Texas Realty Blog

Trans-Texas Corridor, Slated to Connect Dallas to Austin and San Antonio, Still Controversial

By DeeinAustin™

I was in a Leadership Austin class on all day Wednesday. We discussed some interesting updates on new urbanism, transit-oriented development, commuter rails, and other changes to Austin and Texas that I'll share in upcoming weeks and months.

A variety of infrastructure and development tools are being used in anticipation of millions of new residents coming to Texas in the next decade.

The theme of the past few Leadership Austin sessions have been economic development and infrastructure needed in Texas to keep up with consumer demand. We are not a shrinking population and are growing at a very fast pace.

For example, Austin the only city in the U.S to consistently double it's population every 20 years since the 1900s. This creates both challenge as well as opportunity. Accordingly, important decisions need to be made, some of which will be very controversial.

TRANS-TEXAS CORRIDOR, YOU PRO OR CON?

Gotcha Guide™: Holiday Safety Tips for Home Sellers

NOTE: This article is part of the forthcoming book, the Gotcha Guide™ to Buying or Investing in Real Estate. Email us to join the mailing list for the release date.
by DeeinAustin™

Today's post is a follow-up from the yesterday's article on home buyer safety tips. We typically cover Texas real estate news such as new developments, market updates, and upcoming areas, but also provide industry news, tips and advice.

We felt that holiday safety tips were important this week because you may have a friend whose guard is down during the holiday season. Please remind them to be safe if they're still shopping for a home or investment property this month. Feel free to provide feedback on whether these posts are useful or if you prefer "regular" real estate coverage.

NOW...HERE ARE THE TOP HOME SELLER SAFETY TIPS
In addition to the applicable buyer tips from yesterday:

Gotcha Guide™: Holiday Safety Tips for Home Buyers

NOTE: This article is part of the forthcoming book, the Gotcha Guide™ to Buying or Investing in Real Estate. Email us to join the mailing list for the release date.
by DeeinAustin™

With the holidays fast approaching, it's time to celebrate with our closest friends and family. While some of us are heading out of town, others are stilling searching for the right home or investment.

I hate to be a damper on your holiday season, but felt the need to post some quick tips on how to be safe when shopping for a new home during the holiday season.

Please note that these tips aren't meant to be legal or professional advice for all situations. Think...what would CSI Miami's David Caruso do? (photo inset).

HOLIDAY HOME SHOPPING SAFETY FOR BUYERS

Forbes Study Puts Austin's Growth Rate Among Best in Nation

By Carey Eskridge

Forbes.com recently published its list of the nation's fastest growing cities. Austin was third behind Las Vegas, Nevada, and Phoenix, Arizona.

COMPILING THE LIST

Forbes consulted with a St. Louis-based research group to crunch the numbers, using population data from the U.S. Census for 2000-2006. Cities that qualified were those with the highest population increase as a percentage of overall population and these figures were further broken down into growth resulting from births, migration (domestic), and immigration (international).

According to the article, Austin's population has increased by 21.1 percent since 2000. While Austin's grown almost as much as Las Vegas and Phoenix, Austin differed from the top two candidates in two important ways.

• First, the Texas housing market is still healthy.
• Second, Austin's job growth is not as closely tied to the home construction industry as it is in many western cities. The economy is a much more diverse and sustainable population since 2000.

WHERE DOES AUSTIN FIT IN?

Community Spotlight: Rough Hollow Lakeway

By DeeinAustin™

This week was pretty exciting for our team. First, we were featured on MSNBC for KXAN's story on mobile marketing in real estate. Then, we learned Keller Williams Realty will likely write about the use of mobile technology in small business in an upcoming article for their national magazine, Outfront. 

In the middle of all this, I've been working on a project in Rough Hollow, a wonderful new construction community in Lakeway that is our spotlight community for the week.

THE SKINNY ON LAKE AREAS IN AUSTIN

The past few years was a tough time for many lake home areas. While the rest of Austin was in a seller's market, Lakeway and other lake communities had cooled. Fast forward to 2007, where I admit that I was out of the loop on new construction in Lakeway because my investors were doing infill development in East, Central, and South Austin. 

Since Bee Creek Road will connect Lakeway to major access roads, developments like The Highlands and Rough Hollow will see a spur in interested buyers.

