Austin's Zilker Botanical Garden unveils rare succulent collection at upscale Parisian picnic

Succulent Surprises

Zilker Botanical Garden/Instagram

Here's one of the beautiful experiences of living in this desert-adjacent city full of weirdos: Austinites deeply value being the first to see a prominent succulent collection. Move over, private pickleball clubs — the plant lovers are getting a taste of that sweet exclusivity.

Of course, as much as succulent gardeners covet rare plants, they love to share the excitement; so it is fitting that an inaugural benefit dinner will celebrate the first-ever public viewing of the Zilker Botanical Garden Succulent Collection on November 4. Funds raised will support the garden so more people can come in and look at all its many well-cared-for plants year-round.

The High Desert Dîner en Blanc ("Dinner in White") is set to be an annual event, adapting the Parisian idea of celebrating "good food and good friends" outside. The "elevated picnic" is all about "self-expression, playfulness, and community," according to the announcement. Along with dinner, attendees will enjoy an open bar, games, and tours of the collection.

The new collection arrives courtesy of the late Bob Barth, scientist and co-founder of the Austin Cactus and Succulent Society. The social group provides educational programming and assembles volunteers to help maintain the Botanical Garden’s Cactus Garden; and some members will surely be in attendance at the dinner.

. University of Texas students may also remember Barth as their professor of Zoology (Entomology and Ornithology), and he was also a longtime member of the Travis Audubon Society.

Maintaining a 28-acre garden is not cheap — even with the help of volunteers — and Zilker Botanical Garden Conservancy has raised more than $300,000 in the past year. Those funds go toward preserving the Butler Window (a remnant of a historical Austin mansion that has become a popular photo spot), working on the succulent collection, and creating visitor programming.

It also maintains a roster of 26 member organizations including very specialized groups like the First Austin African Violet Society, and groups that are there to appreciate rather than grow the garden, like Plein Air Austin.

Barth's donation also included funds to hire a curator for the succulent collection, so it will continue thriving and evolving through 2025 and hopefully beyond.

The garden requests that dinner guests wear white to stay on-theme, and refrain from wearing heels to protect the ground. Tickets ($125 per person, $225 per couple) are available at zilkergarden.org. Guests must be 21 or older.

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Photo by Mark König on Unsplash

Texas Trees Foundation says Austinites should water their trees stat

Weather News

With seemingly no end to this prolonged heat wave, Texas Trees Foundation (TTF) is recommending that homeowners and business owners across Central Texas water their trees immediately.

The Foundation has been receiving inquiries about what to do in response to temperatures remaining well above 100°F for lo, these many days — especially in urban centers, currently in the throes of urban heat, where pavement and less vegetation make it up to 10°F hotter than the surrounding countryside.

In these times of extreme heat, trees should be given priority over other landscape plants, including lawns. A lawn left unwatered will naturally go dormant for the season and turn brown, but can turn green again after rain or watering.

A lawn is shallow. It can be re-established in a single season. A large tree cannot. Save the tree.

How to water your tree

Do not water established trees at the trunk. Instead, water from the "dripline" - which is the edge of the tree’s branches and outward. The basic rule of thumb is to apply water in a circular band that’s at least half as wide as the distance from the trunk to the dripline.
Trees prefer to be watered slowly and deeply. Sprinklers are for lawns but not for trees. Instead, use a bubbler, multiple drip emitters, or a hand-held hose to deliver water to the tree’s root zone. Water the soil to one to two feet deep each time you water and let the surface dry between waterings.
The simplest method of watering: Turn your garden hose on a slow trickle and leave it in different zones within the dripline until you can easily insert a screwdriver into the soil. This kind of "deep watering" encourages deep rooting – and deep roots are the best way for a tree to survive a drought. Irrigate established trees once every two weeks during the growing season.

Texas Trees Foundation’s Urban Forester Rachel McGregor reminds homeowners to follow water restrictions, but points out that "trees provide an enormous asset to our landscape by reducing heating and cooling cost in our homes, cleaning the air we breathe, increasing our mental and physical health, decreasing storm water runoff, and many other benefits."

