Luxe Austin Homes - residential real estate

"Austin housing market shows stability with jump in sales, lower prices"

CultureMap Austin writes, "After an August declaration that Austin was becoming a buyer's market, the latest Central Texas Housing Report studied September data and found the metro's highest growth in closed home sales all year.

The new report from from Unlock MLS and the Austin Board of Realtors (ABoR) revealed that closed sales rose 6.7 percent year-over-year in the Austin-Round Rock-San Marcos metropolitan statistical area (MSA). Median home prices in the metro dipped nearly two percent year-over-year to $420,000.

Unlock MLS research advisor Vaike O'Grady said the September data indicates buyers are showing a "renewed confidence" as the market stabilizes. September's housing trends are also following ABoR's expectations for the season as the…

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"This COVID-era boomtown is suddenly the most affordable rental market in the US"

The NY Post writes, "When tech companies move in, rents have a bad habit of going up.

Recently booming Austin, Texas has managed to buck that trend. 

Besides a thriving live music scene, outdoor attractions, world-famous brisket and low taxes, the Lone Star State’s keeping-it-weird capital has something else surprising to brag about — low rents.

That’s right — after a sustained period of significant growth, Austin has managed to become country’s most affordable rental market, according to Realtor.com.

Furthermore, the city’s generous rent-to-income ratio also ranked it third in a multinational study of metro areas, Bloomberg reported. 

The famously oddball city’s welcoming rental market has emerged from a period of intense in-migration…

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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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"PIPELINE SHRINKS FOR SKY-HIGH LIVING"

Austin Business Journal writes, "There's likely to be a multiyear pause in new residential construction in downtown Austin in the wake of a recent building boom, experts say.

Downtown residential projects completed in recent years include the 56-story The Modern Austin Residences developed by Urbanspace, the 41-story Vesper condo tower developed by Pearlstone Partners and The Linden, a 28-story condo tower developed by Reger Holdings LLC and the Armenia Group.

The area has been a big draw for wealthy Austinites, lured by its unique combination of nightlife attractions, dining opportunities, residential development and office buildings that make it possible to live close to work. That has made the main downtown ZIP code — 78701 — the wealthiest…

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"New Texas law restricting certain land sales may have major effect on real estate investment"

Austin Business Journal reports, "A new Texas law that restricts land sales to citizens and businesses from certain countries may negatively impact investment in the state after Sept. 1, commercial real estate experts said.

Senate Bill 17, which Texas Gov. Greg Abbott signed into law last month, prohibits “real property purchases” — including residential, with some exceptions, as well as commercial, industrial and agricultural land — to citizens of or companies headquartered in China, Iran, North Korea and Russia. The law also bans “other interests in real property,” which include easements, mineral and water rights, and leases of more than one year.

The governor may designate additional countries to the list. Permanent U.S. residents are…

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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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"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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"About 1,400 new homes pegged for fast-growing Lockhart"

Austin Business Journal shares, "A big development in Lockhart will add about 1,400 homes to the fast-growing city south of Austin.

Houston-based Perry Homes is already hard at work building infrastructure for its Juniper Springs neighborhood, which will total about 400 acres, said Chris Little, president of Perry Homes Central Texas. The neighborhood also will have a new elementary school that will be part of the Lockhart Independent School District, according to an announcement.

“Heavy infrastructure work [at Juniper Springs] has been underway,” with completions of lots expected this summer and model homes ready to tour in the fall, Little said.

He described Juniper Springs as a “legacy project for Perry Homes” that will be built over…

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"Second phase of sprawling Hill Country master-planned community to rise soon"

Austin Business Journal shares, "Hundreds of homes are set to rise west of Austin after a developer secured a $106 million loan for the next phase of a master-planned community.

Austin-based Masonwood Development will begin the second phase of its Provence community early next year, CEO Jim Meredith said in a statement, thanks to the loan from Canadian-based Trez Capital.

The closing of the loan enabled “us to to immediately begin the infrastructure and development of Phase II of this prized project,” Meredith said.

Masonwood collaborated with John Hutchinson and Jason Stowe at Trez Capital to secure the loan.

Provence, a 910-acre development at 16314 Hamilton Pool Road, broke ground in early 2018 and 151 homes have been built so far. But…

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"Leander annexes over 300 acres for new neighborhood"

Austin Business Journal shares, "Leander is one of the fastest-growing cities in the metro, and that growth is poised to continue.

Leander City Council annexed more than 300 acres for a new subdivision, called Oakwood Hills, in May that will add about 200 homes to the suburb northwest of Austin.

The project is being developed by 23244 Nameless Rd. LLC.

Oakwood Hills is located on 337 acres at 23244 Nameless Road on the western edge of Leander, according to council documents. The land is currently undeveloped, and developers are proposing to build single-family homes on 174 one- to two-acre lots.

Leander is one of the fastest-growing cities in the entire metro, according to the U.S. Census Bureau. Its population boomed from 59,202 in 2020…

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