Sean and Glenn catch up on exciting things happening in Austin and the unique challenges stemming from the city’s recent growth. Glenn is the Director for Business Development at Broaddus Construction and also hosts the BoomATX podcast. Glenn shares his take on accommodating Austin’s growth and how the city should heed the influence of people like Elon Musk. To Glenn, most of it comes down to supply and demand: the question is if Austin can allow companies to provide the supply.
Timecoded Guide:
[00:00] Start of episode
[10:18] Housing Prices in Austin
[14:05] Elon Musk in Austin
[16:09] The “Company Town”
[21:36] The Future of Housing in Austin
[25:24] The Robin Hood Recapture
Is Elon Musk making a positive development in this market?
Glen thinks that Musk has already positively contributed to Austin’s development. With his speed to the market in Tesla’s manufacturing and plans to expedite downtown Austin transportation infrastructure, Glen thinks that the city should continue to allow Musk to build and develop in and around Austin.
“We should be encouraging it and allowing him to do it. For some reason, the city and public entities are all for all options until it’s not their option.”
What do you see as the future of housing in Austin?
Glenn says that, as developers have no incentive to discount their costs, they can provide as much housing as the city allows but can only sell at the market rate. Meanwhile, there is no shortage of people moving to Austin, Glenn says that Austin simply needs more housing of all types. The challenge in meeting the demand and providing more supply are things like zoning, permitting, and city approvals, Glenn says.
“What has been able to get approved and zoned and under construction is such a long runway that’s built into the limited supply we have, and, like I said, there’s just no shortage of people wanting to move to Austin.”
What are your thoughts on the Robin Hood Recapture?
The Robin Hood Recapture Law is a Texas House bill that aims to recapture excess local property tax from wealthier school districts and supply other school districts with funds needed to reach state entitlement. Glenn says that a lot of money collected from property taxes in wealthier districts does not go back into education. He says that while it may not be easy, Robin Hood Recapture is the simplest way to address affordability in Austin.
“We’re paying two times as much to educate our kids in Austin, that we’re getting services going out for the local area, that’s a good chunk of money, that doesn’t put more money into the pool to fund education across the state.”
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Links:
Keep up with Glenn on LinkedIn.
Tune in to the BoomATX podcast.
Visit Broaddus Construction at their website.
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