The capital city’s mayoral race is something of a test case in how the state’s rising housing costs might influence local races in major cities.
Austin mayoral candidates state Rep. Celia Israel, center, and former state Sen. Kirk Watson, right, debate on ATX Decides, hosted by PBS Austin, at The Texas Tribunes Studio 919 on Monday, Dec. 5, 2022., our daily newsletter that keeps readers up to speed on the most essential Texas news.
And in a city where new housing often encounters heavy opposition from neighborhood leaders and environmentalists, local housing advocates see the mayoral race and prevalence of “pro-housing” City Council candidates in this year’s elections as a potential pivotal moment for how the city acts on affordability.
Watson, who served as Austin mayor from 1997 to 2001, has sought to convince voters that it’s possible for the city to produce more housing while also letting neighborhoods control the pace — and location — of new developments. The median sale price for a home in the Austin-Round Rock area peaked in May at $550,000, according to data from the Texas Real Estate Research Center at Texas A&M University. That figure has since fallen as rising mortgage rates forced home-sellers to cut their price tags but is still significantly higher than before the pandemic. As of October, the median sale price for a single-family home sits at $474,990 — about 44% higher than in March 2020, when that price was at $330,000.
Under Watson’s plan, individual City Council districts would get to adopt their own code reforms and set their own requirements to boost the local supply of housing. Districts that adopt “pro-housing” reforms, in return, would receive tax revenue generated by the resulting developments to put toward things like parks, libraries and rental assistance.
While the two candidates’ housing proposals share some elements, the approaches are different in tenor.
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