Why Doesn't Austin Have More Affordable Housing?
Outdated zoning codes are just one factor driving the Texas city’s housing crunch.
A new home, right, towers over residences on the same street in the Montopolis neighborhood of Austin in 2022. The booming Texas capital's efforts to revise its land development code and build more affordable housing have been thwarted by protests from homeowners.
Photographer: Jordan Vonderhaar/BloombergCities across the US are grappling with a lack of affordable housing, but few have it worse than Austin, Texas.
On top of skyrocketing home values, outdated zoning codes have made it difficult to add additional homes, and more people keep moving to the area — Tesla Inc. is building a Gigafactory there. That’s left local legislators and activists trying to figure out how to keep Austin weird, and keep lower- and middle-income residents from being pushed out of their neighborhoods.