Business View Civil and Municipal | April/May 2022

5 CIVIL AND MUNICIPAL VOLUME 3, ISSUE 3 O p e n i n g L i n e s AUSTIN HOME PRICES HAVE RISEN $116,000 IN THE LAST YEAR, ROUGHLY THE COST OF TWO TESLAS The typical Phoenix home price rose by the cost of a Porsche, and Boston prices rose by the cost of a Honda minivan, per a Redfin analysis T oday’s homebuyer could purchase the typical Austin home for $485,000—but if it was possible to go back in time one year, they could buy a home and two Teslas for the same price, according to a new report from Redfin,the technology-powered real estate brokerage. Put another way, someone could purchase both a Tesla Model Y for about $41,000 and a Model S for $71,000 for less than the $116,000 increase in the median-priced Austin home over the last year. The typical Austin home cost roughly $369,000 in January 2021. Redfin compared home-price increases from January 2021 to January 2022 in select U.S. metros with the approximate MSRP of various new vehicles. In Phoenix, the price of the typical home increased by $98,750 last year. With the difference, a buyer could purchase a Porsche Panamera for $90,000 and still have money left over. Home prices grew more in Austin than all but two other major U.S. metros in 2021 (San Jose, CA and San Diego). Next came Salt Lake City and Los Angeles, followed by Phoenix. The huge annual price increases are a result of last year’s red-hot housing market. Homebuyers, motivated to move by record-low mortgage rates and remote work, bid against each other for the limited supply of homes for sale. Bidding wars reached a record high in January, with 70% of