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Austin, TX Real Estate News

By Paul D'Arcy
(AustinTowers.net)
  A new group, "savetownlake.org" has been formed and has initiated legal action against the city to fight variances for a variety of condo projects on the banks of Town Lake. Essentially, they want to make sure that the city does not grant variances to allow new projects to build closer to the lake than current ordinances allow. Here is the summary from the Statesman: An Austin citizens group has asked a judge to temporarily stop the city from granting exceptions to an ordinance that limits development along Town Lake in the latest battle over dense development in and near downtown. The outcome could have ramifications for future development along the lake, where developers have proposed more than 1 million square feet of residential projects. Some of those projects are seeking excepti...
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By Paul D'Arcy
(AustinTowers.net)
There has been lots of talk about gentrification of central neighborhoods such as south and east austin over the last few years. It seems that central living is in high demand -- prices are going up, developers are moving in, and whole swaths of central austin are being gentrified. But no area is being gentrified faster than downtown where warehouses, parking lots, and office buildings are being replaced by large condo projects. With this wave of development, downtown Austin should gain a much more vibrant downtown. At the same time, the city is losing some landmarks. Las Manitas is being displaced by a hotel, Austin Music Hall is being razed and rebuilt. And now, the bright pink Railyard condos are being painted a much more neutral palette. The Railyard of Today: Bright Pink The Raily...
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By Paul D'Arcy
(AustinTowers.net)
 The New York Times published an interesting analysis of the development pressures on the hill country surrounding Austin. The hill country is one of Austin's greatest assets and has historically been protected from development by the difficulty of providing a reliable water supply across the rural region. Recently, however, new water infrastructure has changed the equation, adding to development pressures in the hill country.Here is a quote from the article: The Hill Country, an area that extends about 150 miles west of Austin, is quickly becoming suburban. With its rolling hills, lakes and rivers, it is attracting Texans eager to escape city life, and out-of-state buyers who can buy more acreage for less, real estate agents say, than they might pay in other states.“People want to live...
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By Eric Olson
(Sky Realty)
The Austin Real Estate market is going great! I have been seeing some real increases in value in the last year.  Some of the areas have been increasing as much as 16% based on the homes I looked at. These homes were in the 200-300K price range.  They were 3 and 4 bedroom homes with 2 car garages and stone or brick exterior.  These homes were in popular neighborhoods near shopping and entertainment. Austin still has some very affordable areas.  Many of the areas around Austin still have homes in the low 100'S.  These homes tend to be built in the late 80's and early 90's and are located in subdivisions were the lots can be as large as a 1/4 acre.  Investors like these homes since they are priced low enough to have a positive cash flow with the strong rental demand.  Rental demand is star...
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By Steve Crossland, Austin TX Real Estate
(Crossland Real Estate)
I moved two new renters in on Sunday July 1st. Both moved into homes that had been vacated by tenants with leases ending Saturday June 30th. There are all manner of things that can go wrong with such a tight turnaround, especially on a weekend. Nevertheless, I've always been a proponent of quick-turning a rental unit whenever possible. The most I ever did was 12 next-day turnovers on May31/June1 back in the year 2000. That was pure madness, and I was still out checking up on the properties, painters and my carpet people at 1AM on the 1st. It didn't go perfect, but everybody got moved in and the loose ends and problems were resolved soon after. Primarily though, those 12 property owners did not suffer one single day of vacancy loss. That's a touchdown no matter how ugly.There are many Pr...
