 percent versus the previous year. Especially noteworthy is that, unlike the region’s other counties, all of those new homes in Caldwell County have been priced at $201,000 to $299,000, Zonda says.
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