A $500 million, 2,500 home development project will come to the City of Austin located near Tesla’s Gigafactory Texas as the electric automotive plant is catalyzing employment in the area and bringing on a need for more housing.
Hines, a real estate development company based out of Houston, has plans to develop a $500 million housing community on 1,400 acres. The plot of land will be large enough to have 2,500 new houses and between 1,250 and 2,000 multifamily units. Mirador, the project’s name, will be developed in the southeastern portion of Austin, in a location within close proximity to Tesla’s Gigafactory Texas, as just a fifteen-minute drive will get you to the factory from your front door.
Dustin Davidson, a managing director for Hines, said that the influx of employment opportunities, especially Tesla’s new factory, have surged the market for Austin’s residential real estate. “Lots of employment opportunities coming; Tesla’s obviously the big one, but they’re just one of many, and we believe more will come,” Davidson said to the Austin Business Journal (via KXAN).
Hines announced details of the project on its website:
“Mirador will consist of 2,500 single-family lots, 50 acres of multi-family and townhomes (including attached, detached, duplexes, quadplexes) and 75 acres of commercial land. The development will continue a partnership with Gehan Homes and Lennar Homes, add David Weekley Homes, Highland Homes, MHI Homes, and will bring on more builders to in the future. Conveniently located off the 130 Toll and Highway 71, the community offers a suburban ambiance with easy access to the new Tesla Gigafactory, the Circuit of the Americas Formula One racetrack, as well as all the local restaurants, parks, live music venues and other attractions Austin offers in under 15 minutes. Plus, residents can make use of the convenient on-site amenities, such as the 60-acre lake, over 600-acres of greenbelt, community parks, extensive trails and swimming pool.”
Tesla’s Gigafactory Texas is expected to amend an area weakened by the COVID-19 pandemic. Travis County officials launched a “Declaration of Disaster” in March 2020, and Federal Reserve data showed a 10.2 percent spike in unemployment filings from April 2019 to April 2020. According to a presentation given by Tesla in June 2020, the automaker projected that its new plant would supply “5,000 middle-skill jobs that fit a targeted economic development need” and would directly contribute $600 million in annual sales activity. The factory was also expected to create 4,000 new non-Tesla jobs due to “secondary effects.”
Gigafactory Texas’ most recent estimates have projected at least 15,000 new jobs both directly and indirectly at the plant. As of October 2021, Tesla had already created 5,000 new jobs in Austin, the most that any company had created in 2021. Amazingly, Tesla has not received an approval certificate from the State that would allow it to build vehicles at the plant and deliver them to customers, yet it still created more jobs than any other company in the Austin area last year.
Tesla Giga Texas drive-bys show just how massive Elon Musk’s Cybertruck factory really is
Austin: America’s New Hot Spot
Austin has been one of the United States’ most heavily developed cities in the past several years. Tesla may be the biggest name to move its corporate headquarters to the City, but it is not the only company to establish a relatively drastic presence in the area. Google is investing $50 million in Texas this year to develop office space. Amazon is building a new 3.8 million square foot distribution center in nearby Pflugerville. Apple is building a $1 billion campus in north Austin and will move some of its employees to the area.
However, Tesla’s Factory seemed to spark the job creation, according to Austin-area realtor Paul Smith. “Once Tesla was announced, now all of a sudden you have job creation. That’s the one thing that it didn’t really have is, southeast Austin was kind of neglected for a little bit, right?” Smith said. The surge of corporate projects in the area has contributed to skyrocketing home costs. The neighborhood closest to Mirador had its average house price jump $93,000 from December 2020 to December 2021, Redfin data suggests.
The influx of economic growth, which has largely been fed by the vast number of projects and companies headed to the region, has largely fueled housing costs to skyrocket thanks to increased demand. More families will move to the Austin area in the coming years due to its attractiveness to corporations and large companies. Austin was ranked #1 on Zillow’s hottest housing market for 2021. In 2022, the City ranks 10th.
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News
Tesla Model X shocks everyone by crushing every other used car in America
The Model X is one of Tesla’s flagship models, the other being the Model S. Earlier this year, Tesla confirmed it would discontinue production of both the Model S and Model X to make way for Optimus robot production at the Fremont Factory in Northern California.
The Tesla Model X was the fastest-selling used vehicle in the United States in the first quarter of the year, crushing every other used car in America.
iSeeCars data for the first quarter shows that the Model X was the fastest-selling used car, lasting just 25.6 days on the market on average, two days better than that of the second-place Lexus RX 350h. The Cybertruck, Model Y, and Model S, in seventh, ninth, and thirteenth place, respectively, also made the list.
The Model X is one of Tesla’s flagship models, the other being the Model S. Earlier this year, Tesla confirmed it would discontinue production of both the Model S and Model X to make way for Optimus robot production at the Fremont Factory in Northern California.
Tesla brings closure to flagship ‘sentimental’ models, Musk confirms
Bringing closure to these two vehicles signaled the end of the road for the cars that have effectively built Tesla’s reputation for luxury and high-end passenger vehicles.
Relying on the sales of its mass market Model Y and Model 3, as well as leaning on the success of future products like the Cybercab, is the angle Tesla has chosen to take.
Teslas are also performing extremely well as a whole on the resale market. iSeeCars data shows that, “while the average price of a 1- to 5-year-old non-Tesla EV fell 10.3% in Q1 2026 year-over-year, the average price of a used Tesla was essentially flat at 0.1% lower across the same period. Traditional gas car prices dropped 2.8% during this same period.”
Additionally, market share for gas cars has dropped nearly 3 percent since the same quarter last year. Tesla has remained level, while the non-Tesla EV market share has increased 30 percent, mostly due to more models available.
