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- BG Reads 1.24.2025
BG Reads 1.24.2025
🟪 BG Reads - January 24, 2025
Bingham Group Reads
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January 24, 2025
➡️ Today's BG Reads include:
🟪 Texas Democrats haven't been in power for 30 years. They just lost more control at the Capitol. (KUT)
🟪 Austin is no longer the Texas metro with the highest rent prices (KUT)
🟪 Elevated prices, interest rates will continue to curb housing affordability in 2025 (Austin Business Journal)
🟪 Texas' economy stands to lose billions of dollars without investments into its water infrastructure (Houston Public Media)
🟪 Judge blocks Trump's birthright citizenship order, calling it 'blatantly unconstitutional' (Reuters)
Read On!
[CITY OF AUSTIN]
Texas Tribune CEO Sonal Shah sits down with Watson to discuss his plans to address issues from housing affordability and homelessness to workforce development and the expansion of I-35, and how the city will interact with state leaders known to relish a fight with local elected officials.
🏛️ Austin City Hall Executive Management Team Announcement
Jessica “Jess” Ferrari appointed to Assistant to the City Manager effective January 27th per a memo from City Manager T.C. Broadnax. This news follows two other recent executive level changes announced last week.
ℹ️ Helpful City Links:
[AUSTIN METRO NEWS]
➡️ Austin is no longer the Texas metro with the highest rent prices (KUT)
The Dallas-Fort Worth metro can now lay claim to the title of highest rents among big cities in the state, a crown long held by Austin. Since at least 2015, average rents in the Austin area have outpaced those in the three largest metros in Texas, which includes Dallas-Fort Worth, Houston and San Antonio.
But according to data from three real estate firms, including Zillow, that began to change at the end of 2024. While rents in the Dallas-Fort Worth area have been falling for the past year and a half, they have not been falling as quickly as prices in Austin. Austin is now one of the only cities in the country where rents are declining. Real estate experts and economists attribute the drop in prices to a boom in apartment building.
“The new supply [of apartments] is just so great,” said Robin Davis, who has been analyzing local rental data for three decades as the owner of Austin Investor Interests. Davis said she can't remember a time when landlords were offering such big concessions, the industry term for discounts means to entice renters to sign a lease, such as one month rent free. She has seen landlords offering as much as 2.5 months rent free, deals akin only to those she remembers seeing in 2009, during the national real estate market crash.
Experts have described what's happening in Austin now as more of a correction to the market than anything more dire. Between 2021 and 2023, average rents in the area rose 29% as tens of thousands of people who could work remotely flocked to Austin and those already here sought more space.
"Developers have been responding to a pretty significant demand for apartments immediately after the COVID shutdown," said Daniel Oney, research director at the Texas Real Estate Center at Texas A&M University. "People looking for more space, people relocating to Texas ... that stimulated a lot of construction."… 🟪 (LINK TO FULL STORY)
➡️ Elevated prices, interest rates will continue to curb housing affordability in 2025 (Austin Business Journal)
Homebuyers and sellers in the Austin metro likely will see little change in prices and inventory in 2025. That's because median sales prices are likely to hover around the $450,000 mark reported in December 2024, and interest rates are expected to stay high, according to Clare Knapp, housing economist for the Austin Board of Realtors and Unlock MLS.
It's a combination that's considered unaffordable for many first-time homebuyers, which means the onus is on homebuilders to build more homes with lower price tags to help move the needle on affordability in the metro.
A first-time homebuyer can typically afford to pay three times their income for a home, putting many in the market for a home in the $300,000 to $400,000 range, Knapp said. “There’s just not a sufficient supply of those homes in the market,” she said. “In order to really get more on the market, it boils down to new construction.”… 🟪 (LINK TO FULL STORY)
➡️ Austin officials prep for major projects to disrupt the status quo of downtown business (Austin Business Journal)
Downtown leaders are getting ready for the imminent closure of the Austin Convention Center and other endeavors to help Austin operate like the major city it now is.
Officials spoke at the Austin Business Journal's ATX Ahead: 2025 Economic Outlook event Jan. 23 about the future of downtown Austin and how the area will handle several long-term improvement projects like the expansion of I-35, the buildout of Project Connect’s light rail and the redevelopment of the convention center that will start in April and take 40 months to complete.
