Luxe Austin Homes - new construction

"PID financing secured for plan to bring 1,400 homes to far East Austin"

Austin Business Journal reports, "Bond financing has been secured for a long-anticipated public improvement district that will support more than 1,400 new homes in far East Austin.

Located on 427 acres east of Del Valle High School between State Highway 71 and Pearce Lane along Kellam Road, the Longview 71 PID is expected to result in 1,461 new homes from homebuilder Taylor Morrison (NYSE: TMHC) in the coming years. During a March 19 meeting, the Travis County Commissioners Court approved a service and assessment plan for the site, in addition to an estimated $10 million bond to support it. The land is not far from Austin-Bergstrom International Airport and Tesla Inc.’s gigafactory.

Christy Moffett, the county’s director of economic development,…

272 Views, 0 Comments

"Ashton Gray's project pipeline brims with Austin-area housing developments"

Austin Business Journal reports, "the company behind Elgin’s Briarwood mixed-use development has big plans for other parts of the Austin metro.

Houston-based Ashton Gray Development recently gained approval from the Elgin City Council to annex 75 acres into Briarwood, a housing development and the city's first municipal utility district. With a pipeline that ranges from Jarrell to Lockhart and stops in between, however, that's only the tip of the iceberg for Ashton Gray, which is aiming to bring more than 5,300 single-family homes to the region, plus apartments and commercial projects.

“We started acquiring land in Austin several years ago,” said Shaun Vembutty, Ashton Gray founder and president. “This was even before some of the buying frenzy…

447 Views, 0 Comments

"The District mixed-use project moving forward even bigger than originally planned"

Austin Business Journal reports, "one of the region's most-anticipated projects is back on track — and much bigger than previously planned.

Eight years ago, Mark IV Capital, a Newport Beach, California-based commercial real estate firm, purchased a 66-acre plot near Interstate 35 and the State Highway 45 toll road for a project known as The District. But the plans subsequently stalled, mostly due to shifting market conditions stemming from the coronavirus pandemic.

Since then, the size of the project has more than doubled. The District is planned as a $500 million investment that will result in 3 million square feet of development and a minimum of 5,000 jobs at full buildout in 2039. Original plans called for 1 million square feet by 2039 and a…

350 Views, 0 Comments

"Related Cos. envisions high-rises in mixed-use hub along South Congress"

Austin Business Journal reports, "a New York-based real estate development firm is planning to transform a 6-acre site at the intersection of South Congress Avenue and West Riverside Drive with high-rise towers — the latest indication that Austin's downtown skyline is poised to expand across Lake Bird Lake.

The Related Cos. wants to establish a planned unit development with a maximum building height of 575 feet, or about 50 stories. The multitower project would include approximately 800 residential units, as well as a 225-room hotel, 200,000 square feet of office space, 90,000 square feet of retail space, 30,000 square feet of space for restaurants and a 25,000-square-foot grocery store, in addition to an underground parking garage, according to…

334 Views, 0 Comments

"Housing Starts Post Sharpest Drop Since April 2020"

Realtor.com reports, "The numbers: Construction of new U.S. homes fell 14.8% in January as home builders scaled back new projects.

The pace of construction slowed as builders curtailed their activity amid wintry weather in the U.S. in January.

Housing starts fell to a 1.33 million annual pace from 1.56 million in December, the government said Friday. That’s how many houses would be built over an entire year if construction took place at the same rate every month as it did in January.

Housing starts fell to the lowest level since August 2023.

The drop in January was the sharpest since April 2020, during the coronavirus pandemic, when starts fell by nearly 27%. Not including that pandemic drop, housing starts fell by the most since 2015.

…

239 Views, 0 Comments

"Mortgage rates hold steady to start 2024. Is an uptick in the housing market on its way?"

Austin Business Journal writes, "the nation's for-sale housing market is off to a mixed start this year after a 2023 that proved largely challenging for homebuyers.

Existing-home sales ended 2023 down about 19% from the prior year, according to data from the National Association of Realtors. While the number of transactions declined, prices rose in most metro areas through the end of the year, and that trend appears to be holding up early into 2024.

In fact, single-family existing-home sale prices rose in 86% of metro areas measured by the NAR — or 189 of 221 — in the fourth quarter. That's up from 82% in the third quarter.

At the end of 2023, the national median single-family existing-home price was up 3.5% from the year prior, to $391,700.

260 Views, 0 Comments

"Developers in Travis County regain public improvement districts but with higher fees"

Austin Business Journal writes, "developers in Travis County have a financial tool back at their disposal that's designed to support large-scale real estate projects, but they may not be supportive of all the changes made to the reworked program.

That's because revisions to public improvement districts, or PIDs, include an increase in community benefit charges tied to certain projects. Previously, developers paid a fee equal to 10% of total investment if their projects didn't include enough affordable housing, but that has been raised to 17.5%. The application fee for a PID has also been increased from $55,000 to $150,000.

Adam Boenig, co-president of Brohn Homes — among the region's most active residential developers — called the higher fees a…

254 Views, 0 Comments

"Austin rents lose steam, with second-steepest decline in December among major U.S. metros"

Austin American-Statesman reports, "just as it is a buyer's market in Central Texas' single-family housing market, so too is it a renter's market in the Austin-area apartment market.

Likely to the dismay of landlords and delight of tenants, Austin saw the second-steepest yearly decline among metros in the latest study by Rent.com.

Rents in Austin dropped 12.5% in December compared with December 2023, according to the study, which tracked rates in the nation's 50 largest metros.

Asking rents in Austin were $1,985 a month in December, versus $2,270 a month the prior December, the study said.

Austin's decline was followed by Raleigh, North Carolina, where rents dropped almost 12.2% to $1,873, and the Las Vegas-Henderson-Paradise metro, where…

380 Views, 0 Comments

"Austin’s HOME Initiative won’t change much — for now"

Austin Business Journal writes, "a new policy allowing up to three homes to be raised on some single-family lots is one of the most high-profile changes to Austin's land use code as it tries to combat high home prices and adopt a big-city mentality.

But experts said the program will not have a notable effect on the local housing market for the foreseeable future — plus, there's the specter of a lawsuit scaring some developers off.

The first phase of what's called the HOME Initiative launched Feb. 5. That's when homeowners and developers could start to submit applications. Landowners can either sell the new, smaller homes or they can rent them out. The impact of the change will only become measurable in the months and years to come, but the…

639 Views, 0 Comments

"Applications open soon to build three homes on one lot through Austin's new HOME Initiative"

Austin Business Journal reports, "developers and homebuilders hoping to take advantage of a new program that will allow up to three residential units to be built on a lot currently zoned for one are about to get their chance.

That's because the HOME Initiative goes into effect Feb. 5, and those who are interested can start applying at that time.

Applications must be submitted through Austin's residential plan review process, according to a new city information hub devoted to the HOME Initiative, which stands for Home Options for Middle-income Empowerment.

The initiative allows the construction of up to three dwellings on lots currently zoned SF-1, SF-2 and SF-3. Most single-family homes in Austin fall into one of those zoning categories.

…

329 Views, 0 Comments