Gov. Abbott wants to stop ‘squatters.’ So, Texas lawmakers proposed bills speeding up evictions.
These bills would impact renters, not just squatters who never had a right to be on the property in the first place. Senate Bill 38 and its counterpart in the House would make it easier to evict people in the state, including presumably tens of thousands of renters with leases.
Texas’ housing shortage is getting worse, report says
In 2022, Texas needed about 320,000 more homes than it had, up from about 306,000 the previous year, according to an estimate released Wednesday by housing policy organization Up For Growth.
Texas must build hundreds of thousands of homes to lower housing costs, says state comptroller
If Texas wants to rein in its high housing costs, it needs more homes, Texas Comptroller Glenn Hegar’s office said Tuesday — the latest sign that the state’s high home prices and rents have become a growing concern for the state’s top officials.
Want to buy a mid-priced home in Austin, Dallas or Houston? You’ll need to earn over $100,000
A new report shows renters and homeowners are under significant strain from housing costs. Housing affordability is slipping faster in Texas than the national average.
With new platform, Texas Democrats may find common ground with Republicans on housing affordability crisis
The Texas Democratic Party over the weekend adopted a platform that includes calls to relax local zoning regulations that determine what kinds of housing can be built and where.
Texas’ poorest renters face a shortage of 679,000 rental homes they can actually afford
A new report finds a massive shortage in Texas of rental homes affordable to extremely low-income renter households — one of the worst in the nation..
People worry about housing costs and they want solutions. Why don’t politicians talk about it more?
There are 33 candidates running for Texas’ three open Congressional seats this year. A review of their campaign websites shows just a handful mention housing among the issues they’re concerned about. That’s also true for Republican Sen. Ted Cruz and the top Democrats vying to replace him.
Amid high rents, eviction filings in major Texas cities soar above pre-pandemic levels
Landlords filed more than 177,000 eviction cases in the Houston, Dallas, Austin and Fort Worth areas in 2023, according to records tracked by Eviction Lab, a research center based at Princeton University that tracks eviction filings.
Texans face a bigger burden than ever to pay rent, study finds
Some 51% of Texas renters — a record 2.1 million households — are now “cost-burdened,” meaning they spend more than 30% of their income on rent and utilities.
Houston Public Media