Luxe Austin Homes - August, 2025

"New townhome project moves forward in Lakeway City Center"

Community Impact Shares, "A new project is underway in Lakeway’s new City Center, with plans to bring 21 townhomes to the area.

The details

Developer Bill Hayes with W Hayes Ventures said the project will offer nine duplexes and one triplex. The buildings will all be three stories, with a garage on the first floor, living areas on the second floor and bedrooms on the top floor.

The average square footage is estimated to be smaller than the other “for sale” residential housing in the center at around 1,700 square feet, Hayes said. This allows the project to be priced more affordably for the Lakeway area at around mid-$700,000s, Hayes said. The median home price for homes sold in Lakeway in April was $850,000, according to Unlock MLS data.

“It’s…

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"Homebuyers are gaining leverage — but the minimum income to buy is surging"

Austin Business Journal writes, "Americans now need to earn $114,000 per year to afford a median priced home.

That's an increase of 70.1% above the $67,000 required to afford that same mid-range home in 2019, according to data from Realtor.com. It's an increase driven by sky-high appreciation, persistent supply constraints and stubbornly high interest rates, among other factors — and the dynamic continues to weigh heavily on the housing market, even as buyers gain leverage.

The data looked at median home prices each April for the past six years.

“Even with today’s affordability hurdles, meaningful changes in the market could give buyers a better shot at finding a home,” said Danielle Hale, chief economist at Realtor.com. “The number of homes…

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"Austin is building more new apartments than any other U.S. city"

CultureMap Austin writes, "It seems that Austin will keep building as long as the people keep moving here. A new apartment construction analysis finds that Austin has the No. 1 highest apartment construction rate out of all U.S. cities this year, with more than 15,000 new units expected to be completed from the beginning of the year to the end of December 2025.

RentCafe's report, "New Apartment Construction Tops 500K Units This Year, More Than Half in 1 Region" examined apartment building data across 369 U.S. metro areas, specifically buildings containing 50 or more units.

More than 500,000 apartments are in development throughout the country this year, the report found, though that's significantly lower than the 640,000-plus units that were…

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"Analysis quantifies impact on rents when apartment supply increases"

Austin Business Journal shares, "Apartment rents typically drop when new units are added to a market's housing supply, but a new analysis quantifies by how much.

The study by the Pew Charitable Trusts on rent changes in major U.S. cities from 2017 to 2024 determined that for every 10% increase in a ZIP code’s housing supply, rent growth was 1.4% less compared to a ZIP code that had no additional housing supply. The Pew analysis also found that a 10% increase in a market's housing supply correlated to rents growing 5% less from 2017 to 2024.

In Austin, which has undergone an apartment building boom in recent years, the biggest rent declines were for older and lower-quality units, the study found.

Alex Horowitz, project director of housing…

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"Dallas-Fort Worth, Austin are some of the nation’s top real estate markets, study says"

Spectrum News writes, "some of the top real estate markets in the nation are in the Lone Star State, according to a recent study.

The data comes from WalletHub, which used metrics like real-estate market rank, affordability and economic environment to rank U.S. cities.

In the top 10 alone are five Dallas-Fort Worth area cities, including McKinney, north of Dallas, with a total score of 72.33; Richardson, a Dallas suburb, with a score of 68.11; Denton, with 66.52; and Allen with a score of 66.35.

Making the top 20 were Fort Worth and Austin, with close scores of 65.31 and 65.13, respectively.

“Current home prices are extremely important, but there’s much more that you need to look at when determining the health of a city’s real estate…

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"Austin named 4th best U.S. city for renters in 2025"

CultureMap Austin shares, " A summer RentCafe report has found Austin's ideal market for renters has eclipsed most other American cities, earning it a top-five spot among the best U.S. cities for renters in 2025. It's northern neighbor Round Rock also made it into the top 10.

RentCafe's "Best Cities for Renters to Live in 2025" report annually compares 150 U.S. cities based on 20 factors examining their quality of life, local economy, and cost of living and housing opportunities. The report notes that cities were chosen if they had an "apartment stock" consisting of a minimum 10,000 units, and any cities with lower apartment stocks were excluded.

Austin ranked 4th overall on the list, three spots higher than its 2024 ranking, while Round Rock…

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"Where are new homes planned in the Austin metro?"

Austin Business Journal shares, "Some Austin suburbs promise new homes aplenty.

The Austin Business Journal reached out to the city of Austin and its 19 biggest suburbs to survey them on how many single-family homes they report in their development pipelines. Cities measure that differently, and the number includes counts at various stages of entitlement and construction. It's an imperfect science, but it helps gauge how cities are preparing for what's to come in their backyards.

Cities like Kyle (nearly 44,000 homes) and Georgetown (nearly 32,000) have robust pipelines. Taylor (about 8,500) and Buda (about 6,600) are next in line. Meanwhile, Cedar Park is nearing capacity and only reported 200.

Among the highest is Lockhart. The city grew…

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"Home sales in the Austin metro could heat up this fall"

Austin Business Journal shares, "While home sales in the Austin metro continued to slow in July, pending sales ticked up — potentially suggesting stronger sales activity heading into the fall.

That’s according to the latest market data from Unlock MLS, which found that the metro recorded 2,492 home sales last month, down from 2,823 in June and from about 2,700 home sales in July 2024. On the flip side, pending sales clocked in at 2,829 last month, up from 2,706 in June and about 2,440 in July 2024.

As sales have slowed, home prices have dropped. The median sales price in the metro fell from $449,000 in June to $435,000 in July.

“It’s typical for the summer market to slow as people focus on travel and leisure; we often see activity pick back…

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"64% of Lake Travis ISD campuses score 'A' rating in 2024-25 TEA A-F accountability ratings"

Community Impact shares, "Lake Travis ISD received an “A” rating, scoring 90 out of 100 possible points, in the Texas Education Agency’s 2024-25 A-F accountability ratings released Aug. 15.

How it works

The accountability rating system was established during the 2017 legislative session. District and campus ratings are based on State of Texas Assessments of Academic Readiness, or STAAR, scores; graduation rates; and college, career and military readiness, or CCMR, outcomes.

The system uses A, B, C, D and F ratings, and A and B ratings are the only ones considered to be passing.

Zooming in

The district previously scored a “B” rating for its 2023-24 ratings, scoring 89 out of 100 possible points.

Of the 11 schools in LTISD, four…

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"The House You’re Negotiating on Is ‘Accepting Backup Offers’—Now What?"

Realtor.com writes,"You found the house, made an offer, and got the good news: The seller accepted. But when you check the listing a few days later, you notice it’s still marked as “accepting backup offers.” What does that mean—and should you be concerned?

In today’s competitive housing market, it’s not unusual for sellers to hedge their bets, especially during the early stages of a deal.

Here’s what to know if the home you’re trying to buy is still technically on the market.

What it means when your offer is accepted—but the listing is still open

An accepted offer is an important step, but it doesn’t guarantee that the sale will close. Between acceptance and closing, there’s a window—known as the contingency period—where several things can…

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