A year ago, the rise in housing prices in Williamson County showed no signs of slowing as demand outstripped the supply of new and existing dwellings coming on the market.
Fast forward to the spring of 2023 and the picture looks a little different thanks to federal regulators’ efforts to control inflation and an increase in the number of houses for sale.
The Austin job market and high prices in Travis County continue to drive homebuyers to surrounding counties, and Williamson County is no exception. East Williamson County, however, is on the cusp of its own job boom with Samsung Austin Semiconductor spots coming online soon and numerous technology and distribution-related positions being created.
The mounting economic growth in the region could put pressure back on the housing market but, for now, there is a lull, making it a better environment for buyers, according to local real-estate agents and economists.
“There are a ton of new construction communities coming in,” said Hippo Realty’s Brooke Daniel, who specializes in East Wilco real estate. “People got discouraged” trying to find houses in the area, but inventory is improving, and the prices have leveled off.
“The pace we were going was not healthy,” said Daniel, whose business is based in Hutto.
A year ago, builders also were plagued by supply-chain issues that added another level of cost and uncertainty to the market. Those have mostly been worked out in the market and adjusted for, she said.
“So far, we’ve seen a relatively weak spring buying scene,” said Clare Losey, housing economist for the Austin Board of Realtors. “Home sales are most sensitive to interest-rate changes in the economic picture.”
The Federal Reserve has tried to cool off inflation with a series of rate hikes that caused home-mortgage rates to double to more than 6% in the last two years. In June, the Fed paused the hikes in a key lending rate that could stabilize home lending rates in the coming months.
“Williamson County has weathered the effects better than the general MSA,” Losey said, referring to the Austin-Round Rock Metropolitan Statistical area that includes Caldwell, Hays, Travis and Williamson counties.
She attributes that strength to robust job growth.
That includes massive construction projects such as Samsung’s 6 million-square-foot semiconductor chip plant in Taylor, several tech and distribution companies and a fast-growing retail and professional services presence in Round Rock, Hutto and Taylor.
In May, the number of homes sold in Williamson County declined by 6.7% to 1,113 houses, condos and town houses compared to May 2022, according to data from the Austin Board of Realtors. Across the MSA, closed sales were down 4%.
The Williamson County median price of sales in May saw a 13.7% dip to $439,990. That was second highest in the MSA with Travis County topping the price chart with a median of $537,000. Caldwell County was the most affordable with a median price of $312,000, which was 9.6% lower than last May.
Housing economist Austin Board of Realtors Housing inventory for Williamson County rose to 2.8 months of inventory, up from 1.7 months last May. Inventory of six months is generally needed to create a “balanced” market for buyers and sellers. And while inventory numbers are improving and pricing has stabilized, it is still considered to be very much a market favorable to the seller.
One of the positives for buyers is that they are no longer having to go to extraordinary lengths to snag a house in a competition where the only rule is how far the other house hunters are willing to go.
In the past, prospective homeowners were having to offer cash incentives above the asking price, agreeing to allow the seller to live in the house after the sale was complete, making offers on properties not on the market and even writing essays to make a plea as to why they would be the best fit as the new caretaker of the abode.
“Overall, as the supply of homes for sale comes more in line with demand, it is getting better for buyers,” Losey said. “They don’t have to move as quickly as they did in the height of the pandemic and all that frenzy.” Recently announced housing developments include the CTC at Emory Crossing, a 56-acre for-rent, single-family project in Hutto at Ed Schmidt Boulevard and Emory Crossing.
Taylor Morrison, the building firm operating in 10 states, agreed to set aside nearly 21 acres for parkland that connects to existing trails in order to gain Hutto City Council approval for zoning and to be annexed into the city limits.
The planned 330 units will include traditional one-family houses and several duplexes. The company did not respond to requests to discuss the project.
In mid-June, the city of Rockdale in Milam County just east of the Williamson County line decided to transform vacant land long designated as an industrial park into a residential development dubbed Cornerstone.
The Rockdale Municipal Development District started marketing the property as a residential site in fall 2021 just weeks before Samsung made public its intent to build a $17 billion semiconductor foundry in Taylor, said Jim Gibson, executive director of the MDD and Rockdale Economic Development director.
Ranch Road Development, based in Bastrop, made an offer last summer and the deal was completed by the end of last year. Since then, the developer struck a deal with home-building powerhouse D.R. Horton to build out 660 lots, which will include houses and townhouses.
The official groundbreaking was June 21, and the first houses will be ready for occupancy by the end of 2024.
The city of about 5,300 at the crossroads of federal highways 79 and 77 is expected to grow in population by about 30% as Cornerstone develops during the next five to seven years. To accommodate growth that comes with the addition of young families with children, 13 acres of the development have been set aside for a future elementary school.
“I see a lot of young families in their late 20s and early 30s. They are the No. 1 buyer demographic in the area,” realestate broker Daniel said. That is not only the development of single-family houses, but also apartment complexes with at least five coming to Hutto or nearby, she said.
While there is talk of South Korean professionals moving to the area to manage various aspects of the Samsung operations, Daniel said she hasn’t seen buyers from out of the country just yet.
“Demographically, I’d say it’s varied,” she said of the house seekers.
Some are coming for work, housing availability, better pricing or the schools. Most are families looking at Williamson County, while “single, young professionals still tend to gravitate to the edges of Austin,” she added.
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