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If Texas wants to rein in its high housing costs, it needs more homes, Texas Comptroller Glenn Hegar’s office said Tuesday — the latest sign that the state’s high home prices and rents have become a growing concern for the state’s top officials.

Homebuilding in Texas didn’t keep up as the economy boomed and millions of new residents moved here over the past decade, the comptroller’s 26-page report found. That lag in homebuilding left the state with a deep housing shortage: Texas needs 306,000 more homes than it has, according to one estimate cited in the report.

That shortage has fueled competition for a limited supply of housing, especially in the state’s major metro areas — sending housing costs soaring, forcing many would-be first-time homebuyers out of the market and leaving more than half of the state’s tenants spending too much on rent.

Texas’ relatively low cost of living has been a major draw for new residents and relocating companies. But Texas could lose that affordability advantage if local and state officials don’t find some way to boost the state’s housing supply, particularly for lower- and middle-income families, Hegar said.

“Is it a crisis today? I wouldn’t call it a crisis,” Hegar said in an interview with The Texas Tribune. “But if we don’t find some more solutions, we’re going to be in a crisis.”

Many Texans likely disagree. Ninety percent of Texans say that housing affordability is a problem where they live, according to a recent poll from the University of Houston and Texas Southern University.

Still, Hegar is the latest statewide official to signal unease about the state’s high housing costs. Gov. Greg Abbott, Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick and House Speaker Dade Phelan each have indicated that Texas lawmakers should tackle the state’s housing affordability challenges when they return to the Capitol next year.

More Texans are feeling the pressure from the state’s tight housing market. A recent report from Harvard University’s Joint Center for Housing Studies found that more Texas homeowners and renters than ever are struggling to keep a roof over their head.

Hegar’s report reflects a growing bipartisan policy consensus, bolstered by an expanding body of research, that the nation’s housing affordability woes stem from a shortage of homes. By various estimates, the U.S. needs millions more homes than it has.

Texas isn’t exempt from that shortage. The state builds more homes than other large states like New York and California. But it hasn’t built enough to keep up with demand spurred by the state’s growing economy and population. Higher land costs spurred by that demand have resulted in the construction of more expensive housing so builders can recoup the cost of the land.

Home prices rose faster in the 2010s than they did in the previous decade, the comptroller’s report said. That growth in home prices was only supercharged during the COVID-19 pandemic as the rise of remote work allowed workers from other states to relocate to Texas and what had been historically low interest rates fueled the homebuying market.

Texas didn’t build enough homes to keep up with population growth, particularly in its major metro areas, the comptroller’s report found. Nearly 225,000 people moved to Texas from other states between 2021 and 2022, a faster pace than in any year preceding the pandemic, the report said.

That led to depleted housing supply and higher prices as a result. Housing in Texas has reached its most unaffordable level since 1985, the comptroller’s office said Tuesday. There are few homes on the market that sell for prices that would be considered affordable for entry-level buyers.

The median sales price for a Texas home peaked at $340,000 in 2022 but has since hovered in that range, data from the Texas Real Estate Research Center at Texas A&M University show. Places like the Brownsville-Harlingen and Sherman-Denison areas saw dramatic spikes in home prices between 2019 and 2023 — 73% and 66%, respectively. The Austin-Round Rock region, where the run-up in home prices was most apparent, saw home prices peak above $500,000 in 2022, but those prices have since fallen.

Higher interest rates, initiated by the Federal Reserve in a bid to tame high inflation, have compounded the problem — raising the price of admission for first-time homebuyers and encouraging homeowners who otherwise would have sold their homes to hold onto their lower-interest rate mortgages, exacerbating the shortage. Relatively high property taxes and rising homeowners insurance have contributed to the woes.

The comptroller’s report stops short of making explicit recommendations on what steps policymakers should take, but nodded to some potential solutions.

