THE ARCHITECTURE EDIT / 01
A home should know
where it stands.
What the threshold, the light and the landscape can tell you before you even open the door.
Read the story36 field notes · Austin neighborhoods and property research
Market data
Austin mortgage rates, October 2026: 7.40% on a 30-year, the highest since 2023
Austin mortgage rates today follow Freddie Mac's national survey: the average 30-year fixed rate was 7.40% for the week of October 8, 2026, up from 7.28% on October 1 and 6.30% a year earlier, the highest weekly reading since November 2023. Freddie Mac publishes no Austin rate, so federal Home Mortgage Disclosure Act (HMDA) loan records are the local check: 30-year home-purchase loans that closed in the Austin metro in 2025 had a median rate of 6.125%, and 58% of those buyers paid discount points. That is last year's market, not today's quotes; on the $412,000 metro median sale price with 20% down, principal and interest at 7.40% come to about $2,282 a month.
Neighborhood guides
78745 Austin, TX: what's in the ZIP code, home prices, taxes and flood zones
78745 is a 13.7-square-mile South Austin ZIP code where Realtor.com put the median list price at $450,000 in September 2026, down 5.3% from a year earlier, at $334 a square foot. Most of 78745 is inside the City of Austin, but about 9% of its land is the separate City of Sunset Valley, which keeps a $0.00 municipal property tax rate, and 43% of the ZIP's homes were built before 1980, according to the Census Bureau. This guide covers the neighborhoods, prices since 2019, housing stock, taxes on each side of the city line, flood zones, parks and transit.
Costs and taxes
Travis County Appraisal District (TCAD): how to search a property and read every value on the record
The Travis County Appraisal District, officially the Travis Central Appraisal District (TCAD), sets the January 1 market value of every taxable property in Travis County, and its free property search at traviscad.org/propertysearch finds any record by owner name, address, account number or business name. For 2026, TCAD put the median residential homestead at a market value of $493,449 and a taxable value of $384,747, according to its March 25, 2026 release. This guide walks through the search, explains each value line on a TCAD record, and covers the caps, the protest deadline and which Austin addresses belong to Williamson or Hays County's appraisal district instead.
Market data
Austin home prices, October 2026: the median is $412,000 sold, $446,450 listed and $560,000 in the city
Austin home prices depend on which number you read: the median sale price across the Austin–Round Rock–San Marcos metro was $412,000 in August 2026 and $560,000 inside the City of Austin, according to Unlock MLS's report released September 15, 2026, while Realtor.com's median listing price for the metro in September 2026, published October 1, was $446,450, down 9.8% in a year. Zillow's typical home value for the City of Austin was $497,418 for August 2026. This post explains why the figures differ, gives the average as well as the median, and breaks September prices out by ZIP code and suburb.
Austin news
Travis County property tax 2026: the county adopts $0.386210, and the median homestead's county bill falls $30.64
Travis County property tax for 2026 is settled: the Commissioners Court adopted its fiscal year 2027 budget on September 29, 2026 at a county rate of $0.386210 per $100 of taxable value, up 2.8% from $0.375845, according to the county's Planning and Budget Office and its notice of public hearing. Because the median taxable homestead fell 4.71% to $372,633, the county's Taxpayer Impact Statement puts the median homestead's county bill at $1,439.15, which is $30.64 less than last year, while the average homestead pays $6.19 more. The county is one of five taxing units on a typical Austin bill, so this post lists every adopted 2026 rate, works a $500,000 example, and explains what happens when bills go out in October.
Neighborhood guides
Lake Travis, Austin TX: lake levels, flood rules, docks, septic and taxes before you buy a home near the lake
Lake Travis, the Lower Colorado River Authority reservoir behind Mansfield Dam, 17.6 road miles northwest of the Texas Capitol, was 89.4% full at 674.65 feet above sea level on September 29, 2026, according to the Texas Water Development Board's Water Data for Texas, about six feet below its 681-foot full level. Lake Travis is built to rise and fall, so a home on or near it comes with questions a city lot does not: how far the water moves, where the flood elevations sit, who permits the dock and the septic system, and which of a dozen taxing units send a bill. This guide answers each one from LCRA, Travis County and state sources, with August 2026 home prices for the ZIP codes around the lake.