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By Paul D'Arcy
(AustinTowers.net)
  The editors of AustinTowers love Austin and are always excited to learn more about our readers. Registration is free and private: your comments and surveys are essential to help us continually improve our coverage of the downtown Austin condo market. In addition, we will provide registered visitors with exclusive invitations to open houses and full access to AustinTowers market research. Thank you for taking the time to let us know more about you!Whether you are a realtor, developer, seller, or buyer, please take a few minutes to take our survey. We'll publish the results in an upcoming posting!You can take the survey at: http://www.austintowers.net/at/register.php   ****Visit http://www.austintowers.net for unedited postings, photos, and the complete AustinTowers Blog**** 
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By Paul D'Arcy
(AustinTowers.net)
Two months ago, Austin Towers initiated a comprehensive unit-by-unit analysis of appreciation in the Nokonah. The Nokonah, A luxury high-rise project completed in 2002, was one of the first successful projects that helped to ignite the current condo boom in downtown Austin. The 11-story project is located at 9th and Lamar just north of Whole Foods and on the western border of downtown. When the Nokonah was built, the real estate market in Austin was stalling as the regional economy slowed. It was not clear how well the new project would do. Five years later we know the answer: the project sold out and the buyers have seen significant appreciation in the value of their units.   As we mentioned in Part I of our analysis, In order to better understand condo values in the downtown market, ...
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By Paul D'Arcy
(AustinTowers.net)
Now that it is open and available for occupancy, the 240 unit Milago is completely sold out. Despite the fact that all units have been purchased, it is curious to see 30 units -- 1 / 8th of the building -- currently listed on MLS. While some could be from people whose plans have changed between when they signed the contract and now, the most likely option is condo flippers. It will be interesting to see what happens. While the Austin market increased by 5% last year, this is hardly the sort of growth that gets flippers excited. Now, with 30 units competing for buyers, it will be interesting to see how fast they turn and whether prices increase as the market strengthens. ****Visit http://www.austintowers.net for unedited postings, photos, and the complete AustinTowers Blog**** 
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By Paul D'Arcy
(AustinTowers.net)
The Capital View Corridor is a unique Austin phenomenon. As part of the downtown master plan, the city has set aside a number of corridors where development is severely restricted. The corridor essentially requires all buildings to be short so that they don't block views of the capital from a number of predetermined angles. With 30 such corridors, the result severely limits downtown growth (read our previous posting on this)In order to increase downtown density, a city council advisory board is recommending changes to the corridors. Here is the summary of today's news from the Statesman:Of the 30 city views of the Capitol evaluated by an Austin City Council advisory board, a dozen are being recommended for change.The Downtown Commission characterizes the changes as mostly technical in n...
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By Paul D'Arcy
(AustinTowers.net)
The growth of the site has been amazing over the last three months - we're now averaging nearly 1,000 visitors per month -- it's great to see so much interest in downtown high rise condo development. On our home page, there is about 40 links. Interestingly enough, the link that gets the most click is not the blog or the project navigator or the condo project rankings. It's the link for the profile of Novare's 360 development. With 430 units across 44-floors, it's the biggest downtown project so far. With units starting at $190K, it's also the most reasonable. According to the developer, 75% of the units were under contract by the end of March, just 3 weeks after they went on the market.The Austin condo market is so new that it is very hard to predict what will happen over the next few y...
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By Paul D'Arcy
(AustinTowers.net)
When you focus on price-per-square-foot in evaluating costs, downtown condos may seem expensive. But there is more to the cost:- Energy costs in a condo are typically very low: it's not uncommon for average utilities in a 2,000 SF unit (Electric + Gas + Water) to be under $100 per month. A similar house with a lawn could have average monthly utilities in the $300 - $500 range.- Maintenance costs are included so you won't have to spend $10K for a new HVAC unit, roof, or other potentially expensive repairs.- Downtown living can enable a different life style. Some couples or families may be able to eliminate a car and the related gas, insurance, and financing payments that come with it.- Many buildings include amenities such as swimming pools, shared "guest" bedrooms, etc. that allow tenan...
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So a little backstory. Walmart decided to open a store in Austin. Not just a normal Walmart but one of the new mega 2 story Walmarts. At the time the information became public knowledge Walmart told residents that the real estate plan was already approved and that their was nothing anyone could do to stop it. After some digging neighbors found that the correct approval process based on Austin city code was not followed. So last week the first lawsuit was filed by RG4N against the city of Austin. RG4N is a community group formed to fight Walmart's proposed plan for this location. This was followed by a lawsuit filed today by allandale the neighborhood association closest to the proposed Walmart. This is of course after Walmart has made implications that they will sue the city of Austin i...