Among them: relaxing local laws that determine what kinds of housing can be built and where. Cities have laws called zoning regulations that determine how many homes can be built on a given lot and how much land is required in order to build a home.

Those regulations, housing advocates and critics say, drive up housing costs in part because they restrict how many homes can ultimately be built. Most of the residential land in Texas’ major cities only allows single-family homes to be built and forbids other kinds of homes like duplexes, fourplexes and smaller apartment buildings from being constructed.

Proposals to relax city zoning restrictions to allow more housing have often faced opposition from existing homeowners and neighborhood groups, who steadfastly oppose any changes they see as altering the single-family character of their neighborhoods.

The comptroller’s report nodded to recent zoning reforms enacted by the Austin City Council, typically a left-leaning body, to allow up to three homes to be built where previously only one home could.

State lawmakers have shown an appetite for relaxing cities’ zoning restrictions even after proposals to do so failed at the Texas Legislature last year. Patrick and Phelan have each instructed lawmakers to study potential zoning reforms ahead of next year’s legislative session. Conservative thought-leaders like the Texas Public Policy Foundation, an influential think tank, support getting rid of residential zoning restrictions.

There are additional ways for local and state officials to tackle housing affordability, the comptroller’s office said. State lawmakers, for example, could fund programs or incentives aimed at providing homes for low- and moderate-income families. Local governments could streamline their permitting processes in order to allow homes to be built more quickly, the report said.

Nicole Nosek — who heads Texans for Reasonable Solutions, an organization that pushed zoning reforms at the state level last year — proposed ideas to increase housing supply during a Tuesday breakfast meeting with the comptroller’s office, Texas Habitat for Humanity and the Austin Board of Realtors.

It should be easier to build homes in commercial areas, Nosek said, which many Texas cities don’t currently allow. The amount of land cities require single-family homes to be built upon, a requirement known as a minimum lot size, should also be reduced, she said.

Houston reduced its minimum lot size to 1,400 square feet, first in the city center in 1998 before the reform expanded to the rest of the city in 2013. That reform has resulted in tens of thousands of new homes built on smaller lots, research shows, a boom that housing advocates argue has kept Houston’s housing costs in check — especially compared with other large U.S. cities like Chicago, Los Angeles and New York City.

A bill to reduce cities’ minimum lot size requirements for single-family homes made it through the Texas Senate last year, but it died in the Texas House before it could come up for a vote.

Like California, Texas could find itself with exorbitant housing costs and residents fleeing to others states if it doesn’t figure out how to allow more homes to be built in its major urban areas, said Nosek, a California transplant herself.

“What you see in California, which is the ultimate cautionary tale, is when you don’t allow more supply to come online to accommodate the growth in population, you’re ultimately selecting who the losers are going to be,” Nosek said. “If you don’t have housing to accommodate all of the employees and all of the growth that we’re attracting, what’s going to happen is … the people on the lowest rung of the ladder and even the middle class get driven out to other states.”

Whether Democratic legislators get on board with those ideas remains an open question. House Democrats led the charge to kill a bill to relax city rules in order to effectively make it easier to build accessory dwelling units — also called “granny flats” or ADUs — in the backyards of single-family homes. Republicans in the state Legislature in recent years have often sought to prevent officials in the state’s bluer urban areas from enacting progressive policies, culminating in a sweeping bill last year that aimed to forbid cities from making laws on a number of fronts. Democrats thus have largely shown suspicion toward any measure that appeared to sap authority from the state’s bluer urban areas.

But there appears to be a movement among Democrats to embrace zoning reform at some level. The Texas Democratic Party adopted a platform this summer that includes support for rolling back local zoning regulations that get in the way of adding more homes.

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This story was originally published by The Texas Tribune and distributed through a partnership with The Associated Press.

AUSTIN (AP) — A Texas judge on Thursday shielded another migrant aid group from deeper questioning as part of a growing Republican-led investigation into organizations that help immigrants who cross the U.S.-Mexico border.

