Portfolio

According to Portfolio, ”two qualities help Austin to stand out among the nation’s largest metros:

— Two thirds of the nation’s major markets have fewer jobs now than five years ago, but Austin added 99,200 jobs during that span. Its annual employment-growth rate of 2.8 percent is the fastest in America.

— Austin has the strongest concentration of young people among the 67 metros. Twenty-eight percent of its residents are between the ages of 18 and 34.”

The southwest region as a whole is a thriving one for young adults, home to five of their top 10 cities. Portfolio also published an interactive map of their results, so you can see how your city stacks up. 

Austin continues to stand out for employment and income numbers, but also quality of life. If you would like an emailed or mailed information packet on the work and activities Austin has to offer, contact us today.

You can walk to the Barton Hills Greenbelt from this home in the coveted Barton Hills area of 78704.

This well maintained home is a 4 bed/2 bath, 1,954 square feet, on a quarter acre lot.

Updates include a new roof, new gutters, new interior doors, new paint (interior and exterior), new carpet, new bath tile, and landscaping.

Inside the home is a big living area, with brick fireplace and doors to the patio. The kitchen is very clean, with wood cabinets and a breakfast area. At the entry is formal dining. The floorplan features a private, second floor master suite with walk in closet and full bath, and three bedrooms with a full bath in a wing of the home.

The patio is the perfect place for sitting in the shade, enjoying a view of the large, well maintained yard and mature trees. A rainwater collection system wraps around the home. The location is fantastic, 5 minutes to downtown Austin and a short walk to the greenbelt.

You can read more about the home, and see a slideshow of pictures, by viewing the listing.

   Rainwater Collection System; Back of Home

States experiencing growth include Texas, and neighbors New Mexico and Oklahoma. Only six other states have, in their analysis, grown: Virginia, North Carolina, Vermont, New Hampshire, Alaska, and for the first time in four years, Maryland. DC also experienced growth that is noted on the map.

As for the remaining states, most are “balanced”  – about the same amount of people moving in as moving out. 13 states experienced significant loss.

You can see a map of their results, and where your state or province may be.

Bella Tesoro

Conventional wisdom tells us that spring is the best time to sell a home. Especially in late spring and early summer: families can move without uprooting the kids from school, and curb appeal is at its peak. Demand goes up that time each year – this has all been true every year in the past decade.

But Forbes’ latest analysis says that home sellers should forget this conventional wisdom, that the best time to sell a home will be different this year. According to them, the extended tax credit that now expires in June, paired with the historically low interest rates, will see a busy selling market as early as, this year, February.

Says Nicole Hall, editor-in-chief of lendingtree.com: “This year, we’re anticipating sales will peak earlier…The best time to get your house on the market will be February or early March, and maybe even earlier if you want to avoid competition.”

Ultimately, however, much of the housing market’s strengths or failures depend entirely on your area, and more specifically, your neighborhood. Ask your local Austin Realtor about  the market in your area to see when might be the best time for you to get the most out of your listing.

With the Fed no longer spending the tens of billions of dollars monthly on mortgage securities, we will only have the private sector to fill in the gap. When that happens, we can naturally expect mortgage rates to rise. “The difference in monthly mortgage payments of 5% or 6% can be measured in tens of thousands of dollars over the life of a loan,” one writer explains.

The Atlantic Monthly writes that the credit markets need securitization, and warns that it will only become more difficult to borrow money (and those loans will come at higher interest rates) as the Fed program ends. “If you think banks aren’t lending enough now, then you’d find a world with no securitization much worse. Yet, that might be what you get if the Fed ends its program.”

Why would the Fed remove such a successful program? The analogy of a bike with training wheels is often given – if you want an economy to strengthen, recover and stand on its own, at some point you need to take the wheels off. If the Fed keeps rates too low for too long, inflation will rise higher and you will expect to see rates rise anyway. Home loan rates will increase as demand is met, naturally, with or without the Fed.

We can expect the end of the first quarter of 2010 to be a telling time for the economy’s recovery, but the heavy favor of the buyer and borrower is going to change. These will be some of the last months we’ll see that are such great markets for buying a home or land. If you are considering buying, you should begin your search now.

