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Add drastically higher development fees onto your list of things that make buying a house in Austin so expensive.

A Texas A&M University Real Estate Research Center study found that Austin’s per-unit fees on new development were 187% higher than Dallas, Houston, Fort Worth and San Antonio. The suburbs aren’t much cheaper as per-unit development fees in Austin are still 127% higher.

According to ABoR CEO Emily Chenevert, high development fees charged by the city are cause for concern around solving the city’s ongoing housing crisis.

“This report confirms what those in the real estate community have known for a long time,” Chenevert said. “Development fees are drastically higher in Austin than most other cities in Central Texas and major metro areas in Texas. This is a huge barrier to building homes and a significant concern considering we are in a housing supply crisis across the region.”

The report found that in the Austin-Round Rock metro a suburban unit was charged 80.4% or about $8,000 more than the other five largest metros in Texas. Similarly, infill units—new housing in already developed areas—cost 186.8% more in Austin than on average for Texas.

Those numbers make up 3.4% of the 2021 median housing price of $536,331 per suburban unit, or 7.7% per infill development unit.

Steep fees drive up the cost for residents and can have a big impact on first-time buyers. The average Austinite earning the median household income in 2019—$54,871—would be able to afford a $204,556 home loan, of which development fees would make up about 20%, according to the study.

The Austin-Round Rock median house price hasn’t been $205,000 since February 2013, which is less than half of the median price in 2021. Austin-area housing has increased 22%, about $100,000, since the study was conducted.

“These findings, although disconcerting, are unsurprising,” Home Builders Association of Greater Austin CEO Taylor Jackson said. “We need to course correct on how the city of Austin handles home building and time is of the essence.”

Managing editor for Rent.com Brian Carberry said the renter market tends to follow the housing market, albeit on a few months' delay. Carberry said not only did Austin have less apartment inventory in May 2022 than it did in May 2021, but most new complexes are being built in high-demand areas, meaning people are still being priced out.

“A lot of that is just due to there's just so much demand for apartments and the housing market does play into that a little bit because people are being priced out,” Carberry said. “Your younger millennials, older Gen Z looking for their first homes are in a position where they're unable to afford something because the price has gone up so high and now mortgage rates are so high, it's just not a sustainable option for them right now.”

In the study, the Austin Board of Realtors and the Home Builders Association of Greater Austin included joint recommendations for local policymakers:

“The National Association of Home Builders 2022 Priced Out Index reports that for every $1,000 increase in the price of a home, whether it be from market forces or development fees, 791 households are priced out of the Austin-Round Rock MSA,” Jackson said. “We urge Austin’s leadership to act and act now or we risk becoming a wholly unaffordable city to build or buy a home in.”

Willie Nelson's Fourth of July picnic made a comeback at Austin FC's Q2 Stadium Monday night. (Q2 Stadium/Twitter)

Q2 Stadium swapped its Verde for red, white and blue as country music legend Willie Nelson returned for his first in-person Fourth of July Picnic since 2019 on Monday.

The music fest included fireworks, fun merch and acts from country greats including Charley Crockett, Midland, Brothers Osborne, Allison Russell, Tyler Childers, Jason Isbell and Austin's own Asleep at the Wheel. And while Q2 will have some kinks to straighten before it becomes a concert-hosting regular, Nelson's unifying spirit kept things cool during the 12-hour outdoor event.

Midland performed at Willie Nelson's Fourth of July Picnic. (Q2 Stadium/Twitter)

Doors opened at 11 a.m., and Asleep at the Wheel was on the stage by 12 p.m.—though as one Reddit post pointed out, there weren't many people there to see them play.

Q2 Stadium stayed sparsely populated for the first half of the day. (Claire Partain/Austonia)

Per Q2 Stadium policy, attendees weren't allowed to re-enter the venue after leaving, so anyone who wanted to watch both an afternoon and Nelson's big performance were stuck at the venue for hours straight. That opened up the perfect opportunity for customers to snatch up snacks, water and beers, which emptied wallets even faster than at Austin FC games. Nothing says "the end is nigh" like $15 beers.

An open-air, 20,500 seat venue, Q2 Stadium sometimes struggled to carry sound clearly, and between-song banter was often limited to an incomprehensible garble. Still, Tyler Childers' commanding growls came through, Alison Russells' multi-instrument ensemble shone and Nelson's strums on his trusty guitar, Trigger, were front and center by the end of the night.

Fans found it hard to look away from Tyler Childers' enrapturing performance. (Jakob Rodriguez)

The July 4th picnic, which was most recently held at Circuit of the Americas from 2015-2019, benefitted from Q2's more central location, and the large venue offered plenty of room for attendees to mull about.

As the sun mercifully dipped below the horizon, the music paused for a 15-minute fireworks show.

But the July 4th staples weren't the main event. At 89, Nelson didn't disappoint, sitting calmly as he performed alongside his family members and even gubernatorial candidate Beto O'Rourke, who made a surprise appearance midway through the show.

At times wistful, joyful or both, Nelson took the crowd through hits from "On the Road Again" to "Always on My Mind."

And as each favorite was played, all of the heat and stress of the day were encompassed by Nelson's voice, his storytelling and more as Austinites new and old gathered for the decades-old tradition.

Two life-threatening incidences occurred on Lake Travis this July 4. (Austonia)

An Austin man is dead and two others are injured or missing after three separate July 4th incidences on Austin-area waterways Monday.

Pablo Daniel Calzada Rodriguez, a 27-year-old Austin resident, drowned on Guadelupe River in New Braunfels Monday. One resident is also missing after swimming at Lake Travis, and another swimmer was hospitalized with life-threatening injuries at the lake as well.

Rodriguez was pronounced dead at Christus Santa Rosa Hospital in New Braunfels after first responders pulled him out of the water and attempted life-saving measures at the scene. His death willl likely be ruled an accidental drowning, according to a preliminary investigation.

On Lake Travis, another near-drowning occurred when a swimmer was underwater for about 10 minutes before being brought to shore at around 8 p.m. Monday.. EMS officials said bystanders performed CPR before Lake Travis Fire Rescue and Austin-Travis County EMS medics stepped in and found a pulse. EMS said the patient was taken to Dell Seton Medical Medical Center in "life-threatening condition."

Both teams also responded to a call at 6 p.m. on Lake Travis after a swimmer was missing in the water for about 10 minutes. Rescue crews searched for nearly an hour with no luck, and the Travis County Sheriff's Office said the "recovery operation" would be suspended at dark and return in the morning if necessary.

The Travis County Sheriff's Office was not available for comment on the morning search at the time of writing.