District Judge Maya Guerra Gamble ruled the aid group Team Brownsville was not required to take part in depositions related to the investigation. The ruling continues a string of court defeats for Texas officials who have put migrant aid groups under increasing scrutiny. The investigations were launched after Republican Gov. Greg Abbott in 2022, without citing evidence, wrote a letter suggesting some groups may be acting unlawfully or helping migrants enter the U.S. illegally.

Gamble’s decision does not prevent the state from continuing an investigation into Team Brownsville, which state officials have accused of inappropriately using federal grant money. During a hearing in Austin, attorneys for Team Brownsville denied these accusations and accused Texas officials of trying to intimidate aid groups.

A judge rejected a similar motion for a deposition from Catholic Charities of the Rio Grande Valley in July, and a separate judge denied the state’s efforts to close a migrant shelter in El Paso.

Spokespersons for Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton, whose office is leading the investigations, did not immediately respond to requests for comment after the hearing.

No criminal charges have been filed against any of the groups, and attorneys for Paxton’s office told Gamble they had no interest in pursuing a criminal investigation against Team Brownsville, which provides food and shelter to asylum seekers entering the U.S.

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Lathan is a corps member for The Associated Press/Report for America Statehouse News Initiative. Report for America is a nonprofit national service program that places journalists in local newsrooms to report on undercovered issues.

DALLAS (AP) — Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton filed a lawsuit Thursday seeking to block a ban on firearms at the State Fair of Texas, one of the state’s biggest annual celebrations.

Fair organizers earlier this month announced a ban on guns after a shooting last year on the 277-acre (112-hectare) fairgrounds in the heart of Dallas. The move drew swift criticism from Republican state lawmakers, who have proudly expanded gun rights in recent years. Paxton, a Republican, threatened to sue if the ban was not repealed.

Paxton said Texas allows gun owners to carry firearms in places owned or leased by government entities unless otherwise prohibited by law. Fair Park is owned by the City of Dallas, which contracts with the State Fair of Texas for the management of the annual fair.

Paxton called the the ban an illegal restriction on gun owners’ rights. Texas allows people to carry a handgun without a license, background check or training.

“Neither the City of Dallas nor the State Fair of Texas can infringe on Texans’ right to self-defense,” Paxton said.

In a statement, the city government of Dallas said it is “aware of the lawsuit filed by the State of Texas and disagrees with the allegations against the City and interim city manager. The City was not involved in the State Fair of Texas’ announcement of its enhanced weapons policy. The State Fair of Texas is a private event operated and controlled by a private, non-profit entity and not the City.”

State fair officials did not immediately respond to email requests for comment.

The fair, which reopens in September and lasts for nearly a month, dates back to 1886. In addition to a maze of midway games, car shows and the Texas Star Ferris Wheel — one of the tallest in the U.S. — the fairgrounds are also home to the annual college football rivalry between the University of Texas and University of Oklahoma.

DALLAS (AP) – A Texas man who spent 34 years in prison after being wrongfully convicted of aggravated assault was exonerated Thursday by a Dallas County judge who ruled that he is actually innocent.

The judge approved a motion by the Dallas County District Attorney’s office to dismiss the case against Benjamin Spencer, 59, who was initially convicted in 1987 of murder in the carjacking and death of Jeffrey Young.

“This day has been a long time coming. I am relieved and humbled to help correct this injustice,” said Dallas County Criminal District Attorney John Creuzot.

Spencer, who has maintained his innocence, saw his 1987 conviction later overturned. He was then tried again and convicted and sentenced to life in prison for aggravated robbery of Young.

“Benjamin Spencer is actually innocent; there exists no credible or physical evidence that he was in any way involved in this crime,” said assistant District Attorney Cynthia Garza, who leads the office’s Conviction Integrity Unit.

