For about a year now, I have been a member of The Institute for Luxury Home Marketing. By joining the Institute, I have access to education and resources specific for effectively working with high-end home buyers and sellers and marketing luxury properties. If you’d like to learn a little more about my membership or The Institute for Luxury Home Marketing, here’s a short video with some highlights of what I, as a member, can offer you.

Why work with a Member of The Institute

Tags: austin real estate, luxury, sellers by Aria
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Click to enlarge chart

graph credit: The New York Times

I found this recently and thought it was worth a share. The chart above shows 3/5ths of Americans split by income into lowest 5th (blue), middle 5th (pink), and highest 5th (black) by household income. What is especially interesting to me is how they split up the different expenditures into categories like “taxes”, “education”, and “housing.” It is important to note the average household size, as we would a household of 3.1 people to spend more than a household of 1.7 people. Obviously, the lowest 1/5 of Americans with a household income averaging $9,974 in 2006 are living above their means, but with an average household size of 1.7, I have to wonder how much of this country’s students and newlyweds fall into this category. Also, this study was conducted in 2006 when the economy was still fairly strong.

So I looked into this a little further and found that Forbe’s had a similar article (also from 2006). Here are the basics:

For a complete list of figures, visit Forbe’s site.

My question to you is, Are any of these figures surprising to you?

I knew that consumer debt was a problem, but I had no idea that the lowest income households are spending twice what they make each year. I was surprised that no matter how much a household makes, that they tend to spend roughly 1/3 of it on housing. I shouldn’t be since lenders limit monthly payments to roughly 1/3, but with all of the mortgage scam news lately, I would expect this figure to be higher for the sub prime market.

If you’ve been following this blog for any amount of time or have visited much of my website, I’m sure you know that I’m a numbers and figures gal. I plan on looking for some 2007 figures and trending and I’ll post it when I have it!

Wishing you a happy spring,

Aria Schoenfelt - Austin Real Estate

Tags: austin by Aria
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As a follow up to my How Americans Spend Their Money post, I thought I’d share Forbe’s recent article about “The World’s Billionaires”. Bill Gates is no longer at the top!

Of course, Donald Trump is no where near the top of this list (he’d just like you to think that he is). He did make the top 400 list with a net worth of a mere $3 Billion and ranking #368. Still not too shabby, but still no where near Warren Buffett’s $62 Billion.

So where do the Billionaires live?

Tags: austin by Aria
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So you finally purchased a glorious flat-panel, big-screen TV so you can watch HD Television in mammoth proportions. But at this point, where to get your HD hook-up should be the least of your concerns. What do you do with that old standard definition TV?

If craigslist fails you, you still have options. Don’t leave the old TV to rot in a landfill when you have so many recycling options available to you. Check out Earth 911’s website at http://earth911.org. There, you can type in what you want to recycle and where you are to find a recycling center near you to recycle the old TV.

To have your TV completely recycled from the plastic to the lead to the gold components, take it to your nearest Goodwill, Salvation Army, or specialty recycling center like ERT, Inc. or M&K Recovery Group.

Use Earth 911 to find out where to recycle other materials and electronics such as cell phones and fluorescent bulbs as well!

If you missed them, here are links to previous posts about Austin’s new recycling program, recycling phone books, recycling cell phones, fluorescent bulb recycling, and recycling in Austin.

Tags: environment, green, recycling by Aria
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As a member of several of Austin’s neighborhood email lists, I have been surprised to hear about frequent coyote sightings and encounters not only in the suburbs, but also in central Austin neighborhoods including the Shoal Creek area. Help protect your pets and children by staying up to date with a new service from the Austin American Statesman. This service is an interactive map and posting service where reports are sent in by concerned citizens. And I expect that many of you will be as surprised as I was at where these sightings occur!

Austin American-Statesman’s Coyote Encounter Page

Animal control authorities in Austin are aware of the coyote population in Austin and claim, as many animal groups do, that they do more good than harm by helping to maintain a natural balance of urban wildlife. The Austin population is watched and controlled closely with the help of reports from concerned neighbors. This site is a great resource for both residents and authorities. The City of Austin asks that if you see a coyote, call 3-1-1. By posting to the Statesman website, you can help Austin residents understand where problem areas are. If the population is getting out of control and causing harm to Austin, the City would like to know so that the problem can be handled appropriately.

If you would like to learn more about coyotes and their interactions with humans, I have found some great resources to get you started:

• The Humane Society of the United States - Coyote Information
• City of Austin - Urban Coyotes Information

Take care of yourself, your children, and your pets!

Aria Schoenfelt - Austin Realtor

Tags: austin, wildlife by Aria
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On the Austin Real Estate Headlines Page, I have bee keeping careful watch of how Austin ranks in news stories, polls, and websites. This is really just for fun and based on subjective opinions, but it is very interesting to look at. Plus, those of us who live in Austin know it is deserving of many awards top 10 lists. If I have missed any rankings of this great city, email me or comment!

Austin’s Rankings

• #1 Best Place for Dating
• #1 Place to Live in Texas - Money Magazine
• #1 Place to Live, Work, & Make Movies 2008
• #1 Top Growth City (U-Haul 2005)
• #10 Healthiest U.S. City
• #3 America’s Smartest City
• #3 Great Place to Live - Life 2.0
• #3 of Best Cities for Jobs (Forbes)
• #5 Large Metro to Relocate a Family for 2007
• #5 Least Stressful City by American City Buisiness Journals

Tags: austin, facts by Aria
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Image credit: USA Today via Transparent Real Estate

Real Estate is an industry with local markets, but as a follow-up to my last post, “Austin Real Estate & The Austin Economy,” I thought I’d share a few more bits of information illustrating how Austin compares to the rest of Texas as well as the rest of the nation in this changing market. This graphic by USA Today should (of course) be taken with a grain of salt. For example, I find it surprising the Oklahoma is listed as expanding after losing GM. I do, however, think that this graphic is a strong illustration of what I keep coming back to in my blog posts about the economy and Austin’s real estate market. You can see California is completely off the charts followed by Florida, Nevada, and Arizona (Michigan has other factors as play). These are the markets I keep referring to in post after post after post. A lot of people made a LOT of money in these markets in the past 10 years during the boom in the warm coastal areas and now a lot of people are LOSING a lot of money because the boom as busted.

Texas (and more specifically, Austin) has remained strong with a steady growth rate of 2-4% during this decade. While some areas are in danger locally, the state as a whole is strong and Austin makes the top 3-5 of healthy market lists.

So what’s all the fuss about? When some markets are in trouble, the news is spread nation-wide. The media are big business — never forget that! They make money if they can get you glued to TV news channels, newspapers, and news websites. They’re feeding you what you need to hear to tune in daily. So please, when you would like to be an educated consumer about Austin’s real estate market, keep it local and keep with the facts. I’m not against media entirely, I do think they have their place. But a truly educated consumer will check data and statistics to supplement their daily regiment of news.

Now stay tuned because in 30 minutes, after sports, weather, and entertainment news, we’ll let you know why this cute puppy could be in mortal danger.

… Just kidding.

The puppy is as safe as your real estate investments in Austin.

Tags: austin, economy, real estate by Aria
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