ROSELIND HEJL'S AUSTIN REAL ESTATE GUIDE
Roselind Hejl, Realtor
Coldwell Banker United
roselind@weloveaustin.com
512-327-0385
Articles
Austin McMansion Ordinance: Considering the Consequences Link to Ordinance & Boundary Map Reflections on Austin: A Talk with Joel Kotkin Austin Real Estate Market: 1st Quarter 2009 Austin Real Estate: The Downtown Effect Austin Real Estate: Status Quo Sub-Prime Loans: Playing Against the House A Talk with Economist, Angelos Angelou Real Estate Market Update - Oct. 9, 2008 It's Back to the Future for Austin Real Estate! Number of Residential Sales Slows Austin Neighborhoods: Market Data Austin Real Estate Market: 2009 - 1st Quarter Austin Real Estate Market: 2008 -3rd Quarter Roselind,
I don't want you to think I have forgotten you. I am working problem credits for JPMorgan's entire U.S. Private Wealth Management market.
Fortunately, we have very little issues in Texas as compared to other areas of the country. I have no foreclosures in Texas at present. However, if anything happens in Austin, I will definitely call you because you've done such a great job in the past for us.
Hope all is well with you.
Regards,
JPMorgan Chase Bank, N.A.
Many people are aware that a handful of big-city markets, like Manhattan and San Francisco, have largely resisted the real estate slide. It is less widely known that the same thing is true in scores of smaller markets.
“I would call them backcountry cities,” said Robert J. Shiller, an economist at Yale University and an expert on real estate markets. They are just going through normal growth, and they are out of the bubble picture.”
… Austin is a good example of a real estate market that was slow and steady for years and now appears to be taking off. Austin’s high-tech industries are attracting well-heeled buyers from cities where real estate is far more expensive.
Austin Real Estate Market Trends:
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| Austin's McMansion Ordinance: Considering the Consequences | |
Austin attorney, Chris Bradford, published an interesting article about Austin’s demographics entitled, How Austin’s Rise Became a Tale of Two Cities. He shows census data that reveals that households with children are more concentrated in the suburban parts of the Austin area. The reason, he says, is simply that people can get larger, cheaper, and newer homes in surrounding suburbs than they can in central Austin. I would like to add to his piece with a story from our own experience. |
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| Reflections on Austin - A Talk With Joel Kotkin | |
(First I want to thank Mr. Kotkin for sharing his highly valued opinion with me. Joel Kotkin is executive editor of NewGeography.com and is a presidential fellow in urban futures at Chapman University. He is author of The City: A Global History (Roselind) I was pleased to read your recent article about the best cities for job growth. You selected Austin as the #1 Big City for job growth. What put Austin at the top of the list? |
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| Austin Real Estate Market: 1st Quarter 2009 | |
It has been said that real estate markets are very local. This is clear to us as we work throughout Austin. On one day we may find ourselves dealing with multiple offers, or see clients lose their favorite choice because they did not act quickly enough. And, on another day in another part of town, we pull up a long list of homes with multiple price reductions to show a client. Even just within the Austin region, painting with a broad brush can hide the nuances in the marketplace. So we looked at the market section by section. We checked the median price for each section and counted the number of foreclosures for sale. And, we computed the number of months of inventory for sale. The time needed to sell current inventory – at the sales rate of the previous 12 months – reveals the state of the underlying market. The results are posted here: Austin Market: 2009-1st Quarter |
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| Austin Real Estate: The Downtown Effect | |
(Roselind) Randy, I appreciated your comment about Austin on the Forbes.Com - Investing Panel. Austin is blooming as a cultural capital, and downtown plays a big part in the Austin experience. I recall going to the closing sale of Scarborough’s Department Store downtown in 1981, the same year that Barton Creek Mall opened. That seemed to be a low point in the abandonment of downtown as a retail destination. City task forces and business groups have worked hard for years to re-vitalize Austin’s center. Music venues led the way, bringing young people downtown. |
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| Austin Real Estate - The Status Quo | |
The Case-Shiller Index of housing prices has received a lot of attention lately. It uses the closest comparable – a sale and resale of the same house – to give an indication of changes in value. The index has tracked repeat sales prices since the year 2000. An interactive map showing the changes in home values in the 20 cities monitored by the index is posted on the New York Times website. The graph shows that there are big differences in the magnitude of price increases and declines in the various cities. |
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| Sub-Prime Loans: Playing Against the House | |
A subprime mortgage used to be an alternative for borrowers who did not fit standard guidelines. Perhaps they just started a new business or had some past credit problems. These borrowers paid a high interest rate or put more money down to compensate the lender for making a risky loan. Private investors who would accept higher risk for higher returns funded these loans. In recent years we began to see a new type of subprime loan. |
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| A Talk with Economist, Angelos Angelou | |
I recently had the opportunity to interview well known Austin Economist, Angelos Angelou. He shared these thoughts with me: |
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and is finishing a book on the American future.)
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