Is Austin Still Growing? What Migration Trends Mean for the Housing Market

During the pandemic years Austin experienced one of the largest population booms in the country. Between 2020 and 2022 the Austin metro added nearly 95,000 new residents through migration alone, fueled largely by remote work, tech expansion, and people relocating from higher-cost states. 2021 in particular was the peak of that movement, and it played a huge role in why housing demand and home prices accelerated so quickly during that time. When thousands of people move to the same city at once, the housing market naturally feels that pressure.

In the last couple of years that pace has slowed, but Austin is still growing. Recent estimates show the region added roughly 14,000 net new residents through domestic migration in the past year, compared to more than 22,000 the year before. The metro still adds tens of thousands of residents annually overall, but more of that growth is now coming from international migration rather than the massive wave of people relocating from other U.S. states like we saw during the pandemic years.

The big takeaway is that Austin didn’t suddenly stop growing, the growth simply normalized. The 2021 boom was unusual and likely unsustainable long term. Today the city is still one of the faster-growing major metros in the country, which continues to support housing demand, just without the same level of urgency and price acceleration we saw a few years ago. For buyers and sellers, that shift creates a market that is healthier and more balanced than the frenzy we experienced during the peak migration years.