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The first residents are expected to move into a mixed-use tower this summer at East Fifth and Brazos streets. The project will have 331 luxury apartments, with monthly rents averaging $2,636, along with two Hyatt-brand hotels.
An Austin developer is planning a downtown apartment project that would offer rental rates below those at surrounding luxury developments.
Shoal Cycle, which will be along Shoal Creek at 11th Street, will have 210 beds with 58 parking spaces, as well as 3,500 square feet of retail, according to developer Weaver Buildings.
The project intends to offer rents that are affordable to service industry, creative class and office employees, as well as those who work for publicly funded entities such as the University of Texas, the city of Austin and the state of Texas. Rental rates would target those making about $55,000 annually.
The developer has filed a zoning request to build a project up to 90 feet tall. The request will be reviewed by the Austin Planning Commission in the coming months, with the Austin City Council having the final say.
It appears the COVID-19 outbreak has changed that, at least for the time being.
The shift in the market began with the pandemic-induced stay-at home orders put into place last spring and summer, and it has been extended by a decline in the number of people who typically move to Central Texas from out-of-state, market experts say. At the same time, new apartment projects that were planned before the pandemic continued to be completed, adding even more available units into the market.
The upshot is that, for the first time in years, renters and landlords in the Austin area appear to be approaching equal footing, market experts say.