All Forum Posts by: Bryan Noth

CelLink has confirmed the intent to build and open a 300,000 sq ft manufacturing facility that employs over 2000 direct jobs for the North Austin suburb of Georgetown.  This development had been kept under the mysterious name of ""Project Flex Power" while securing incentive packages but has officially been confirmed with plans to open within this calendar year.  

"CelLink was originally founded with the goal of developing a new type of interconnect for solar panels. To see this core technology evolve into an entirely new product class that is accelerating the transition away from fossil fuel-based transportation, with amazing customers buying our products and world-class investors supporting our growth, is a dream come true,” CEO and co-founder Kevin Coakley said in a statement.

Article link here:

https://www.bizjournals.com/au...

January 2022 Housing Market Update for Austin, TX MSA

January 2022 statistics have been released for the Central Texas Housing market. There was a narrow decline from the preceding month and a 30% increase from the preceding year for the entire Metropolitan Statistical Area.

The City of Austin saw a change in median home price from $544,000 to $55,000, a month to month decrease of $5,000 but a 20% increase from the previous year. The Austin-Round Rock MSA saw a change in median home price from $476,700 to $476,000, for a month to month decrease of $700 but a 30% increase from the previous year.

The following infographics and data are courtesy of the Austin Board of Realtors:

Housing inventory decreased from 0.6 months to 0.4 months for the entire MSA. The City of Austin saw a slightly stronger drop down to 0.3 months. That equates to only 9 days of housing inventory for the City of Austin and 12 days for the entire MSA. The five county region saw a 10% decrease in new listings compared to January of the preceding year and a 17% increase from the preceding month.

It may be prudent to note emerging trends when considering the critically low levels of housing inventory and the influx of job creation and population growth. With inventory unprecedentedly low in the City of Austin proper the outskirts may garner even more attention for prospective buyers. There have been several large scale housing projects announced in the suburbs of Austin.  South Austin, East Austin, San Marcos, New Braunfels, Elgin, Kyle and Buda have all announced large scale housing developments on the horizon. Many of these areas are also seeing other economic indicators of potential growth with new hospitals, new schools, and large mixed use commercial and retail sites.

The data is still quite preliminary at this point for February’s numbers but an initial review suggests we will see increases in home prices and I am curious to see rental growth rates as those are released.  Interest rate increases and the squeeze on housing inventory may force potential buyers into renting in an already high occupancy market.

Disclaimer: The information provided here is for educational purposes only, past performance is never a guarantee of future performance.

St. David's Healthcare announced they will be expanding their footprint in the Austin MSA.  Multiple sites will be developed, included expandsions in North Austin and new hospital facilities in Leander and Kyle.  They expect this will create a minimum of 900 new jobs in the area.  

The new facilities coming to both these suburbs comes as no surprise as both regions are seeing tremendous growth.  

Article link here:

https://www.bizjournals.com/au...

@Justin Hernandez do you have any specifics on what your strategy will be or what insight you are looking for?  There is loads of great folks here who can weigh in but might help if you narrow the scope a bit.  

"Multiple sources have told Austin Business Journal that TikTok Inc., the video-based social media platform, has leased at 300 Colorado. The lease is believed to be for the top six floors of the 32-story, 353,000-square-foot tower."

Sources cited that there were nearly 100 job postings in Austin at present.  

Article link here:

https://www.bizjournals.com/au...

The new Master Planned Community named Trinity Ranch is set to break ground on the south side of Elgin, TX.   The community has two builders who are each building roughly half of the expected 1700 homes.  

Elgin is due East of Austin with Manor sitting between the two cities.  Elgin sits along two major highways: 290 which runs East to West and passes through Manor on its way into Austin and Highway 95 which runs North to South.  Highway 95 also intersects Taylor, TX which is the soon to be home of the recently confirmed $17B Samsung plant.  

Trinity Ranch is expected to start home construction in early 2023 and homes sales that spring.  Tentatively the prices are aimed in the $300,000 range.   

Article link here:

https://www.bizjournals.com/au...

Free article link with details on this neighborhood development south of Austin:

https://www.kvue.com/article/m...

A recently published article details the announcement of a new neighborhood community coming just south of Austin.  The Community, being named Prairie Lakes, has a MUD address of 11 Williamson Road in Niederwald, which is on the Eastern borders of Kyle and Buda.  The neighborhood is almost equidistant between Austin and San Marcos, resting east of the I35 highway and just south of the 130 Toll Road.  The 130 toll road circumvents the City of Austin along the Eastern border and is also where the Tesla Gigafactory is situated along.  

Article link here:

https://www.bizjournals.com/au...

A recent article has shed light one of these communities in SouthWest Austin, the Driftwood Golf and Ranch Club.  Details have been scarce to date but a spokesperson for the development company did reveal approximately half of the 320 homesites have been purchased.  The current inventory of available homes start around $3.5M.

I am not sure the rent to purchase price ratio pencils out on these homes, but worth noting the area is seeing strong development and also rests in Hays County, which has topped charts as one of the fastest growing counties in the US.  

Article link:
https://www.bizjournals.com/au...

@Ian K. For major metro areas El Paso and San Antonio have the highest rent to purchase price ratio.  Smaller towns can have even more favorable ratios, but I would make sure the smaller town has some inherent draw to it as many smaller towns in Texas as decreasing in size (mostly the very rural ones).  

To echo @Joe Funari 's sentiments, Texas is an extremely business friendly state and we are seeing a good deal of corporate relocations and expansions.  Each of the metros has pros and cons but San Antonio is much more centrally located than El Paso and the stretch between Austin and San Antonio is the fastest growing in the nation by population percentage.