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"5 Austin suburbs featured on 2025 list of best small cities in America"

CultureMap Austin shares, "Five Austin suburbs — Leander, Cedar Park, Georgetown, Pflugerville, and Kyle — are maximizing their popularity on WalletHub's 2025 list of the best small cities in America.

The annual survey compared more than 1,300 U.S. cities with populations between 25,000 and 100,000 residents based on 45 livability metrics categorized into five key dimensions: Affordability, economic health, education and health, quality of life, and overall safety. Cities were grouped by percentile, where the 99th percentile represents the best small American cities.

Out of the 19 total U.S. cities that ranked among the 99th percentile of best small cities in America, Carmel, Indiana; Brookfield, Washington; and Apex, North Carolina landed in…

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"Here's where homes are selling the fastest as the housing market evolves"

Austin Business Journal writes, "Home sales have slowed in many cities across the country — including some Covid-era hotspots — but some communities are bucking the trend and seeing houses sell more than 40% faster than they did pre-pandemic.

That's according to The Business Journals' second-quarter analysis of the nation's hottest housing markets based on quarterly listing and sales data from Intercontinental Exchange.

ZIP code 49629 in Elk Rapids, Michigan, was the fastest-selling housing market in the nation for the second quarter. Homes in Elk Rapids spent an average of 23 days on the market.

The small, waterfront community — approximately 17 miles from Michigan vacation hotspot Traverse City — provides easy access to nearby Elk Lake and…

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"Investors are snapping up more single-family homes"

Austin Business Journal shares, "Investors are snapping up an ever-growing share of single-family homes, and it’s the smallest investors leading the way.

Real estate investors purchased 33% of all single-family residential homes sold in the second quarter, according to the Q2 Investor Pulse Report from BatchData. That is up from 27% of all single-family homes in the first quarter and up from 25.7% in 2024.

It's also the highest share of investor purchases in more than five years, according to the report. Overall, investors own roughly 20% of the 86 million single-family homes in the country.

The development comes as analysts in some pandemic-era real estate hotspots have seen a shift in how properties are changing hands in their markets. In…

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"Hunt Communities bringing 1,500 homes to Belton"

Austin Business Journal reports, "A notable housing developer that's active in the Austin area is bringing 1,500 homes to a city in the northernmost reaches of the metro: Belton.

River Farm, as the neighborhood is known, is being developed by Hunt Communities, according to an announcement. Crews broke ground on the master planned community on Sept. 24.

The El Paso-based developer is building housing communities throughout the state, but in Central Texas, the company is best known for its The Colony neighborhood in Bastrop, a 2,300-acre development that had around 2,000 homes built as of April and another 2,000 on the way.

River Farm is 478 acres. It's located on the southern edge of Belton, just east of I-35, with the Lampasas River on River…

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"ST. ELMO IS ON FIRE"

Austin Business Journal writes, "While South Congress Avenue was undergoing its trendy evolution 10 years ago, St. Elmo was a sleepy, urban industrial center just a few miles down the road.

Previously populated by low-slung buildings, used car lots and heavy machinery, this South Austin hub has rebranded in recent years to the St. Elmo Arts District — the new, cool place to be in Austin that could perhaps help maintain some of the city's "weird" reputation.

It’s a smorgasbord of newly minted condos and apartments, restaurants, warehouse buildings spraypainted with eclectic art that house anything from a brewery to a sake tasting room, and even Propaganda Headquarters, a creative command center. The district is also home to what was supposed to…

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"The 'sweet spot' for frustrated homebuyers is on the horizon"

Austin Business Journal writes, "The best time of the year to buy a home is coming up, giving frustrated house hunters an increased chance to close a desired deal.

The week of October 12-18 is what Realtor.com is calling the “sweet spot” for home shoppers. Why? A rare combination of higher inventory, lower prices and less competition makes it ideal for buyers. And even though it's not exactly a buyer's market overall, the improved buying conditions could feel like a breath of fresh air for prospective buyers.

"After years of constrained conditions, the 2025 housing market is giving buyers something they haven't had in a long time: options," said Danielle Hale, chief economist at Realtor.com, in a statement. "I expect this market momentum shift…

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"Texas boasts more ranches for sale than any other state in the U.S."

CultureMap Austin writes, "Thanks to its deep agricultural roots, the Lone Star State boasts the most ranches and farms of any state in the U.S. — nearly 250,000, according to the Texas Department of Agriculture. Of course, we’ve got a lot of wide open space for those ranches and farms, as Texas spans nearly 172 million acres.

While Texas leads the U.S. in the number of ranches and farms, it also leads the U.S. in the number of ranches on the market. Recent data from Realtor.com shows 7,411 Texas ranches were on the market as of early September — far outpacing the second-ranked state of Kentucky, which had 1,641 ranches up for sale.

Based on the average size of a Texas ranch, 511 acres, the amount of Texas ranchland on the market would equate to…

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"HOME ON THE RANGE"

Austin Business Journal shares, "Matt Riehs' grandfather gifted his mother 2 acres, and then his grandmother helped her build a home on it. His aunt paid for his first 4-H project there. Those acts provided Riehs — an inner-city kid — with what he now describes as a "Huckleberry Finn lifestyle," which he credits for changing his future for the better.

While he wanted to become an agricultural teacher at one point, he has spent more than a decade as a large-acreage subdivision developer. For the last three years, he has owned Bertram-based LandHomesTexas LLC, which works in conjunction with his Katy-based brokerage Vertical Integration Realty LLC, to market, buy, sell and develop land homes with large acreage on the outskirts of Austin and Houston.

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"Fed rate cut could boost Austin housing market"

Austin Business Journal shares, "The Federal Reserve has lowered rates by a quarter point, a welcome sign for homebuyers.

The federal funds rate is now 4% to 4.25%, according to a Sept. 17 announcement, marking the Fed's first rate cut since December. The cut comes as economic indicators point to the growth of economic activity moderating in the first half of the year, job gains slowing and the national unemployment rate increasing to 4.3%, according to the announcement.

Lowering the rate could have an impact on housing affordability in the Austin metro, where the median price of a home was $444,490 in August, 1.3% more than the year prior.

“Even a small rate shift can improve affordability and prompt more buyers to re-enter the market, a…

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"Austin is becoming a buyer's market, new real estate reports say"

CultureMap Austin shares, "the latest Central Texas Housing Report from Unlock MLS and the Austin Board of Realtors (ABoR) has indicated Austin's real estate activity in August is portraying a "more balanced" housing market with an increase in active listings, stable prices, and a rise in pending sales. And two national marketplaces, Zillow and Realtor.com, have already recently declared Austin is now a buyer's market.

The local housing report analyzed August data across the Austin-Round Rock-San Marcos metropolitan statistical area (MSA), the city of Austin, and the five Central Texas counties: Travis, Williamson, Hays, Bastrop, and Caldwell.

Across the Austin metro, median home prices in August rose just 1.3 percent year-over-year to $444,490,…

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