Its not really helping places like Austin TX. All that happens is the developers move a couple miles further outside of town build a bunch of houses, usually for what works out to be roughly equal to the cheapest house in town. Repeat the process next year. Within a few years everything doubles. So the housing market is inversly priced by distance from downtown and the lakes. Sure you can get a house for $250k, but your likely looking at sitting in your car for 3 hours a day. If you can handle a million $'s you can probably live 10-15 mins away from your work. If you have a few million you might even get a nice place.