Austin housing boom has homebuilders struggling to keep pace, prices soaring Home construction is booming at a rapid pace across the Austin region — but it's still not fast enough to keep up with torrid demand, builders and local housing market experts say. Builders started work on a record number of new homes in the Austin area in the first quarter, according to Zonda, a firm that tracks the housing market. But supply has still not caught up with demand, and that lag — coupled with factors including higher costs for lumber and other home-construction materials and a surge of newcomers, many of them affluent — continues to drive home prices up.