Austin has long been the epicenter of the state's housing affordability crisis, but the problem reached new levels in the pandemic era amid massive population and employment growth. The crisis, together with the rise of a new political bloc calling for reforms, has given Austin's leaders a renewed mandate to address the problem. Instead of the single-family homes and large apartment complexes that characterize Austin, the measure encourages developers to build duplexes, triplexes and townhomes. Austin's pro-housing legislators have achieved some other recent successes, such as ending city mandates that required a certain number of parking spaces to be built with each new home, and reducing some limits on the construction of taller buildings next to single-family homes.
The changes approved by Austin councilors will take effect in 10 days, but builders won't be able to use them until February. Perhaps the transformation has been most keenly felt in East Austin and in the Montopolis neighborhood, an area 2.5 square miles southeast of downtown, where unobstructed views of the ever-expanding skyline have turned the historically black and Latino neighborhood into a sought-after community. The Austin city manager needs to review the details of the resolution, including the heights of the buildings and the amount of green space that should be around homes. AUSTIN In recent years, in one of the fastest-growing cities in the United States, the capital of Texas has changed at a breakneck pace, with churches being demolished, mobile home parks being demolished, and places frequented by modern restaurants and luxury apartment complexes replaced.
Thursday's vote is part of an increasingly common strategy in Austin by politicians, builders and affordable housing advocates to focus on zoning regulations, which restrict what can be built and where, as a way to reduce the cost of housing. With the University of Texas's flagship campus, gentle rolling hills and a vibrant music scene, Austin has long been an attractive place to call home. Supporters have mentioned not only the potential to build housing that middle class families can afford, but also the possibility of building housing closer to each other and avoiding the pattern of expansion that has defined the Austin region. A decade ago, Austin, the capital of Texas often considered a liberal oasis in an unconditionally conservative state, was one of the more affordable places to live.
As homes in Austin rose in price, they also increased in size, mimicking a trend across the country. Jon Kniss, a photographer from Nashville, took desperate steps to find a home when he moved to Austin last year. According to the Austin Chamber of Commerce, over the past 10 years, jobs in the high-tech sector, which tend to be in six figures, have increased by almost 62 percent in the Austin metropolitan area, to a total of around 176,000 jobs, representing 17 percent of all jobs and far exceeding the growth of all other industries. In an attempt to encourage housing construction for the middle class, Austin voted Thursday to modify land use rules to allow homeowners to build more housing in neighborhoods restricted to a family living in a house on land. AUSTIN, Texas A new report from the Austin Board of Realtors (ABoR) revealed that the city is dealing with housing shortages in every municipal district.
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