The 16th season of MTV’s The Real World took place in Austin and y’all, it was messy! Filmed in a very underdeveloped downtown Austin, the cast lived in in a converted warehouse located at 301 San Jacinto Boulevard.

What Happened To The Real World Austin House

Once filming wrapped, the warehouse was converted into a restaurant called Rio Grande. The restaurant capitalized on the filming location by keeping some of the neon signs from the series, including Big Tex, and the swimming pool, which would be better described as a wading pool. They also kept the Austin sign atop the building. Years later it sat on a building on South Congress, though we’re unsure where the sign is now.

In 2010, the Vince Young Steakhouse took over the space, fully renovating and removing any nods to the MTV series. Now, the steakhouse has announced that they will be closing. In a statement on the website, the company says, “After 15 unforgettable years serving the Austin community, Vince Young Steakhouse will close its doors on January 24, 2026, marking the end of a chapter that helped define downtown dining for more than a decade.”

So now, the fate of the former The Real World Austin house is up in the air – though it currently looks nothing like it did when the series aired in 2005. But, then again, neither does the rest of Austin.

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