Austin Starting Strong

Housing starts in Austin, Texas were up 7 percent annually in the first quarter of 2019, and grew 22 percent from Q4 2018.

On an annual basis for the 12 months ending March 2019, builders started 16,674 houses in Austin, up 1 percent over the previous 12-month period, National Mortgage News reports. More than 50 percent of the first quarter starts this year were for homes in the $200,000 to $300,000 price range.

The latest quarterly report comes after a year in which Central Texas saw starts climb to their second-highest level on record. Metrostudy's revised figures for calendar year 2018 came in at 16,398 starts, up from 16,385 in the preliminary count. The peak for a calendar year was in 2006, with 17,784 starts.

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