Other techniques
Beyond the necessity of watering, keep these other tips in mind to help your trees survive:

The best time for summer watering is in the morning or evening between the hours of 7 pm-8 am. Avoid watering during the hottest part of the day, 10 am-6 pm, because water gets lost in evaporation.
Remove grass and other plants which can compete within the soil root zone for available water. This water competition can be severe.
Use mulch to conserve water and prevent weed competition. Mulch is any tree’s best friend. Besides minimizing evaporation of soil moisture and limiting rainwater runoff, mulch also protects the tree from mower and weed trimmer damage. Wood chips and shredded bark can be used for mulch. Cover the area with mulch about 2 to 3 inches deep, taking care to avoid the area next to the tree’s trunk.

Do not use fertilizer or prune your tree during summer months. Both cause more stress. Fertilizers promote growth that the tree cannot sustain under unfavorable conditions and pruning off good leaves takes food away from an already stressed tree. The only pruning that should be allowed is to remove dead branches or any branches that pose a hazard.

Heat stress
Your trees will show signs if they are stressed from the heat:

Wilted leaves are one of the early signs of stress on a tree during drought.
Leaf scorching, when the edges of leaves or the space between a leaf’s veins turns brown

When a tree begins to exhibit signs of heat stress, irrigation should begin immediately to avoid long-term damage to the tree. Drought and high temperatures deliver a one-two punch to trees. Trees exhale moisture from their leaves in a process called transpiration. As temperatures climb, transpiration kicks into overdrive. During extreme heat, there isn’t enough water in the soil to replenish the water lost. When this happens, trees adopt survival strategies that can stress and weaken them.

The Texas Trees Foundation (TTF) is a non-profit tree planting organization dedicated to greening North Central Texas.

Photo courtesy of Central Market

Tons of these Southwestern chiles go down the hatch in Texas every summer

Your Burning Questions, Answered

As if we weren't already sweating enough, things are heating up for Hatch Chile season. These green (and less commonly, red) peppers are all over Austin menus. A Hatch Chile usually signifies a special commitment to Southwestern cuisine beyond that of the pedestrian — if widely loved — jalapeño.

But ask an Austinite what a Hatch Chile really IS, and you'll be met with blank stares. Let them pick it out of a basket at H-E-B and...wait, are there even any in stock? Thankfully, Central Market is on the job with its 28th annual Hatch Chile Festival from August 2-22.

The grocery store will send teams outside for daily Hatch Chile roasts, adding the special ingredient to "everything from pork chops to pound cakes." Locations across the state plan to go through 125 tons of peppers during this festival, including a free tasting event on August 12.

There are plenty of other places to taste Hatch Chiles year-round in Austin, if you want someone else to prepare them: Torchy's famous Green Chile Queso; JewBoy Burgers' latkes with Hatch Chiles, grilled onions, and melted cheese; and Paco's Tacos makes them the star on a tortilla with beans and cheese.

Like Champagne, Hatch Chiles are named for their provenance: the former floodplains of New Mexico's Hatch Valley. An online seller called the Hatch Chile Store places the growing region across 40,000 acres in New Mexico, California, Arizona, and Texas, but some fanatics say it's not a real Hatch Chile if it's not from the valley, which is fully contained in New Mexico.

A real purist would only accept chiles within the lineage of Joseph Franzoy, an Austrian immigrant and commercial farmer in Hatch who grew his family to more than 700 members over four generations of chile growing. Many informational sources about Hatch chiles are sure to mention the Franzoy name.

If 125 tons seemed like a lot, consider the 300,000 people that visit the small village of Hatch along the Rio Grande each year, according to the New Mexico Tourism Department. These visitors dramatically outnumber the villagers; a group of 1556 as of 2021. A local festival even chooses a chile queen each year.

Central Market attributes the smoky flavor of the chiles to a temperature differential in the valley: big shifts been hot days and cool nights. This is in keeping with widely held gardening wisdom that hotter areas generally create hotter chiles — these generally only pack a mild-to-medium punch at 4,500 units on the Scoville scale. That's about the same or milder than a jalapeño.

If pepper fanatics in Austin choose to visit this pepper hotspot, they'll have to plan quite the drive. Hatch is north of Las Cruces and south of the famously named Truth or Consequences. (Yes, that's a real town.) It's about an 11-hour drive one-way, or Texans can fly into the El Paso International Airport and rent a car for the day.

Those who do make the drive may want to check out a copy of New Mexico Chiles: History, Legend and Lore by documentarian Kelly Culler, whose extended family grows chiles in the Hatch Valley. Some things have changed since its 2015 publication, but it doesn't look like people are losing interest in these crops anytime soon.