Buying in Austin
Home inspection in Austin: what Texas inspectors must check, what it costs and how the option period works
A home inspection in Austin follows the Texas Real Estate Commission's Standards of Practice (22 TAC 535.227-535.233) and ends in TREC's Property Inspection Report form, REI 7-6, which rates every system Inspected, Not Inspected, Not Present or Deficient. Homeyou's Austin cost guide, updated August 17, 2026, puts a standard inspection at $169 to $382, and the whole job has to fit inside the option period a buyer negotiates in TREC's resale contract, form 20-19, mandatory since July 1, 2026. Here is what the inspector must check, what the rules leave out, which specialists cover the gaps, and how the report turns into a repair negotiation.
Neighborhood comparisons
South Austin neighborhoods by ZIP code: prices, price cuts and miles to downtown, September 2026
South Austin neighborhoods split into seven ZIP codes with very different price points: Realtor.com's August 2026 data puts the median list price at $774,950 in 78704 (Bouldin Creek, Travis Heights, Dawson) and $358,000 in 78744 (Franklin Park, Southeast), against $450,000 for the Austin metro. This guide compares every South Austin ZIP on list price, price per square foot, days on market, price cuts and computed road miles to the Texas State Capitol, and names the City of Austin planning areas inside each one.
Austin news
Austin rent prices, September 2026: rents fell 16.6% in a year, and Realtor.com says this is the week to buy
Austin rent prices fell faster over the past year than in any other large U.S. city: Zumper's August 2026 National Rent Report puts the median one-bedroom at $1,260, down 16.6% from a year earlier, and the median two-bedroom at $1,610, down 19.1%. Unlock MLS's August 2026 report, which covers houses and condos leased through the MLS rather than apartment listings, shows a flat $2,150 median lease across the Austin metro. Falling rents change the rent-or-buy math in the same week Realtor.com calls the best of 2026 to buy a home in the Austin metro, so this post puts both sets of numbers side by side.
Market data
Austin housing market, September 2026: mortgage rates cross 7%
The Austin housing market heads into fall 2026 with the average 30-year mortgage rate at 7.03%, the first Freddie Mac weekly reading above 7% since January 2025. Austin-metro listings carried a median asking price of $450,000 in August 2026 and a median 73 days on market, according to Realtor.com data published on FRED. Here is what those numbers do to a monthly payment, how each county compares, and what they do not tell you about any one home.
Neighborhood comparisons
South Austin neighborhoods compared: Zilker vs. Bouldin Creek
South Austin neighborhoods Zilker and Bouldin Creek sit side by side in ZIP 78704 and differ on almost everything else: one has a 2002 neighborhood plan covering about 761.7 acres between Town Lake, South Congress Avenue, Oltorf Street and the railroad tracks, the other has no adopted plan and Zilker Metropolitan Park's more than 350 acres on its doorstep. Both share ZIP 78704, the same taxing units and the same August 2026 City of Austin median sale price of $560,000 from Unlock MLS, which describes neither of them. Here is how the parks, transit, floodplain, zoning rules and event calendar differ, and how to compare one real address in each.
Neighborhood comparisons
Tarrytown, Austin vs. Clarksville, Austin: a West Austin comparison
Tarrytown, Austin and Clarksville, Austin are two West Austin neighborhoods that look alike in photographs and differ in the records: Clarksville is a National Register historic district listed December 1, 1976 and founded by a freedman in 1871, while Tarrytown has no City planning area of its own and sits outside the Old West Austin historic district that many listings assume it is in. Both share ZIP 78703, the same five taxing units and the same August 2026 City of Austin median sale price of $560,000 from Unlock MLS, a figure that describes neither neighborhood. Here is how the historic rules, parks, bus routes and the property-tax reset on a long-held home differ, and how to compare one real address in each.
