Real estate leaders and the city’s top executive see potential in the city’s recent slates of code changes for land use and building, but agreed that implementing those changes effectively will be what determines their success in addressing Austin’s rising cost of living. Earlier this week, the Austin Board of Realtors hosted its annual Central […]
Austin Board of Realtors
The Austin Board of Realtors is an 8600-member organization for real estate agents in the city. It maintains the city’s Member Listing Service (MLS) database. ABoR is also a charter member of the Capital of Texas Media Foundation. As such, they have donated CoTMF. CoTMF is the parent organization of the Austin Monitor.
Posted inHousing
ABOR report highlights striking disparities in housing affordability
A new report from one of the city’s leading real estate groups is bringing fresh, detailed data that shows how unaffordable housing has become for most local residents. Austin Board of Realtors’ “The Truth About Austin’s Missing Housing” uses industry sales data to examine the overall state of housing affordability among different earning levels and […]
Posted inHousing
Real estate leaders see hope in smaller lot sizes as demand for housing remains strong
“In Austin, you don’t have enough housing for the demand in the pipeline. … I can’t say it simpler. We all agree we have increased inventory, but with the demand coming down the pipeline, and then you had two quarters where builders weren’t building at all – we don’t have enough product.” Those words last […]
Posted inHousing
Council approves ordinances to strengthen renters’ rights
City Council approved two ordinances Thursday enshrining the right of tenants to organize and to remedy lease violations prior to eviction. As rents in Austin continue to rise, tenant advocates say the ordinances are increasingly necessary to help prevent eviction and to allow tenants to collectively demand better living conditions and fair treatment from landlords. […]
Posted inHousing
The median sales price of a home in Austin has surpassed $600,000
The price of buying a home in Austin knows no other mode than acceleration, it seems. According to the latest numbers from the Austin Board of Realtors, homes in the city sold for a median price of $624,000 in March. That represents a record-high price, and a 22 percent increase in sales price over the […]
Posted inHousing
Travis County likely to close housing assistance program months early after ‘deluge’ of applications
Travis County last week reopened a program with millions of dollars in funding to help people make their rent and mortgage payments. Initially the county said it could accept applications through September, but staff members now say they will likely close the program this month because they’ve received so many applications. County Commissioner Brigid Shea […]
Posted inHousing
Sale prices soaring for Austin-area homes
In the first six months of 2021, the Austin Board of Realtors reported, the median price of homes in the city of Austin has increased nearly 31 percent to $530,000. Even more eye-popping, for the month of June, ABoR said the median price of homes in the city of Austin reached $575,000, an all-time record […]
Posted inHousing
Home prices in Austin rose $100,000 in six months. When will the surge end?
When Amanda Traphagan was selling her Austin home in April, she and her husband joked that only a wealthy celebrity would be able to offer a significant amount over what they were asking. “We were making jokes about Elon Musk showing up in the skies,” Traphagan said. She imagined the CEO of SpaceX slinking into […]
Posted inHousing
Allow ‘diversity of housing types,’ ABoR tells Council
Representatives from the Austin Board of Realtors offered policy recommendations to City Council for ways to slow down the drastic increase in housing prices since the beginning of the pandemic. The latest housing market statistics are “dramatic,” as Jeni Williams, ABoR’s deputy director of government affairs, put it at Tuesday’s Housing and Planning Committee meeting. Housing […]
Posted inHousing
Commissioners Court to facilitate talks in disagreement between ABoR and TCAD
TCAD Chief Appraiser Marya Crigler told the Travis County Commissioners Court on March 10 that despite receiving a cease-and-desist order to stop collecting third-party sales data, her office is still working to acquire the necessary data to accurately appraise home values in Travis County. On Feb. 14, Crigler announced that the Travis Central Appraisal District […]
Posted inBudget
TCAD appraisal decision draws Realtors’ ire
On Wednesday, Marya Crigler, chief appraiser for the Travis Central Appraisal District, told representatives of nine local school districts that TCAD would not be reappraising most residential properties this year. That means the school districts, as well as Travis County, Austin and other cities in the county, will not be getting updated information about residential […]
Posted inAustin
Real estate group’s $1M donation will help fuel expansion plans for Community First! Village
A $1 million donation from the Austin Board of Realtors will help the Community First! Village of Austin with its plans to expand and add more homes for the chronically homeless throughout Austin. In an announcement made Monday, the professional organization’s charitable foundation will provide $100,000 per year over 10 years to the village operated […]