The median sale price for a single-family home in Williamson County was up 5 percent to $261,822 in May compared with May 2015.

Georgetown Planning Director Sofia Nelson said the city is creating an inventory of properties planned for residential development either through zoning or development agreements.

“Single-family construction is not stopping,” she said. “What we are working on now is a comprehensive inventory of how many lots are [planned] for each type of residential and how much is actually built on and how much is waiting on development.”

She said having a working inventory can help with planning decisions as City Council determines how much of each housing type to approve.

Developments

Nelson said the city has seen an increase in the number of new housing starts this year as developers and homebuilders look to keep up with the increasing demand.

In 2015 more than 1,000 residential lots were platted in the city and construction had started on nearly 750 homes, according to city permits.

As of July 6 the city has issued 598 new residential building permits in the city limits and extraterritorial jurisdiction in 2016.

Nelson said the number of housing starts is expected to increase as developers continue to seek approval for new developments in the city.

According to city data, more than 1,700 lots are under construction, and an additional 15,000 are in the planning stages.

Several large developments approved by City Council in 2014 are now under construction and are expected to have lots ready for homes by the end of this year, including Saddlecreek, a 353-acre project in southeast Georgetown, and Wolf Ranch, a 755-acre community near Hwy. 29 and Wolf Ranch Parkway.

Saddlecreek developer David Nairne said the first phase of his development, which includes 427 of the planned about 1,200 single-family lots, broke ground in April. Model homes will be available in spring 2017, he said.

Nairne said with a large number of developments on the city’s west side, the east side, which had a large amount of undeveloped farmland, seemed like an ideal place to break ground.

“I think we were right,” he said. “We had a lot of builders who wanted to come into this project.”

As part of the development, Nairne is also constructing a multimillion-dollar sewer line and other wastewater improvements, which are expected to help open the city’s east side to other developments, he said.

“The lack of sewer [services] is what was holding up [development near SH 130],” he said. “The benefit to the city is opening up what is an area with some of the largest potential for commercial development.”

Housing inventory

In May the housing inventory level in Georgetown was 2.3 months and below two months in Williamson County. Two months is considered a tight market by the Real Estate Center at Texas A&M University, which suggests a 6-1/2 month inventory is necessary to balance supply and demand for homes, according to data from the ABoR.

Austin-area homebuilders are helping to add to the housing stock, said Emily Lubbers, CEO of the Home Builders Association of Greater Austin, but the Austin area has not seen enough housing units constructed to meet demand.

“What happens in one part of the [Metropolitan Statistical Area] impacts the other part,” she said. “When there’s scarcity in one part of the market, that’s going to increase the demand in other parts.”

David Hays, senior vice president of Georgetown Title, said the Austin area has continued to be a job creator and has driven people to the area. However, he said, during the recession homebuilders were not creating new inventory to meet the demands of the new residents.

“During the recession banks were slow to lend on new development projects,” he said. “Coming out of the recession there was very little on the market.”

Since then the builders have built more homes and opened new subdivisions, helping the market, Hays said. He said with more new housing stock coming online, he could see a leveling-off in the market coming.

The association heard from economists in January that the growth in the local housing market will continue, but not at the pace it has been for the past couple of years, Lubbers said.

“Based on the market growth and job growth we see, it’ll continue in the upward trend,” Lubbers said.