Austin is one of the hippest cities around, known for its “Keep Austin Weird” mural, the South By Southwest festival, and surprising attractions like the Cathedral of Junk – but as with other trendy locales, it’s an expensive place to live. In fact, Austin is Texas’s priciest city, meaning many potential residents are priced out of the area. Instead, young people drawn in by Austin’s trendy appeal are shifting their attention to its suburbs, including the up-and-coming San Marcos area.
San Marcos has all the hallmarks of an area on the rise, including transit system upgrades, a growing job market, and, of course, its proximity to Austin, and all these elements will give property owners an edge in the marketing department. If you’re considering investing in San Marcos area real estate, be sure to center these 4 elements in your promotions. San Marcos is on the move, and it’s time to let people know.
Hays County, home to San Marcos, is one of several Austin suburbs that has seen double-digit growth in home sales this year, with a boost of 38.6%, but you can only attract new residents to an area if there’s a parallel increase in jobs. So, who employs San Marcos residents? A significant number work for Amazon. The ecommerce giant has a distribution center in San Marcos and has signed additional leases throughout the region to the tune of 1000 jobs, while also promising 600-800 tech jobs in the region. All this means that there’s plenty of room for growth along multiple career paths.
Amazon’s warehouse jobs are a great starting place and are sure to drive regional economic growth, but they’re just a starting point from an employment perspective. Other employers attracting new tenants and homeowners to the region include a manufacturing facility in Kyle, as well as a Tesla plant in neighboring Travis County. As with many suburbs, a large number of San Marcos residents commute into neighboring towns or the central city – in this case, Austin – for work.
Given the sizeable jump in home sales this year, San Marcos is in acute need of enhanced public services, and unlike some areas that function for years with overextended municipal offerings, San Marcos is already taking steps to grow with its population. This includes building a second fire station, set to be completed in 2021, and expanding its public transit system care of a small funding boost through the State Small Urban formula funds. Given San Marcos’s status as a college town, a strong public transit system is a must, and it’s a key sign that an area is on the verge of real transformation.
Just as every growing suburb needs a strong job market, it also needs a good healthcare system, and this is an area in which many suburbs fall short. San Marcos refuses to fall behind on this metric, however, and – in concert with its growth – the area is breaking ground on a new Kaiser Permanente hospital, including an emergency room, labor and delivery, and even robotic surgery facilities. Scripps Health has also signed on to develop a large primary care center, and with all these changes, new residents can feel assured that all of their major healthcare needs can be taken care of locally, without the need to commute into Austin.
Historically, suburbs have attracted younger adults who are established in their careers and ready to start a family – but these young adults are considered more likely to buy their own homes than to rent. This isn’t necessarily the case today, though, as millennials are far less likely to own property than their parents were at the same age, and young adults are more likely to move to “live-play-work” suburbs like San Marcos at earlier ages. Taken together, all of these elements, as well as the low concentration of renters, make investing in San Marcos properties a winning proposition.
While San Marcos clearly has a lot of positive attributes that will attract new residents, investors promoting rentals should focus on how these elements intersect. The best properties will have easy access to the expanded public transit system, while proximity to nightlife and other downtown attractions will vary based on the target market. One important feature of San Marcos is that it’s home to Texas’s fourth largest university, so the nightlife scene can be noisy during the school year. This may be appealing to recent college graduates, while families may want to be a little further from downtown.
Finally, when developing your San Marcos investment strategy, it’s important not to overlook the growing community of retirees flocking to the area. Forbes recently rated San Marcos as one of the best places in the country to retire with low crime rates and a higher-than-average number of doctors per capita. This group is seeking to downsize into accessible properties or seeking multi-family arrangements for intergenerational housing. Is this demographic part of your portfolio planning?
As an investor, a savvy strategy for the San Marcos market would include both smaller rental units in multi-family properties and single-family homes, but you’ll want to move fast. Realtors are already struggling to keep pace with demand for single-family homes due to low supply, which could drive prices up, despite what is otherwise a buyer’s market.
Whether you’re new to the San Marcos real estate sector or you’ve been building up your investments in the area for years, attracting the right tenants in a growing market can be a challenge – but you don’t have to do it alone. With the help of Green Residential’s property management professionals, you can say goodbye to the hassle of marketing properties and screening tenants and let the experts do the heavy lifting. Green Residential’s team has been supporting investors and landlords for over forty years, delivering critical expertise for optimal results.
Take the next step in promoting your San Marcos properties and contact Green Residential today. Whether you own one rental or dozens, we’re excited to work with you.
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