Austin's housing market in reverse after years of explosive growth

The explosion of Austn has happened rather rapidly in the last few decades. From what used to be a bit of a hill country oasis has turned into an entirely different place. Austin has always been a bit weird, but now it is weird, and outrageously, laughably expensive. You can blame Californians moving here to flee liberal garbage in California, or you can blame the red-hot property value there. There are a variety of factors influencing Texas' own little slice of California.

Skyrocketing with the cost of living in the city has also been the Austin housing market. From the pandemic year of 2020 to the year 2022, home prices in Austin blasted up 60 percent. But since then, we have been bombarded by a Biden economy that has inflated interest rates to their highest level in 20 years, and it has caused a big cool off in Austin.

The co-founder of the Save Austin Now PAC Matt Mackowiak says this slip is the result of the market becoming the 'wild west' for a few years.

"People were making cash offers 25 percent over asking prices...people were getting ten to twelve bids on houses for multiple years...which drove prices up," he says. "That, plus the rapid increase in valuations and property taxes has created an affordability crisis that is profound."

Maybe the best example of the affordability crisis is the ever-increasing number of homeless people taking over the streets of downtown Austin.

While the prices have come down a bit, cooling off between 10 to 15 percent in the last year, the home prices there still remain some of the most expensive in the country. Which is why people in the area are now switching their focus to suburbs like Round Rock, Buda, and Kyle.

"Those areas are booming...because it is generally much safer, and a more family friendly environment," he says.

Safety is the key word there, because if you will remember, Austin was one of the idiotic cities that thought defunding their police department was a good move. All in efforts to look 'progressive.' That has driven people away to the edges of the city now.

But after all, it is Austin. It is a city that is expanding not just population wise, but also with business growth. Tesla has moved there, along with many other major tech firms fleeing the oppressive nature of Silicon Valley. That is why real estate expert Ashley Massie says this is not a long-term trend.

"I think this is a slight correction in the market, and we will see it change here soon...because Austin is still a hot market...it will continue to grow and thrive because it is such a dynamic, unique place to live," she says.

Both of them say that the other issue is there are a lot of options, like renting, that end up being cheaper.