How Austin Became Texas’ Most Expensive City

Once famously affordable, Austin has become the most expensive city in Texas. In an article in the Austin American-Statesman, Chaya Tong, Tony Plohetski, Alex Driggars, and Karina Kumar explain how it happened.

According to the authors,

Rapid population growth — including an influx of high-earning tech workers — have driven up housing costs, which have far outpaced local wages and transformed what was once one of Texas’ most accessible big cities into its most expensive.

Since the 1990s, the city’s growing reputation as a tech hub — “Silicon Hills” — has spurred significant population growth. Between 2010 and 2015, the city’s population grew by 17 percent. “Austin now has the highest median housing costs among large Texas cities, and home prices have grown far faster than incomes.” 

An Austin household would need to make over $118,200 annually to afford a typical home, a figure almost $30,000 above the city’s median household income. Meanwhile, almost half of the city’s renters spend more than 30 percent of their income on housing, a federal indicator for ‘rent burden.’