Buying in Austin
Mueller neighborhood, Austin: match the home type to the responsibilities
The Mueller neighborhood in Austin offers at least six forms of home, and the form decides who maintains what. The community's own site says its property owners association is responsible for the common areas and for Mueller's row homes, and the City of Austin's November 12, 2025 update counted 678 homes in the Mueller Affordable Homes Program as of June 1, 2025, each carrying a recorded restrictive covenant. Here is how the home types, the association documents and the affordability rules fit together before you write an offer.
Property research
Hyde Park, Austin: check historic status before planning changes
Hyde Park, Austin, can put a house inside three overlapping designations, and the one that governs a renovation is the City of Austin's Hyde Park Local Historic District, roughly 186 acres with a period of significance of 1892 to 1960, where exterior changes to a contributing property need a Certificate of Appropriateness before a permit is issued. The Hyde Park Preservation Plan and Design Standards, dated December 9, 2010, say 87% of the district's buildings date from that period, so most houses on the market are contributing until the parcel record says otherwise. Here is how to check a specific address, what the standards allow, and what a restoration can earn back in property tax.
Austin outdoors
Zilker neighborhood, Austin: living near Zilker Park on ordinary days and event days
The Zilker neighborhood in Austin is priced on a park: Zilker Metropolitan Park, which the City of Austin describes as more than 350 acres of publicly owned land at 2100 Barton Springs Road, open from 5 a.m. to 10 p.m. and home to Barton Springs Pool, Zilker Botanical Garden, the Austin City Limits Music Festival on October 2 to 4 and 9 to 11, 2026, and the Trail of Lights in December. A home near the park has two calendars, the ordinary weekend with $3-an-hour visitor parking and the event weekend with signed no-parking zones the City actively enforces. This post lays out both from the primary sources, plus the bus routes, the floodplain and the suspended Vision Plan, so you can test a real address rather than a map distance.
Buying in Austin
Bouldin Creek, Austin: an older cottage or a newer infill home?
Bouldin Creek, Austin offers two kinds of home on the same block: a cottage built before the 2002 neighborhood plan, and a newer infill home or a pair of units that the City of Austin's HOME amendments now allow on a single-family lot, up to three units per lot since December 7, 2023 and one home on lots as small as 1,800 square feet since May 16, 2024. In the 30 days ending September 26, 2026, the City issued 18 new residential building permits and 9 demolition permits in ZIP 78704, by our count from its permit dataset. The useful comparison is not old versus new but which records each home carries: the 45-year historic review, the permit history, the condominium regime, the protected trees, the floodplain line and the property-tax reset on a long-held house.
Austin outdoors
Tarrytown, Austin: use the parks to plan a better home-search visit
Tarrytown, Austin, sits between MoPac and Lake Austin in a neighborhood the City of Austin does not map as a planning area, so the most reliable way to organize a visit is around the public places the City does list: Reed Neighborhood Park at 2614 Pecos Street, 6.369 acres, and Tarrytown Neighborhood Park at 2106 Tower Drive, 2.2502 acres, per the City park directory. Add Mayfield Park, Deep Eddy Pool, Walsh Boat Landing and the 155.62-acre Lions Municipal Golf Course, and you have a set of fixed points from which to test a route, a slope, a tree and a claim of lake access against a specific house. Here is how to use them, with the numbers each one carries.
A sense of place
Clarksville, Austin: learn the community before choosing a house
Clarksville, Austin, is one of the city's oldest neighborhoods: founded in 1871 when Charles Clark, a formerly enslaved man, bought two acres west of the city, according to the Clarksville Community Development Corporation, and listed on the National Register of Historic Places on December 1, 1976 as a district bounded by West Lynn, Waterston, West 10th and MoPac, per the Texas Historical Commission. That history shaped the streets, the lot sizes and the cottages a buyer walks past, and it decides which City reviews an older house may need. Here is the community's account first, then the parcel questions that follow from it.
