During the annual Tesla shareholder’s meeting last week, CEO Elon Musk announced that the automaker is moving its headquarters to Austin.
Even before this announcement, the current Gigafactory construction in Travis County has lead to skyrocketing real estate prices.
Home pricing near the Giga Texas location is up 45% from 2020, according to Daryl Fairweather, chief economist at Redfin. The increase can not be attributed entirely to a general increase in real estate prices. The area is 10% higher than the entire Austin-Round Rock metropolitan area.
The growth is not surprising, but many locals are concerned Austin will become the next LA in city sprawl.
Tesla is one of the first big tech companies in the Bay Area to move their headquarters out of California. Austin is an attractive site, with tax breaks, a business-centred approach and compared to Silicon Valley, affordable housing for employees.
Maye Musk shares video inside Giga Texas showing busy Model Y production line
However, many Austin locals are already priced out of the city and will need to move further to find an appropriate house. According to Fairweather, Austin will need to look at better infrastructure to support the incoming tech companies.
Austin is top of Redfin’s list for migration and price growth over the next ten years, according to KVUE.
