A community of 3D-printed homes in Austin, Texas is now available with units starting at $745,000

• A development of 3D-printed homes in Austin, Texas has been completed.

• The East 17th Street Residences includes four homes that range from two to four bedrooms.

• Two of the four homes are still available starting at $745,000.

• See more stories on Insider’s business page.

A development of 3D-printed homes was recently completed in one of the country’s hottest housing markets: Austin, Texas.

And you could move right in as long as you have at least $745,000 to spare.

The “East 17th Street Residences” was developed by 3Strands, printed by Austin-based 3D printing construction company Icon, and designed by Logan Architecture.

This is the second development Icon has printed in Austin, but this new community is the company’s first “first mainstream housing project,” according to 3Strands.

Source: 3Strands

Icon’s previous development was the “Community First! Village,” a collection of affordable homes for unhoused people.

Source: Insider

Developing in Austin,
Texas was strategic: “It’s hard not to be drawn to what is happening in Austin right now,” Gary O’Dell, CEO of 3Strands, told Insider in an email interview in May before the development was completed.

Elon Musk recently predicted that the city will be “the biggest boomtown that America has seen in 50 years.”

Source: Insider

And 3Strands already owned the site, which simplified the zoning and permitting process, O’Dell said.

Now let’s take a look around inside.

The East 17th Street Residence includes four homes that span 900 square feet to 2,000 square feet.

Each home has between two to four bedrooms …

… but some of the bedrooms could be easily converted into work-from-home offices.

Each home has the typical kitchen and living rooms …

Source: East 17th Street Residences

… while some of the larger units have dining and laundry rooms as well.

The units also have porches, front yards, and parking spaces …

… as well as amenities like a dishwasher, refrigerator, and tankless water heater.

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Overall, the interior has a modern flare with an open concept and a minimalist appeal.

You might have noticed that the homes look no different than your typical traditionally constructed home.

Well, using a 3D printer to build houses is more than just a unique, tech-forward way to construct homes.

According to O’Dell, 3D printing can help alleviate the housing shortage, a belief other 3D printing companies hold as well.

Source: Icon, Insider

“There is an extreme lack of housing (both in Austin and globally) that has left us with problems around supply, sustainability, resiliency, affordability, and design options,” Jason Ballard, CEO and co-founder of Icon, told Insider in an email interview in May.

“With ICON’s 3D printing technology, we anticipate more high-velocity progress in the years ahead to help bring housing and construction into the modern world,” Ballard continued.

Ballard believes 3D printing is the “toolkit of the builder of the future,” as it decreases the cost, waste, manual labor, and time it takes to build a home.

The first floor of the community’s homes were all printed using Icon’s printing and construction system Vulcan.

The Vulcan then prints out “lavacrete,” Icon’s in-house “high strength” concrete, shown below as it prints the walls of a home.

Source: Icon

This allows the homes to better tolerate natural disasters, including fires and flooding, according to its maker.

The second floor was then completed with “conventional” materials, according to Ballard.

Since the homes’ debut, 3Strands has been “overwhelmed” with interest from buyers, O’Dell said in a press release.

Of the four homes, one already went under contract in March shortly after it was listed.

3Strands plans to keep another one of the homes, according to O’Dell.

The final two have since been listed by 3Strands and brokerage company Den Property Group.

One of the units (B1) has been listed for $745,000, while the other (B3) is up for $795,000.

Source: Den Property Group, Den Property Group

According to O’Dell, 3Strands and Den priced the homes to match the median home price around the neighborhood.

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