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Austin Real Estate BlogAustin Real Estate BlogAustin real estate market stats and related news and information Articles
Dont? go crazy trying to find the perfect Austin home?
2007-09-02 23:19:00 I asked my Mom the other day how many houses her and my Dad looked at in 1965 (I was 4 years old) when we moved from Adak Alaska to San Diego, CA. Her answer stunned me. “One”. They looked at only one house! “You didn’t think you needed to compare it to others?” I ... More About: Home , Crazy , Find , Austin , Perfect
Austin Auto Accident with Illegal Immigrant
2007-09-01 19:51:00 Sylvia was broadsided yesterday in her new (3 months old) honda odyssey by an Illegal Immigrant driver on Manchaca Rd. He had no insurance, no driver’s license, no proof of identification and didn’t speak English. The police came and wrote him three tickets. I’m surprised he wasn’t arrested, since he had no proof of ... More About: Auto , Accident , Austin
Austin a Home Flipper?s Market?
2007-08-31 03:24:00 This news snippet below is the sort of thing that paints an unrealistic picture for investors who don’t take the time to properly study and analyze what they are getting ready to do. Let’s take a closer look at what the article says… Daily Real Estate News | August 30, 2007 Market s Where a Flipper ... More About: Home , Austin
Things every Austin real estate buyer should know
2007-08-29 16:47:00 We’ve recently started providing an additional form to all of our buyers. It’s a notice provided by the Texas Association of Real tors called “GENERAL INFORMATION AND NOTICE TO A BUYER“. Though I like to keep paperwork simple and minimal, this form is helpful in bringing to the attention of buyers some of the things that ... More About: Estate , Real Estate , Buyer , Austin
Downtown & UT Tower View From Rooftop!!
2007-08-28 17:52:00 This gave me a chuckle this morning. Comments that agents write in listings are often a source of amusement, but I’ve never seen one boasting of the view from the roof. There is not a rooftop deck or anything, just a normal house with a roof. But if you want to get out your ladder ... More About: Downtown , View , Tower
Stevie Ray Vaughan died 17 years ago today
2007-08-27 18:52:00 Stevie Ray Vaughan died 17 years ago today. I miss seeing him play in Austin back in the 1980’s. Austin properly honored him and his music with a prominent statue on the shore of Lake Ladybird (formerly Town Lake) on the hike and bike trail downtown. If you ever saw him play live, especially in ... More About: Today , Years , Stevie Ray Vaughan , Died
Deciding against tankless water heaters for our new home
2007-08-27 17:32:00 Sylvia and I are in the process of building a new custom home in SW Austin. This will be our second custom (and new) home. All other homes we’ve owned have been resales. On the first one we built in 2003, we went $50K+ over budget by adding too many upgrades and making too many ... More About: Home , Water , Eater , Heaters
Austin Rental Market - July 2007 stats update
2007-08-27 00:57:00 The Austin rental market continues to see rising rents. The mortgage problems in the sub-prime mortgage loan market are helping rental markets in all parts of the U.S., as renters who should not be qualified to purchase a home are indeed remaining renters, as they should. Austin has the added benefit of a strong job ... More About: Market , Rental , Update , Stats
Another Boneheaded new law from our Texas Legislature
2007-08-25 05:12:00 I wrote a while back about a new law imposing a mandatory two day grace period for landlords in Texas , which will cause tenants to pay more in late fees that they currently do - exactly the opposite of what the author of the bill intended. Now we have a new law that is equally ... More About: Legislature , Legi
Austin Condos - First signs of pullback from developers
2007-08-24 16:40:00 In today’s Austin Business Journal there is news about the first sign of something we knew would eventually happen. The question has been asked “are there enough condo buyers to buy all of these Austin condos scheduled to be built?” The answer I’ve heard from various sources (economists, builders, Realtors who specialize in condos) is ... More About: Signs , Developers , Develop , Pull
Real Estate ?Pretenders? dropping like flies
2007-08-24 00:14:00 I learned a new term this week at the Keller Williams camp in Austin. Agents from declining markets that have turned into Buyer Markets referred to the real estate “pretenders”, who are now dropping like flies in the tough markets. This year will be the first year in a decade that membership in the National ... More About: Estate , Real Estate , Real , Flies , Lies
Is Downtown Austin Living going to be too loud?
2007-08-23 20:11:00 I came across this news snippet today, regarding noisy downtown living. I’ve wondered about this as Austin grows and builds all of our downtown condos. This article says that downtown residents in St. Petersburg FL, which “has turned into a trendy boomtown full of restaurants, bars, coffee shops, and new residents”, are fed up with ... More About: Living , Downtown , Loud , Going
Do Professional Guitarists and Realtors have anything in common?
2007-08-23 06:31:00 I just wrapped up 3 days at the Keller Williams Mega Agent Camp in Austin. It’s really great, no matter what industry you work in, to get around a bunch of other people who do the same thing you do, and to share and trade ideas. The Mega Agent camp is not for Newbie Agents, ... More About: Realtors , Common , Professional , Fess
Texas Foreclosure Rates Down
2007-08-21 23:16:00 From the Real Estate Center at Texas A&M: COLLEGE STATION (Real Estate Center, RealtyTrac Inc.) ? Fore closure rates may be on the rise, but recent information from RealtyTrac Inc. shows Texas MSAs were not among the top ten foreclosure areas in the United States for the first half of 2007. Among the other findings: Fort Worth?Arlington ranked ... More About: Rates , Rate
Driving Around in Austin - How big is Austin?