Photo by Sandie Clarke on Unsplash

Austin keeps hoeing despite losing the title of top nude gardening city

Take Your Plants Off

Austin gardeners, pull up your trousers — we have something important to talk about. We've lost our top spot as the nation's No. 1 naked gardeners. Sure, it's nice in Miami, our new leader, and the only thing better than gardening naked is taking a naked gardening break with a cubano (the sandwich or the person). But as the runner up, we have everything we need to come back from this next year.

LawnStarter, a yard care platform, is the journalistic hero who compiled the data to set these rankings for World Naked Gardening Day on May 6, including factors like "nudist population size, indecent exposure laws, and, of course, gardener-friendliness." Even though Austin's ranking fell to No. 2, we did better than 198 other cities, most notably Atlanta, Georgia, at No. 3.

The next-best Texas city for stripping down is good old Houston, at No. 9, and Dallas made No. 18, but watch out for those bugs in any of these three Texas cities. Hilariously, all three also did not do particularly well in the weather or safety rankings. They just really want to do it. They all cracked the top 15 in both local interest and "nude gardener friendliness." So wave to your neighbor, but don't stare too hard.

Things are going okay for naked gardeners in El Paso, San Antonio, and Plano (Nos. 75, 78, and 82 respectively). It all starts going downhill in Fort Worth (No. 105) and interest starts to wane. If you're thinking about tossing your top over the garden fence, just know that Laredo is a downright awful place to do it — in fact, at No. 195, there are only five worse places to do it. Ironically, if anyone does warm up to the idea, they can try it without worrying too much; even though only seven cities show less of an interest in naked gardening, 56 are less friendly and a large majority rank as less safe.

Austin only made the very top in one category, which was a tie, and a very specific one at that: "most Google searches for Naked Gardening Day-related terms over past year." Austin and New York both had the most searches, and Dallas had the next-most in a five-way tie. Austin also got a leg up thanks to the looseness of its nudity laws.

It's inspiring, really: What makes a top naked gardening city is the desire to be one (naked ambition, if you will), so Austin knows exactly how to reclaim the title next time around. For better motivation always garden naked together.

Photo courtesy of Simon & Schuster

Austin author highlights 75 weird, delicious, and creepy fungi in enchanting coffee table book

More spores in store

It's not mush ado about nothing — mushrooms live rich little lives in more places than people expect. (They also live big lives, if you're thinking about the world's heaviest edible fungi specimen weighing in at 100 pounds in 1990). They cure diseases, play big roles in spiritual rituals, and remove unwanted substances from the forest floor.

All this and more is ripe for exploration in The Little Book of Mushrooms, an Austin author's newest contribution to the world of fungi, out May 2. Alex Dorr already has lots of influence in this realm, through his Austin-based "functional mushroom" company, Mushroom Revival Inc., as well as the widely respected Mushroom Revival Podcast, and the Mycoremediation Handbook, actually his academic thesis about using mushrooms to clean up their environments.

This new written venture is more of a coffee table treasure, with hand painted illustrations (by Sara Richard) and approachable language that enthusiasts and newbies alike may idle among for hours. The Little Book of Mushrooms catches readers up to speed with geographic and growing locations (basically where they grow and what they grow on), characteristics, and uses, including lots of info about edible types and dangerous lookalikes.

The 75 mushrooms profiled were chosen both to cover a basic need-to-know selection as well as more morbid curiosities, such as Cordyceps caloceroides, which infects tarantulas and may grow as long as a human forearm. The book doesn't take a regional focus, but many of its subjects appear in Central Texas. Chorioactis geaster, also known as the "Devil's Cigar" or "Texas Star," is not just the state mushroom — it was discovered in Austin in 1893, and lives a curious double life here, in the mountains of Japan, and nowhere else, as far as scientists know. The strangest part: The two have been separate for more than 19 million years.

"I have ADD, so I love books that allow you to flip to a random page, read a couple of pages and then put it down," says Dorr. "This is one of those books that you can read cover-to-cover...or you can flip to a random mushroom, and that's your mushroom of the day — you read a couple pages about that mushroom, then you put it down, and you can go about your day."

Even though he wasn't in Texas yet, Dorr got acquainted with mushrooms in much the same way as many Austinites — that is, in college, recreationally. Then at Hampshire College in Massachusetts, he found that his new hobby freed him of pharmaceutical use, drinking, and smoking cigarettes, seemingly effortlessly. Every mushroom-related class Dorr could find made its way onto his schedule.

