Articles from Austin Real Estate Guy Blog

Lake Travis Underwater Clean-Up
2007-09-09 15:11:00
The 11th annual underwater clean-up of Lake Travis was today. Loads of people donned their scuba gear and went under to see what they could find. This would have been easier 90 days ago when the lake was 50 feet lower than today, the the volunteers apparently pulled a lot of junk from Lake Travis. They found coins, a kitchen sink and a portable toilet, amount other things. One of the organizers was scratching his head about the toilet, but I think I know how it got into the lake. A lot of the rain back in late June and July came in for form of flash flooding, especially in Marble Falls. My guess is that the thing simply floated away and eventually sank. It is wonderful that so many volunteers get involved and help keep Lake Travis beautiful. ...

Don't Let Texas School Accountibility Ratings Fool You
2007-09-08 12:11:00
Lake Travis High School (LTHS) has a TEA rating of Academically Acceptable. So how is it that LTHS was just named one of only 385 public schools in Texas that made the Texas Business Coalition (TBEC) Honor Roll?TBEC's Honor Roll is a really big deal. Schools that make the list are schools that year after year show high performance in all subjects. The TBEC compares schools with similar population break-downs and compares the excellence of academic achievement. To make the Honor Roll, a school needs to have a high percentage of students scoring commended, the state's highest ranking, on the TAKS test. This has to happen for three years in a row.By the way, Lakeway Elementary also made the Honor Roll. Both of my daughters went to Lakeway Elementary and I saw first-hand how excellent the school is.I won't get into why LTHS is Academically Acceptable, but that rating for such an excellent school shows how the state education agency's ...
Texas

Grinder Pumps and Home Warrranties
2007-09-08 10:47:00
If you are in an area with a sewer system and your house is lower than street level, you probably have a grinder pump. What is a grinder pump and why is it important? A grinder pump is a device that grinds all of the household waste that goes down a drain and pumps it to the sewer pipe at the street. Household waste goes into a holding tank. When the tank reaches a certain level, the grinder pump grinds the waste and pumps it to the street.On to the home warranty... A home warranty is something that many sellers buy for the people who are buying their home. There is limited coverage for things like the air conditioning, water heater, etc. and optional upgrades for things like appliances, pools and septic systems. If your house has a grinder pump, you need to have the additional septic coverage. Although you aren't technically on a septic system, the grinder pump and holding tank are considered part of a septic system, not s ...

An Excellent Real Estate Thinking Person's Blog
2007-09-01 08:38:00
Allison posted a comment to my blog recently and included her url. I followed the link and was pleased with what I found. Alisson is our productivy coach and I think she is great at what she does. Well it seems that Allison has chosen to start sharing her wisdom and thoughts with the world. Check hour blog, which is called The Coach Couch. I think you'll like it. ...

Why Are People Moving To Austin?
2007-08-29 16:48:00
I had a comment left after posting about why Floridians are moving to Texas. The comment stated that there are many other southern states and Midwestern states in which the cost of housing and the cost of living wasn't expensive. That is true, but Texas has some things going for it that some of the other states don't have.First, we have a very solid economy. Job growth is good and the unemployment rate is lower than the national average. The cost of living is quite low compared to the national average. Second, our weather is better than many other states. I know that this is a generalization and that we do get pretty interesting weather across the state. However, you usually don't see much of anything extreme, like heat and cold, as some Midwestern states especially. Compared to other southern states and even east coast states, I don't recall Texas being pounded as often as some other states by hurricanes. It is also ...

Home Sales Dropping Everywhere - But...
2007-08-29 14:59:00
Home sales plunged again in July across the country. The National Association of REALTORS® stated that existing (resale) home sales dropped 3.8% in July, 2007. The press loves this stuff. They love to print how bad things are. Face it, good news doesn't sell. What you may not have heard is that new home sales went up in July. The newspaper and news stations in Austin reported that home sales dropped in July, which they did. What they didn't tell us was that the decrease was primarily in the homes priced below $130,000. This was due in a large part to the fact that lenders weren't giving away money like they were earlier in the year. Many buyers simply couldn't get loans. Austin Home PricesHome prices in Austin went up in July, which seems to contradict the statistic about home sales dropping. So what's up with that? I was talking with Utah REALTOR® Gary Pryor and he said the same t ...

Still Soggy In Austin
2007-08-27 14:17:00
I was talking with Ken Smith, a Chicago REALTOR®, about the recent rain in his area and it got me thinking again about all the rain Central Texas has seen this summer. Some of you may have seen my posts about Lake Travis going from 42 beet below full to almost 20 feet over full in 6 weeks. That is a dramatic swing, averageing 10 feet a week. The lake didn't actually rise steadily. In fact, it went up around 30 feet in a a few days right after Marble Falls got pounded with 18 inches of rain in a matter of hours.Austin has seen around 40 inches of rain this year and our annual average is around 32. San Antonio has been hit far worse. My brother lives in Boerne, just northwest of San Antonio. When T.S. Erin came through his area, Boerne picked up around 10 inches of rain in a very short time period. Lake Boerne, a small lake that provides water for the growing city, was up about 10 feet in a day.Back to Austin, Lake Travis ...

