Last summer I got rid of almost all of my regular light bulbs and replaced them with compact fluorescent bulbs. The bulbs were about four times as expensive as regular bulbs, but I have really liked the savings. My electric bill in an all electric, 1600 square foot house averaged $92 per month for the first four months of last year. This year, after having the compact fluorescents in place, the average for the first four months has been $57. That is a 38% reduction!
Compact fluorescent bulbs produce a brighter and whiter light than incandescent bulbs. Because of the amount of light produced, you can replace a 120 watt bulb with a 30 watt bulb and get around the same amount of light. In addition, the compact fluorescents give off around 70% less heat and that should help make my air conditioning a little bit more efficient. My research tells me that compact fluorescent bulbs last around 10 times longer than incandescent bulbs.
I realize that the months I have compared are not the months that the air conditioning will be running like crazy. But if I can see a 38% reduction in my electric bills 6 months out of the year, that could save me around $660 over 5 years. Even a 20% reduction during the hot months could save me another $650 over 5 years. That comes to around $1300 over 5 years, which is a lot less than what I paid for the bulbs.
The city of Austin is exploring mandating energy efficiency updates to homes in the city before they can be sold. Rather than that, how about the city buying a huge amount of compact fluorescent bulbs and then selling them to residents at a discount? It wouldn't be a mandate, but it would be a no-brainer if promoted the right way.
The latest stats from Alamo Title are out and here they are:
April 2008 -
Units for Sale: (compared to April 2007)
New listings were up 48.05%. Pendings were down 67.04%.
Solds decreased by 17.31%.
As for Average Prices:
The "New Listings" average list price is down 0.47% to 330,528. In April 2007 the average list price was $332,105. In March (2008) it was $322,288. Sold average sales prices decreased 0.75% to $241,610. For April 2007 it was $243,425. In March (2008) it was $234,386. Check it out at http://www.alamotitle-austin.com/mls_statistics.php.
My comments: We're coming into what should be peak selling season and the numbers don't look good. The huge increase in new listings and the Pending sales being so low points to a slow May. What this means for sellers is if you don't absolutely have to sell, you might want to wait a while.
For buyers it is a different story. Interest rates are very low. In this buyer's market, buyers should consider acting now. If buyers wait a year, either prices or interest rates or both may be up. If you buy now when with the low interest rates and rates go up in a year, you are in good shape even if home prices drop a bit more.
The average price of a new listing is down slightly. My thoughts are that sellers need to be just a little more aggressive. Slowing sales means pricing as competitively as possible.
I went out to Krause Springs today. This is a place I had never visited and I wish I knew about it when my kids were small. We would have visited a lot. It is said that a picture is worth a thousand words. Well, here are a few thousand words for you:
This is really in Central Texas?
Cool water and huge trees.
Another waterfall on the other cliff. Want more? Visit my Krause Springs Photos page.
This is the view from the Oasis Restaurant high above Lake Travis. Amazing, isn't it.
This is the view from the Oasis looking toward Comanche Trail. This shot really gives you a good idea of how high above Lake Travis the restaurant is.
This photo looks north toward homes that sit close to 350 feet above Lake Travis. Imagine the sun setting over Lake Travis from the back porch of any of these.
The Oasis Restaurant is an Austin icon. Anyone who visits our fair city really needs to go there. The food isn't bad, but going to the Oasis is all about the view. It doesn't matter what time of day you are there, unless it is raining, the view is a panoramic one, going 180 degrees from just east of Mansfield Dam to the north.
To get to the Oasis, get on RM 620 going south from 2222 or north from Highway 71. Turn north on Comanche Trail and go just a couple of miles. The Oasis will be on your left - you can't miss it.
A conversation started at a multi-agency property tour I attended today that got a lot of people fired up. The particular subdivision being discussed is one that I will not mention by name. It is an area in which there are several groups of properties that were zoned as condominium in order to get a higher density of properties on the ground. However, the homes that have been built are single-family and they share no walls. Agents have entered the properties into the MLS using the property designation HOUSE.
That is where the Austin Board of REALTORS® (ABoR) comes in. If the legal description says the property is a condo, the Board has been changing the listing to CONDO without notifying the listing agents. Some of these, although zoned condominium, for some reason do not show that in the legal descriptions as HOUSEs, so they remain in the MLS that way.
So, looking at the photo, which of these is a house and which is a condo? Can you tell by looking at them? I sure can't. How about the ones at the top of the hill?
The homes in for foreground are zoned condo and are called condos by ABoR. But wait, the homes on the hill in the background are free-standing single-family homes zoned as condos, but the legal doesn't have the word condo in it. So what does ABoR do? It leaves them in the MLS as houses. Is there anything reasonable about this?
