Homebuyers abandon Austin for other cities

Homebuyers are looking to leave Austin in record numbers as housing costs stay high, according to a report by real estate brokerage Redfin.

“More homebuyers looked to leave Austin, TX than move in during the third quarter, the first time on record there hasn’t been a net inflow into the Texas capital,” the report reads.

The homebuying search site said data is based on the searches of about two million Redfin users who viewed for-sale homes online across more than 100 metro areas from July 2023 to September 2023.

Over the last year, more than double the amount of Austin-based Redfin users looked for homes outside the metro area, according to the report.

“Those high home prices have resulted in people needing to leave the Austin metro area for more affordable places, because now locals or even people who moved in during the pandemic, are realizing that it’s too expensive to live there,” Redfin's Daryl Fairweather said.

Fairweather said fewer homebuyers are interested in Austin for several reasons, including rising home prices, doubling of monthly mortgage payments since before the pandemic, and the departure of some buyers who moved to Austin in recent years.

“Prices are still higher than they were before the pandemic but they’re not as high as they were at the peak,” Fairweather said. “That high cost of buying a home means that fewer people are able to afford to achieve homeownership in Austin, and they look elsewhere like San Antonio or Dallas or somewhere more affordable.”

Another factor is remote workers being called back to headquarters, Fairweather said: "Amazon has called people back. Other corporations have called people back. So maybe during the pandemic, it was this great thing that remote work allowed you to live wherever you want, but that’s becoming less common. People are coming back to the office.”

Locals looking to buy could have the best shot at buying a house they've had in years. Austin’s median home price is down about 5 percent year over year, the biggest decline in the nation, and down nearly 20 percent from its pandemic peak.

“I’m telling buyers that this is the first time in years they can get a deal on a house, even with high mortgage rates,” said Austin Redfin agent Carmen Gioia. “Buyers are able to take their sweet time, negotiate with sellers, and buy a home without getting into a wild bidding war.”

Homebuyers leaving Austin are for the most part moving to other places in Texas, Redfin reported. San Antonio and Corpus Christi are two of the three most popular destinations for the site's users moving away from Austin; the other is Denver.