Austin Real Estate Scene

Entries from July 2006

There is discord on the edge of downtown Austin

July 28, 2006 · No Comments

This was an interesting read in Statesman about the downtown development of condos and high rises. Read Discord on the Edge of Downtown. Is this going to hurt or help us in Austin? The land prices are rising fast for developers.

Land prices along South Lamar and South Congress average $25 to $35 a square foot, though prices near the lake can reach $45 a square foot.

Some developers say rising demand outside downtown is pushing land prices up. They say future developments will have to exceed 60 feet, or about six stories, to maintain affordability because they will need to spread the land cost over more units.

“If you are paying $100 a foot for a piece of land and can only build 60 feet, with the current construction costs, those units are going to average $600,000 to $700,000 apiece,” said Bobby Nail, the Bridges on the Park developer.

Some residents of these areas outside of downtown are complaining that heights of these building projects don’t belong in their area. Even City Council members are chiming in about the consequences.

Why would you ever pay the land premiums downtown to build higher if you could go do it outside of downtown?” Council Member Brewster McCracken asked. “This could really damage downtown if we don’t protect the core unique asset of downtown, which is the ability to build taller structures.”

Look it’s just a matter of economics for the developers. if the land costs keep going up which they will, they will want to build taller structures to offset their land costs and MAKE MORE MONEY. The big question is whether the City Council and the Area residents will rise up and strike them down from doing it. This will be an interesting battle we’ll have to track.

Categories: Buying · Downtown Austin Projects · Infrastucture · Real Estate Trends · Uncategorized

Seller’s Disclose or you might be sued!

July 25, 2006 · No Comments

In a recent article in the Statesman, a lawsuit has irrupted over a cliff side home in which the buyer’s claim the claim the previous owners concealed problems caused by falling boulder.

This is a problem for everyone now that the lawyers are in on it. The big lesson for Seller’s is DISCLOSE, DISCLOSE, DISCLOSE or you could end up getting sued.

The big lesson for for Buyer’s is it is their responsibility to do their own due diligence and they should have gotten a structural inspection during their Option period. Not after they bought the house! That’s stupid! You don’t go spend million dollars on home that you might think is unsafe! They found out after they bought the house and felt ripped off thus causing the buyer’s to file a lawsuit. Even the listing agent was named in the lawsuit. OUCH!

Categories: Buying · Rants · Selling · Uncategorized

Austin Area home sales hit record for June

July 21, 2006 · No Comments

(STATESMAN) The sales for austin homes has risen to new highs in June. According to the Austin Board of Realtors, more existing single-family houses were sold in the first six months of 2006 than in the same period of any previous year.

Home sales jumped 13 percent from January through June compared with the first two quarters of last year, while the median sales price increased 8 percent to $172,480.

June proved to be an especially strong month. Sales were up 21 percent year-over-year, and the median sales price rose 8 percent to hit a record of $182,000.

The market is strong and steady right now. It’s not rising rapidly or surging. It just means that every month more homes are selling and we’re seeing a little bit higher price tags on those sales then the previous months. I think we can expect to see more of this in the next few years due to Austin econonmy doing so well and more new residents moving to the area.

There is also high demand and shrinking inventory for houses in some neighborhoods, which is creating bidding wars with some sellers getting more than their asking price.

These areas include Central-city neighborhoods and close-in suburbs which continue to see strong sales.

The west austin neighborhoods of Tarrytown, Clarksville and Old Enfield experienced a 12 percent jump in sales while the median sales price jumped 23 percent.

The number of home sales also increased by 28 percent in the Westlake area and Rollingwood, where the median sales price jumped by 4 percent.

Demand remains strong in the suburbs as well, but high inventories of new and existing houses continue to suppress prices. June home sales surged 31 percent in Round Rock from the same time last year, but the median price edged up just 2 percent to $167,900.

The number of houses sold in June in the Leander and Cedar Park area jumped by 30 percent from June 2005 while the median sales price increased by 6 percent.

