CultureMap Austin, March 15, 2021
New single-family homes are popping up like mushrooms around Austin, with the region nailing down its status as one of the busiest home construction markets in the country.
Data from the National Association of Home Builders shows Austin issued 21,653 permits for single-family homes in 2020. That puts the Capital City at No. 5 among U.S. metro areas for single-family construction permits handed out last year.
And it’s been busy around the Lone Star State with Houston issuing 48,208 permits for construction of single-family homes, giving it the No. 1 spot in the nation. DFW, meanwhile, issued 43,884 construction permits, making it the No. 2 busiest market.
Despite last year’s flood of single-family construction permits, homebuilders in Texas are having trouble keeping up with “the phenomenal demand,” says Ben Caballero, founder and CEO of Dallas-based HomesUSA.com.
The Texas Real Estate Research Center says that across the state, the number of single-family homes that began construction in 2020 grew 18.9 percent compared with 2019.
Although last year’s new-home construction pace was slower last year in Austin than in DFW and Houston, the Austin area led the state’s major metros on a per-capita basis with more than 21,300 single-family homes getting underway…more.
