high praise for the 'burbs

3 Austin neighbors shine on new list of America's safest suburbs

Cedar Park is one of America's safest suburbs.

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Crime may be a concern for some Austinites, but life is a little more relaxed just beyond the city limits. Cedar Park, Georgetown, and Round Rock were just named among the safest suburbs to live in the U.S., as declared in a new report by financial advisor marketplace SmartAsset.

The report ranked 360 suburbs of major U.S. cities based on their crime rates, vehicular and drug poisoning mortality rates, and the percentage of the population engaging in "excessive drinking." Housing affordability was an additional factor considered for the 35 safest suburbs.

The No. 1 safest American suburb is Lehi, Utah, which is nearly 30 miles south of Salt Lake City.

Cedar Park (No. 45) was the highest ranking Austin suburb, followed by Georgetown (No. 52) and Round Rock (No. 69). According to the study's findings, 8.47 motor vehicle crash deaths occur per 100,000 residents in all three suburbs, and 18 percent of adults in each city are engaging in excessive drinking.

This is how SmartAsset breaks down each suburb's crime rates per capita:

0.00855 – Cedar Park's violent crime rate
0.00837 – Georgetown's violent crime rate
0.01324 – Round Rock's violent crime rate
0.01595 – Cedar Park's property crime rate
0.02354 – Georgetown's property crime rate
0.03576 – Round Rock's property crime rate

Austin's suburbs have been earning endless praise recently for their livability and growth. Most recently, Round Rock was crowned one of the best cities in the nation for renters, while Cedar Park's low crime rates and high household income level earned the city the title as the No. 4 best Texas city to move to in 2024. Meanwhile, the quiet town of Georgetown is the 8th fastest growing U.S. city, and is also among the best places to retire in the Hill Country.

In a separate report by personal finance website GoBankingRates, which analyzed the 50 safest and most affordable U.S. cities to live in, Round Rock appeared as No. 33, thanks to its low property and violent crime rates as well as a high median household income. The GoBankingRates study emphasized suburbs like Round Rock that offer "vibrant cultural scenes" and strong job markets for adults, along with great schools and abundant recreational activities for families to enjoy.

Elsewhere in Texas
The safest Texas suburb to live in is McKinney, which is located about 40 miles north of Dallas. The city ranked No. 22 in the national comparison and was the highest-ranking suburb statewide.

Other Texas cities that ranked among the top 100 safest American suburbs include Frisco (No. 24), Stafford (No. 50), Taylor (No. 58), Fort Bliss (No. 59), and Anthony (No. 88).

The report says a suburb's safety is a main component residents must consider when choosing the right place to buy their next home, especially when high safety ratings can "increase demand and drive up property values." But there are many factors that go into determining a city's overall safeness.

"Homebuyers can measure how safe a community is by comparing the reported rates of violent crime, property crime, motor vehicle deaths, drug overdose deaths and excessive drinking, among other common indicators, in different areas," the report said.

The top 10 safest U.S. suburbs to live in are:

No. 1 – Lehi, Utah
No. 2 – Bethesda, Maryland
No. 3 – Layton, Utah
No. 4 – Rockville, Maryland
No. 5 – Great Falls, Virginia
No. 6 – Dacula, Georgia
No. 7 – Buford, Georgia
No. 8 – Elmhurst, Illinois
No. 9 – Oak Brook, Illinois
No. 10 – Edgewater, New Jersey

For the purpose of the study, crime rates were determined based on the number of crimes per 100,000 city residents from the FBI’s Uniform Crime Reporting Database in 2022 (the year with the most recent available data), with additional crime data from neighborhood analytics database NeighborhoodScout. The excessive drinking metric is defined as the percentage of adults who consumed more than five alcoholic drinks for men (or more than four for women) on a single occasion over a 30-day period; or those who engage in heavy drinking, which is defined as drinking more than one drink per day for women or two drinks a day for men on average.

The full report and its methodology can be found on smartasset.com.

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real estate report

How Austin fits into Zillow's predicted housing market growth in 2025

Photo by Justin Wallace on Unsplash

Potential homebuyers in Austin may see improving mortgage rates and home prices in 2025, according to Zillow.

It looks like a few more people are about to turn their online home shopping daydreams into reality in 2025. Zillow, the famous real estate listings website, says in a press release that next year will likely bring "a gradual but bumpy decline in rates, impacting sales and price growth."

It attributes the forecast to "erratic and dramatic mortgage rate movements" throughout 2024, which will continue to affect the market. The website's housing market predictions report estimates that 2025 will see about 100,000 more sales than 2024, that home value growth will be "low and slow" at 2.2 percent, and that inventory and new listings will continue recovering from pandemic weakness.

On a local scale, Zillow's latest data shows Austin has already experienced a 3.4 percent drop in annual average home values from 2023 to 2024, which will continue fluctuating in 2025.

As of November, Zillow's home value index says the average home in the Austin metro is worth $443,995. That figure is greater than the Austin Board of Realtors' median home sales price in Austin-Round Rock-San Marcos, which came out to $435,000 last month, reflecting an estimated 2.4 percent increase for just the month of November year-over-year from 2023.

Pick the right season to buy
Potential buyers may see better opportunities for purchasing a home during the fall and winter, which is a typically slow season for home sales. Across 36 out of the 50 biggest U.S. metro areas, Zillow's heat market index showed a drop in competition from October to November.

"There's a strong sense of déjà vu on tap for 2025. We are once again expecting mortgage rates to get better gradually, and opportunities for buyers should follow, but be prepared for plenty of bumps on that path," said Zillow chief economist Skylar Olsen in the release. "Those shopping this winter have plenty of time to choose and a relatively strong position in negotiations."

Zillow suggests buyers may have the ability to negotiate "from a position of safety" during the slow winter months. This is especially true for Austin-area buyers, who only saw 10.4 percent of homes sell for more than their listing price in October. The website says buyers can take advantage of opportunities to buy contingent on inspections or repairs, and they may avoid bidding wars during this time.

"While the number of options available to shoppers today are lower than they will likely see in the spring, there's also less competition in the field," the report says. "The [national] share of homes that sold for more than list price was below 28 percent in October (the latest data available), continuing a downward trend that began in July."

Buyers will head to the Southwest
Eyes are also turning to the American Southwest as the top region for homebuyers in 2025, as 13 major metro areas – including Austin and San Antonio – are now considered “buyer’s markets” where buyers have more negotiating power than sellers.

However, this prediction depends on the gravity of falling mortgage rates. Homebuyers should also keep a close eye on mortgage rates in 2025, which could drop unpredictably like they have been for the last three weeks in a row. If the rates dip further than expected, that doesn’t bode as well for buyers.

“It is anticipated that a significant mortgage rate dip would bring more buyers than sellers back to the market, increasing competition and tilting negotiating power in favor of sellers,” Zillow says.

Small-home living is gaining traction
As Austin and other major cities are battling for more high density housing, buying trends are also leaning towards smaller (and more affordable) homes.

Zillow even goes as far to say that the “pandemic-era need” for large houses is officially a thing of the past.

"The term 'cozy' is appearing in more listing descriptions — 35 percent more in 2024 compared to 2023 — reflecting current design trends that have shifted away from cavernous open floor plans, toward contained spaces that have their own style and purpose," the report says.

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