Austin outdoors
Barton Springs Pool, Austin: use a swim to test Barton Hills and Zilker before you buy
Barton Hills sits directly south of Barton Springs Pool, across Barton Creek from Zilker Park, and a visit to the pool is the most useful neighborhood test either side of the creek offers. The City of Austin lists the pool at 2201 William Barton Drive, open 5 a.m. to 10 p.m. every day except Thursday, with adult admission of $5 for residents and $9 for non-residents as of September 26, 2026. This post turns that visit into a repeatable check of the route, the parking, the greenbelt entrances and the return home, and explains why no metro or city median tells you what a Barton Hills house costs.
Austin outdoors
Lady Bird Lake, Austin: choose a Butler Trail connection you will use before buying in 78704
Homes in 78704 line the south shore of Lady Bird Lake from Zilker Park to the Boardwalk, and the useful measure of any of them is the complete route from the front door to a Butler Trail entrance you would actually use, not a circle drawn around the lake. The Ann and Roy Butler Hike-and-Bike Trail is a 10-mile loop with 12 trailheads and over 5 million visits a year, according to The Trail Conservancy's all-access map dated October 2025, and its loops between the bridges run from 1.2 to 3.8 miles. This post uses the Conservancy's map and rules, the City of Austin's lake ordinances and algae notices, and CapMetro's schedule data to turn a listing's “steps to the trail” into a route you can time.
Property research
Home inspection in Austin: what to check when buying an older house
A home inspection in Austin follows the Texas Real Estate Commission's Standards of Practice, which define it as “a limited visual survey and basic performance evaluation of the systems and components of a building,” and on an older house that limit is the reason to build a record before the inspector arrives. A house's age switches on rules of its own: a federal lead-paint disclosure for anything built before 1978, an Austin Energy audit for homes 10 years old or older inside the city limits, and Historic Landmark Commission review for demolition of buildings 45 years or older. Here is what the inspection covers and leaves out, which rules apply at which age, and how to brief the inspector so an older Austin home is judged by its record and not by its finishes.
Property research
Austin flood zone map: how to check an address before buying a home
The Austin flood zone map to check before buying a home is FloodPro, the City of Austin's floodplain tool, read alongside FEMA's Flood Map Service Center for the same address. About 10% of land in Austin is in the floodplain, according to the City's Watershed Protection Department, and a 2019 City count put 3,969 buildings in the 100-year floodplain then in effect and 7,206 in the 100-year and 500-year floodplains combined. Here is how to read the two maps, what the zone labels mean for a mortgage and a remodel, what a Texas seller must disclose, and what flood insurance costs in Austin.
Property research
Austin permit search: how to check a renovated home's permit history
An Austin permit search starts at the Austin Build + Connect public search, the City of Austin's free record of building, electrical, mechanical and plumbing permits by address, which the City's residential plan review page says to use “to view permit history.” The City issued 7,913 residential building permits between September 2025 and August 2026, by our count of the Issued Construction Permits open dataset, and 243 residential new-construction permits in the 30 days to September 25, 2026. Here is where to search, how far back the records go, what each status means, which projects need a permit at all, and what the seller must tell you about work done without one.
Property research
Austin tree ordinance: what to check before buying a home with renovation plans
The Austin tree ordinance regulates any tree 19 inches or more in diameter on a residential lot and gives extra protection to heritage trees, listed species of 24 inches or more, according to the City of Austin's City Arborist program. Removing or heavily pruning one, or digging in its root zone, needs a Tree Ordinance Review Application, and mitigation for a removed tree is paid in replacement inches or at $200 an inch into the Urban Forest Replenishment Fund under the City's 2022 rule. Before you buy a house with an addition, pool or new driveway in mind, here is how to tell which trees on the lot are regulated, what the critical root zone does to a floor plan, and what a review costs.
