Question 1

Will the 20% Texas circuit breaker still cap my Austin rentals in 2027?

Accepted Answer

Don't assume it will. The 20% annual cap on the net appraised value of qualifying non-homestead property is authorized only for tax years 2024, 2025 and 2026, and it expires after 2026 unless the Legislature extends it. It applies automatically with no application, and Travis CAD states the value threshold as $5.16 million or less, but the owner has to have held the property for a full January through December calendar year, so a door you bought mid-year gets no cap protection on its first bill. Investment property also gets neither the homestead exemption nor the 10% homestead cap. If you're underwriting a 2027 hold across a portfolio, run the carry with the cap gone and treat any extension as upside. Your CPA or property tax counsel should confirm how it lands on your specific parcels.

Question 2

How much do property taxes change my carry from one Austin county to the next?

Accepted Answer

Enough to change which suburb you buy in. Combined all-entity effective rates are typically reported around 1.78% to 2.10% in Travis County and 2.00% to 2.35% in Williamson County. The actual number depends on the school district, city, MUD and any PID at that exact address, and MUD districts in the newer Williamson and Hays subdivisions push the combined rate materially above the county-plus-city-plus-school figure. One more thing that bites on a growing portfolio: the first tax bill after an investor purchase often still reflects the prior owner's homestead-capped value, so the go-forward bill can jump once the property is reassessed as investment property. We underwrite portfolio debt service on the forward tax number, not the seller's.

Question 3

Should I underwrite Austin rents at the advertised number?

Accepted Answer

No. Use effective rent. As of June 2026, 73% of Austin metro apartment units were advertising a concession and metro apartment occupancy sat around 86% to 88%, roughly three to four points below the national average. Blended median rent in Austin was about $2,517 in June 2026, down 6.63% year over year. Advertised rent overstating effective rent is the most common underwriting error in this market right now, and on a blanket loan it compounds across every door. Worth noting on the other side: metro building permits fell 29.5% year over year in March 2026 with multifamily down 69%, which is our read that today's supply glut is a near-term condition rather than the whole hold period. Bring the actual leases and concession terms and we'll size the loan on what the portfolio really collects. See DSCR rental loans if you're financing doors one at a time.

Question 4

Which Austin-area counties are actually moving, and does it matter for a blanket loan?

Accepted Answer

It matters, because your release schedule depends on it. In July 2026 Travis County posted 1,290 sales, up 11.4% year over year, and Williamson 957 sales, up 6%, while Hays County ran 344 sales, down 12%. Metro-wide velocity is the wrong yardstick for a Buda or Dripping Springs property, both of which sit in Hays. Across the metro there were roughly 17,500 active listings, 5.9 to 6.0 months of inventory and a median 68 days on market as of August 2026, with 55.57% of active listings having already taken a price cut. If part of your plan is selling doors out of the blanket over time, we'd rather build the release terms around a realistic marketing period per county than a metro average.

Question 5

What does closing look like when several Austin rentals go into one loan?

Accepted Answer

Title company, not a closing attorney. A closing attorney isn't customary in Texas. Closings run through a title or escrow company acting as neutral escrow agent, holding funds, coordinating signing and disbursing afterward. Title insurance rates are promulgated by the Texas Department of Insurance, so the premium is the same everywhere and you're shopping on service and on whether the company can handle a multi-property file. Texas also has no state real estate transfer tax. Practically, rolling doors across Travis, Williamson and Hays into one blanket loan is a title-and-escrow coordination exercise more than a cost exercise. Anything involving entity structure or deeds is a question for your attorney, not for us.

Question 6

Can short-term rentals sit inside an Austin portfolio loan?

Accepted Answer

Only with the license in hand, per unit. The City of Austin requires a license for every STR unit, licenses are non-transferable, and terms now run up to two years. A new license is $836.30 and renewal is $385.30. Since July 1, 2026 booking platforms have to carry the license number on every Austin listing, must remove a listing within 10 days of a city delist notice, and may not collect booking fees on unlicensed rentals, so the license is a revenue precondition rather than paperwork. If STR income is carrying part of your portfolio's coverage, we'll want the license for each door underwritten that way. Suburban rules differ city by city and change often, so confirm directly with the city before you count on that income. Tell us about the portfolio and we'll tell you what the file needs.

Portfolio Loans in Austin

How it works

Run your Portfolio Loans numbers.

Portfolio Loans in Austin: local questions

Guides for Portfolio Loans

Other programs in Austin

Funding Austin deals fast.