Austin Real Estate News

If you are looking for a home, location is no doubt an important factor in your decision making process. In fact, according to a study by Harris Interactive commissioned by Move, Inc., proximity to daily conveniences is one of the top three most important factors in choosing where to live.

Taking “proximity to daily conveniences” a step further is Walkscore.com, a great website that ranks the largest 40 US cities (and the neighborhoods within those cities) to help people find walkable places to live. While Austin overall ranks #29 out of #40, we do have plenty of walkable communities in our city. According to Walkscore.com, “18% of Austin residents have a Walk Score of 70 or above. 51% have a Walk Score of at least 50—and 49% live in Car-Dependent neighborhoods.”

So if walking just about everywhere you need to go is important to you, look for a neighborhood with a walkscore over 70. For example, Northloop is an extremely walkable neighborhood and ranks #14 out of 60 neighborhoods in Austin ranked by Walkscore. We just happen to have a great Northloop listing to give you an idea of a property with a great walkscore. Check out 5505 Avenue G at Walkscore.com. This charming bungalow has a Walkscore of 74 out of 100 making it “Very Walkable”. Check out a few photos of the property below, or see the full listing at here. We just dropped the price on this listing by $10K, so if Northloop looks like a great place to call home, be sure to check out 5505 Avenue G! From this home, you can walk to the hip shops and restaurants at The Triangle and in the Northloop neighborhood. Call us at 512.600.1800 to schedule a showing and learn more about walkable Austin neighborhoods like Northloop at Walkscore.com.

We just found a great tool to help you decide how to arrange furniture in your home. Check out the Icovia Space Planner at http://www.icovia.com/design/. Use it to determine if your current furniture will fit in your new home, or if a new piece you’ve had your eye on will work in your current space. You first define your room size, then choose from hundreds of predefined furniture types and shapes to place in the room. You can even customize pieces with length and width dimensions and add windows and door openings to your room as needed. Here’s a screen shot of a room we created with Icovia:

Have fun with this great design tool!