Home buyers who are searching for single-family houses will not select the term condo when doing a property search because they don't want to have shared walls. So they will miss these single-family homes. Home buyers who are searching for condos aren't generally looking for units that are free-standing, but they might like them when they see them. So some of the properties in the above photograph will be completely missed in property searches. See the problem?
There are condo regimes all over the five county area served by ABoR in which the structures are really single-family, stand-alone homes. Is ABoR going to do an exhaustive search of all of these and then change the listings so they may not be found in property searches? I can understand the Board having rules, but this one needs to bend. People selling homes that are zoned as condos and have the term condo in the legal description need a little leeway. We need to be able to enter these free-standing "condos" with no shared walls as HOUSEs.
Any home owner who is having a hard time getting their properties shown because of this and any real estate agent who care need to speak up to the Board. There are a lot of agents in my area who are going to petition the Board to allow us to change this technically accurate, but misleading rule. I hope the Board will listen.
The Fedex Kinko's Classic is back at The Hills Country Club. Starting with some ProAm golf yesterday and today, the bulk of the play that everyone will want to see will be over the weekend.
Preparation for this year's Classic got a little spooky for the host club when heavy rain, hail and high winds hit the area last Friday. Almost 3 inches of rain, marble-sized hail and winds up to around 60 mph pounded the area Friday morning. Grounds keepers had to flush out the sand traps and replaced the sand that washed away. Hail stripped many leaves off trees, leaving the area covered with debris that had to be picked up. Wind caused chaos with some of the tents and stands that had been set up. But it looks like everything was ready to go on time
The good news about the rain is that the course is lush, which will make for great viewing on the Golf Channel and CBS. So if you want to see what The Hills looks like, this is a great time to watch some TV.
Hey Readers - I love comments, but please don't sp@m me. If you want to leave a comment, please do, but leave a real name rather than something like Dallas Real Estate Broker. Go ahead and leave a URL, but don't put html in the comment hoping to get a link there. I will moderate comments and will change or remove anything that doesn't seem to be a legitimate comment by a legitimate person. Thanks for visiting!
Over the last several weeks I have seen a lot of Canadian buyers registering on my website to look at real estate in Austin. Most have been from eastern Canada, but some have been from other parts of our neighbor to the north. These visitors made me wonder why they were looking at buying in the States, specifically in the Austin area.
Part of that must be the weakness of the U.S. dollar - or should I say the strength of the Canadian dollar? The Canadian dollar, which has been weak compared to the U.S. dollar for over 30 years is finally worth around one U.S. dollar. This makes real estate in the States a bit less expensive to Canadian buyers.
Another reason is probably the same reason that I see a lot of people from northern states on my site. They want a place to spend the winter. As U.S. cities go, much of Austin isn’t a very expensive place to buy real estate. The area is also beautiful, with dramatic hills and lakes, making it ideal for outdoor recreation. Winters are mild and people can golf, hike, bike and boat year round. Why spend a February day in Edmonton at minus 40 (this is the only place on the thermometer at which the temp in Celcius is the same as Farenheit) when you could be sitting on your back porch in Austin in shorts and a T shirt?
If you are in Canada and want to look at Austin real estate, give me a call at 512-293-2422.
The Lakeway Regional Medical Center will break ground this summer. Some retail is projected to open in 2009 with the actual hospital opening in 2010. The hospital will be have 140 beds, 24 hour emergency services, labor and delivery and loads more. There will be more to follow when I have more information.
The new hospital should make anyone, especially retired people and anyone concerned about nearby emergency medical services, more comfortable buying Lakeway real estate. The closese emergency rooms are currently around 20 minutes away in light traffic.
I posted recently about the city of Austin wanting to force home sellers to bring homes to meet certain energy efficiency standards prior to being allowed to sell. I also posted that I am against this.
What I do like to see is private industry taking steps rather than having governments meddling in our lives. Whole Foods eliminated plastic bags in Austin last December. They are asking people to use reusable green or paper bags, which they still stock. Well, paper doesn't hold up in the rain, but it does break down in landfills.
I just heard this morning that Whole Foods now has eliminated plastic bags in all of their stores and I applaud them for taking this step.
Sales of new homes in Apache Shores have really fallen flat. By new, I mean built in 2007 or later. Only 3 new homes have sold in Apache Shores in 2008 and there are 2 under contract. There are currently 36 active listings for new homes in Apache Shores.
