Austin, TX
Texas short on housing: What a new study says about local challenges
AUSTIN (KXAN) — A new study from the Texas Comptroller shows just how widespread housing affordability challenges are in Texas.
According to the report, Texas is more than 300,000 homes short of what it needs and Texans from major cities to rural communities are struggling with housing costs.
“It means to me that even as Texans who kind of see themselves as being pro-market and wanting to build, build, build, we’re not building enough,” said Steven Pedigo, the director of the LBJ Urban Lab at the University of Texas at Austin. “We’ve got to build more to keep up with the population gain that we’re seeing.”
The study identifies local challenges including: do cities need to better manage large investment groups who can out bid and drive up costs on single-family homes? And how do cities best regulate their land? The latter is something the city of Austin has discussed for years.
“At the local level it remains one of the biggest parts of our affordability toolkit and we have to tackle that,” said Awais Azhar, deputy director of HousingWorks Austin. “It’s interesting that the state is beginning to think about how do they sort of provide guidance to localities to work this localized issue.”
The report noted the pushback some communities, like Austin, have gotten while working through land development code changes.
“Homeowners want to maintain high property values to earn the greatest return on their investments, and they may oppose projects they believe may de-value their property. This resistance can result in project delays, increased costs and even cancellation of new housing projects, exacerbating housing shortages and affordability issues,” the report says.
‘Not about the wisdom of the policies’: City of Austin back in court over zoning notification process
Several years ago, the city worked through a complete rewrite of its land development code — which governs what can be built where — but that rewrite was successfully challenged in court in 2020.
Now, Austin City Council is working through individual changes to its rules, most notably including the passage of the ‘HOME’ initiative which, in part, reduced minimum lot size requirements and allows building of more units on a single-family lot.
Still, housing experts say there’s a lot more to be done.
“I worry that if the city doesn’t do it, the city and state has this kind of back and forth friction and I wonder if we don’t take care of it does the state kind of step in and start to mandate cities like Austin and Houston and Dallas to do more. That may actually happen and we’ll see how that plays out in terms of the politics of that,” Pedigo said.
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AUSTIN (KXAN) — Texas’ highway system dropped two spots since 2025, and now ranks at No. 27 in the country for its cost-effectiveness and overall conditions, according to the Reason Foundation’s 2026 Highway Report.
The report assessed pavement conditions, fatalities, deficient bridges, infrastructure costs and congestion levels across the United States. Texas earned the following rankings:
- 33rd in urban interstate pavement conditions
- 21st in rural interstate pavement conditions
- 39th in urban arterial pavement conditions
- 12th in rural arterial pavement conditions
- 3rd in structurally deficient bridges
- 26th in urban fatality rate
- 42nd in rural fatality rate
- 41st in traffic congestion
“More than 42,000 of the nation’s 618,923 highway bridges, nearly 7%, are still structurally deficient. Arizona, Nevada, and Texas reported the lowest percentages of deficient bridges,” the report said.
The full report can be found online.
AUSTIN (KXAN) — Small hail peppered the Austin area as strong thunderstorms moved through Saturday.
A few of the storms dropped rain and up to pea-sized hail in San Marcos, Dripping Springs and the Austin metro area.
A Severe Thunderstorm Warning was issued for Williamson County around 8:15 p.m., and then canceled shortly after. However, it was enough for the Two Step Inn music festival in Georgetown to cancel shows for the rest of the evening. Event organizers say the festival will run as planned Sunday.
KXAN’s First Warning Weather team is monitoring the storms. We will update this post as the evening continues.
AUSTIN (KXAN) — Governor Greg Abbott and the Texas Society Sons of the American Revolution unveiled a new monument at the Texas State Cemetery on Saturday, dedicated to Texas Revolutionary War soldiers.
“We must educate every generation about why it is that America grew from a tenuous 13 colonies into the most powerful country in the history of the world,” said Governor Abbott. “This monument here is an enduring testament to the heroes who fought for the freedom that is unique to America.”
The monument was dedicated to 69 soldiers who fought in the American Revolutionary War and later settled in Texas, according to a press release.
Among those that were honored, Abbott recognized:
- José Santiago Seguín, grandfather of Texas Revolutionary hero Juan Seguín.
- Peter Sides, who fought in the 2nd Battalion of the North Carolina Regiment of the Colonial Army, and was later killed in the 1813 Battle of Medina, fighting for Mexican independence against Spain.
- Antonio Gil Y’Barbo, the founder of Nacogdoches.
- William Sparks, who fought as a mounted rifleman in the American Revolution and later settled in Texas. He had two sons and two grandsons who fought in the Texas Revolution.
“This year marks the 250th anniversary of the American Revolution, which not only gave freedom to the British colonies of North America, but inspired movements for freedom and liberty all over the world,” said TSSAR President Mel Oller. “Texans played a role in the war too, and it’s important to recognize them, and the sacrifices they made for our freedom.”
At the monument unveiling, Abbott was also inducted into the Sons of the American Revolution and received its Silver Good Citizenship Medal.
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