Tom Noonan, CEO of Visit Austin, said that even with the disruptions that the projects will create, he's optimistic about the future and pointed to the recently approved Tourism Public Improvement District as something that will help give the area a boost. The TPID puts a 2% nightly fee on hotel rooms that will fund efforts to market the city nationally, and a board was recently approved to oversee those efforts.
“The most important arrow on our quiver is that we're going to have, for the first time ever, an evergreen and never-ending advertising campaign in all of our major destinations, in our secondary markets, as well as our travel markets,” Noonan said… 🟪 (LINK TO FULL STORY)
➡️ Austin ISD issues guidance to staff after federal immigration policy changes (KXAN)
The Austin Independent School District on Thursday issued guidance to staff on how to respond if federal immigration enforcement comes to its campuses. The guidance comes just days after the Trump administration threw out a long-standing federal policy protecting sensitive areas, like churches and schools, from ICE raids.
“We recognize the emotional toll that recent news cycles may be taking on our students, families and staff. For many in our community, these are not just policy discussions, but deeply personal issues that can create uncertainty and fear,” Austin ISD Superintendent Matias Segura said in a statement… 🟪 (LINK TO FULL STORY)
[TEXAS NEWS]
➡️ Texas Democrats haven't been in power for 30 years. They just lost more control at the Capitol. (KUT)
Democrats in the Texas House will no longer be allowed to hold influential committee chair positions under new rules passed by the chamber on Thursday.
The change, which brings to an end the Texas House’s long-standing tradition of having members of the minority party hold these important leadership roles, comes after years of complaints from the Republican Party of Texas.
Specifically, the rule states that, “If, at the time the speaker announces the membership of standing committees, the members of the house of one political party constitute a majority of the membership of the house, the speaker shall designate a member of that party to serve as chair of each standing committee.” However, committee vice chairs must be members of the minority party.
In the Texas Legislature, committee chair positions are key because committees serve as the starting point for any legislation that one day hopes to land on the governor’s desk. Chairs play a pivotal role in influencing what proposals move forward each session.
By losing the ability to chair any committees, the state’s Democrats — who haven't been in power in Texas for 30 years — have lost even more clout at the state Capitol… 🟪 (LINK TO FULL STORY)
Other Coverage: Conservatives clinch longtime goal of booting Democrats from leadership ranks in Texas House (Texas Tribune)
➡️ Texas' economy stands to lose billions of dollars without investments into its water infrastructure (Houston Public Media)
The outlook for water in Texas is looking a bit … dry. The state will face a long-term water deficit if it fails to develop new supplies and gets hit by another multi-year drought, according to a new report. The report also suggests that a prolonged, severe drought, like that of the 1950s or 2011, could cost the state's economy hundreds of billions of dollars.
Texas 2036, a non-profit, public policy organization, commissioned the report to explore the possible consequences of under-investment in the state’s water infrastructure.
That potential large loss of money is because industries such as agriculture, manufacturing and energy production heavily rely upon water availability, said Jeremy Mazur, director of infrastructure and natural resources policy at Texas 2036.
“If we don’t have reliable water infrastructure, then we likely cannot have the continuation of the Texas economic miracle,” he said. “But one of the more alarming findings was that if we don’t have enough reliable water supplies and have a long, severe drought, then the reliability of our state’s electric grid could come into question.”… 🟪 (LINK TO FULL STORY)
➡️ Data centers are booming in Texas. What does that mean for the grid? (Texas Tribune)
The rise of artificial intelligence, the digitization of the economy and everyday life’s growing computing needs have turbocharged the expansion of data centers, driving up a surge in electricity demand in Texas and across the country.
Texas’ main grid operator predicts power demand will nearly double by 2030, in part due to more requests to plug into the grid from large users like data centers, crypto mining facilities, hydrogen production plants and oil and gas companies.
On Tuesday, President Donald Trump announced Stargate, a joint venture between OpenAI, SoftBank and Oracle that will invest up to $500 billion in AI-related infrastructure. Texas will serve as ground zero, with 10 data centers by the venture already under construction in the state, 10 more on the way and the first project based in Abilene, Oracle CEO Larry Ellison said. Each building will occupy half a million square feet.