While buyers continue to flock to the suburbs for affordable housing, they are increasingly seeking out more expensive homes overall.

Sales of houses priced at $1 million or more jumped 61 percent year-over-year in June, and sales of those priced between $900,000 and $999,999 increased by 58 percent.

The number of transactions involving homes priced in the $600,000 to $699,999 range was up by 82 percent.

Out of state investors are also picking up about a third of the existing homes sales during the last month. They are picking up an excess inventory not being bought are moving in some cases faster then the traditional home buyer would to buy a home. We will continue to see more investors buy property here because of the favorable pricing compared to other parts of the country and the positive Austin growth rate.

Categories: Business Growth · Buying · Market Update · Nationwide Update · Selling

FTC Sites Austin Board of Realtors for Blocking Discounters

July 19, 2006 · No Comments

AMERICAN-STATESMAN STAFF
Friday, July 14, 2006
The Federal Trade Commission said Thursday that the Austin Board of Realtors had illegally blocked competition in the home sale market with a policy that blocked listings by discount brokers from the primary home search Web site in Central Texas.

The nation’s top consumer protection agency said the policy effectively discouraged owners from using a potentially lower cost way of selling their homes and reduced the ability of buyers to fully use the Internet to look for properties.

I always felt it was an unfair business practice to block the Discount realtors from having their listings show up on the www.austinhomesearch.com website. Since the discounters have been under the wrath of the local board of realtors they now have the same access for their listings that the traditional brokers enjoy.

David M. Foster, ABoR president and CEO, said, “As an association that supports members of all business models, we feel the approach outlined in the FTC ruling is correct. However, we also feel the FTC’s press release misrepresented the purpose of the ABoR rule.”

Foster continued, “The rule was initially established to ensure that our consumer website was used to promote listings to benefit members. We realized, however, that the rule was confusing and did not work as well as we’d intended, which was why it was rescinded so quickly. We are disappointed that the FTC’s press release implies that we are guilty of wrongdoing — which the agreement expressly contradicts — and that the spirit of cooperation with which the FTC and ABoR negotiated the consent order did not translate to the FTC’s public statement.”

The real estate industry is grappling with the rise of discount brokers, who provide limited services, charging only for the work they perform or a flat fee.

That’s a challenge to traditional full-service brokers, who charge a fixed percentage of the sale price, split between the buyer’s and seller’s agents.

Last year, the Austin real estate board said it would not put listings from discount brokers on austinhomesearch.com or on realtor.com, operated by the National Association of Realtors.

Meanwhile, it continued to include full-commission listings. All listings continued to be on the Multiple Listing Service, a comprehensive roster of properties that is not available to the public.

After the policy was adopted, the FTC said discount brokerage listings fell from 18 percent to 2.5 percent of the total on austinhomesearch.com.

The FTC said the board’s move created significant roadblocks to discount brokers.

“We are not saying that one form of brokerage agreement is better than another,” said Jeffrey Schmidt, director of the FTC’s Bureau of Competition. “We are saying that consumers should be able to decide.”

We’ll know you the consumer gets to decide what fees you want to pay for Realtor services. It’s going to be tougher to compete against the discount brokers but we feel if we offer more value and service to the customer then we paid what we’re worth. Just remember that commissions are negotiable. Some Reatlors will negotiate their fees with you and some won’t.

Categories: Nationwide Update · Real Estate Trends

Taking Responsibility is for everyone

July 13, 2006 · No Comments

Lately I’ve encountered a number of situations in the real estate business where no one wants to be responsible for what’s going on in a transaction. There’s lot of finger pointing and blame cast about. Then I realized if a deal fails I’m responsible for it failing. Now you say how could that be. We’ll I decided to be responsible for the deal and take ownership of whatever challenges we might face. This allowed to be more proactive and getting things done. But guess what? I still keep getting new problems and I want to blame someone for them, but it’s not going to do me any good. I’ve been reading some great email tips from a well-known management consultant on Responsibility, Christopher Avery. In a recent email he writes,

How much of your time and attention do you spend in have-to mode? You know: I have to go to the dumb meeting; I have to go to work; I have to go to my kids school play; I have to go to my in-laws for holiday; I have to, I have to, I have to! We say it a thousand times a day, don’t we? The unstated message is I don’t want to but I have to or else (fill in the consequence). And the meta message is I live my life in a trap.

