Are We Back on the Right Real Estate Trajectory in Austin?

Short answer: yes on pricing, no on affordability.

If you zoom out and look at real estate over the last 75 years, home values in the U.S. typically appreciate at about 3–5% annually. There are always spikes and corrections, but over time the market tends to return to that long-term trend line. What we experienced in Austin from 2020 to 2022 was a massive spike—home values jumped 25–30% in a very short period of time, fueled by sub-3% interest rates and a surge in demand.

What followed was inevitable.