Austin Real Estate News

Lakeway, Texas is a growing city just northwest of Austin. Once known as a lakeside retirement community, Lakeway is now home to a number of young families. Thanks to its close proximity to Austin, the great schools in the Lake Travis School District, growth of business in the area (nearby shopping in Bee Cave, TX at the Hill Country Galleria, new banks, new retail in Lakeway proper), and the variety of outdoor recreation in the area, families are flocking to Lakeway.

If you are considering a move to a Lakeway Texas neighborhood or just want to learn more about the area, be sure to read about our Lakway neighborhoods in our Austin Neighboroods Guide. We’ve just added five Lakeway TX neighborhoods to our website: The Preserve at Lakeway, The Courtyard at the Preserve, The Terrace at the Preserve, The Canyons at Cardinal Hills, and Yaupon Creek - and we plan to add more soon – so keep checking back.

To learn more about the Lakeway area or to see Lakeway Texas Real Estate, please call your Lakeway area experts at Great Austin Properties. You can reach us at 512.600.1800 or email us. Or search Lakeway Homes for Sale.

Those with interest in home design have likely heard of Sarah Susanka’s ingenious book, The Not So Big House. Ms. Susanka encourages readers to consider how spaces in a home are used rather than how big they are – the idea of building homes that fit and function well rather than overwhelm.

In the high-end market it’s rare to find a small home with luxury finish-out. That’s in part because so many of us equate luxury with high square footage, and partly because it’s more profitable for builders to create large spaces with luxury details than smaller ones. Think about it. A small luxury home may have the same appliances, toilets, bathtubs, and light fixtures as a larger home, but because the framing materials, sheetrock, trim and other materials needed to construct a larger home is a small incremental cost, a builder can charge less per square foot and appeal to a larger audience with the large luxury home. 

Once in a while, though, a small luxury home does become available – and in today’s Austin real estate market, you may find small luxury homes you couldn’t build for today’s purchase price. As an example, look at the photos of this small luxury home in Spanish Oaks Austin. At 3,233 square feet, it’s one of the smallest homes in the neighborhood, but the attention to detail the builder put into the home is second to none. Eight hanging fixtures grace the open living and dining room, fir beams add structural interest in ceilings, and a built in banquette and large center island help create a kitchen that truly is the heart of the home. At $900,000, this home is a steal for Spanish Oaks, and a value to anyone who knows the Austin luxury real estate market.

To learn more about this home visit www.11919labarzola.com. To schedule a showing for 11919 La Barzola Bend or to learn more about other Austin Homes for Sale, please contact Michael J. Reilly at 512.600.1800.

The Austin Business Journal (ABJ) reported this week that Austin came in second nationwide in a study conducted by the American City Business Journals. In fact, Texas held the top three spots with Houston coming in first and Dallas-Fort Worth rounding up third. Specifically, Austin posted an annual employment growth rate of 6.4% since June of 2008.  The study utilized a formula that analyzed employment in the nations 100 largest labor markets which held over 116 million private sector jobs as of June 2008.  The study continued to report that Austin has seen 22% job growth in the last five years which puts Austin on par with Las Vegas which ABJ said, “is often heralded as the fastest growing American city”.  As the rest of the nation falters economically, Austin continues to buck the trend and hopefully side step the worst effects of the national housing downturn. 

Visit www.austinhomelistings.com for more information on Austin Real Estate including a map based search tool.

We love the City of Bee Cave – a community just 20 minutes west of downtown Austin. With the opening of the new Hill Country Galleria and a 50 acre city park underway, Bee Cave residents enjoy modern conveniences in the Texas hill country. Want to know more? Check out our Bee Cave neighborhoods. We’ve added several in the last week – The Homestead, Bee Caves West, Meadowfox Estates, Falconhead West, and the Heights of Falconhead. We’ve also added several neighborhoods in the Bee Cave extraterritorial jurisdiction – The Preserve at Barton Creek, Barton Creek Preserve and The Madrones.  Spanish Oaks, Lake Pointe, The Uplands and Falconhead complete the Bee Cave neighborhoods list.

To learn more or tour Bee Cave real estate, please contact us at 512.600.1800.