"Since they radically changed my life — pretty much overnight — I asked the question, 'Well, if these mushrooms could do that, what else is out there?'" says Dorr. "I discovered that you can grow them for food, for medicine, for building materials — they pretty much can solve most of our biggest world problems. And they're severely under-studied. ... We have only really discovered about one percent of all fungi."

Now in Austin, Dorr gets involved in the mushroom community at large through Mushroom Revival, sometimes doing giveaways, emceeing events, and teaching workshops with the Central Texas Mycological Society. The podcast airs weekly interviews with experts in the field of fungi from all over the world.

"A lot of people don't know anything about mushrooms or fungi, and that they're their own kingdom of life," says Dorr. "I think they're the underrepresented stewards of our planet, and they go pretty unacknowledged and unappreciated. And so, I think step one is just acknowledging that they're there."

The Little Book of Mushrooms is out now in hardcover and ebook formats at simonandschuster.com.

Photo courtesy of Austin PBS

Austin PBS adds tacos and brings back gardening and star interviews for upcoming season

Don't change the channel

There are so many things made in Austin that it's hard to know what they are. Austin PBS is here to help, following its Made in Austin Premiere Night on April 20, where it showed clips of new programming for 2023-24. It will continue to share musical performances on Austin City Limits, while adding a food series, and bringing back a gardening series and another series with one of Austin's top journalists.

“Although we have gathered to view and celebrate our new Austin PBS original programming, this is first and foremost a celebration of our community,” said president and CEO Luis Patiño, as quoted in a news release. “I believe that Austin PBS is truly in the right place, at the right time, to tell the stories of this diverse community and give voice to the multitude of artists, changemakers and leaders that call Austin and the surrounding communities home."

"Without people — and their willingness to share their stories with us — we would not be able to create the impactful content that enriches and transforms the communities we serve," he added. "Above all, Austin PBS will continue to create and cultivate collaboration that is community-serving and community-focused.”

The highlighted shows are as follows:

Taco Mafia: This limited docuseries of four episodes explores Austin through its tacos — not a brand new idea, by any means, but these hosts are well-known around town for their contributions on top of tortillas. James Beard Award winner Edgar Rico of Nixta Taqueria, Beto Robledo of Cuantos Tacos, and Xose Velasco and Anthony Pratto of Discada join together as the "Taco Mafia" to talk about "entrepreneurship, sustainability, immigration, cultural appropriation, gentrification and the pandemic," all while creating a stronger bond and taco community.

“Our mission is to showcase not only the exceptional members of the Taco Mafia in this show, but also the networks of individuals who contribute to the Mafia's unique identity,” said Rico. “From highlighting the journey of Raymundo Escamilla of La Colonial in San Antonio to our corn farmer Hugo Gomez in Oaxaca, Mexico, we aim to feature all of the exceptional individuals who have helped craft the DNA of our establishments and make them so special. We are excited for everyone to tune in and witness the remarkable work that Austin PBS has put into the production and vision of our show.”

Central Texas Gardener: Central Texas Gardener is a DIY show that tours gardens for inspiration and tips for gardeners of every experience level. It also places an emphasis on sustainability through "organic techniques, water-wise plants, and homegrown food." The real Texas gardens are also a great way to get to know our surrounding area and the people that take care of the land in their gardens. Aside from aired episodes, Central Texas Gardener runs a blog for easier reference, as well as an extensive list of resources for browsing.

Overheard With Evan Smith: This interview series enters its 11th season, in a notable reappearance by host Evan Smith, who recently left his post as the CEO of the publication he co-founded, The Texas Tribune. This is not a hyperlocal show: it airs nationally in 136 markets, inviting well-known guests that often qualify as household names. Season 10 included former President George W. Bush, author John Grisham, musician Jeff Tweedy, and more. It also featured some category compilations that may be an interesting entry point for someone new to the show.

Austin PBS recently acquired the state-wide streaming and broadcast rights to Deep In The Heart: A Texas Wildlife Story, which features the voice of Matthew McConaughey over scenes of Texas landscapes. Viewers will see wildlife and scenery that can't be found anywhere outside the Lone Star State. This show was made possible through a gift from private benefactors Lisa and Desi Rhoden.

