The Statesman ran its annual analysis of migration in and out of Austin. The summary is that "More people [are] moving here but not as many as during the boom".



In the 1990's Austin grew by an incomprehensible 41% as it added more than 190,000 new residents. Growth comes from two sources: net migration and organic growth. The net migration is the gain from people moving into the city while organic growth occurs when more people are born than die during the year. The Statesman stats focus only on migration. So what is the bottom line? A net gain of 8,079 households (approximately 19,400 people). Very solid growth but about 30% lower than the peak year, 2000. The counties that saw the most people coming to the region were overwhelmingly in California. Still, Austin population is growing at a very fast rate.



Population and employment growth are strong drivers of price appreciation. As everyone knows, many of the Californians who flee to Austin are selling expensive homes, cashing out, and buying at the upper end of the market. This seems to have led to string appreciation on the high end of the market. If it continues, it may help absorb the large number of high-end condo units for which there is no obvious market.

Tags: market analysis, downtown demographics, news