Austin home builders struggling to keep up with demand of housing

AUSTIN, Texas - In January, the median sales price of a house in the Austin-metro area rose 30 percent to $476,000.

While it's getting tougher to find housing in Austin, home builders are struggling to keep up with demand.

The president of the Home Builders Association of Greater Austin Scott Turner says with higher demand in the city, people are having to look further outside of Austin city limits to find homes.

"Austin’s unprecedented economic growth shows no signs of stopping, with announcements of new projects almost daily. While this is great for Austin long term, our capacity to house people cannot keep up, with people having to drive further outside city limits to find a home they can afford," said Turner.

Turner said while builders and buyers want new homes built as quickly as possible, the land development code in Austin is outdated and complicating the development pipeline.

"Ten years ago, Austin acknowledged that the land development code was inadequate to meet our growing housing needs. Today, we still have the same issues, and it takes longer than ever to navigate the permit process," Scott said. "We need a new code that allows more housing to be built, and we need the city to make the changes necessary to deliver permits in a reasonable time. Until then, home prices will continue to increase like they have for the past decade." 

Despite the struggles that come in the housing market, realtors in the Austin area are optimistic and looking forward to what this year could bring.

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