Prosecution witnesses, including a jailhouse informant seeking leniency, gave false testimony, Creuzot said. He added that prosecutors at the time also failed to provide the defense with evidence that would have excluded Spencer from the crime, including fingerprints.

Spencer was released on bond in 2021 after the district attorney’s office found his constitutional rights were violated and he did not receive a fair trial due to the false witness testimony and withholding of evidence.

The Texas Court of Criminal Appeals overturned his conviction earlier this year, sending the case back to Dallas County.

Spencer is one of the top 60 longest-serving inmates to be declared innocent of the crime, according to data kept by The National Registry of Exonerations.

AUSTIN – The New York Times reports that days after officers acting on behalf of the Texas attorney general raided the homes of Democratic activists and a Latina candidate for the State House, Gov. Greg Abbott promoted his efforts to clear the voter rolls of those who did not belong there. Mr. Abbott, a Republican, said that more than 1.1 million voters had been purged from the list of eligible voters since September 2021, when he signed an election integrity bill into law that Texas Democrats had warned could prevent many eligible people from casting votes. Officials said the removals were part of the state’s routine maintenance of the voter rolls, ensuring that those who have died or are no longer living at their registered address are removed. But the timing of the announcement from the Republican governor on Monday raised concern among Democratic officials and voting rights advocates, who feared a coordinated effort by top Republican leaders to intimidate voters and tamp down on Democratic efforts to increase registrations ahead of the November vote.

“The message is we’re going to do everything we can to discourage voting in Texas,” said Mike Doyle, the chair of the Democratic Party in Harris County, which includes Houston. “Why else would you announce this as a big victory? This is supposed to be a routine accuracy check that has been going on forever.” Mr. Abbott’s announcement followed the raids last week by the office of the attorney general, Ken Paxton, of members of the League of United Latin American Citizens, one of the nation’s oldest Latino civil rights organizations, along with a variety of Democratic candidates and consultants.It was accompanied by Mr. Paxton’s announcement that he was looking into registration efforts by groups in urban areas across the state as potential violations of law. While the total number of voters removed cited by Mr. Abbott appeared large, it did not represent a significant change in what ordinarily occurs as part of the maintenance of voting rolls in Texas. In fact, a New York Times analysis of voter registration cancellation data in Texas since 2018 suggests that it was routine. Nearly 500,000 of the voters purged during the time period highlighted by Mr. Abbott were dead. About the same number were cleared after they were put on a list of people who did not vote in two successive general elections and are believed to have moved. Those numbers were roughly equivalent to the number of voters in those categories removed in previous years. There were 18 million registered voters in Texas as of March, up from 16 million in 2020.

AUSTIN – The Texas Tribunes reports Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick announced on Wednesday the creation of a new political action committee dedicated to advancing the goals of the conservative majority in the Texas Senate.

The new PAC will be called the Texas Senate Leadership Fund. The Quorum Report political newsletter says Patrick’s son Ryan Patrick will be the treasurer. No money has been received yet, said Allen Blakemore, a spokesperson for Patrick.

“There are other PACs where donors may support the work done by various House and Senate Caucuses and even to support the mission of House Leadership,” Patrick said in a news release. “But, until now, there hasn’t been a place to support the work on the Texas Senate Leadership in fulfilling its goals. In order to ensure the resources to support the mission of the conservative majority in the Texas Senate, I have launched this new political action committee.”

Patrick said in his statement that the Senate has led on issues like border security, property taxes, Second Amendment rights and voter integrity. He said the chamber has also led on education, health and infrastructure.

Patrick presides over the Senate and has steered the chamber in a more conservative direction than previous lieutenant governors. He has pushed major reforms to the chamber’s procedures that have enabled conservatives to more strongly advocate for their policy preferences.

In recent years, Patrick has increasingly been at odds with House Speaker Dade Phelan, a fellow Republican from Beaumont, who he criticizes as being insufficiently conservative and blocking legislation that Patrick says is important to Texas conservatives, such as school voucher bills.