Property research
Austin zoning and deed restrictions: what a lot allows, and who can still say no
Austin zoning and deed restrictions are two separate checks on what you can build on a lot, and passing one does not pass the other. Since the HOME amendments (Phase 1 adopted December 7, 2023, Phase 2 adopted May 16, 2024), City of Austin zoning allows up to three housing units on an SF-1, SF-2 or SF-3 lot and a single home on a lot as small as 1,800 square feet, according to Austin Development Services. But the City says it “cannot prevent landowners from developing property based on a deed restriction” and does not enforce one either: the parties named in a recorded restriction enforce it, and a Texas court may assess civil damages of up to $200 a day under Property Code Section 202.004. Here is how to run both checks for an Austin address, what the May 2026 Council resolution may change, and what the answers mean for an offer.
Buying in Austin
Buy a condo in Austin: read the resale certificate and the documents behind the fee
To buy a condo in Austin with your eyes open, read the association's documents before you judge the monthly fee, because the fee is the visible part of a much larger set of obligations. Texas Property Code Section 82.157 requires the seller to give you the declaration, bylaws, rules and a resale certificate prepared no more than three months before delivery, and the TREC Residential Condominium Contract (Resale), form 30-18 effective May 4, 2026, gives you seven days after receiving them to terminate and recover your earnest money. Here is what each document must contain, what a lender checks before financing the building, who insures which part of it, and how to turn the answers into an offer in a City of Austin market where Unlock MLS put the August 2026 median sale price at $560,000.
Buying in Austin
Austin property taxes in 2026: the rates, the homestead exemption and a $560,000 example
Austin property taxes are set by five separate taxing units, not one, and most 2026 rates are now on the books: the City of Austin adopted $0.579948 per $100 of assessed valuation for fiscal year 2026-27 in its August 12, 2026 budget release, Travis County's 2026 rate is $0.386210 per its September 4 hearing notice and the Travis County Tax Office rate table dated September 25, 2026, Central Health's is $0.132863 and Austin Community College's is $0.103643, while Austin ISD's 2026 rate had not been posted. On the $560,000 August 2026 City of Austin median sale price from Unlock MLS, a homestead owner's bill computes to about $9,384 a year, or $782 a month, with Austin ISD at its 2025 rate. Here is how the bill is built, what the homestead exemption removes, when it is due, and why the seller's last bill is not yours.
A sense of place
Austin route test: three everyday journeys to try from each address before you move
Moving to Austin works better when the scouting visit tests three real journeys from each candidate address, and when the paperwork that follows is done in order: a vehicle must be registered within 30 days of the move, per the Texas Department of Motor Vehicles, and an out-of-state driver license is good for up to 90 days, per the Texas Department of Public Safety. Austin counted 1,002,632 residents on July 1, 2025 in the Census Bureau's Vintage 2025 estimates, and CapMetro's local fare is $1.25 a ride. Here is how to build the visit around a normal week, what the first 90 days cost, and what the numbers say about the city you are joining.
Market data
Austin housing market, August 2026: the Unlock MLS report, county by county
The Austin housing market in August 2026 posted a median sale price of $412,000 across the Austin–Round Rock–San Marcos metro, down 6.4 percent from a year earlier, and $560,000 inside the City of Austin, down 4.3 percent, according to the August 2026 Central Texas Housing Report released by Unlock MLS on September 15, 2026. Inventory stood at 5.1 months in the metro and 4.6 in the city, and Realtor.com's median Austin-metro listing sat 73 days on the market. This is the full report, every county and the lease side included, with the Realtor.com and Freddie Mac series for the same month.
Selling in Austin
Austin energy audit before selling: the ECAD rule, its deadline and what it costs
An Austin energy audit is required before most older homes inside the city change hands: Austin Energy's Energy Conservation Audit and Disclosure (ECAD) ordinance applies to homes within the Austin Energy service area, within the Austin city limits and 10 years old or older, and under City Code Section 6-7-12 the seller must give the buyer the audit no later than 3 days before the option period ends. Austin Energy puts the cost at about $200 to $300 for a typical single-family home of 1,800 square feet or smaller with one air conditioning system, and an audit stays valid for ten years. Here is who must order one, what the auditor records, which homes are exempt, what skipping it risks, and where the audit sits in a fall 2026 listing calendar.
