If you’re new here, you may want to subscribe to my RSS feed. Thanks for visiting! Please feel free to leave comments or search properties. KVUE.com says “homes in Austin are up for sale and buyers are snatching them up.” Austin’s housing market is relatively healthy, though developers have cut back on new homes (which [...]

Our local economic guru has predicted that 2008 will see a modest increase in area jobs, about 2% growth rate, and next year will see an increase to a 3% growth rate. This is bucking the national trend, as Austin has done several times before, probably due to our diverse employment base and our youthful [...]

If you’re a family that makes 50K or less, or you’re a single person who makes 25K or less, you’re eligible for free help this year in filing taxes this year at community tax centers. They can also check past years’ returns for missed deductions. For information go to http://www.communitytaxcenters.org or call 512 447-2026.

Roma Design Group and HR&A Advisors Inc. reported to the City of Austin that it needs a changed approach to affordable housing in downtown Austin. According to the report, “low- to moderate-priced downtown housing will require public subsidies, and even then it is not likely to come in the form of high-rise towers that have [...]

PMI Mortgage Insurance Company has released its Winter 2008 Risk Index. Good news: Austin (along with Houston, Dallas, Fort Worth, and San Antonio) is among the lowest-risk MSAs. The highest were Riverside, CA (94 percent), Las Vegas (89 percent), and Phoenix (83 percent).

Austin has always seemed to hold together when the rest of the country’s unraveling economically, but Lori Hawkins in the Austin American-Statesman notes that “area’s booming job market has slowed to a three-year low, and its once sizzling real estate market is cooling fast” as the rest of the U.S. slides into recession. However, she argues [...]

The U.S. arm of the International Real Estate Federation (FIABACI-USA) will have an Austin chapter, according to the Austin Business Journal. A weaker dollar and relatively stable economy are strong incentives for international investors who want to purchase U.S. property. Austin, with its low cost of real estate and high quality of life, has proven an [...]

The Austin American-Statesman writes about new development in East Austin. [Link] Despite a median home price that has risen by more than 50 percent in the past five years to $199,000, East Austin is still within reach of many potential home buyers, especially when compared with nearby Austin neighborhoods such as Travis Heights, Hyde Park and [...]

Great article in the January issue of Wired magazine. It talks about how, if homes were built to be reconfigurable, with easily replaced parts that are designed for frequent updates in technology, then houses could stay “current” much longer. Huses are bu ilt to last years, but with rapid technology advances, they will be throwaways [...]