Finding The Right School in Austin, TX
Posted on January 23, 2008
The State of Texas’ Texas Education Agency (TEA) provides detailed information regarding the performance of individual Texas school campus(s) and school districts in and around the Austin, TX area. TEA provides SAT scores, standardized testing results, spending per student and many other valuable pieces of data. When evaluating the Austin, TX Real Estate market, many families will select the area based on the performance of a specific high school, middle or elementary school.
Once the school(s) has been selected, the challenge is finding the right home in Austin, TX. Historically, the consumer would have to contact an Austin Real Estate Agent for guidance or spend many hours searching Austin Real Estate websites that have homes for sale in Austin, TX trying to find the Austin homes that feed into a particular campus. To simplify this process, HomeCity Real Estate provides our clients and guests with the ability to search the Austin Real Estate market by school campus. Now you can find only those Austin, TX homes for sale that feed into the particular school campus(s) you are interested in seeing. To start your search by school campus go to http://austin.homecity.com/.
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Amazing Glass Art
Posted on December 5, 2007
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Austin Swinging & Singing for Cures 2007 Fundraiser
Posted on December 4, 2007
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Four Green Subdivisions Planned For The Area
Posted on November 26, 2007
Four subdivisions that are environmentally friendly are being planned in the greater Austin area by Green Builders Inc. Georgetown Village will offer homes from 1,800 square feet to 2,400 square feet in Georgetown. Several models are near completion. The homes, to be built in the next six to eight years, will be priced from the low $200,000s to the $500,000s. The second project is Rutherford West in Driftwood. Rutherford West will be an 800-acre community, with 400 acres set aside as a conservation area. The development, which will take two to four years to complete, will have homes from the mid-$300,000s to more than $600,000. The 1.5-acre lots will be sold separately, with half going to the conservation easement. The model home is now under construction. In Buda, a green subdivision, called Elm Grove, will have 320 green homes priced from the low $200,000s to the low $300,000s. The remaining green subdivision is set to be built on 530 acres in Pflugerville. New Sweden Community, which has not broken ground, will add 1,600 homes to the Pflugerville community. The project, which is expected to take six to eight years to complete, will have organic farming, a community garden and a catfish pond. The organic farming will be cared for by tenants; the community garden will be tended by the homeowners association.
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Austin - Round Rock Market Reports
Posted on November 26, 2007
The Real Estate Center at Texas A&M University is the nation’s largest publicly funded organization devoted to real estate research. Most of our $2 million in annual funding comes from real estate license fees paid by more than 140,000 professionals. A nine-member advisory committee appointed by the governor provides research guidance and approves the budget. View the latest report.
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HGTV scouts Austin for homeowners
Posted on November 26, 2007
From the Austin Business Journal, October 29, 2007
HGTV is looking for a few curious homeowners to star in its real estate show “My House is Worth What?”
The show sends real estate professionals to price homes and give advice on how to make changes, improvements or additions that would add value to the home.
Producers are looking for homeowners that would like to know their home’s market value because of a compelling reason, such as they’ve outgrown their present home and are looking to move, or need to leverage the equity in their home to finance a trip or a wedding.
They are also looking for Realtors that know the market and can give professional evaluations.
Homeowners and Realtors can download an application to be on the show at www.pietown.tv/shows/myHouseIsWorthWhat.html.
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Austin Cracks The Top 10 Most Desireable Cities
Posted on November 25, 2007
From The Austin Business Journal, November 23, 2007
Austin is among the top ten cities in the country viewed as most desireable for relocation, according to a recent study.
The study, “Talent Markets: The Importance of Location in the Competition for Human Capital,” named Austin the sixth most desireable city for relocation out of more than 30 cities examined in the United States.
San Diego, San Francisco and New York were the top three most desireable cities for relocation in the study’s survey, but the three least preferred cities also included New York at number one, along with Detroit and Los Angeles.
“Employers and governmental entities within a given region can play an important role in attracting new talent by promoting the unique advantages they offer to residents in concrete terms,” says Allan Schweyer, president and executive director of the Human Capital Institute and co-author of the study. “Our study found that the ‘brand,’ or perception of a city, is a critical factor in the decision-making process for candidates. Therefore, cities and employers that understand, manage and promote their brands will be best positioned to attract and keep knowledge workers of all ages.”
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Bucking The National Trend: Austin Foreclosure Rates Down
Posted on November 15, 2007
While the foreclosure rate continues to rise across the country, property foreclosure rates in Travis County is down 15% compared to last year (source: KXAN).
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Forbes.com - Affordable Austin!
Posted on November 12, 2007
It seems that every week there is another news headline pointing out the doom and gloom in the real estate industry. Despite that fact, homes are still being bought and sold every day. In most markets, prices have fallen - although that still does not mean that those prices are affordable for the “average” homebuyer. But there is some good news, especially in markets where housing is considered affordable.
“Affordable markets are in a better position for a strong recovery, because more buyers can come in once prices fall,” says Mark Zandi, chief economist at Moody’s Economy.com.
Forbes.com recently ran an article naming the Top 10 most affordable cities, and both Austin and Dallas made the top ten. The primary method of calculation was the ration of median home price (Austin $176,200) to the median household salary ($65,739). By taking 176,200/65,739 we say that it would take over 2.5 years of gross salary to buy a home. Compare that to a market like LA where the median price of a home is around $600,00 but the median income is only $58k!
For the complete article visit this link.
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A Buyer’s Market - Why it’s a great time to buy real estate in Austin, Texas!
Posted on October 24, 2007
Even though the only headlines that you’re probably reading in the news and hearing about on tv are about the terrible times for real estate, big downturn, and only more trouble ahead for the home building industry; this is actually great news for buyers right now! The Austin area has the highest number of homes listed at over 10,000 which is significantly higher than a year ago. What this means for buyers is that you can actually choose from the best available homes and can stand to negotiate discounted prices and even get incentives thrown in like washer/dryers and refrigerators, etc. So with the resale market getting real competitive, what do you think this means for the new home builders?
What we’re seeing right now is builders all around the area starting to give deeper discounts on to be built homes and huge discounts on inventory homes. Even some of the top builders in the area are giving up to $30K off homes and throwing thing in to sweeten the deal to attract buyers to choose their homes over other new home builders and to compete with the large home resale market.
The bottom line is that it’s a great time to buy in the Austin area specially since Austin is ranked 4th on the list of top 25 appreciating US markets. Another supporting point why it’s a great time to buy in Austin is that the median price in Austin rose to $182,500, up 9 percent from September 2006. Real estate experts attribute the jump to steady appreciation, rising home construction costs and more sales in higher price brackets. The Austin housing market is faring better than many markets around the country, thanks to a healthy economy fortified by strong job and population growth. Also, the region didn’t suffer the price bubbles that are now bursting in other cities.
Contact me to get a list of the local builders with red hot deals on inventory homes and to-be-built homes.
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