Georgetown plans to review housing codes to make homes more affordable

GEORGETOWN, Texas (KXAN) — The city of Georgetown will discuss reviewing possible changes to building and fire codes in an attempt to reduce housing costs in a city council workshop meeting next Tuesday.

"In Georgetown, we are concerned about affordability," said Georgetown Mayor Josh Schroeder. "If you go look at what the average home price in Georgetown has done over the last five years, it's gone [up] dramatically."

According to real estate brokerage service Redfin, the median sale price of homes in Georgetown is $425,000 in August 2025, up from $304,000 in August 2020.

"We want good workforce housing. We want our police officers, firefighters, teachers, to be able to live in this community," Schroeder said. "We can at least make sure we're not getting in the way and unintentionally creating a problem and making housing less affordable."

According to the Congressional Research Service, a public policy research institute of the United States Congress:

• Building code: provides rules and standards for the design, construction, alteration, materials, maintenance, and performance of buildings
• Fire code: set minimum requirements for fire prevention and fire protection systems in new and existing buildings

"I've always said the building code is the worst you can build a building legally," said Jim Olk, the former president of the Building Officials Association of Texas. "State law allows any city to make amendments to the code to address regional concerns."

Olk said that cities should be cautious when modifying such codes, as doing so could pay dividends in the long run.

"You look at the most recent disasters and the loss of life we've had—there is no price to put on that. And some of those buildings failed due to poor construction techniques," Olk said. "If you look at some of those buildings from Hurricane Harvey, there was one building standing on the beach because it was code construction."

Schroeder said that safety is a top priority but said it's important to analyze what makes sense for Georgetown to make it a "complete community."

"Nobody's saying we're going to throw the codes out the window. We may do nothing at the end of it," Schroeder said. "We may look at it and go—nope. Building codes—great. Fire codes—great, and we're not touching it. But we're going to have a conversation about it."