Austin Real Estate News

U.S. News and World Report posted a top 10 Best Places to Live report on June 8, 2009. Since we love seeing Austin make it on best places lists, we thought we would share! Here’s what Luke Mullins has to say:

“If you’re a free spirit, music junkie, or barbecue lover—or if you simply have what it takes to ‘keep Austin weird’ – Texas’s state capital is for you. Considered ground zero for live music, this city of 716,000 residents is home to legions of musicians and nearly 200 performance venues. In addition, Austin hosts the always popular South by Southwest festival. Since its inception in 1987, the event has mushroomed from a local gathering to a 1,800-band, 80-stage extravaganza of music, filmmaking, and interactive activities featuring performers from all over the world. Austin is also a high-tech hub, with companies like Dell and IBM, which employ thousands of residents. ”

Read the full report at Best Places to Live 2009.

Ready to make a move? Call Great Austin Properties at 512.600.1800 to buy or sell Austin Real Estate!

Forbes.com has ranked Austin #1 on their new “America’s Best Bargain Cities” list. Citing the country’s lowest unemployment (5.5%), salaries, cost of living, and the Housing Opportunity Index, Forbes.com states “Austin is the place where people pay the least to get the most.” We like the sound of that, and hope it gives you another good reason to buy Austin real estate.

Great Austin Properties would love to make your next Austin home purchase even sweeter with our new Buyer Cash Back Program. Buy with us and we’ll give you 25% of our commission back when you close! Call us at 512.600.1800 and let us help you get a great deal!

Read the entire Forbes article at America’s Best Bargain Cities.

Further confirmation that Austin is a great place to live during these uncertain economic times is the recent release of the 2009 Best Big Cities for Jobs list (Forbes.com). Austin ranks #1 in the big cities list and #6 overall.

Texas fares extremely well in the rankings holding the #1 spot overall (Odessa, TX) as well as the top 5 spots for big cities!  Austin, Houston, San Antonio, Ft. Worth, and Dallas are the top 5 Best Big Cities for Jobs.

Forbes.com published this information along with NewGeography.com, though the NewGeography.com site (2009 Best Cities for Job Growth) provides a bit more detailed information about the methodology.

We are convinced Austin is a great place to call home. We hope you will call Great Austin Properties at 512.600.1800 if you agree – we would love to help you with your Austin Real Estate needs!

Forbes.com recently ranked Austin #8 in it’s list of “The Best Places for Business and Careers.” Why did Austin fare so well? Here’s a bit of the story direct from Forbes:

“In a nod to the current economic climate, we added two new categories this year: projected job growth and subprime mortgages as a percentage of total originations over a three-year period. This change helped boost several metros in the rankings, most notably Austin, Texas, which ranked eighth this year, up from 47th last year. Austin’s projected annual job growth rate of 2.3% is fifth fastest in the country, and its subprime mortgage exposure clocked in at 13th.”

That’s the kind of news we like to hear!

We’ve blogged about it before, but it’s always fun when we hear Austin is one of the top 10 places to live in the U.S., so we are blogging about it again!  MSNBC released their top 10 on January 4th and put Austin on the list at #8.  They created their list by looking at rankings released by Forbes magazine, Kiplinger.com, Money magazine, Fortune Small Business magazine and Relocate-America.com, and quoted Kiplinger.com as the reason Austin made the list: the Austin area offers “a strong economy, a solid, moderately priced housing market, a growing population and enough natural beauty to justify staying outside.” Got that right. Austin is an incredible place to live and work – we know – we live here!

Seems MSNBC is fond of Texas – Houston and San Antonio also made their list. You can read the full MSNBC Best Cities list here.

If you are ready to call Austin home, or already call Austin home and are ready to find a new home in our great city, be sure to call us. We are eager to assist you with your Austin real estate needs. Contact Great Austin Properties at 512.600.1800 today!

The #1 hits just keep coming for Austin, Texas.   Forbes.com recently ranked Austin #1 in it’s America’s ‘Best Bang for the Buck’ Cities list. Forbes analyzed the country’s forty largest metropolitan areas and calculated the ratios of a cities median homes prices and median income while factoring in cost of living and job growth using data from the US census, National Association of Realtors and Moody’s Economy.com.  Based on Forbes calculations, Austin ranked number one overall as the city where your money went the furthest.  Other Texas cities appearing on the list were #2 San Antonio, #4 Houston, and #7 Dallas. Loyal readers of the Austin Real Estate News Blog know we always report on these city rankings. Based on our rough estimate, Austin is also #1 for appearing on the most lists from best place to live, best place to start a business, and more great rankings.  Let Great Austin Properties help YOU get more bang for YOUR buck. Call us to see homes at 512-600-1800.

