FOX 7 Focus: How will decreasing minimum lot sizes affect the Austin housing market?

FOX 7 Focus: Minimum lot sizes and housing

In this week's FOX 7 Focus, we speak with Austin Board of Realtors president Ashley Jackson about the City Council's recent decision to recommend decreasing the minimum lot size for homes, and how that will affect the Austin housing market.

AUSTIN, Texas - Austin City Council voting 7 to 2 last week to recommend officials decrease the minimum lot size for homes, from about 5,700 square feet to just 2,500 square feet or less.

What will this mean for the city's pricey housing market?

FOX 7 Austin's John Krinjak sat down with Austin Board of Realtors president Ashley Jackson to ask what these changes will mean.

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ASHLEY JACKSON: So what this would allow are a couple more houses per lot, which would allow varying prices for those houses. So that's the exciting part for me, is to know that we're going to be we'll have inventory that people at a variety of price ranges will be able to afford in the Austin area, which just hasn't been the case lately. So this could open the door to townhomes, duplexes, homes with accessory dwelling units. We're just allowing the lot to be smaller, whereas now the lot has to be over 5,700 square feet. And so that kind of dictates for a larger, larger home. But now we're allowing smaller lots, which will mean more homes available and just a whole different array of housing types.

JOHN KRINJAK: We heard so much about population growth year over year here in Austin and the crunch that that's putting up the housing market. When it comes to inventory, how much of a bite do you think this'll take out of that issue?

ASHLEY JACKSON: Everything helps. So I think that this will help. And we you really need you don't want just one approach to improving our housing supply. We need a multitude of approaches. And this one is just a very strong step forward in the right direction. You know, since January, we've seen a lot of positive changes coming out of city hall as they seek to navigate Austin towards having more housing supply so that teachers, firefighters, police officers can live near their jobs.

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JOHN KRINJAK: What does this mean for people who have a home in Austin right now or might be looking to buy one?

ASHLEY JACKSON: Yeah. So what it means for someone who may be looking to buy one going forward. The staff has been directed at City Hall to make these amendments to the Land Development Code. So it's not concrete yet. So we're still waiting on that going forward. As soon as that's amended and developers are out there, once they get active out in the marketplace, they will start delivering the homes at those different price ranges and in the different varieties that we were talking about. So I would say we'd see that over the next few years. And for existing homeowners, what this means is you can do more with your property. And that is, you know, obviously a very Texan sentiment to have. So this is kind of giving more rights to the homeowner.

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JOHN KRINJAK: It's felt like a pretty decisive vote by City Council, although there were a couple of members that raised concerns about things like population density, concerns that density may not translate to affordability, and then other things, unintended consequences, like too many of these properties turning into short term rentals. What would you say some of those concerns?

ASHLEY JACKSON: Yeah, I can understand, you know, being resistant to a little change. I've lived here over 40 years and none of us have wanted to see Austin evolve so quickly. But the reality is when we're delivering around housing supply, we're not just delivering it to people who may be moving here. We're delivering housing to people who already live here. My teenage sons, for example. So when we create more supply of housing and a variety of types that will come in a variety of price ranges, we're allowing Austinites to stay in Austin, and I think that's really what we need to stay focused on.

JOHN KRINJAK: Ashley Jackson of the Austin Board of Realtors. Ashley, thanks for being with us, sir. Appreciate it.

ASHLEY JACKSON: Thank you so much for having me.