Bill Morris Realtor

Opportunity Austin, an economic development arm of the Austin Chamber of Commerce published its 2010 Annual Report today.  Introductory comments include this: "Austin has topped countless national rankings for job growth, innovation, quality of life and more. In fact, Austin ranked as the 26th be...

The Austin Chamber of Commerce posted an interesting report today based on the Texas Manufacturing Outlook Survey: Central Texas Economy in Perspective The outlook is optimistic. I want to comment on just a couple of charts from the Chamber's article, and one from the source report. Suffice to sa...

Throughout the recession and housing downturn, I have written about the difference in the Austin/Central Texas experience and press reports about nationwide hardships. Now, in less than four minutes, here is a great summary. This video really speaks for itself. Rock on!

In early February I wrote about rising rents and planned construction in the Austin/Central Texas multi-family residential sector.  (See Rents rising in Austin and Austin/Central Texas -- building permits and market outlook.)  This morning's Austin American-Statesman featured an article showing s...

Much has changed in the housing industry over the past few years.  Every day we see and hear on the web and radio and TV and newspapers what a disaster real estate ownership has been in recent times.  Not to rehash what I have written many times, but the real disaster has been concentrated in ju...

Twice each year, Jeff Osborne, Broker/Owner of RE/MAX Capital City conducts business meetings with all company agents and staff.  Discussion is wide ranging and mostly forward-looking, but reporting on past performance versus our competition is always worth a couple of slides.  I spend most of my...

RealtyTrac reports that foreclosures accounted for 26% of all residential sales nationwide in 2010: Foreclosure Homes Account for 26 Percent of All 2010 Residential Sales, According to RealtyTrac That year-end data also shows that foreclosures, on average, sold for 28% lower prices than non-forec...

I have elaborated before about the S&P/Case-Shiller Home Price Index and how representative it is (or not) of conditions in the Austin/Central Texas real estate market. (Most recent comments: Case-Shiller caution -- national index, local business, 12/03/10; Quick comparison -- Austin vs. Case-Shi...

The Austin Board Of Realtors® reported yesterday that "Sales of single-family homes in the Austin area were 14 percent higher in January 2011 than January 2010." (See Austin Business Journal article.) Since that data differs from my Austin Market Dashboard update yesterday, I just want to point o...

This is just a quick note that my Austin Market Dashboard has now been updated to include final data through January 2011. The theme this month is that the Austin/Central Texas real estate market remains unpredictable -- although virtually all economic indicators and forecasts call for improvemen...