A sense of place
Best neighborhoods in Austin: choose the neighborhood first, then the house
The best neighborhoods in Austin are the ones that fit the trips you make every week, and no published ranking can know those trips, so this post compares six central Austin neighborhoods on facts a buyer can check instead: public park acreage from the City of Austin's park directory, the CapMetro routes that stop nearby in the agency's schedule feed dated August 26, 2026, the adopted neighborhood plans and local historic districts on the City's lists, and the Unlock MLS August 2026 medians, which run from $270,000 in Caldwell County to $560,000 inside the City of Austin and describe no single neighborhood. A floor plan tells you how rooms connect; the method here tells you how a house will connect to the city.
A closer look
Buying a house in Austin: what the listing photos cannot tell you
Buying a house in Austin starts with photographs, but the decision should rest on the walkthrough, the TREC inspection and the public record. Austin-metro listings sat a median 73 days on market in August 2026 according to Realtor.com data on FRED, and Unlock MLS reports that the average August sale closed at 93.2% of its list price, so a buyer has time to look past the wide-angle lens. This guide covers what a licensed inspection does and does not check, what the Seller's Disclosure Notice must answer, and which City of Austin and Travis County records to pull before the option period ends.
The considered sale
Sell my house in Austin: what to do before the photographer arrives
“Sell my house in Austin” is the search, but the sale starts weeks before the listing photographs, with paperwork buyers now expect on day one. Unlock MLS reports that the average Austin-metro sale in August 2026 closed at 93.2% of its list price with 5.1 months of inventory, and Realtor.com's median listing sat 73 days on market, so a home has to be ready when it appears rather than after. This guide covers the Seller's Disclosure Notice, the ECAD energy audit, which repairs need a City of Austin permit, the Austin Energy and Austin Water rebates worth claiming first, and how to prepare rooms for an honest photograph.
Architecture & place
City of Austin Land Development Code: how to read what a lot allows before you buy or build
The City of Austin Land Development Code decides what a lot allows before any house is drawn, and its rules are public before you make an offer. The code caps impervious cover at 40% on SF-1 lots and 45% on SF-2 and SF-3 lots and regulates every tree 19 inches or more in diameter, and the City bills a monthly drainage charge computed from each parcel's hard surfaces at $0.00593 per square foot in fiscal 2026. This guide walks through cover and zoning, slope and drainage, trees, easements and floodplain, water, and the records that show how a house, or a future house, sits on its land.
Market context
Cost of living in Austin, TX in 2026: housing, utilities, taxes and transit from the actual rate sheets
The cost of living in Austin, TX in 2026 starts with housing: Unlock MLS reported a median sale price of $560,000 in the City of Austin and $412,000 across the metro for August 2026, and a median rent of $2,200 in the city for leases closed through the MLS. Texas has no personal income tax, sales tax in Austin is 8.25 percent, and Austin Energy's own example bill for 860 kWh of electricity is $116.45. This page lays out every line of an Austin household budget that a public rate sheet can answer, with its source and date, and works two monthly examples.
A sense of place
Deep Eddy Pool, Austin: walk Tarrytown from the oldest pool in Texas before a showing
Deep Eddy Pool at 401 Deep Eddy Avenue, which the City of Austin calls the oldest swimming pool in Texas, is where a walk through Tarrytown should start, and houses for sale in Tarrytown, Austin, are best understood on that walk. The City's park directory adds the other public places to route through: Reed Neighborhood Park at 2614 Pecos Street, 6.369 acres with a free seasonal pool; Tarrytown Neighborhood Park at 2106 Tower Drive, 2.2502 acres; and Mayfield Park's 23 acres off West 35th Street, open 5 a.m. to 10 p.m. This post plans that walk with the City's park, pool, historic-district and neighborhood-plan pages, CapMetro's schedule data and the Unlock MLS August 2026 report, and explains why there is no Tarrytown boundary or median to lean on, so the walk has to do the work.