Of the new active listings, they average 1913 square feet with 3 bedrooms and 2 bathrooms. Most have a very nice finish-out with stained concrete or tile floors, granite counters and stainless steel appliances in the kitchens and nice fixtures. The problem in my opinion is price. The new homes average price is almost $315,000, which is over $160 per square foot.
For the time period of January 1 through April 21, 2007, 14 new (2006 or later) homes sold. The average price was just under $248,000, with the average price per foot being around $140. For the 6 new homes sold during the same period in 2006, the average price was just under $204,000 with an average price per foot of just under $126.
What I saw happening in 2006 and 2007 was builders selling new homes very quickly. I also saw lot prices go way up. The combination of higher lot costs, higher material cost and in many cases a higher foundation cost because of challenging topography, caused prices to go up. My suspicion is also that builders may have been looking for a little higher profit because new home sales were so brisk.
So builders were starting new homes about as fast as they could and then the credit crunch started to affect Apache Shores, just as it started to affect Austin in general. New home starts in Apache Shores are way down and nobody looks to be buying additional lots. It will take time to absorb the current inventory and my hope that when builders start build again is that they will come in under $300,000 whenever possible.
Apache Shores used to be just about the last affordable place to buy if anyone wanted Lake Travis Schools and if they wanted to be reasonably close to Austin. Anyone interested in Apache Shores right now should get aggressive with an offer if they are looking for a new house. If that is you and you are not already working with an agent, please call me at 512-293-2422.
Did you know that Texas is home to the headquarters of 58 Fortune 500 companies? We took the lead from New York, which has 52. Big business has been in Texas for a long time, with companies like Dell, Exxon and American Airlines, but more have moved here over the last few years. The reason is simple: cost savings. Texas is a less expensive state in which to live and do business than namy states, especially northern states. We also have a huge work force. In the Austin area, we have the fortune 500 companies Dell, Whole Foods and Temple-Inland.
If you haven't seen it yet, check out Google's new Street View. Google sent Googlemobiles all over cities like Austin snapping photos as the car went down the streets. They used geo coordinates to try to tie photos to address and are amazingly close. For example, I am about to list a nice single-story home in Steiner Ranch. I'm about to give you a 'click here to see a street view" but first, you need to know how to use this very cool feature.
When the window showing the street view opens, you will see a framed photo of the property. If you click on the left or right part of the photo and drag, you can rotate the view to see the other side of the street. Not only can you rotate left or right, but you can go up and down as well. You will also see arrows you can click on to move you up and down the street. If you double click on the photo, it will zoom in for a close-up.
Below the framed photo you will see a little orange icon of a person. If you close the photo frame window you will see streets highlighted in blue. These are the streets the Googlemobile has been up and down. If you click and hold the little orange person, you can drag it and place it on another street. They key to good placement is looking for the X below the person. That X is the target. The place the X lands is where the photo will be.
OK, click HERE to see the home I am about to list. Go ahead and "drive" the neighborhood a bit.
Want to see a street where the homes have absolutely HUGE views of Lake Travis? Click HERE. Want to take a drive going west on Austin's famous 6th street? This is where most of the live music is. Click HERE for that.
I wrote some time ago that UT was rumored to be planning a medical school in Austin. Well, we seem to be getting closer and closer to an announcement. There are four possible locations for the medical school and many people in Austin are endorsing it. UT is a huge school and Austin is a large city. Having a medical school here makes a lot of sense. Researchers at UT are salivating about the idea of a medical school close to campus. City officials are probably pretty excited about the jobs a medical school would bring, both during the time of construction and actual employees at the school.
Both Seton and Brackenridge Hospitals would probably like to see a UT medical school here. Brackenridge is the only Level II Trauma Center in the Austin area. The closest Level I Trauma Centers to Austin are in San Antonio and surprisingly at Scott and White in Killeen. Seton, which does a lot of teaching, operates the University Medical Center at Brackenridge. UT Austin opening a medical school could help raise the Trauma Center at Brackenridge to a Level I. A Level I Trauma Center is able to provide the highest level of emergency care of any hospital.
This is a pan of the field at the Lake Travis High School track 15 minutes before the 2008 Relay For Life of Lake Travis began. The event was held April 11 & 12. We don't have the final numbers yet, but it looks like we had move than 35 teams, probably 350-400 participants and we will probably end up with close to $40,000 raised for the American Cancer Society.
The dollar figure for our event isn't as huge as many, but when you consider the fact that perhaps 30 of the teams were high school or middle school students, that is a great figure. I'm very proud of the kids. They were better behaved than ever before and took fundraising more seriously than any previous year. I think the top fundraising team will end up being Team Cheer, a group of Lake Travis Middle School girls!
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