AUSTIN, Texas - Amazon’s HQ2 is one of the most coveted offices in North America, and Austin has shown interest in the promise of 50,000 jobs and more than $5 billion in investment.
"Austin is very fortunate because there was a time we weren’t growing at all; we were actually declining," says Mike Berman, Senior Vice President of Communications Marketing at the Great Austin Chamber of Commerce.
But real estate experts say there’s plenty to learn from Amazon’s hometown – Seattle.
"We’re bringing 70,000 people a year to King County and we’re only permitting 10,000 units so the math doesn’t add up," says Sam DeBord, president of Seattle King County Realtors.
Seattle is facing a major housing and affordability crisis. Data from rainmaker insights shows a one bedroom apartment in the city goes for more than $2,000. Still, it’s unclear how much of that deadlock can be chalked up to Amazon.
"It’s certainly added a lot to the appreciation of home prices, of the cost of rent, of the cost of homes here," says DeBord.
Those behind Austin’s bid to Amazon say they’re not blind to the city's similar flaws.
"Those issues are well-known, and I think there’s a lot of great people across the spectrum who are trying to figure that out," says Berman.
A word of warning from those who have seen the crisis in Seattle firsthand: growth is good, but policymakers need to identify who will take those Amazon jobs.
"Whether they’re folks looking for in-city densification, condominiums, townhomes. Whether they’re looking for more suburban single family homes and there will be both," says DeBord.
They say there also must be infrastructure in place to support a workforce that size.
"It’s over a period of—I’m going to say over 10-20 years—it’s not clear exactly how it’ll happen but it won’t happen on day one," says Berman.
The Austin Chamber submitted its bid for HQ2 a day before the deadline. Amazon hasn't made clear how many bids they received, or when an announcement will be made only that construction will be carried out over three phases.