Nevertheless, those non-Tesla EVs have seen their value drop by over 10 percent, while Tesla’s values have remained level.
Executive Analyst Karl Brauer said:
“Used electric vehicles without a Tesla badge have lost more than 10% of their value in the past year. This compares to stable values for Teslas and hybrids, and a modest 2.8% drop for traditional gasoline vehicles.”
Teslas, as well as non-luxury hybrids, are displaying the strongest resistance in the face of faltering demand, the publication says. But the more impressive performance is that of the Model X alone.
Tesla’s decision to stop production of the Model X may have played some part in the vehicle’s pristine performance in Q1. With the car already placed at a premium price point, used models are already more appealing to consumers. Perhaps second-hand versions were more than enough for those who wanted a Model X, and only a Model X.
Cybertruck
Tesla Cybertruck’s head-scratching trim sold terribly, recall documents reveal
The head-scratching offering was only available for a few months, and evidently, it did not sell very well, which we all suspected. New recall documents on the vehicle from the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) now reveal just how poorly it sold.
After Tesla decided to build a Rear-Wheel-Drive Cybertruck trim back in 2025, which was void of many features and only featured a small discount.
The head-scratching offering was only available for a few months, and evidently, it did not sell very well, which we all suspected. New recall documents on the vehicle from the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) now reveal just how poorly it sold.
The recall deals with a potentially separating wheel stud and potentially impacts 173 Cybertruck units with the 18-inch steel wheels. The Cybertruck RWD was the only trim level to feature these, and the 173 potentially impacted units represent a portion of the population of pickups. Therefore, it’s not the entire number of RWD Cybertruck sold, but it could show how little interest it gathered.
The NHTSA document states:
“On affected vehicles, higher severity road perturbations and cornering may strain the stud hole in the wheel rotor, causing cracks to form. If cracking propagates with continued use and strain, the wheel stud could eventually separate from the wheel hub.”
Only 5 percent are expected to be impacted, meaning less than 10 units will have the issue if the NHTSA and Tesla estimates are correct. Nevertheless, the true story here is how terribly the RWD Cybertruck sold.
Tesla ended production and stopped offering the RWD Cybertruck to customers last September. For just $10,000 less than the All-Wheel-Drive trim, Tesla offered the RWD Cybertruck with just one motor, textile seats instead of leather, only 7 speakers instead of 15, no Rear Touchscreen, no Powered Tonneau Cover for the truck bed, and no 120v/240v outlets.
For just $10,000 more, at $79,990, owners could have received all of those premium features, as well as a more capable All-Wheel-Drive powertrain that featured Adaptive Air Suspension. The discount simply was not worth the sacrifices.
Orders were few and far between, and sources told us that when it was offered, sales were extremely tempered because customers could not see the value in this trim level.
Even Tesla’s most loyal supporters thought the offering was kind of a joke, and the $10,000 extra was simply worth it.
News
Tesla Semi sends clear message to Diesel rivals with latest move
The truck is being built at a dedicated facility in Sparks, Nevada, just next to its Gigafactory Nevada facility.
Tesla has officially launched Semi production at what will be a mind-boggling rate of approximately 50,000 units per year.
The truck is being built at a dedicated facility in Sparks, Nevada, just next to its Gigafactory Nevada facility.
The company finally announced on April 29 that the first Tesla Semi truck has rolled off its new high-volume production line at the factory. This marks the transition from limited pilot builds to scaled manufacturing for the Class 8 all-electric heavy-duty truck, nearly nine years after its dramatic 2017 unveiling.
🚨 Tesla Semi mass production is underway in Nevada!
HUGE! https://t.co/ohgQIiI2bK pic.twitter.com/23GvWr8D27
— TESLARATI (@Teslarati) April 29, 2026
Tesla initially promised high-volume deliveries by 2019–2020, but battery supply constraints and prioritization for passenger vehicles delayed progress. The new 1.7-million-square-foot factory, purpose-built next to Gigafactory Nevada’s 4680 cell production lines, resolves those bottlenecks through deep vertical integration.
The Semi uses Tesla’s structural battery packs with cylindrical 4680 cells manufactured on-site. This integration enables efficient supply, reduced logistics costs, and the potential for high output. The factory is designed for an eventual annual capacity of approximately 50,000 trucks, positioning Tesla to address growing demand in long-haul freight electrification.
Tesla is using a redesigned Cybertruck battery cell to mitigate Semi challenges
Operating economics favor the Semi through dramatically lower fuel and maintenance costs compared to traditional diesel rigs, and companies involved in a pilot program for the Semi with Tesla have shown that.
Electricity is far cheaper than diesel on a per-mile basis, while the electric powertrain features fewer moving parts, reducing service intervals and lifetime expenses. Early deployments with customers like PepsiCo and others have validated these advantages in real-world service.
The Nevada factory’s ramp-up is targeted for full volume output before the end of June 2026, aligning with broader Tesla production goals for 2026. This includes parallel efforts on other new vehicles while expanding the Megacharger infrastructure to support widespread adoption.
By localizing battery and truck production, Tesla gains advantages in cost, quality control, and scalability that many competitors sourcing cells externally lack. The start of high-volume Semi production represents a pivotal step in Tesla’s strategy to electrify heavy transportation, potentially accelerating the shift toward zero-emission freight across North America and beyond.
As output increases, the Semi could reshape long-haul logistics with its combination of performance, efficiency, and sustainability.
Tesla Model X shocks everyone by crushing every other used car in America
Tesla Cybertruck’s head-scratching trim sold terribly, recall documents reveal
