How Competitive Is It to Buy a Home Near the Tech Giants of Austin?

Austin, Texas is quickly becoming one of the hottest tech hubs in the country, as long-time Silicon Valley-area companies relocate or open up new campuses or plants in the area. 

Texas’ business-friendly climate, the area’s vast pool of educated workers, and the city’s “vibe” has companies such as Apple, Tesla, Oracle, and Samsung calling Austin home. In Samsung’s case, the one Austin-area plant isn’t enough — the company just announced an even larger manufacturing plant will open in nearby Taylor. 

Tech companies aren’t the only entities flocking to Austin, however: In an especially hot U.S. housing market, Austin stands out as one of the hottest embers burning. The median home sale prices in Q3 2020 for Austin was $355,000 — by Q3 2021, it had shot up to $490,000. Homes in Austin stay on the market for an average of just six days, down from about two weeks the year before. 

This means that if you’re looking to move to Austin to join one of these tech companies, or if you’re interested in buying a home near their campuses for any other reason (proximity to family, or a favorite BBQ spot, perhaps), your goal may be that much more difficult to reach. 

Here’s an overview of how competitive buying in the areas surrounding some of Austin’s newly arriving tech giants has become, by comparing sales of townhomes and single family homes from Q3 2020 to Q3 2021.

Buying a home near Apple in Austin 

Within 10 miles of Apple’s campus on West Parmer Lane in Austin, home prices have shot up by 45%, and the median number of days that a home stays on the market has fallen precipitously. While the whole Austin market has seen a large jump in median home sale prices, homes in this area handily outpace those gains: 

Buying a home near Tesla in Austin

Tesla’s campus, right next to the Austin airport, was already a competitive place to buy in Q3 2020 — but median home prices still rose year-over-year by 22%.

Buying a home near Oracle in Austin

It doesn’t get much more central than Oracle’s campus along the Colorado River in Austin. As a result, within a 10-mile radius of the Oracle offices, median home sale prices reach nearly $600,000.

Buying a home near Samsung in Austin

Technically, Samsung’s newest plant is planned for the nearby Texas town of Taylor, outside of Austin. This new facility will reportedly be “four times larger” than Samsung's existing plant in Austin. The average DOM of the 10 mile radius around the future plant fell from 13 to 7 year-over-year, and median home sale prices jumped 49%. 

The bottom line

You’d be hard pressed to find an area of Austin that isn’t more difficult to buy a house in compared to last year. But as the city continues to build out its roster of tech giants and attracts even more workers, look for home values near these hot spots to climb even higher — especially in emerging satellite towns like Taylor.