There are plenty of criteria for a home purchase and accessibility is one of them. If you’re thinking about buying a home in Austin, you might want to consider the areas near the proposed stops for the soon-to-be-built Austin light rail project known as Austin MetroRail.  We recently contacted Bill Lejeune, Rail Road Manager for Capital Metro, and asked for more details on the individual stops. As you browse the list below, remember that the easiest way to find homes near these locations is to use our Map based search on www.austinhomelistings.com. 

1)     Downtown – Convention Center: Trinity & 4^th (could float one block either direction depending on results of coordination with the City of Austin)

2)     Plaza Saltillo – Comal: 5^th & Comal

3)     M. L. King Jr.: No real cross street, but about 3 blocks east of Airport and MLK, Alexander St may be the closest street

4)     Highland Mall: About 300 feet north of the intersection of Denson and Airport

5)     N. Lamar: Airport & Lamar

6)     Burnet: Near the Domain shopping center, about 1000 feet north of Kramer and Burnet

7)     Howard: Location still under consideration, but approximate location is Howard Lane and Mo-Pac

8)     Lakeline: Between 183 and Parmer Ln. Parmer Ln will be extended to the existing NW Park and Ride (the name of this station will be changed to Lakeline Park & Ride)

9)     Leander: U.S. Hwy. 183 north of FM 2243, across from new HEB where existing park.

*Austin Metro Rail, Austin MetroRail name, location, stops, installation are all subject to change without notice. For further information, visit the city of Austin CapMetro website.

West Austin real estate has long been a great investment. The terrain is beautiful, the neighborhoods are incredibly family-friendly and it can be easily reached from downtown. If there was one complaint, it was about a lack of places to shop, dine & socialize. Of course, there are legendary restaurants like Rosie’s and Spring Hill, but, overall, the pickings have been a little slim. That is all about to change.
Slated to open this fall, the Hill Country Galleria comes online with pretty much everything a person needs to get through the week. Located at the intersection of Highway 71 and Bee Caves Road, the 152 acre development will feature more than 650,000 square feet of retail space, playing host to familiar names like Dillards (the anchor tenant), Ann Taylor Loft, Barnes & Noble, and Eddie Bauer. These shops, an assortment of restaurants and a Cinemark movie theater will make this whole area of town a more attractive place to live than ever.
Whether you’re looking for the private golf course and resort styled amenities of Spanish Oaks, the gated serenity of The Uplands or the more affordable Lake Pointe, this area definitely deserves a look.

To learn more, call us at 512.300.0928 or visit Austin Home Listings.com to tour all Austin homes for sale.

Special Note from the Owner of www.AustinHomeListings.com

I think we offer the best Austin home search experience on the web.  As you may already know, we have the cool mapping feature, predefined neighborhood queries, virtual tours and more. To top it off, we don’t even make you register unless you want to use the advanced features like setting up your own favorite’s folder or signing up for regular email alerts.

Of course, we created the best Austin Home Search tool so we could meet new clients, provide outstanding service, and of course, earn a decent living. We always believed that if someone likes our site, they will probably like working with us.  We are customer focused, and detailed oriented much like this site. Of couse, we recognize that many of you will use our website and still work with other REALTORS. (In fact, we know a lot of REALTORS use our site because it is easier to search than the real MLS. That’s a future blog post.) We’re ok with that too, but for all those people who love our site, we ask one thing in return…

Please tell people about www.AustinHomeListings.com. I’m serious. The more people that use our site, the more likely it is that we get a new customer, earn revenue and ultimately reinvest some cash back into the site and develop new Austin Home Search features such as Arial mapping, local retail information and more.  So either hire us as your REALTOR (you won’t be sorry) or at least tell your friends about www.austinhomelistings.com, link to the site, blog about us, etc.

Thanks for your continued support.

The annual magazine rankings are out and Austin has faired quite well again. For the last five or six years, it seems like the bevy of business and personal magazines that do these rankings have been pretty hot on Austin.  Who can argue with them? Austin is a great place to live.

BEST PLACES TO LIVE – Kiplinger.com

1. Nashville, TN
2. Minneapolis-St. Paul, MN
3. Albuquerque, NM
4. Atlanta, GA
5. Austin, TX

BEST BIG CITIES – CNN.Money.com

1. Colorado Springs, CO
2. Austin, TX

SMARTEST CITIES – Austin Business Journal

1. Seattle, WA
2. San Francisco, CA
3. Austin, TX