Austin Real Estate Market Update: Where New Construction Is Growing, Shrinking, and Delivering Value

This Austin real estate market update covers nearly 3,800 new construction sales across Georgetown, Hutto, Pflugerville, Round Rock, and Manor over the past two years. The big takeaway is simple: the market is not moving in one direction. Hutto and Pflugerville are exploding, Georgetown remains enormous, Round Rock is nearly out of new-home supply, and Austin itself has split into affordable infill and luxury construction.

That means choosing where to buy a new home is less about finding the universally “best” suburb and more about understanding the trade-off that matters most for your life. Entry price, monthly taxes, commute, yard space, available inventory, and negotiating leverage all look very different depending on which side of Austin we choose.

Table of Contents

• Austin Market Update: Hutto and Pflugerville New Construction Growth
• Austin Market Update: Is Round Rock Running Out of New Homes?
• Austin New Construction Market Update: Two Distinct Markets
• Austin Market Update: Why Homes Are Sitting Longer
• Austin Market Update: Price Per Square Foot and Buying Power
• 5 New Construction Communities to Know in the Austin Market
• Austin Market Update: 3 Smart Moves for New-Construction Buyers

Austin Market Update: Hutto and Pflugerville New Construction Growth

The most surprising part of this Austin real estate market update is what happened in Hutto and Pflugerville. Two years ago, Hutto was the smallest new-construction market in this group, with just 28 quarterly sales. Pflugerville was almost identical at 29 sales.

Fast forward to this spring. Hutto sold 173 new homes in one quarter, while Pflugerville sold 91. Both markets doubled over the past year alone, and Hutto has grown roughly sixfold in just 24 months.

Over the latest 12 months:

• Hutto sold 456 new homes.
• Pflugerville sold 288 new homes.
• Georgetown sold 921 new homes, up 23%.
• Manor sold 205 new homes, down about 5% but still steady.

It would have been easy to write off Hutto and Pflugerville when their new-home markets were tiny. That would have meant missing the two fastest-growing suburban new-construction markets in this group.

Georgetown remains a major player because of pure volume and ongoing choice. Manor is an earlier-stage market, so the phases opening over the coming year will tell us much more about its next growth cycle. But the headline is hard to ignore: the north and northeast side of the Austin area is where the biggest new-construction expansion is happening.

Austin Market Update: Is Round Rock Running Out of New Homes?

Round Rock is moving in the opposite direction, and this distinction matters. It is not a demand problem. Round Rock remains a desirable place to live, and its resale market is healthy. The issue is supply.

Two years ago, 16 different Round Rock communities recorded new-home sales. Today, that number is down to 11. New-home sales dropped 20% over the past year to 202 homes, and there are only 51 new homes for sale across the entire city.

Round Rock has been building since the 1980s. The city is much closer to being built out than Hutto, Pflugerville, Georgetown, or Manor. Most communities still offering new construction are selling through the final phases of projects that began years ago.

For anyone set on a brand-new Round Rock home, this Austin real estate market update points to a practical conclusion: move with some urgency. The window is closing because the available land and active communities are limited.

That does not make Round Rock a poor place to own a home. Quite the opposite. It simply means that the opportunity there may increasingly be in resale homes rather than newly built ones.

Austin New Construction Market Update: Two Distinct Markets

A headline that says Austin is down 28% sounds dramatic, but it does not tell the full story. The median new-home sale price inside Austin dropped from $829,000 a year ago to $600,000 in July 2026. At the exact same time, the average sale price rose from just over $1 million to nearly $1.1 million.

Both can be true because the market has split.

The actual sales breakdown makes the story clear:

• Homes below $500,000 increased from 15 sales to 26.
• Homes above $1 million increased from 18 sales to 23.
• Homes between those ranges dropped from 22 sales to 12.

Builders inside Austin are generally creating smaller infill homes or luxury properties. The traditional middle-market new build, the roughly $700,000 home with an office and a yard, is becoming much harder to find inside the city.

That middle is moving north and east. This is why an Austin real estate market update needs to include the suburbs, not just Austin city limits. Georgetown, Pflugerville, and Hutto are increasingly where buyers find the space and price point that used to be more common inside Austin.

Austin Market Update: Why Homes Are Sitting Longer

Here is the part that makes people scratch their heads. New homes are taking far longer to sell, yet the recorded purchase price is not necessarily falling.

In Hutto, the typical new home went from selling in 21 days last July to 75 days this July. Pflugerville increased from 46 days to 92 days. Round Rock increased from 74 days to 124 days.

Normally, longer market times lead to visible discounts. But in Hutto and Pflugerville, the typical buyer still paid 100% of the builder’s advertised price. In fact, 64% of Hutto buyers and 65% of Pflugerville buyers paid at or above asking price.

That sounds impossible until we look beneath the sticker price. The negotiation is often not happening in the price. It is happening in the money underneath the price.

