How will the new Apple campus affect Austin real estate?

AUSTIN, Texas (FOX 7 Austin) - The new Apple campus in North Austin could have an impact on home prices for the already soaring population the area has seen. 

“This makes Apple Austin’s largest employer and we're incredibly proud of that,” said Deirdre O’Brien, Apple vice president of people. That means an additional five to 15 thousand Apple employees will be looking for housing in the coming years. 

“So job growth equals home sales. So with Apple promising to bring in this many jobs, it's only going to have a positive impact on our market,” said Re/Max Austin Skyline Real Estate Agent Hope Teel.  

Like anything else, the best way to prevent home prices from skyrocketing is to increase supply. 

“We should expect prices to go up with that, but, hopefully, we'll see a lot more new development, new construction and, hopefully, some redevelopment in some existing neighborhoods to increase housing density,” Teel said.  

Does the Capital City have room for so much more growth? 

“I think there will be an adjustment period, but, overall, yes, I think we'll just need to see that new construction continue, ideally at a faster rate, which, I don't know if that's possible, and then we need to see housing density increase,” said Teel.  

The Apple campus will mostly occupy an area just over the Williamson County line and Williamson County, much like Austin, has been trying to keep up with a population boom.

“Due to this robust growth, we are on track to pass the 1 million mark by 2036,” said Williamson County Director of Administration Rebecca Clemons. 

Thanks to Apple, that will probably continue, likely at an even faster pace. 

“I think that the area in which the campus is going into is probably going to see a lot of growth, a lot of change, a lot of redevelopment. Once again, just because, especially as we all know and love Austin traffic, people are going to want to be as close to their jobs as possible,” Teel said.