The Austin economy is the envy of much of the nation, attracting jobs and new residents at a faster pace than most other American cities for nearly a decade. Rapid expansion and change has brought opportunity and challenges to a city that has long been torn between progress and nostalgia. Nowhere is that more true in Austin today than when it comes to the issue of housing.
In the last two decades Austin’s housing market has gone from the least expensive to the most expensive among Texas’s four major metropolitan areas. With many Austin workers priced out of all but the city’s periphery and an increasing number of long-time homeowners struggling financially to stay, there is growing demand for new city policies to address the problem. RECA believes Austin can build its way out of this affordable housing crisis, but only if it encourages housing of all types for a variety of income levels in neighborhoods throughout the city.
