AUSTIN, Texas — If you're looking to buy a home in Austin, you might want to hold onto your piggybank because it will cost you a pretty cent. A recent study ranked Austin as one of the most expensive cities to buy a home in the U.S., per square foot.
As more people continue to move into both the Austin area and Texas in general, the question of buying an affordable house has been raised by many in the last few years. To accommodate more people buying homes across the state, builders have begun to make lot sizes smaller.
According to a U.S. Census Bureau's report from 2021, the average lot size in the U.S. was 18,722 square feet in 1992. That average has dropped to 16,032 square feet in 2021, with the trend likely to continue in the coming years.
The recent study, provided by the online home services company Angi, reviewed 393,312 listings of homes for sale on a real estate website Zillow. Afterward, Angi combined the information with statistical data provided by the U.S. Census and state boundary sizes.
The study found that although the average price per square foot for a lot in the state is $36.64, the average lot size is only 9,539.6 square feet. This puts Texas at No. 46 out of the 50 U.S. states. To put that in perspective, it costs $5.95 per square foot in Vermont with an average lot size of 78,498.0 square feet, putting that state at No. 1 in the rankings.
Angi provided an explanation for why Vermont has such a large amount of land for a low price, stating "many towns have specially zoned large-lot rural districts, where lots must be between 25 and 50 acres."
The Austin area, which includes Round Rock and Georgetown, ranked No. 73 out of 107 regional areas in the country for average lot size, coming in at 8,929.8 square feet. That amount paired with an average cost of $69.84 per square foot means the average cost of a home with the average lot size would be $623,657.23 for an Austin homebuyer.
Affordable housing is a combination of a cheap cost per square foot coupled with medium lot sizes.
"Large lot sizes can price people out of the housing market and create affordability issues for potential homebuyers, even in areas with relatively cheap land," the study stated.
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