2007-08-19 18:43:00 Many people don’t realize how geographically spread out the Austin Metro area is. I’m going to share with you an example of the actual drive Sylvia and I made yesterday while tending to some listings. We live in Oak Hill (’A’ on the map), which puts us about 12 miles from Downtown Austin. We left there ... More About: Driving
Education and Technology in Austin Schools
2007-08-16 23:56:00 It’s gone too far. The notion that we need to cram computers and technology down the throats of our kids at younger and younger ages has just gone too far. On page 20 of the Aug 10, 2007 issue of the Austin Business Journal is a listing of Austin Private Schools , listing the top 25 ... More About: Education , Technology , Ology
Foreclosure Rates Continuing to Rise Nationwide - Texas subsiding
2007-08-14 23:42:00 RealtyTrac, which sells foreclosed properties nationwide, released its midyear report, showing that California and Ohio cities account for 10 of the top 20 metropolitan areas in rate of foreclosures. Fore closure activity appears to be moderating in parts of the country where it initially skyrocketed, including Texas and South Carolina, “but the overall trend is toward escalating ... More About: Rise , Rates
Another Problem with Investing in 4-plexes in Austin
2007-08-14 03:50:00 Today I received a call from an out-of-town Austin 4-plex owner looking for his 4th property manager in 2 years. When I receive calls from Austin 4-plex owners looking for a property manager, I tell them 2 things: 1) I don’t manage 4-plexes. Period. 2) None of the good property managers that I personally I know in ... More About: Investing , Problem
Austin Property Managers and Repair Kickbacks
2007-08-08 17:21:00 I met yesterday with a remodeling contractor at a listing I’m preparing for sale. As often happens in Austin , he and I got to jawing in the front yard under a shady tree, talking about business, remodeling homes, Austin traffic, etc. More specifically, we ended up discussing property managers and what it’s like to work ... More About: Property , Managers , Manage , Repair
CNN Story about Austin
2007-08-08 15:40:00 I came across this article on the CNN travel website. It’s a nice write-up and overview of Austin along with some photos. It’s written from the perspective of travelling to and enjoying Austin versus a write-up about moving/living here. Story Highlights - Austin, Texas, has clubs and bar districts to keep a night person hopping - It also ... More About: Tory
Austin tops the nation for business
2007-08-06 22:48:00 The Austin Business Journal reported today that Moody’s research has named Austin #1 out of 400 metro areas for doing business. These small nuggets of news and ratings, rankings, “Best of” lists, etc. help support the notion that Austin’s strong real estate market is grounded in real, actual economic success. The article states: the Austin-Round Rock ... More About: Tops , Nation , Sine
Another Austin Investor Horror Story
2007-08-05 20:46:00 Sometimes I think I go too far in warning prospective newbie investors about the potential downsides of owning rental property, but articles like this one in todays Austin Statesman remind me that stern warnings are in fact appropriate. To be clear, I am a happy real estate investor and have helped many, many investors successfully ... More About: Horror , Story , Investor , Tory
Austin Mortgage Industry Update
2007-08-04 02:21:00 Tommy Nelms, Austin Mort gage Consultant, provided the following information to me via email today. I asked if I could share it in this blog and he said ok. Here goes … I wanted to keep you in the loop of the important changes in the mortgage industry. We have seen changes in the market this week. I ... More About: Industry , Update
Home Values for the Top 20 Markets
2007-08-02 17:34:00 REALTORŪ Magazine Online reports the following stats for real estate values in their “top 20″ cities. The annual growth rate in prices of existing single family homes across the United States continued to decline for the 18th consecutive month in May, according to the Standard & Poor?s/Case-Shiller Home Price Index. Overall, the top 20 cities ... More About: Markets , Values
Austin renters to pay more late fees with new law
2007-07-29 23:40:00 The brilliance of our Texas Legislature is on display again as a new law, HB 3101 which will go into effect Jan 2008, has been passed that will produce greater late fee income for landlords by ensuring that more renters pay their rent late. Undoubtedly, this is not the outcome hoped for by State Representative ... More About: Fees , Austin , Late
Austin Rental Market Update - June 2007 and Mid-year Stats
2007-07-29 21:56:00 Rents continue increasing overall in Austin , as the number of homes rented drops. The average leased price of a home in Austin for June 2007 is $1364 per month, up 7.5% from $1269 in June of 2006. Average days-on-market for homes rented in June 2007 was 41 days. The median days on market was 28 ... More About: Market , Rental , Update
Austin Real Estate Market Sales Stats - June 2007 Update
2007-07-25 12:11:00 Below are the June 2007 and YTD mid-year real estate sales stats for Austin and surrounding areas. These are for single family homes, condos are not included. The most interesting thing to me on the first chart below for June sales is that the median days on market is 28 days. That means half of ... More About: Estate , Real Estate , Real Estate Market , Market
NY Times writes about Austin Hill Country
2007-07-11 16:59:00 Austin’s Hill County sprawl was featured in this New York Times article a few days ago. The article does a pretty good job of outlining the issues facing growth in the fragile Hill Country area west of Austin. This is near the intersection of Hwy 71 west at Bee Caves/620, and further SW toward Dripping ... More About: Austin
The Hall of Shame for Worst Realtor Photos
2007-07-10 04:11:00 I’ve written in the past about the really bad photos that can be seen on far too many MLS listings. When I wrote this article back in September 2006, someone somehow recognized the house and sent a link to the Seller who in turn informed his agent. That agent contacted me and threw a fit ... More About: Photos , Realtor , Hall , Sham , Shame
Hutto, Kyle among fastest-growing cities
More articles from this author:2007-07-10 01:34:00 From the Austin Business Journal today. Hutto and Kyle continue to be boom areas, though not areas we recommend to buyers/investors looking for the better appreciation found in the closer in Austin neighborhoods. If I had to pick one of these areas for a first time buyer to consider though, I’d go with Kyle and ... More About: Cities , Growing , Rowing , Grow 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6 |
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