The Austin skyline is visible from a yard in the Montopolis neighborhood of East Austin, where rising home prices have raised gentrification fears.
Photographer: Jordan Vonderhaar/BloombergDesperate for Housing, Austin Seeks Relief in Rezoning
The booming Texas capital’s efforts to revise its land development code and build more affordable housing have been thwarted by protests from homeowners.
Kemp Street runs along a bluff in a quiet residential neighborhood in southeast Austin called Montopolis. On the west side of the street, the backyards of a dozen single-family homes look over a lush nature preserve and, beyond, a stunning view of downtown Austin, the sightline extending miles away to the pink dome of the Texas State Capitol.
A former Freedman’s Town, today Montopolis is a low-income, majority-Hispanic neighborhood on the front lines of the city’s rapid gentrification: Home prices have skyrocketed across Austin, nearly tripling since 2011 and hitting a median of $624,000 in March — a 40% increase from two years prior. Median rents have also increased by 40% in the same time period, according to Redfin data.