In March, the station also announced a new show about the murals around the city, called Muraling Austin. Another notable show out of Austin, a National Geographic contribution called Restaurants at the End of the World, features Top Chef winner Kristen Kish traveling the world and preparing regional foods in remote locations. Austin TV speaks most to the people who are likely to see its subjects on the street, but the Capital City is increasingly interesting to people all over.

The above programs will be air or stream on KLRU-TV, the Austin PBS app, and austinpbs.org. A full schedule is available on the website.

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Radio Coffee brings the brews to new shop and music venue in October

going live in the fall

When it comes to expanding the influence of coffee connoisseurs in Austin, there's room for everyone on the East Side.

One East Austin coffee shop just changed hands for a fancy rebrand, and another recently expanded out of the area into Buda. Cosmic Coffee, a South Austin staple, blew everyone out of the water with a gorgeous, sprawling industrial complex on East 4th Street, and now another neighboring coffee and beer combo is following suit.

Radio/East, a second location spun off from the original music-loving Radio Coffee & Beer, announced today that it will open its doors at 3504 Montopolis Drive in East Austin on Wednesday, October 18.

The new family- and dog-friendly space sprawls across two acres, which is divvied up between a 1200-square-foot indoor coffee shop, indoor and outdoor live music stages, and a food truck park. Guests will be able to order their favorite drinks from the indoor counter, or they can choose to order from either of the two outdoor windows that open to the grand shaded backyard. And we can't forget one of the more rare features: plenty of parking for customers.

Radio's founding father-son duo Jack and Greg Wilson brought on two new partners — Trey Hudson and Nine Mile Records owner Rick Pierik — in the hopes of developing and maintaining this new spot as a community-focused space, much like the beloved original.

“With the new space, we’ve been able to create a through line to the existing concept of Radio,” said Hudson in a release. “With Radio/East we tried to listen to what the Montopolis community needed and we hope that we can be as central to this neighborhood as we have been to the area around Menchaca.”

Pierik will be the driving force behind Radio/East's musical events. Local musicians and touring bands will all get their chance to take the stage with four nights of performances planned indoors and outdoors beginning on Thursdays.

With Austin's wide-ranging music taste, Pierik will seek to reflect the city's musical diversity with every show.

"Jack Wilson and I are looking to bring together diverse programing from every corner of the music industry, booking up-and-coming national and international acts alongside all of the amazing Austin talent we've known and admired for years," said Pierik. "We're especially committed to helping local artists develop their fanbases through quality concert experiences and eclectic bills."

A list of events following Radio/East's grand opening is as follows:

October 19 – Sunrosa with Guma and Feeling Small
October 20 – Redbud with Mockjaw, Tearjerk, and Creekbed Carter Hogan
October 21 – Peachfuzz 10th Anniversary Party featuring The Texas Gentleman, Brown Burlesque, Lady Dan, and a to-be-announced special guest
October 28 – First Annual Radio/East Chili Cook Off and the Austin Flea, featuring Mother Neff, The Push & Shove, and Sour Bridges
October 31 – A Rocky Horror Halloween featuring A Giant Dog with Trouble in the Streets
November 11 – A Free Lunch Benefit featuring Caroline Rose and BRUCE
November 17 – Money Chicha with The Tiarras

Tickets for the upcoming shows can be purchased online beginning Friday, September 29.

In addition to keeping Radio/East music-focused, visitors can expect to see some classic beverages on the menu, with a few new twists to keep customers coming back. The new location will have two tap towers with eight craft beer taps, four rotating specialty draft cocktails, and plenty of wine to go around.

Radio/East Get a local favorite beer on draft, or try a new specialty draft cocktail.Photo by Renee Dominguez

Bar Manager Jacob Biggie has been hard at work to develop new creative cocktails for the new location, including Phantom Mood (Still Austin Gin, hibiscus, lime, and cucumber with soda) and Sensitive Artist (Senza Maeso hybrid spirit, Aperol, St. Germain, lime juice). Guests can also try the new seasonal non-alcoholic highball, dubbed the Chai-ball.

The lineup of food vendors at the new East Austin digs include Veracruz All Natural with its binge-worthy tacos; organic pizza slices from Side Eye Slice (a sister concept to Side Eye Pie); and Radio's own food truck – Shortwave Diner – offering classic American diner fare and comfort food such as smash burgers, fried chicken sandwiches, hot dogs, chicken and waffles, and more.