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By john smith
(New Castle Real Estate, LLC)
Help for Texas and moreSandy Pope512-923-5214 cell or 512-267-2616 officebuyfromsandy@pieceofaustin.comIs the value of your home going down as well?Do you owe more on your house than you could sell it for?Has life made making your mortgage difficult, if not a strain? You don't have to file bankruptcy or face foreclosure. There is now a solution "Short Sale". You may have heard about it, but what is it? A Short Sale occurs when a homeowner owes more on their property than the property is worth, and the bank is willing to accept less. Let me help you save your credit. Would you like more information about Short Sales or if you have any questions, please give me a call or email me.Sandy Pope512-923-5214 cell or 512-267-2616 officebuyfromsandy@pieceofaustin.com
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By Robert Rees - Austin Real Estate
(Robert Rees Realty, Inc)
Earlier today I posted Austin's Stats for June, in which you can see the trend...List Price UP, Sales Price UP, Price/Sqft UP, Days On Market DOWN. These are all positives, however, the number of Homes Sold is DOWN significantly. Year to date is down 5% but the month of June it was down 24% compared to LAST YEAR!!This usually is a sign of decreases buyers, which will most of the time means that the sales prices may start to tail off. HOWEVER, as long as there is still a good demand of buyers then the area still should continue to grow. This is merely one factor. I don't currently track how many NEW LISTINGS came up within the month, but that would help to give a little better idea. If there are MORE New Listings than last year, then that would be a clear sign of lost momentum. If there ...
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By Sam Chapman
This is Lake Travis from the Iguana Grill a couple of months ago.  As you can see, the lake was pretty low then.  We had been in a drought for around three years and the future wasn't looking good - until...        This is the lake after consistent rain, including around 19 inches in Marble Falls a few days ago.  Lake Travis came up 12 feet in a day and is still rising.  Even with four floodgates open, the lake has a tremendous amount of water flowing in from upstream.  With more rain expected over the next few days, I don't know when it will start to drop.
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By Mike Elliott
Hot off the wire.  Starbucks has joined the rest of the national retailers at Mueller.  I'll leave the comments to you.  Sometimes they're just too easy.  The  powers that be state that once the Town Center gets built it will focus more on local retailers.  There has been a fair amount of discontent with the selections of retailers that are there or announced.  So, keep your ear to the ground and when you hear of another retailer, drop me a line and I'll add it to my list.
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By Mike Elliott
In case you've missed all the headlines, we've gotten a bit of rain here in central TX over the last few days.  19 inches (yes I said "nineteen") in one night alone in Marble Falls.  Those poor people out there are going to need a lot of help.  Since Marble Falls is just upstream from Lake Travis, all the water that falls there makes it's way into 65 mile long Lake Travis.  Can you guess the impact that will have on a lake that large?  It's HUGE!  The lake rose from it's "pool level" meaning full, at 681 feet to 696 feet in a matter of hours.  Based on the rain that's already fallen, they're expecting it to continue rising to 700 feet in the next day or so.  Here is a graph of what's happened.  Graph is courtesy of the LCRA. Lake Travis is surrounded by multi million dollar homes, most ...
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I just read an article in the Austin Business Journal that said the demand for homes sub $200k were down in Austin.  I had to chuckle to myself when I read it as it paints a very different picture of what reality is here.  Sub 200k homes are down where the new builders have chosen to build is a more truthful headline.  The sub 200k or even the sub 300k market in central Austin is hot!  Problem is a sub 200k vacant lot would be just as hot.  In Cherrywood, where I live and do a lot of business, you know how many houses are on the market below $200,000 there are?  None, zero, zip nada!  The closest you can get is $214,000 and that buys you a whopping 738 square feet.  OR, you could pick up a 1400 SF 2/1 on the tracks for 300k.  So tell me again that there is no demand for sub 200k homes i...
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