The capital of Texas has long been an attractive place to call home. But with an average of 180 new residents a day arriving, its popularity has created a brewing housing crisis that is reshaping the city.
Austin has grown at a feverish pace
Over the last few years, in one of the fastest-growing cities in America, change has come at a feverish pace to the capital of Texas, with churches demolished, mobile home parks razed and neighborhood haunts replaced with trendy restaurants and luxury apartment complexes.
The transformation has perhaps been most acutely felt across East Austin and the neighborhood of Montopolis, a 2.5-square-mile patch southeast of downtown, where unobstructed views of the ever-expanding skyline have made the historically Black and Latino neighborhood a sought-after community.
Construction sites and cranes feel more like permanent fixtures
And the momentum is nowhere near abating. These days, construction sites and cranes feel more like permanent fixtures across the neighborhood, where longtime residents have watched with growing anxiety as chic coffee shops, yoga studios and pricey bars have inched closer and closer.
“We knew it was coming,” said Francisco Nuñez, who for nearly two decades lived at the Cactus Rose Mobile Home Park until it was sold to a developer to make way for amenity-rich apartments that now fetch more than double what he once paid in rent.
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