We don’t live our lives in this trap unless we believe we do. So maybe it’s best if You can attack this monster from different angles. First, examine all of your have-to’s and ask yourself what it would require on your part to take 100% responsibility for those choices. A Fortune 500 executive did that and re-wrote his meeting calendar, vowing to fully engage in every meeting he attended, not go, or change the meeting to be more valuable. Second, catch yourself saying the words have to and stop. Insert one of the following choices: want to, get to, am (as in I want to go to my boss’s dumb meeting, or, I am going to my boss’s dumb meeting). Say it with ownership to remind yourself that you designed this situation for yourself and you have the power to change it when you are ready. Then forgive yourself for being so human and vow to catch yourself sooner next time. (for more information and to read the rest of his article go to: http://www.christopheravery.com/etips/july2006.html

This isn’t always easy to do and it feels good to get mad blame other people sometimes. But ultimately we’re still responsible. At least we’re responsible for how we handle ourselves, not the other people. Let’s face it some people are just lazy and stupid and they get blamed for a lot of stuff because they don’t own up to being responsible. My problems aren’t going away anytime soon, so I figured I might as take ownership of them and work them out. Let me know how it works for you!

Categories: Motivational · Rants · Uncategorized

“Pedastrian-Style” Development for Northwest Austin

July 10, 2006 · No Comments

AUSTIN (bizjournals.com) - Pacific Summit Partners is planning a 335-acre mixed-use development in northwest Austin consisting of 150,000 square feet of “pedestrian-style” retail space, a mix of 2,500 to 3,000 single-family homes and townhomes, about 43 acres of park and open space and possibly an elementary school.

The project, called Lakeline Station, will sit near the northeast corner of U.S. Hwy 183 and FM 620. The region is home to a proposed commuter rail stop as well as planned tollways.

Calthorpe Associates of California, designers of Central Austin’s Triangle Square development and the Stapleton airport redevelopment in Denver, will design the development’s land plan.

Todd Janssen, a veteran of Pulte Homes Inc., will oversee the development, which is expected to be complete in five to eight years.

The undisclosed seller was represented by Duncan Commercial LLC

Categories: Business Growth · Infrastucture · Market Update

Samsung to Build a Monster Plant in Austin

July 7, 2006 · No Comments

Samsung Electronics Co. is building a semiconductor factory in Northeast Austin near Parmer Lane, which will be about three times the size of the company’s factory in Northeast Austin or the size of nine football fields.

“It is going to be one of the largest fabs in the United States,” company spokesman Bill Cryer said about the factory, which will be named Austin Fab 2 or A2.

The overall cost was originally projected to be $3.5 billion, but some industry analysts say they expect it will cost more. Construction of the building is expected to be about $220 million. Samsung will employ about 900 at the new facility including current Samsung employees and workers from supplier countries. More than 100 engineers are training in South Korea. (statesman.com)

This will definitely create a big impact on the housing up the northeast part of Austin and Pflugerville. New construction and home values would most likely rise as a part of the demand for homes in that area. (This is my opinion and I could be wrong)

Categories: Business Growth · Infrastucture · Market Update · Resources

Top 10 Mistakes of Do It Yourself Remodeling

July 6, 2006 · No Comments

I ran across this article about the biggest mistakes people make when remodeling their home. I see these kind of mistakes all the time when I’m showing or previewing property. Please if you must remodel your home, do it right or you will pay the price when you sell it unless you live in central Austin right now. Here’s the article link: http://realestate.msn.com/Improve/Articlebankrate.aspx?cp-documentid=454916

Categories: Home Safety · Resources