Northwest Austin continues to draw residential development, and some homebuyers are opting to purchase new homes in small planned communities, rather than rent apartments or buy existing homes.
Infill communities offer home- buyers a happy medium between building a brand new home in an established neighborhood and buying a townhome, said Anthony Siela, managing member of developer PSW.
Siela said there is a growing desire in Austin to live in a community where houses are slightly closer together, and where residents are more likely to get to know their neighbors.
“I do think we are seeing a resurgence of the front porch type of living,” he said. “I think these communities help with that.”
In early July, PSW broke ground on the first two of 16 homes in Cima Hills—a single-family home community on Cima Serena Drive between MoPac and Mesa Drive.
PSW’s Spicewood development, a community of 13 single-family homes on Spicewood Springs Road near Mesa, will be finished in the fall.
“We’ve been successful with these types of communities,” he said.
Infill community homes are low maintenance, Siela said, and PSW homes’ five-star green rating, which includes solar panels, means utility costs stay low. The cost of purchasing an infill community home is also likely less than buying an existing property, tearing down a house and building a new home from scratch.
Nine homes in the Spicewood community—which start in the $600,000s—have already sold, he said.
“Cima is just getting started,” he said.
Homes in Cima Hills will range from 1,800 to 2,900 square feet and start in the $500,000s, Siela said.
About 10 PSW employees live in PSW communities, and four members of PSW’s leadership team live in Northwest Hills, he added.
“We live here, and we want to be a part of [the community],” Siela said. “We’re passionate about doing it right.”
Rental outlook
At least 13 new apartment, condo and townhome communities are either approved for construction, under construction or newly opened in Northwest Austin.
Robin Davis, a manager with Austin Investor Interests, which provides apartment market research for Austin and San Antonio, said in the next year more than 11,500 new units will pop up in the Austin area. Nearly 800 of those units will be in Northwest Austin.
AII’s data shows although more than 260 new rental units were added to Northwest Austin in the first quarter of 2015, the occupancy rate slipped slightly from about 95 percent to 94 percent. Davis said the drop in occupancy is attributed to the absorption of new rental units.
The occupancy rate for the entire Austin market was 94 percent in the first quarter of 2015, according to AII’s data.
“The Northwest [Austin] market has continued to show vitality in the face of booming new markets surrounding [it], which are primarily due to the high-tech industry that has infiltrated this market,” Davis said.
Based on the Greater Austin Chamber of Commerce’s database of major office and industrial employers—those with 75 or more employees—more than half of the companies in Northwest Austin are technology companies; downtown contains slightly more than half as many as Northwest Austin.
