More Homes, Lower Prices, Bigger Freedom in Texas
Following key policy wins in Austin this year, Texas is emerging as a model for the nation on housing affordability. The next frontier is reforming our punishing property tax system. All across the state, hardworking families are seeing their tax bills climb, even as wages struggle to keep pace. If we want Texas to remain the national model for prosperity, we need to ensure that growth doesn’t come at the expense of affordability.
Texas is booming. Under Governor Greg Abbott’s leadership, families and businesses continue to leave high-tax, overregulated states like California and New York to plant roots in the Lone Star State. They come for opportunity, freedom, and the promise of a better future.
In fact, by some estimates, nearly 1,000 people are moving to Texas every single day. Many are fleeing these coastal states not just because of taxes and red tape, but because the cost of living, particularly housing, has become unsustainable. Texas has become a magnet for working families who want to stretch their paychecks further and own a piece of the American Dream. But that dream only remains within reach if housing supply keeps up with demand.
But growth alone isn’t enough. Too many Texans — from teachers and first responders to construction workers and service employees — are being priced out of their own communities. Many are paying well over half their take-home pay just to afford a place to live. That’s simply not sustainable.
That’s why Americans for Prosperity–Texas launched our Freedom is Bigger in Texas initiative — to ensure more Texans can afford to live and thrive where they work. And this year, state lawmakers delivered.
Thanks to a strong, bipartisan push — including champions like Senators Royce West, Paul Bettencourt, and Bryan Hughes — the Legislature passed and Governor Abbott signed into law a sweeping package of housing reforms aimed at cutting red tape, modernizing outdated zoning, legalizing more flexible housing options, and streamlining approvals to unleash more housing supply across every income level and community type. These new laws are expected to unlock tens of thousands of new housing units across Texas — a critical step forward in addressing the state’s 300,000-unit housing shortage, which the Texas Comptroller has identified as a key driver of our supply and demand imbalance.
We know these policies work. When Houston modernized its local housing codes more than two decades ago, the city saw a 43% surge in townhome construction and a measurable increase in affordability. The reforms just signed into law are designed to replicate that kind of success statewide — ensuring families have more choices and better prices across the board.
Now, with the legislative session complete and these new laws on the books, it’s time to turn our attention to the next front in the affordability fight: local property taxes.
We must go community by community to make sure local governments are held accountable and that property tax relief becomes a reality, not just a promise.
Our activists are ready to go the last mile — working with neighbors, local officials, and lawmakers to make sure the reforms passed in Austin translate into real results on the ground. Texans should feel the difference — in the form of more housing supply, better options, and lower costs.
Because here in Texas, opportunity is bigger. And now, thanks to the bold action of our Legislature, housing freedom is too.
Genevieve Collins is the State Director, and James Mayville is the Deputy Legislative Director for Americans for Prosperity’s Texas Chapter.