Following the grand opening at 7 am on October 18, Radio/East's operating hours will be 7 am to 1 am Monday through Saturday, and 7 am to 10 pm on Sundays.

Austin is No. 12 in the U.S. with the highest number of 'unretirees'

Office News

Many Austin seniors are still punching the clock well past retirement age. According to "Cities with the Most Working Seniors," a new employment study by business website ChamberofCommerce.org, more than a quarter of Austin seniors aged 65 and up are still employed, making it the No. 12 city in the U.S. with the most working seniors.

More than 25,400 Austin seniors aged 65 and up are employed out of a total 93,861, or 27.1 percent of the city's senior population.

The No. 1 city in the U.S. with hard-working oldsters is Alexandria, Virginia, located in the Washington, DC metropolitan area, where 36.8 percent of its seniors still employed. Coming in second was Tallahassee, Florida, with 30.9 percent. In third place was Dallas, with 30.3 percent of the senior population clocking in for work around the city.

To determine their ranking, the site examined the percentage of seniors aged 65 and over who were actively employed within the last 12 months, according to the U.S. Census Bureau. Their analysis included data from 170 of the nation’s most populous cities.

The report says the median household income of a senior citizen in Austin is $58,546, and hints at the rising cost of living coupled with personal extenuating circumstances leading to a new trend of "unretiring" seniors within the local workforce.

"Deciding when to retire is one of the most important financial and personal decisions that workers can make," the report's author said. "Before making the leap, make sure you have factored in your savings, social security benefits, spending habits, economic volatility, and how your social life will change after retirement."

Also in Central Texas, San Antonio ranked No. 82 overall with 22.1 percent of the senior population currently in the workforce. Although that seems like a smaller number of people, it's actually much larger than Austin, with 41,918 seniors toiling away out of a total 189,544.

San Antonio's relatively high percentage of working seniors might come as a surprise, considering the city was named one of the best cities for retirees earlier in 2023.

The top 10 U.S. cities with the most working seniors are:

No. 1 – Alexandria, Virginia
No. 2 – Tallahassee, Florida
No. 3 – Dallas, Texas
No. 4 – Irvine, California
No. 5 – Washington, D.C.
No. 6 – Plano, Texas
No. 7 – Anchorage, Alaska
No. 8 – Minneapolis, Minnesota
No. 9 – Overland Park, Kansas
No. 10 – Madison, Wisconsin

ChamberofCommerce.org is a digital site for small business owners and entrepreneurs. The full report and its methodology can be found on chamberofcommerce.org.

Online home searching platform Compass buys top Austin-based brokerage

real estate news

National residential real estate agency Compass has acquired Realty Austin and Realty San Antonio, in a move that will expand its position as the leading national firm and its growth in Texas by more than 600 agents.

Although the sale price was not disclosed in Compass' announcement, the local brokerages completed $5.24 billion sales just in 2022 alone.

Compass added that the Austin and San Antonio leadership will have direct oversight of daily operations as part of the terms of the acquisition. Realty Austin and Realty San Antonio co-founder Yvette Flores maintains that she and her leadership team will strive for a "seamless transition" into the national firm that respects the home-grown culture they have created.

Realty Austin was founded in 2004 by Flores and Jonathan Boatwright, and has grown through the years to become one of the most innovative brokerages in Central Texas and beyond. The company expanded its operations to San Antonio in 2021.

Realty Austin and Realty San Antonio CEO Gabe Richter said in the release that Compass' leading-edge technology will help his agents foster greater successes, particularly in one booming Austin category: luxury real estate.

"Our agents have consistently set records with remarkable achievements," Richter said in the release. "Now, by aligning with Compass, they gain access to a transformative technology platform that enhances efficiency and elevated resources that empower them to secure even more luxury listings."

Compass was founded in 2012 as the largest real estate brokerage in the U.S., and preserves its stronghold as the No. 1 brokerage in Texas thanks to its milestone acquisition. The national brokerage has already surpassed $10 billion in sales in Texas in 2023, according to the release.

“With this acquisition, we've positioned ourselves as Austin's leading brokerage — our commitment to setting new standards and inspiring innovation for all our exceptional agents remains the top priority while honoring what Realty Austin and Realty San Antonio has built," said Compass Texas President Rachel Hocevar.

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