April 2009 - Posts
I did a post about rain in Austin back in March. I was kind of excited about the possibility of a lot of rain west of here as I was hoping it would cause the water level in Lake Travis to rise. Well, even with anywhere from 1 to 3 inches over a broad
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I had a call from a gentleman from California many months ago. Tom was looking for a lot with a nice Lake Travis view, but he wanted to build a single-story home no larger than 2000 square feet and it needed to be able to have an RV garage. He also wanted
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The Statesman reported this morning that the assessed values on Travis Count homes went up almost 4% last year. If you have bought a home in Travis County recently, look at the appraised value at the tax appraisal district. If your contract price was
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I’ve been talking with people over the last few months about the home energy audit that will be required for many Austin homes. I have also talked with some who are taking the Austin home energy audit class this week. The audits start June 1 and
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Tim, Gabriella and I went to Non La, which means straw hat, in Lakeway for lunch today. The restaurant opened just two weeks ago and looked like it was having good traffic. Gabriella had the Chicken Pho and loved it. The ceramic bowl was huge and she
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I live in Apache Shores and one of the things I love about the neighborhood is the amazing topography. As I left home today, I headed down a pretty steep and curvy section of Broken Bow Trail. Rounding a corner, I came across an 18-wheeler that was stopped
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People all over the place are telling me that they don't want to buy in the Austin area right now because they feel that prices will drop more. They may a see a stat like the one I saw today showing home prices down 4% in March. That is across the
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The Hill Country Galleria Mall cannot refinance its construction loan and because of that it has been posted for foreclosure. I've watched the mall closely since it opened, wondering if it would be successful. I have not spent a lot of time at the
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I got some clients into a wonderful house on Lake Travis recently that they have available as a short-term rental. One of the best things about the house is that it is on a very deep cove. Many rental homes on Lake Travis are on coves that don't have
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Forbes came out with its most recent list of the top 20 cities in the nation for job growth and guess what, Texas has nine of them. Leading the way for small cities is the west Texas city of Odessa. Austin, Houston, San Antonio, Ft. Worth and Dallas led
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So I have been doing some online research looking at New York and other states because of their budget deficits. What I have found tells me that people are about to leave New York and other states because or rising taxes and fees. One article I read shows
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According to a USA Today article in 2006, it cost more than a penny to produce a penny. It also cost more to make a nickel than five cents. This is still true today. So do we still need pennies? Some people feel that since it costs less than 25 cents
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OK, more numbers for you. These are stats for single-family homes sold in the Lake South area of the Austin MLS from October 8, 2008 through today. This is similar to what I posted a few days ago, but this breaks out new homes and is for all of Lake South,
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I've been posting on this Austin real estate blog since November, 2006. The posts with the most page views have been about real estate statistics, new real estate developments in the area, economic outlooks, etc. The post that actually got the most
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So I just did a Google search for "New Yorkers - Want to Escape New Taxes?" and a post from the Huffington Post came up talking about Rush Limbaugh's response to the Governor's new tax proposal. Rush lives in Florida, but his show is
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Economist Angelo Angelous has been around for a long time. He just gave his outlook for the economy for 2009 and 2010, including what is happening with real estate in Austin. Click here to read it.
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I posted about communities out near Lake Travis a few days ago. Today, I will do the same thing, but I will look at Cherry Creek , Buttercup Creek and Circle C homes . Cherry Creek is in south central Austin. Buttercup Creek is in Cedar Park, a suburb
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I was going to post this today anyway, but Ralph's comments made me almost want to post just for him. I'm thinking that the numbers may be too small to read, so here goes. What this shows is home sales and average prices in the Lake Travis ISD
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Everyone knows that home sales in the Austin area have slowed in 2008 and 2009. The south Lake Travis area has slowed more than many other parts of Austin. I have taken stats from the MLS to show this and will offer some of my thoughts as to why this
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If you have been in Austin for any length of time (or even done a few Internet searches), you have figured out some of the standard things to do in Austin. Once you have toured the Capitol, seen the bats, and strolled down Sixth, what can you do? Taking
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Two weeks ago I was sitting around wondering how Relay would turn out this year. There was about half of a planning committee and one ACS staffer, Kristy Hilboldt . The committee consisted at that time of 8 high school students. Knowing that my business
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If you are relocatint to Austin or even considering moving to Austin , you might want to check out this article. The article cites UT and the state government as two employers who will help keep things pretty steady here for a while. th elink follows.
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