New Single-Family Houses Dominates 78704, Austin — June 2026

New single-family construction is the headline in ZIP 78704. Of the 60 residential building permits issued in the ZIP between May 11 – June 9, 2026, the largest single category was R- 101 Single Family Houses / New, with 13 permits. These are ground-up houses — not remodels, not repairs — in one of the oldest, most built-out districts in central Austin. When new-house permits lead the mix in a neighborhood with almost no vacant land, the story is replacement and infill, and that has consequences for everyone who works the area.

This report is a ZIP-level slice of the same sealed daily snapshot behind our Austin building permit report. Scope: residential building permits (single-family and small multi-family); commercial and sub-trade permits are excluded at ingest. This is not a count of all construction permits issued in each city.

Key Findings

• ZIP 78704 logged 60 residential building permits in the May 11 – June 9, 2026 window, according to US Tech Automations' sealed permit snapshots.

• New Single-Family Houses led the ZIP with 13 permits — raw label "R- 101 Single Family Houses / New" in the City of Austin feed.

• 78704 posted the highest count among Austin's top ZIPs, just ahead of 78745 at 59.

• Austin issued 704 residential permits citywide over the window, ranking #3 by permit count among the 8 metros in this edition.

• No valuation figures are published for Austin — the city's feed reports $0 or blank project costs, which we normalize to missing rather than report as literal zeros.

ZIP 78704 Permit Activity, May 11 – June 9, 2026

The 78704 ZIP covers the close-in south side of Austin: Bouldin Creek, Travis Heights, Zilker, and the South Lamar and South Congress corridors. The housing stock skews toward older bungalows and postwar single-story houses on central lots, which is exactly the kind of inventory where residential permit activity concentrates. Every figure above is a cut of the metro's sealed snapshot, not a separate data pull — the ZIP rows and the citywide row reconcile by construction.

In ZIP 78704, 13 of the 60 residential permits issued May 11 – June 9, 2026 were R- 101 Single Family Houses / New — the largest single category in the ZIP.

What Is Getting Built in 78704

Austin's residential permit mix sorts into a small number of recurring categories, and the labels come straight from the city's classification system. Below, each major category gets its own explainer: what the permit type actually covers, who pulls it, and where 78704 fits. The ZIP-level data in this edition publishes the top category for each ZIP; citywide counts come from the same sealed snapshot.

New Single-Family Houses (R- 101 Single Family Houses / New)

This is the ZIP's leading category, with 13 permits in the window, and it is the second-largest category citywide at 216. An R- 101 permit covers the construction of a complete new dwelling: foundation, framing, envelope, and the full plan-review cycle that a ground-up house requires. Electrical, plumbing, and mechanical work ride on separate sub-trade permits, which our pipeline excludes at ingest — so each R- 101 record here represents one new house, not a bundle of trade tickets.

In a district like 78704, where nearly every lot already carries a structure, a new single-family permit usually means one of a few things: a teardown-and-rebuild on an existing lot, an infill unit added where zoning allows a second dwelling, or a lot split that turns one aging property into multiple new homes. For builders, that profile matters. Replacement construction in an established neighborhood involves demolition coordination, tight site logistics, tree and impervious-cover rules, and neighbors close enough to notice everything.

For real estate agents, the same signal reads differently: a steady flow of new-house permits in a bungalow neighborhood is a pre-listing indicator. Owners who sell to builders often never list publicly, and the houses that replace them reset comparable values on the street.

Renovations and Remodels (R- 435 Renovations/Remodel / Repair)

Citywide, this is Austin's largest residential category at 226 permits. The R- 435 label covers interior remodels, kitchen and bath overhauls, structural repairs, and the general category of work that changes or restores an existing dwelling without adding a new one. Anything that touches structure, egress, or building envelope typically needs this permit; cosmetic work like paint and flooring does not.

This edition publishes ZIP-level counts for each ZIP's top category only, so we do not report a 78704-specific remodel count — but in a ZIP defined by older housing stock, remodel work is the natural complement to the new-build activity above. For the citywide picture of this category, see the dedicated Austin renovation and remodel report.

Additions and Combined Remodels (R- 434 Addition & Alterations / Addition and Remodel)

The third major category, at 102 permits citywide, covers projects that add square footage while reworking what is already there: a second story over an existing footprint, a rear addition with a reconfigured kitchen, a garage conversion tied into a broader remodel. These are typically the most complex residential jobs short of a full rebuild, because new structure has to marry old structure and both have to meet current code.

Additions are the middle path for owners in appreciating close-in neighborhoods — the households who want more space but do not want to leave, and for whom a teardown is either unaffordable or unappealing. Where new-build and addition activity coexist, as in central Austin, contractors effectively serve two distinct customers on the same block.

The citywide mix leans remodel-first, with new construction close behind. What makes 78704 notable is that its own top category is the new-build line — the ZIP sits at the new-construction end of a remodel-heavy city.

