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Inside: Oversupply in Austin 📈 + The Most Expensive Listing in Texas 🤑 

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(*unbiased opinion)

WHAT'S INSIDE

• 🔢 THE DATA

• 🤠 WHAT’S HAPPENING AROUND TOWN

• ⁉️ WHAT THIS MEANS FOR YOU

• 🤤 HOUSE WORTH DROOLING OVER

🔢 THE DATA

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

We’ve been talking for months about multifamily vacancies in Austin and the 6-8 weeks free that come standard with apartment leases. Looks like Bloomberg is catching up to us.

Let’s see what they have to say -

Nearly all apartments in Austin are doing some sort of specials for move ins. According to Fannie Mae - developers poured almost 50,000 rental units into the city between 2023 and 2024. 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+. High end apartments in the U.S. have a 11.4% vacancy rate - in Austin, it’s 15%. Even with concessions - many tenants can’t afford this price point and are moving outside of city center.

Austin has become the poster child for building more. Lawmakers have cut regulations and significantly sped up development. The results speak for themselves - nowhere in the country have rents declined as much as they have in Austin — 22% since 2023.

Is this a win?

Kind of. Rents dropping is great but vacancies above national averages are not. It is not sustainable to build at this rate. Median rent drops below $1,500 farther out of the city but the core problem of true housing affordability remains. Another 5 or 10 luxury high rises with concessions won’t solve our problems. The real solution is for developers to focus less on luxury and more on building affordable units, profitably.

Read more here.

🤠 WHAT’S HAPPENING AROUND TOWN

It wouldn’t be right for me to talk about the surplus of luxury housing without mentioning a new luxury development underway.

Local developer CSW has been approved to build a 5-story apartment at the intersection of South Lamar and W Ben White Blvd. Total units has not been disclosed.

CSW CEO Todd Wallace is doubling down on his Austin bet. The companies ongoing projects include 338-unit Lirica on E 7th, 325-unit complex on Far West Boulevard and 260-unit Riverline at Kyle Crossing.

See CSW’s project pipeline 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

Not in Austin - but I couldn’t miss Texas’ most expensive listing. Imagine all the steps you can get in this 27,000 sqft mansion.

What really sold me is the tusks in the library. I’m sure those can be negotiated with the sale.

Yours for: $64,000,000

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