Downtown Austin Skyline Future Image
2007-08-26 09:18:00
Condos here, condos there, Austin condos everywhere. How many units are planned? There are around 1400 being built mow with another 3000+ over the next few years. Just as we saw back in the mid 80s and late 90s, there are cranes all over downtown Austin. What to see what the syyline will look like in the future? Go to http://www.austinfitmagazine.com/skyline/. Assuming all of these high-rise dondo towers get built, this is the future. ...

Austin Home Sales Drop Again
2007-08-24 11:19:00
The Austin area had a 2% decline of home sales in July. We are also down 2% for the year compared to 2006, which was a record setting year. Is this a cause for concern? I don't think so. The tightening of requirements for buyers to get a loan probably has a lot to do with this. The fact that Austin's real estate market was on fire last year is probably also a factor. Take a look again at a very low unemployment rate and a continued excellent job growth rate. Take a look also at prices that continue to climb. ...

Rotary Mercedes Raffle Kick-Off
2007-08-23 10:11:00
The Lakeway - Lake Travis Rotary Club is revving up our drive to raise money for scholarships. Our annual car raffle kicks off September 6 at Buster's BBQ in Bee Cave. Free food, live music by the Magnolia Band and lots of fun will be had. Come out and support Rotary in our efforts to get more high school kids to college. For details of the fundraiser, visit http://www.laketravisrotary.org/special_events.htm. When/Where: Buster's BBQ, Bee Cave, TX, Thursday, September 6 starting at 6:00PM. ...

Another Large Highway 71 Subdivision
2007-08-21 12:35:00
Highway 71 is busy - very busy. Now another subdivision planned for the stretch of 71 between Bee Cave and the county line could add another 1000+ homes to that part of Western Travis County. I drove to Marble Falls and back last week and saw that construction has already started on the infrastructure of the Sweetwater Lazy 9, a subdivision that will have 1700 new homes. The new development, called RGK Ranch, will sit between Sweetwater and West Cypress Hills if it is approved. West Cypress Hills has already been approved to have 1500 homes.Traffic on Hwy 71 is already a problem. Traffic is approaching 20,000 vehicles a day through Bee Cave. Even as the road there is being expanded, there is very little expansion that can be done. As the area west of Bee Cave develops more, traffic is estimated to climb to 50,000 vehicles a day within 10-25 years. TxDOT really needs to get its act together and take a serious look at Hwy 71 to see what can ...

Texas Online Auto Registration Renewal
2007-08-19 15:58:00
I got my registration renewal notice from the state of Texas in the mail a couple of weeks ago and saw that Texas has an online renewal option. Somewhat sceptically, I did the online renewal. I had an email within 24 hours telling me to look for my renewal to show up in the mail in 7-10 days. So what showed up just days later/ Right, my registration. I am impressed and would encourage anyone in Texas to use the online site. It is fast and it saves a trip in the car. ...
Texas

Fed Cuts Discount Rate & Austin Jobs
2007-08-18 13:58:00
Two different numbers just came out that are significant. They have nothing to do with each other, but hey - why break this into two posts.First, the Fed dropped the discount rate to 5.75%. This is the rate that the Federal Reserve charges banks to borrow money. The result will probably be a drop in interest rates for home loans. I think the Fed made the decision to drop the rate because of the ongoing "crisis" with many lenders and how this has messed up the stock market.The second number that really struck me showed the annualized rate of job growth in Austin is over 4.5%. That is an awesome figure and is one more sign that the Austin economy is in good shape. ...
Amp

Why People Move From Florida To Austin
2007-08-17 13:39:00
I had a call from a lady in Florida a few days ago. She was asking about home prices in Austin and the overall health of the market. She told me that she just had to get out of Florida and that Austin looked like the best place to be in. I asked this nice lady why she was leaving Florida. First, she had the fear of hurricanes put into her a couple of years ago. Second, thanks to the hurricanes, her homeowners insurance had gone from $800 per year to $2500 per year. She told me that she knows a lot of people leaving Florida and heading to Texas for the same reasons. Florida is just too expensive to live in. ...

Erin Hits Central Texas
2007-08-16 16:48:00
Central Texas has seen more than its share of rain this year. Many places have already received double their annual amount of rain and that was before Tropical Storm Erin decided to hit Texas. San Antonio appears to have been absolutely swamped today.Now that Erin has dumped more rain than we can absorb we have another 5-7 days before we can expect Dean if it continues its projected path. ...
Texas

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