America's first Tesla-powered home community launches in Houston

🌥️ Welcome to Thursday. We’re looking at Tesla-powered homes, the effects of tariffs on home insurance, and cities with the highest home sale cancellations.

Today's newsletter is 588 words — a 2.5-minute read.

1. America's first Tesla-powered home community launches in Houston

A unique community of Tesla-powered homes in Houston is generating significant buzz, with homes selling fast despite the growing backlash against Tesla's CEO, Elon Musk, over his role in the Trump administration.

The 11 homes located in the Oaks of Shady Acres subdivision feature Tesla's solar roof shingles, Powerwall battery storage, and EV chargers. They offer a solution to the city's frequent power outages as Houston is not connected to the national grid.

According to real estate experts speaking to Realtor.com, demand for these homes has been extraordinary, with inquiries coming from as far away as Washington state. Priced between $524,000 and $544,900, the properties are drawing interest from a wide range of buyers including international ones.

2. Tariffs could raise home insurance costs up to 38% faster

Tariffs on imported construction materials could push homeowners' average annual insurance premiums to $3,626 by the end of 2025—an increase of $106 from current projections. This represents a 38% faster rise, from an 8% year-over-year cost increase to an 11% cost increase, according to a new forecast by Insurify.

Tariffs will increase the cost of repairing or replacing a home, which will, in turn, drive up the cost of claims that insurers must cover. As a result, insurance companies are likely to pass this increased risk onto homeowners by charging higher premiums as per the forecast.

Home-insurance costs have been rising in recent years, regardless of tariffs. Without tariffs, the average homeowner's insurance premium was expected to increase to $3,520 by the end of 2025, up from $3,259 in 2024.

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3. Catch up quick

🏝️ Lake Travis gets a 60-acre luxury resort community with 3D-printed homes. (Tribeza)

🤔 Why Texas Republicans are trying to rein in high home prices and rents. (MySA)

📈 Builders expect tariffs to increase home costs by nearly $11,000. (Realtor.com)

🙅‍♂️ Biggest MLS in the nation rejects NAR's 'Delayed Marketing' policy. (WRENews)

❗ City of Dallas suspends all real estate deals after problematic $14M purchase. (Bisnow)

🪙 Fun read: Texas business launches $10,000 gold, coin treasure hunt. (Chron)

4. Fort Worth and San Antonio are among the top cities with the highest share of home sale cancellations

According to a Redfin report, roughly 52,000 purchase agreements were canceled in March, the equivalent of 13.4% of homes that were sold that same month.

This marks the third-highest rate of March cancellations since Redfin began collecting the data in 2017, surpassed only by March 2023 (13.7%) and March 2020 (16.4%).

Here are the top 5 Texas cities with the highest share of cancelled pending sales: (National - 13.4%)

1. Fort Worth - 18.4%

2. San Antonio - 18.1%

3. Dallas - 15.7%

4. Houston - 15.4%

5. Austin - 13.2%

5. Share of inventory with a price cut reaches a multi-year high

In total, 302,260 homes for sale on Realtor.com in March 2025 had a price cut. That represents 33.9% of the 892,561 active U.S. housing inventory for sale at the end of March 2025.

That share is up from 31.7% in March 2024 and 29.4% in March 2023. During the pandemic boom, price cuts were far less common, with 22.8% of listings seeing reductions in March 2020 and just 18.7% in March 2021.

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