Luxe Austin Homes - July, 2025

"Austin homebuyers gaining negotiating power"

Austin Business Journal writes, "Homebuyers in the Austin area are gaining the advantage as competition heats up among sellers.

The metro's housing inventory continues to hover around the six-month mark and new listings have increased 43.6% year-over-year to 17,662 active home listings, according to Unlock MLS’s latest market report. However, the median sale price of a home in Austin in June was flat at $450,000 compared to the same time last year.

“We’re not 100% in a buyer’s market, but we’re pretty close,” said Brandy Wuensch, 2025 Unlock MLS and Austin Board of Realtors president. “Buyers definitely have more power to negotiate and get a lot more favorable terms from sellers in terms of closing costs.”

Sellers are having to become more…

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"Austin ranks among 20 best large U.S. cities for first-time homebuyers"

CultureMap Austin writes, "As Austin's real estate market slowly bounces back after several years of high housing prices, a new WalletHub analysis has revealed it is the 19th best large U.S. city for first-time homebuyers, and the No. 1 big city in Texas.

WalletHub's study ranked 300 U.S. cities across 22 metrics based on affordability, quality of life, and the status of each city's real estate market, including factors like active listings per capita, homeownership rates for millennials, and more. Cities were ranked overall and based on population size: Large cities with more than 300,000 residents; midsize cities with populations between 150,000-300,000 people; and small cities with fewer than 150,000 people.

Palm Bay, Florida ranked as the…

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"As Austin aims to attract more life sciences companies, this suburb vies to be a hub for the sector"

Austin Business Journal shares, "Cedar Park, a suburb of roughly 78,000 people about 20 miles northwest of downtown Austin, has been courting life sciences companies in recent years. Enovis Corp. marks its biggest win, which picked the suburb for a 100,000-square-foot manufacturing facility that will create at least 162 jobs. But there also have been a handful of smaller victories, and observers contend the pipeline holds the potential for plenty more.

That has led Cedar Park officials to seek partners to build a life sciences cluster, according to Arthur Jackson, the city's chief economic development officer. It would be the center of a mixed-use development in the 215-acre former Lime Creek Quarry. The city acquired the unique property in 2015…

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"The Modern Austin Residences: Condo tower on Rainey Street welcomes new residents this summer"

Austin Business Journal writes, "With Austin’s reputation as a live music capital, perhaps it isn’t surprising that the origin story of The Modern, a 56-story condominium tower hailed as “authentically Austin,” includes a sweet nod to Austin music icons, the Fabulous Thunderbirds. In 2009, still reeling from a recession which had Urbanspace CEO Kevin Burns rethinking the brownstone plans he had for the property he purchased at 90 Rainey Street, he began to envision something with a larger footprint.

While renting his property to a shipping container bar as a stop gap measure, Burns became friends with the property owners next door, Thunderbirds’ drummer Fran Christina and his partner, artist Julie Speed. Over the course of the next five years, with…

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"Kyle's apartment rent prices rivaled Austin's, surpassed suburbs in June"

CultureMap Austin shares, "apartment rent prices in June were more expensive in Austin and Kyle than they were anywhere else in the metro, according to the latest monthly rental report from Zumper.

The rent report, which analyzed active listings from the previous month across all cities in the Austin area, tracks the most and least expensive rent prices for one- and two-bedroom apartments, and determines the cities with the fastest growing rents. Listings were aggregated by city to calculate median asking rents.

Despite being the most expensive rent in the region last month, the asking rent for one-bedroom apartments in both Austin and Kyle technically hasn't risen or decreased since this time last year. The asking rent for one-bedrooms in both…

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"Austin had the most pet-friendly rental listings on Zillow in 2024"

CultureMap Austin shares, "A new market trend report from Zillow has confirmed that pet-friendly rentals are leasing much faster than non-pet-friendly units, and Austin's rental market had the No. 1 most pet-friendly rental listings on Zillow in 2024.

The report, called "Saying Yes to Pets Helps Landlords Find a Tenant Faster," analyzed more than 11 million rental listings that appeared on Zillow last year to discover the share of pet-friendly rental listings in the biggest U.S. metros. The report also calculated the median number of days it took for pet-friendly units to find a tenant, in comparison to than those that did not allow pets.

The Lone Star State as a whole led the nation with the most pet-friendly rental listings on Zillow.…

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"Surf parks, clear lagoons to surround Austin"

Austin Business Journal writes, "To the north and west, huge Carribbean-like lagoons fit for swimming and paddle boarding. To the south and east, a couple of surf parks.

There are four grand plans to bring big water features to new neighborhoods outside Austin. If they all come to fruition, Austinites can find them in any direction they drive.

The four new neighborhoods — at varying stages of development — have been chronicled in previous ABJ stories.

To the north is Leander Springs, a long-delayed lagoon project that developers said is finally moving forward soon.

Down south, in the tiny suburb of Mustang Ridge, the forthcoming Pura Vida neighborhood promises to deliver surf-worthy waves as the centerpiece for its development.

To the…

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"Legislative wrap up: Texas passes key housing bills"

Austin Business Journal writes, "The most recent Texas legislative session saw a slate of measures passed to make it easier to build more housing across the state. 

Some of the laws that were changed include allowing smaller and ideally more affordable homes to be built, expanding where housing in the state could be built and making it harder for housing developments to be killed in the approval process. 

While the Texas Legislature and its process is known for killing more bills than they pass, the 89th legislative session proved to be a “really strong” one for housing and affordability, said Julia Parenteau, the director of public policy for Texas Realtors. 

“We did anticipate that housing affordability, in particular, was going to be…

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"2 big apartment complexes pegged for North Austin"

Austin Business Journal reports, "Two big multifamily projects are in the works for North Austin.

Developers have filed plans with the Texas Department of Licensing and Regulation for two projects that would see almost 800 residences and more than one million square feet of new development built over the next two years. They're planned at a time when the city is grappling with elevated vacancy rates in its multifamily market, but there's a hope that by the time they're delivered, the market will be in a healthier place.

Brockton Residential

The first of the two new North Austin projects is called Brockton Residential. From Atlanta-based Portman Holdings, the project is being planned at 2545 Brockton Drive, according to the TDLR filing.

The…

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"$2B master planned community coming to fast-growing Caldwell County"

Austin Business Journal reports, "Austin developer Wilson Capital hopes to start development of a 932-acre master-planned community in Lockhart as early as the fourth quarter of this year. It's estimated to cost $2.15 billion.

The community, called Blue Sky, will rise on 932 acres along State Highway 130 southwest of Lockhart, according to an announcement. With thousands of homes plus commercial and medical space — and a school — planned, the community will represent major growth for one of the fastest-growing counties in the nation, Caldwell County.

Once fully built out, Blue Sky will have more than 3,650 single-family home sites. The first phase of development is expected to begin late this year or early next year with construction of the…

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