How 78704 Compares in Austin

78704 tops the table, but only just — ZIP 78745, its neighbor directly to the south, sits one permit behind at 59. Together they make the close-in south side the busiest residential permitting corridor in the city for this window. The character of the work differs as you move outward: 78745 is a postwar suburb in mid-transition, while 78744 and 78747, in the city's southeast, contain genuine greenfield subdivision activity.

The west-side pairing is instructive too. ZIP 78703 — old west Austin, Tarrytown and Clarksville — logs 41 permits, and 78731 to its northwest logs 42. These are established, high-value neighborhoods where permit activity is dominated by remodels, additions, and the occasional high-end rebuild rather than volume construction. ZIP 78617, at 30 permits, marks the city's southeastern edge near the airport, where activity is newer subdivision work.

Austin logged 704 residential permits in the 30-day window, ranking #3 by permit count among the 8 metros in this edition — and no Austin ZIP in this table logged more than 78704.

For anyone working the area, the practical read is concentration: a contractor, supplier, or agent can cover the top of Austin's residential permit market without leaving the south-central corridor.

Methodology

Source: City of Austin issued construction permits via data.austintexas.gov (Socrata). All figures are computed directly from US Tech Automations' sealed daily permit snapshots; nothing is estimated, modeled, or extrapolated.

Every number in this report is a ZIP-level slice of the same sealed metro snapshot used in our citywide Austin report — the ZIP cut is a filter on sealed rows, not a separate collection. This edition covers 8 metros and 7,334 residential permits in total, of which 6,171 carry usable valuations (84% coverage). Austin contributes permits but no valuations to that coverage figure.

On valuations specifically: Austin's open-data feed publishes $0 or blank project costs on the residential permits we track. We normalize those to missing rather than report a literal $0, so no valuation aggregates are given for Austin or any Austin ZIP. Where a number would be misleading, we publish no number.

How the pipeline works:

1. Collect. Each day, the pipeline pulls newly issued residential permits from the City of Austin's Socrata feed, alongside the other metros in the edition.

2. Normalize. Raw records are mapped to a common schema — residential building permits only, sub-trade and commercial permits dropped at ingest, and Austin's $0/blank costs converted to missing.

3. Seal daily. Each day's snapshot is hashed and sealed so it cannot be quietly edited later. The same discipline backs our permit prediction ledger.

4. Aggregate. Sealed days are summed over the May 11 – June 9, 2026 window and cut by ZIP to produce the figures above.

Frequently Asked Questions

Q: How many building permits were issued in ZIP 78704 in this period?
A: 60 residential building permits were issued in ZIP 78704 between May 11 – June 9, 2026, according to sealed daily snapshots of the City of Austin's open-data feed. That count covers single-family and small multi-family building permits only — sub-trade and commercial permits are excluded.

Q: What is the most common type of permit in 78704?
A: New single-family construction. The raw category "R- 101 Single Family Houses / New" accounted for 13 of the ZIP's 60 permits — the largest single category. In a built-out district like 78704, new-house permits generally reflect teardown-rebuilds and infill rather than open-land subdivision work.

Q: Why does this report show no dollar values?
A: Because Austin's open-data feed publishes $0 or blank project costs on the residential permits we track. We normalize those values to missing rather than report a literal $0, so no valuation totals or medians are given for Austin or its ZIPs. Publishing a fabricated estimate would defeat the point of a sealed-snapshot report.

Q: Is this every construction permit pulled in 78704?
A: No. The scope is residential building permits — single-family and small multi-family; commercial and sub-trade permits are excluded at ingest. Standalone electrical, plumbing, or mechanical permits, and commercial projects, are not counted. This is not a count of all construction permits issued in the city.

Q: How does 78704 compare with other Austin ZIP codes?
A: 78704 posted the highest count in this edition's Austin top-ZIP table at 60 permits, with 78745 immediately behind at 59 and 78744 at 52. Citywide, Austin issued 704 residential permits over the window, ranking #3 by permit count among the 8 metros covered.

Put Permit Data to Work

A permit record is a public, time-stamped statement that money is about to be spent at a specific address. In 78704 that signal is unusually actionable: remodelers can see which streets are turning over, suppliers can stage material for new-build jobs rather than guessing, lenders can read where renovation demand is concentrating, and listing agents can spot the owners most likely to sell to a builder before any sign goes up in the yard.

The gap between the data existing and the data being used is workflow. US Tech Automations builds that layer: continuous monitoring of sealed permit feeds, routing of new permits to the right person by ZIP and category, and drafted outreach grounded in the actual permit record — explore the live data at permits.ustechautomations.com. If a feed of new 78704 permits routed to your team every morning would change how you work the neighborhood, contact us and we will show you the pipeline on real data.

Source: US Tech Automations Research — computed from sealed daily permit snapshots, May 11 – June 9, 2026.