Texas Has a Housing Affordability Crisis. Here’s How State Lawmakers May Tackle It in 2025. (Part 1 of 2)

By Joshua Fletcher, The Texas Tribune

    Chambers County is the tenth fastest growing county in the country and the fourth fastest growing in the state. Most of this growth has occurred over the last seven years. With expanding industry on the west side of the county, growing families have settled in the county. And, with the cost of land and housing across our border in Harris County exploding upward, more and more Harris County residents are becoming Chambers County residents. As a result, land and housing costs in Chambers County have skyrocketed. Chambers County has always been a very “generational” county with sixth and seventh generations of families living and working in the county.

  Over the generations, families have owned thousands and thousands of acres for farming and ranching in Chambers County. As the “old timers” pass on, the younger generation heirs who don’t farm or ranch have sold huge parcels of land to developers who will be building homes for the booming population of the county. Over the last couple of years, insiders will tell you that it is close to impossible to buy parcels of land in east Chambers County today.

  Texas and Chambers County have an affordable housing crisis. Young people who choose to live in Chambers County after high school cannot find affordable housing. As a result, mobile home and RV parks are popping up all over the east side of the county.

  The article below is an excellent article by The Texas Tribune regarding the discussion and possible action that may be taken by the Texas 89^th legislative session. We will study it to see how Chambers County can benefit or not from possible legislation. – Gloria Way

Buying or renting a home in Texas used to be relatively cheap. Amid the state’s economic boom, its once-celebrated housing affordability has slipped.

Texas renters now spend more on keeping a roof over their heads than ever. As home prices have vastly outpaced incomes, homeownership has become a distant fantasy for many Texas families.

The state’s high housing costs have caught the attention of state officials — who worry that Texas could lose its competitive edge with other states if it doesn’t get a handle on home prices and rents.

Here’s how Texas lawmakers may address housing costs when the Legislature returns to Austin later this month — and how the debate could unfold.

Texas needs about 320,000 more homes than it has, according to a recent estimate by housing policy organization Up For Growth. That deep shortage, housing advocates argue, drove up home prices and rents as the state’s economy boomed and competition increased for a limited supply of homes — even though Texas builds more homes than any other state. State lawmakers must find ways to address that shortage, real estate experts and housing advocates warn, if they want to keep housing costs in check as the state grows.

“Our population is going to continue to increase in the next 30, 40 years,” said Scott Norman, Texas Association of Builders CEO. “All of those people have to live somewhere.”

State lawmakers, backed by a coalition of outside groups that span the political spectrum, will likely look for ways to build more homes and put a dent in the shortage. One avenue they may go down: addressing local regulations that critics say prevent the state from adding enough homes to meet demand.

Cities restrict what kinds of homes can be built and where using rules called zoning regulations. Research shows those rules limit how many homes can be built and contribute to higher housing costs— and relaxing them can help cities add more homes and contain housing costs.

Texas lawmakers considered ways in 2023 to relax cities’ zoning rules, but those ideas went nowhere. Some are certain to make a comeback.

“The starting point is to make sure that we don’t have obstacles like regulatory issues and local government that are making things worse,” said state Sen. Paul Bettencourt, a Houston-area Republican.

Lawmakers could make it easier for homeowners to build accessory dwelling units — also known as ADUs, granny flats, mother-in-law suites or casitas — in the backyard of single-family homes, considered a relatively low-cost housing option. Texas House lawmakers shot down a bill during the 2023 regular session that would have overridden any city bans on ADUs or regulations that researchers have found can prevent ADUs from getting built. Out of 11 major Texas cities surveyed by The Texas Tribune, most allowed ADUs but also had rules that hindered development.

State Sen. Bryan Hughes, a Mineola Republican, and state Rep. Cody Vasut, an Angleton Republican, have each filed bills that essentially revive the ADU proposal that died during the last regular session.

Lawmakers also may consider reducing how much land cities require single-family homes to be built on. Those rules, known as minimum lot-size requirements, drive up the final cost of a home by encouraging larger, pricier homes and leaving less land behind to build other homes. The most common minimum lot-size requirements among major Texas cities the Tribune surveyed last year is between 5,000 and 7,500 square feet.

Vasut’s bill would also reduce lot-size requirements to 2,500 square feet — though it would only apply to cities with more than 85,000 residents that sit in counties with at least 1 million residents.

Whether the Legislature should force cities to reduce their lot-size rules across the board, including in existing neighborhoods, will likely be a major point of discussion. Advocates have said state lawmakers should at least encourage smaller lot sizes in new developments outside of existing neighborhoods.

Another idea would allow homes to be built in places that now only allow commercial businesses — a practice not allowed in Texas’ largest cities. And as Texas’ urban areas see high office vacancies, housing advocates are also crafting ways to encourage developers to convert empty office buildings into residences.

Both ideas hold some appeal for homeowners who may not welcome other types of housing in their neighborhoods — and will likely put up stiff resistance to any proposal that attempts to allow more housing there.

A likely point of contention is whether statewide changes to boost the housing stock will apply to neighborhoods that only allow single-family homes — and mostly don’t allow other kinds of housing.

Texas cities tend to allow standalone single-family homes to be built nearly anywhere where dwellings are allowed. But it’s usually illegal to build denser, cheaper housing — like townhomes, duplexes and smaller apartment buildings — in many of those places.

Proposals to allow more kinds of homes in existing single-family neighborhoods can draw stiff resistance from existing homeowners and neighborhood groups. Doing so, they often argue, will upset their neighborhood’s character. 

Part 2 next week.