Hi y’all, welcome!

Inside: Austin’s skyrocketing apartment vacancies 📈 + a 3 bed house for $19M in Austin 💰️ 

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(*unbiased opinion)

WHAT'S INSIDE

• 🚨 TIPS FROM YOUR REALTOR

• 🤠 WHAT’S HAPPENING AROUND TOWN

• ⁉️ WHAT THIS MEANS FOR YOU

• 🤤 HOUSE WORTH DROOLING OVER

🚨 TIPS FROM YOUR REALTOR

(it’s me)

I’m an ex-dentist turned Realtor - let’s work together! Email me, tweet me or send me a carrier pigeon. 🐦️ 

The Austin skyline seems to change daily - who lives in these building? Let’s talk about it.

The national vacancy rate for multifamily units is rising - 8% in Q4’24 - higher than pre-pandemic levels. With rising vacancy, you would expect a decrease in the housing shortage but it’s estimated that the U.S. housing market is rising and undersupplied by 1.5-7 million units (crazy range, I know).

It seems difficult to reconcile the constant news of housing shortages with the record speed of new construction.

A deeper dive shows that all of this new construction looks exactly the same. 4 and 5 star buildings with average rents for 1 bedrooms of $2,000+. Many tenants can’t afford this price point. With rising construction costs and land values - developers forecasted the highest returns with luxury living. But they did not anticipate high vacancies. High end apartments in the U.S. have an 11.4% vacancy rate - in Austin, it’s 15%. Landlords are offering significant concessions to lure in new tenants. With these concessions, sometimes 2-3 months free on a 1 year lease, tenants have begun “concession shopping.” This is an industry term that refers to tenants moving into brand new apartments to get two months of free rent and leaving for new deal after their lease expires.

Many developers are confident that Austin will recover later this year - the number of people moving into the market still looks healthy.

Austin currently has ~21,000 units under construction and Sam Tenenbaum, head of multifamily insights at Cushman & Wakefield, predicts that if as many people move to the city in 2025 as did in 2024, it should only take a year to fill up the empty apartments.

The real solution for our undersupply of housing would be for developers to focus on building affordable units, profitably.

Read more here

🤠 WHAT’S HAPPENING AROUND TOWN

I really didn’t plan this but there is a new luxury high rise coming to Austin…

Welcome to The Luminary

Austin’s newest planned luxury condominium tower on 14th and Guadalupe. Pre-sale will begin early 2025 and units will range from 1-3 bedrooms - pricing information is expected to follow soon.

Read more here

⁉️ WHAT THIS MEANS FOR YOU

If you’re a buyer/seller/investor/renter or just interested in real estate - this weekly newsletter will help guide your decision making and help you better understand the market.

🤤 HOUSE WORTH DROOLING OVER

This house is undeniably gorgeous. Sitting on 3-acres with 550 feet of private waterfront, this is the epitome of luxury living in Austin.

But - I’ve grown to expect more than 3 bedrooms with a price point of $19,900,000. (inflation I guess?)

Thank you for being here! Reply to this email if you have any questions or just to say hello! 👋 

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