Builders may offer:

• Interest rate buy-downs
• Closing cost contributions
• Upgrade allowances
• Blinds, refrigerators, fences, sod, or other included items

A builder may spend $40,000 to $50,000 lowering a buyer’s interest rate before reducing the sticker price by $10,000. That is not generosity for its own sake. It protects future comparable sales within the community.

A visible price cut can lower the benchmark for the next home the builder needs to sell. A rate buy-down does not show up as a lower recorded sale price. That is why the Austin real estate market update cannot stop at asking price.

Texas also does not publicly publish final home sale prices in the same way some other states do. Listing sites can show asking prices all day long, but they do not necessarily reveal what buyers actually paid or what incentives were included. Those details matter when comparing communities and making an offer.

Austin Market Update: Price Per Square Foot and Buying Power

Price per square foot is one of the fairest ways to compare a home in Austin with a home in Hutto because it removes size from the equation. It does not measure build quality, floor plan functionality, tax rate, or neighborhood fit. But it is a powerful starting point.

Current new-construction price-per-square-foot figures are:

• Austin: $313 per square foot
• Georgetown: $200 per square foot
• Round Rock: $188 per square foot
• Manor: $173 per square foot
• Pflugerville: $171 per square foot
• Hutto: $168 per square foot

New homes in Hutto are 46% less expensive per square foot than new homes inside Austin. On a 2,400-square-foot home, that difference represents roughly $349,000 in buying power. Same square footage, dramatically different zip code.

One caution for Pflugerville: its July figure was the lowest single month recorded in the past two years. The longer-term trend has been drifting down since fall 2024, but one unusually low month should not be treated as the whole story.

The numbers get us to a short list. They do not make the decision for us. Two homes with the same price per square foot can be completely different in construction quality, yard usability, tax rate, layout, and overall feel.

5 New Construction Communities to Know in the Austin Market

Each month, we run active new-construction listings through the same scoring system. We are looking for real-life usability, not just a low advertised number. That means home offices, fenced yards, trails we would actually use on a weeknight, tax rates, days on market, and whether we would personally want to live there.

Georgetown: Nolina

Our Georgetown pick is in Nolina, listed just under $690,000 with five bedrooms, four and a half bathrooms, nearly 3,800 square feet, and a quarter-acre lot. At about $182 per square foot, it comes in well below Georgetown’s typical asking price per square foot. It also includes a four-car garage and had been sitting for 115 days, which creates leverage.

Round Rock: University Heights

In University Heights, our Round Rock pick is listed just under $580,000 with four bedrooms, three and a half bathrooms, and more than 3,100 square feet. The number that really jumps out is the 1.86% tax rate, compared with 2.71% on our Manor pick. That difference affects the monthly payment year after year.

Pflugerville: Meadowlark Preserve

Our Pflugerville pick is in Meadowlark Preserve at around $437,000. It has five bedrooms, four and a half bathrooms, and just under 3,000 square feet. At $148 per square foot, it is substantially below the city’s typical asking figure. Getting more bedrooms, more square footage, and a lower price than an average home is not something we see every day.

Hutto: Prairie Winds

In Hutto, Prairie Winds offers a four-bedroom, two-and-a-half-bath home with roughly 2,300 square feet for about $370,000. It is the only home on this list below $400,000, and its 1.73% tax rate is the lowest among these picks.

Manor: Carillon

Our Manor pick is in Carillon, listed just under $380,000 with four bedrooms, three bathrooms, and more than 2,600 square feet. At $144 per square foot, it is the best price-per-square-foot value on this list. It had been on the market for 157 days, making it the strongest negotiating opportunity among the five picks.

Austin Market Update: 3 Smart Moves for New-Construction Buyers

This Austin real estate market update comes down to three practical actions.

1. Stop treating list price as the whole deal

In three of the five suburbs, sticker prices barely moved while builder concessions did. Ask for three figures in writing: the rate buy-down, the closing cost contribution, and the upgrade allowance.

2. Target homes that have been sitting

The 60-to-120-day range can be particularly useful. At that point, a builder is carrying the home, but it does not automatically mean something is wrong with it. More time on market may create more room to negotiate incentives, upgrades, and financing support.

3. Choose the suburb based on the trade-off, not just the price

The house matters, but location often matters more. Each suburb is solving a different problem:

• Georgetown: the most new-home choices.
• Round Rock: the lowest tax rate among these featured opportunities.
• Pflugerville: the most house for the dollar.
• Hutto: the lowest entry price and fastest measured growth.
• Manor: more land and a shorter drive back into Austin.

There is no best suburb for everybody. There is only the trade-off that works best for our commute, budget, space needs, and lifestyle. That is the real value of an Austin real estate market update: it helps us ask better questions before we fall in love with a model home.

Whether you’re looking for a new construction home in Hutto, Pflugerville, Round Rock, Georgetown, or Manor, understanding the latest Austin market trends can help you make a smarter decision. Book a free consultation to discuss your budget, priorities, and which Austin-area community may be the best fit for you.