Jim Gilbert's (austinhomesbyjim) Blog

The following table gives a snapshot of home sales over the past 6 months in the southwest Austin Texas subdivision Grand Oaks.    Source: Austin Board of Realtors MLS. Information is deemed reliable, but is not guaranteed. For more information on neighborhoods and homes for sale in Austin, visit...

The following table gives a snapshot of home sales over the past 6 months in the southwest Austin Texas subdivision Bauerle Ranch.    Source: Austin Board of Realtors MLS. Information is deemed reliable, but is not guaranteed. For more information on neighborhoods and homes for sale in Austin, vi...

The following table gives a snapshot of home sales over the past 6 months in the southwest Austin Texas subdivision Sendera.    Source: Austin Board of Realtors MLS. Information is deemed reliable, but is not guaranteed. For more information on neighborhoods and homes for sale in Austin, visit He...

As I was doing some neighborhood market research for a client recently, I found one MLS listing that was obviously in error. In a neighborhood where homes range in price from the $90s to the $140s, this listing was for nearly a million! I checked the history of the listing, and found that the age...

I own a piece of real estate in S/SW Austin (Sendera subdivision), and try to focus my attention and work on this area. In updating and adding pages on S/SW Austin subdivisions to my HeartofAustinHomes website, I look at sales and other data for the individual neighborhoods (Circle C, Legend Oaks...

Someone else may have posted a link to this article by Stephen A. Holmes (The New York Times, 9/30/1999), but I have not been online in a while. The author described what was going on at Fannie Mae, where the pressure was coming from to loosen the criteria for loan qualifications and what the dan...

When I was a boy (too many years ago to count!), my mother occasionally sent me to the grocery store in our small town to buy groceries for her. When I checked out, I simply said, "Charge it." The clerk put the amount on her bill--no questions asked. Why? The clerk knew that I was there "in my mo...

In 1 Samuel 2, the Bible tells the story of the two sons of Eli the priest. These young men were charged with a solemn responsibility that they took very lightly. Their actions proved that they were "in it" for themselves. When people brought their offerings of meat to the Lord, these two took po...

If you have thought about owning a Bed and Breakfast in the beautiful northern Vermont ski country, give Idyllwild East a gander. Located at 1387 Route 101 in North Troy, Vermont, Idyllwild East is for sale by its owners (FSBO). This beautiful B&B is located just 5 miles from the Canadian Border....

According to the Austin Business Journal today, the U.S. Mint is about to begin a pilot program in Austin and in three other cities to promote the use of the new $1 presidential dollars. Efforts of the mint to get us to use other dollar coins (Sacagawea and Susan B. Anthony) have failed. Maybe th...