The announcement reflected the hunger for data centers across industries and a years long push to increase data capacity. Ellison noted that the partnership had been in the works for years. He said the new data centers could offer services like maintaining electronic health care records and helping hospitals share medical knowledge... 🟪 (LINK TO FULL STORY)
State lawmakers ask education agency for guidance on how Texas schools can respond to Trump’s immigration plans (Texas Tribune)
A group of Texas lawmakers on Thursday urged education officials to issue “clear and detailed guidance” to school districts on how to prepare for federal immigration enforcement after the Trump administration eliminated a policy that long prevented officers from making arrests on school grounds.
The Mexican American Legislative Caucus sent a letter to Texas Education Agency Commissioner Mike Morath calling on the department to provide direction to school districts on protecting student records, establishing procedures for interacting with immigration authorities and providing mental health resources for anxious and fearful students.
The prospect of U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement officers “entering classrooms to detain and remove students presents an unimaginable threat to Texas children's physical safety, emotional wellbeing, and ability to learn,” the lawmakers’ letter says.
“It is imperative that the TEA act swiftly to protect the integrity of our educational institutions and the wellbeing of our students by ensuring that Texas schools are fully informed of their rights and responsibilities when faced with federal immigration enforcement actions.”… 🟪 (LINK TO FULL STORY)
[US and World News]
➡️ Judge blocks Trump's birthright citizenship order, calling it 'blatantly unconstitutional' (Reuters)
Judge blocks Trump'sA federal judge in Seattle on Thursday blocked President Donald Trump's administration from implementing an executive order curtailing the right to automatic birthright citizenship in the United States, calling it "blatantly unconstitutional."
U.S. District Judge John Coughenour at the urging of four Democratic-led states issued a temporary restraining order preventing the administration from enforcing the order, which the Republican president signed on Monday during his first day on office.
Trump in his executive order directed U.S. agencies to refuse to recognize the citizenship of children born in the United States if neither their mother nor father is a U.S. citizen or legal permanent resident. "I am having trouble understanding how a member of the bar could state unequivocally that this order is constitutional," the judge told a U.S. Justice Department lawyer defending Trump's order.
"It just boggles my mind." The states - Washington, Arizona, Illinois and Oregon - argued that Trump's order violated the right enshrined in the citizenship clause of the U.S. Constitution's 14th Amendment that provides that anyone born in the United States is a citizen. "This is a blatantly unconstitutional order," the judge said. Before Justice Department attorney Brett Shumate had even finished talking, Coughenour said he had signed a temporary restraining order sought by Democratic state attorneys general from the states.
"Under this order, babies being born today don't count as U.S. citizens," Washington Assistant Attorney General Lane Polozola argued in a packed courtroom.
Coughenour, an appointee of Republican former President Ronald Reagan, issued a temporary restraining order that blocked Trump's order from being enforcement nationwide for 14 days while he weighs whether to issue a preliminary injunction.birthright citizenship order, calling it 'blatantly unconstitutional' 🟪… (LINK TO FULL STORY)
➡️ Trump’s early actions overwhelm the immigration system (Politico)
President Donald Trump has already inundated the country’s immigration system with enough changes to create immediate impacts along the border and across American cities.
Thousands of migrants trying to gain entry in the United States to seek asylum using the Custom and Border Patrol’s mobile app — set up by the Biden administration to deter migrants from crossing illegally — had their appointments canceled, throwing into limbo many, including those who had been waiting for months.
The Biden administration’s website for humanitarian parole for migrants from Cuba, Haiti, Nicaragua and Venezuela went dark. Refugee admissions into the country were indefinitely halted. Immigration authorities can now enter schools, churches and places of worship to conduct arrests, reversing a policy that had long kept those sanctuaries off limits.
The new administration fired top immigration court officials. And Trump’s sweeping birthright citizenship order — intended to deny the right to babies born to undocumented immigrants in the United States — immediately sparked legal challenges, as blue-state attorneys general moved quickly to attack an effort they decried as unconstitutional… 🟪 (LINK TO FULL STORY)
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