ROUGH HOLLOW COMMUNITY AMENITIES

San Antonio Days on Market Decent Despite Slow Mortgage Market

By DeeinAustin™

You're probably aware that the first week or so of each month is when we report on the major markets in Texas. We've already covered Dallas, Houston and Austin, so San Antonio is at the market analysis plate.

MLS Statistics are provided by the San Antonio Board of REALTORS® (SABOR). Download mls-stats1007.pdf or visit the SABOR website. You'll notice that, like Houston and Dallas, the San Antonio Board of REALTORS® provides excellent data to consumers and non-members.

The Austin Board of REALTORS® provides a monthly summary, but doesn't let sellers and buyers statistics to easily download a full report.

SO HOW'S SAN ANTONIO REAL ESTATE DOING?

Texans should be Fed up with real estate doom and gloom

I have a small beef with the national real estate news media. I was reading an article from CoStar Group about the 2008 real estate outlook. I like Costar because they're pretty straightforward and reliable.

The article, entitled "Housing Outlook Dims for 2008", reminded me of the same doom and gloom headlines from other national news outlets.

WHY TEXANS SHOULD HAVE A BEEF WITH THE NATIONAL MEDIA

They're biased. Reporters chatter about housing "booms" and "busts", but not stability because middle ground is boring. California, Arizona, and Florida sellers are suffering after real estate speculators rushed to those markets and overpaid. Houston and other areas of Texas aren't suffering the way the headlines would lead you to believe.

They don't know our market. I reported yesterday that the Houston market was "ho-hum" because it's slightly declined, but hasn't gone bust. Was this sensational news? No, but it was the truth. Texas didn't severely appreciate so we were largely ignored during your news hayday of 2003-2005. Smart investors heard of our relative stability and are now flocking to us.

They don't report the full story. My friend from Berne, Switerzland said foreign consumers are pulling their funds out of America because our media's reports of the housing markets crashing "everywhere". Consumers in the U.S and other countries still do not understand why the subprime market failed and how banks will come back even stronger with better practices established. They also don't hear about many local markets (like Austin) that are doing well.

HOW TO SURVIVE REAL ESTATE IN ANY MARKET

Houston Market Update October 2007: It's a Yawn

by DeeinAustin™

Houston housing market statistics are in for October 2007. Unlike Austin, Houston is in a buyer's market. The latest market update isn't horrible...but it's also not great. In fact, I have to say that they're sort of ho-hum.

Keep in mind that ho-hum is not a bad thing when other markets are seeing double-digit depreciation. Houston has long been a pretty stable real estate market. Unlike Austin and Dallas, you won't see wild appreciation in Houston, but you also won't often see the bottom fall out of their housing market.

According to the October 2007 Houston Board of REALTORS (HAR) statistics, the average days on market for single family homes is 83 days (correction). By comparison, the average days on market in Austin is less than 70 days, so buyers in both areas should be dealing with multiple offers on well-priced homes.

What type of market are you in?

• Buyers market: Greater than 6 months inventory
• Neutral Market: 4-6 Months inventory
• Seller's Market: Less than 3 months inventory

Most U.S cities have greater than 6-9 months inventory, so unless you live in Texas, you are most likely experiencing a buyer's market. The buyer's markets will probably continue at least until next summer or until lenders offer more mortgage options for stated or low-income buyers. 

VIEW THE OCTOBER 2007 HOUSTON REAL ESTATE MARKET STATISTICS 

Real Estate Marketing Goes Mobile

by DeeinAustin™

Austin entrepreneur, Dylan Schleppe created Drive Buy Technology to offer mobile marketing solutions to real estate professionals and other owners of service or sales businesses. I've been covering his mobile applications because I believe 2008 to be the year mobile technology takes off.

Mobile technology will change the way businesses communicate with customers, especially real estate brokers and agents.

KXAN picked up Dylan's story and are scheduled to shoot a segment at one of my listings this morning around 8am specifically about text message marketing of listings. If all goes well, the story should air tomorrow night.

I've been called the Mobile Marketing Diva™, not because I can sing and am overly-demanding, but because I am secretly becoming an expert in mobile applications by working with local solutions providers to deploy their technology in 2008.

(Update! This story was picked up by NBC National). Click to View Full Sized on Blip.tv or at KXAN Austin.

Click To Play

WHY MOBILE MARKETING OF LISTINGS IS A WINNING SOLUTION