Classic Holiday Movies at the Paramount

Ballet Austin’s The Nutcracker

“Santaland Diaries” (and more) at Zachary Scott Theater

Trans Siberian Orchestra

Lights

The Zilker Tree Holiday Festival

37th Street Lights

Lady Bird Johnson Wildflower Center

Shopping

Armadillo Christmas Bazaar

Keep Austin Bizarre Christmas Bazaar

Activities

Whole Foods Outdoor Ice Skating

Austin 360’s 2009 Holiday Guide

Courtesy of: The Dave Murray Team

Moments like this one from last Saturday night exhilarate the residents of Austin, whether they are longtime football fans or locals who enjoy cheering for the home team and being part of the celebration. The unique, old traditions, city wide celebrations, and all the people involved in making a University of Texas game the spectacle it is are all part of the excitement of football season.

ESPN’s Doug Ward wrote about a Longhorns game day back in September (“The Eyes of Austin are Upon Texas Football,” 9/17/09). The southern Californian writer soon had that first-timers feeling of getting sucked into the atmosphere and the game. “On this, the first Saturday in September, there are 84,440 of us jam-packed into the stadium, approximately 84,439 of whom are wearing burnt orange, an unofficial stat that leaves me feeling a lot like a guy at a Halloween party without a costume,” he wrote. “But, at Texas, the sensation of being an outsider doesn’t last for long; even if you have no ties to the school, or the state. And even if you stick out more than an American tourist in Paris.”

Ward points out the variety of fans who enjoy UT games, and how family friendly the events are. As he says, “it’s there, at Darrell K Royal-Memorial Stadium, sandwiched on cramped bleacher space between a 5-year-old with an oversize, foam Hook ‘Em Horns hand and a pair of middle-age alums dripping in burnt orange and passion, that I feel the eyes of Texas upon me for the first time.”

As Ward explains, Austin offers many diversions that not only give it the “Live Music Capital of the World” title, but become part of the celebrations. “If, as they say, football is a religion at Notre Dame and a way of life in the South, here in the Southwest it feels a lot like one big party.” Football fans typically begin their day with tailgating, with tents and cars surrounding the university campus. Everyone from the children to the alumni can enjoy the warm weather, community, and good food at these pre-game events, whether formal or spontaneous. Inside the stadium, attendees enjoy the UT band performances (with “Big Bertha,” the one of the world’s largest bass drums), Bevo the Longhorn (the live steer is the easygoing UT mascot), the Texas sized cannon (“Smokey”), and “Godzillatron” the megatron replaying moments from the game. And after a win during one of the warm fall nights in Texas, celebrants can again enjoy the nightlife and the UT tower bathed in orange lights. “Then, many in the crowd will adjourn to Sixth Street, where an eclectic mix of musicians will play in some of the bars and clubs that made Austin’s music scene famous…They’ll have a tough act to follow.”

UT Football is just part of what makes Austin great – although, ask many locals, it’s a big part. We’re excited to cheer on our team in January at the national title game in Pasadena. Hook ‘em!

Energy Star homes will save an average of $200-$400 this year on utility bills, and $270 million nationwide. They are at least 15% more energy efficient than regular homes and will save 4 billion pounds of greenhouse gas emissions. 

Call your Realtor today about your future Energy Star home. 

Sandy Ranch

CNN Money’s article “What Housing Bust?” covers what areas of the nation have done well in the housing market, and why. According to writer Les Christie, areas with plenty of available developable land have smaller swings between home price highs and lows. This is because, when the demand for housing spikes, home builders are able to build more homes and keep the housing prices in check. Speed is also of the essence here, home builders need to be able to build quickly, thus, the need for available land.

“Elasticity of supply,” this is called, according to Mark Fleming, chief economist for First American CoreLogic. And Christie says, it is the definition of Texas real estate, and similar throughout all the metro areas.

“Texas is the poster child for these ‘steady Eddie’ states. House prices during the past three years rose in all 26 metro areas with gains ranging from 2.8% for Dallas, the second largest metro area, to 9.7% in Houston, the largest, to a whopping 32.5% in Odessa.”

This is part of what is causing the metro areas in Texas, including Austin, to grow so rapidly. Landowners in the Austin area should continue to see their investments in high demand for buyers and developers.

Proposition 11, which limits the government’s power to eminent domain, was hugely popular and passed by an 80-20 margin. ”The amendment bans governments in Texas from seizing private property and giving it to a private developer to boost the tax base,” reports KXAN News.

Over 43,500 residents voted in Travis County.

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