Buy A Vacation Home In Austin, Texas | The BEST City in Texas To Buy A Vacation Home

If you’re in a position to buy a vacation home, you are probably looking around, trying to scope out the best cities in the country to do that. Where does it make the most sense for you to have fun and also for it to be a great investment property? Austin is one of the best places you can buy a vacation home. We’re going to talk about the top five reasons today.

Austin Weather

One is the weather. Austin is known for having hot weather year-round. You won’t have any trouble flying in here whenever you want to visit. You’re not going to be snowed in. You’re not going to be rained in the whole time that you’re here. So there’s plenty of time for you to get out and enjoy everything that there is to do in Austin.

Plenty of Things to Do

We have so many activities to do, which is the number two reason: a list of never-ending activities. We have everything from breweries, wineries, distilleries, restaurants, places to hike, and places to take road trips. You could be a tourist here year-round, and you will always have stuff to do.

Austin is like Disneyland for adults. There are fun things to do that’ll keep you busy year-round, whatever time of year you’re here.

The Resale Value of Your Vacation Home

The third reason is resale value. The Austin housing market is on fire and will probably be for a long time.

So if, for some reason, you decide to sell your vacation home, you just are not visiting as much as you’d want to, you’re probably not going to have any trouble selling it, and you will probably make a pretty penny off of it as well.

One caveat to keep in mind, though, is since this is not your primary residence, it’s a vacation home, and you won’t be living in it for at least two years. The money you make from selling the house may be taxed as ordinary income. That’s something to remember, especially if you’ve owned the house for a while and have a lot of equity. Talk to your tax and money advisors and ensure all that is squared away. When you want to sell, just be aware that the taxes can get you.

Rental Income from Your Vacation Home

The fourth reason is rental income. Austin is the biggest Airbnb market in Texas, accounting for 30% of rentals in Texas, which is insane. Some of the significant drivers of this are the things we already discussed, the weather, and stuff to do. We also have huge festivals like South by Southwest and Austin City Limit.

But it’s not just music; we have the Formula One races out here. We’ve got so many things that people are coming into town for, probably some of the same reasons you are considering buying a vacation home here.

It’s become one of the biggest tourist destinations in Texas. Every time I’m downtown, I see a bachelorette party, a guy’s weekend trip, or something like that. Austin is such a fantastic place to be. There’s always something to do. You can easily rent out your vacation home year-round, which offsets the cost of your vacation home mortgage.

Some property management companies handle short-term rental stuff for you, similar to what a long-term or long-term property management company would do. So you don’t have to worry about finding a cleaner, letting guests in, and ensuring everything’s taken care of. You can pay someone to do that for you.

Turn Your Vacation Home Into Your Full-Time Home

The number five thing is this could be your future full-time home. So check out some of my videos about why Austin is a great place to retire. If you buy a vacation home in Austin now, you’ll have a great home ready for when you’re ready to retire.

For the most part, if you’re buying a resale house or a townhouse, you’ll have very few restrictions on renting it out, whether short-term or long-term.

However, most new construction developments limit their purchases to primary residence homes rather than vacation rentals or investment properties.

Something to also keep in mind is a lot of condo buildings, like the high rises that are going up everywhere in downtown Austin, usually have limits on which or how many condos in that building can be used for any rental, especially short-term rental.

If they allow rentals in that building, they usually set a minimum lease term of six months. Very few condo buildings in Austin will even allow short-term rental.

But as you’ve probably figured out as you’re doing your Airbnb research, only some people check with their condo association before deciding to set up a short-term rental or an Airbnb in Austin. You should check with them.

But it’s safe to say that only some people are dotting all their i’s and crossing their T’s when doing that paperwork.

So those are the top five reasons to buy a vacation home in Austin. I hope you’ve got some excellent information. Let me know what else you want about purchasing property here, and I’ll help you.