The New York Times Magazine - USA (2021-11-14)

the ‘‘fl ip switched’’ during Covid: a
sale on Ephraim Road, in the sub-
urb of Brushy Creek, on New Year’s
Day 2021. The house was ‘‘well
cared for,’’ a buyer’s agent told me,
but ‘‘nothing out of the ordinary’’:
two stories in brick, with a large
arched window — the sort of place
one of Tony’s underlings might
own in a Texas spinoff of ‘‘The
Sopranos.’’ It was listed on Dec. 30,
2020, for $370,000, and it seemed
like mere minutes until buyers and
agents began lining up in the bitter
rain to tour the house one by one,
a process that took hours. Agents
texted Google Maps screenshots to
one another, noting the red traffi c
jams around the property. By the 11
a.m. deadline on New Year’s Day,
the house had received 96 off ers,
with the winning bid clocking in
at $541,000 — a mind-boggling 46
percent above asking. ‘‘Just when
you think you know a lot about
real estate, you realize you don’t
know anything,’’ the listing agent
told me. ‘‘The market shifts and
keeps shifting.’’
Austin real estate has been hot
for years. Over the last decade, an
average of more than 100 people
have moved into the area every day.
But 2020 broke the levees. In July,
Tesla announced it would build an
auto plant in Austin. Facebook and
Apple, meanwhile, were expand-
ing their local campuses. All were
attracted by Texas’ lower cost of liv-
ing and business-friendly tax and
regulatory environment.
In December, the database giant
Oracle said it was moving its head-
quarters from California to Austin.
That month, the median sales price
for homes in the Austin metropol-
itan region was up 23.7 percent
year-over-year. ‘‘Before the pan-
demic, you would see a line of 20
people standing outside a restau-
rant downtown,’’ Albert Saenz, who
has been a real estate agent since
2003, told me at the time. ‘‘Now you
drive downtown, there’s nothing
happening. But out in the suburbs,

Top: Kat Teutsch for The New York Times. Above: Dan Winters for The New York Times. The New York Times Magazine 37

Listing price

$450,000

Listing price

$575,000

Sold

$505,000

Sold

$630,000

Offer

$465,000

Offer

$550,000

Stephanie Douglass, a former fourth-grade teacher turned real estate agent and investor and home-buying instructor.

(^3) Sunset Trail, Westgate (^4) East 13th Street, East Austin