Austin Real Estate Headlines

Entries Tagged as 'austin'

31 Places to Go This Summer (No 1 is the Texas Hill Country!)

Published: June 1, 2008 by The New York Times

THERE used to be a time — oh, let’s call it 2007 — when summer was considered a time of almost limitless possibilities, a time of languorous vacations, of trips filled with the promise of discovery.

But the summer of 2008 is starting out like a cruel joke, with air travel increasingly a nightmare and with wildly escalating gas prices threatening to make the road trip all but obsolete. It’s almost enough to make you sit at home and catch up on episodes of “Gossip Girl.”

…

1. TEXAS HILL COUNTRY

Who needs Europe? The Texas Hill Country, west of Austin and north of San Antonio, might be the next best thing to crossing the Atlantic. The region is lush, colorful and, unlike much of the pancake-flat state, dotted with beautiful green hills that are evocative of Tuscany or the south of France. Moreover, the region is speckled with 22 wineries (www.texaswinetrail.com) that buzz with food and music festivals year round. And towns like Fredericksburg offer a taste of the Old World, with German-style biergartens and schnitzelhäuser.

Click for more of this story

Tags: New York Times, austin by Aria
No Comments »

Numbers Pop Housing Bubble Talk

News Release No. 53, August 2005
By Ellissa Brewster

COLLEGE STATION, Texas – Is there a housing price bubble in Texas that is about to burst? Researchers at the Real Estate Center at Texas A&M University are standing by the position they took a few years ago – no bubble here. A new study by a Center researcher has the numbers to back them up.

While the housing appreciation bubble may burst in some markets in the country, Texans need not worry.

Homeowners have seen their property grow in value, but not to the extreme, and Center researchers continue to say homeowners and real estate professionals need not worry about the bottom falling out. A worst case scenario would be a flattening out of home prices.

From 1999 to 2004, the average price of existing homes sold in Texas rose 24 percent to $164,400, and the median price rose 28 percent to $129,600.

Dr. M.A. Anari, a research economist with the Center, devised two measures to help determine if Texas home prices were dangerously high. These ratios are similar to the price-to-earnings ratios of stocks, which investors use to determine if a stock is overpriced.

Anari studied home price-to-rent ratios in Texas markets and in other areas of the country. These were compared to the growth rate of home prices. He found that there is a maximum home price-to-rent ratio that depends on the local economy. When this number is exceeded, home prices generally fall.

Current home price-to-rent ratios for all Texas metro areas are below the maximum ratios. So the risk of a price bubble in the state’s residential market is very low.

For example, if the price-to-rent ratio in Austin exceeded 24, it would be a signal of future price declines. But Austin’s price-to-rent ratio was 20 in 2003 and fell to 18.1 in 2004, so a steep decline Austin home prices is not likely.

Click for the rest if this article

Tags: austin, austin real estate by Aria
No Comments »

Ex-legislator fined for using campaign money in Austin real estate deals

Goodman to appeal $10,00 penalty after Ethics Commission ruled donations improperly used to pay rent to spouse on co-owned housing.

By Laylan Copelin
AMERICAN-STATESMAN STAFF
Friday, March 21, 2008Ruling for the first time in the "rent-to-own" controversy, the Texas Ethics Commission has fined a former state legislator $10,000 for using campaign donations to purchase Austin real estate by paying rent to his wife.

Toby Goodman, an Arlington lawyer who joined the Texas House of Representatives in 1991, bought an Austin condominium in 1998 and a Cedar Park house six years later with his wife, then signed his portion over to her as separate property. The loans, however, remained in both of their names.

Over 45 months, Goodman, a Republican, paid his wife $69,200 in condo rent and $8,700 in condo fees before she sold it. Over 17 months, Goodman paid her $33,000 in rent for the house and $7,580 for utilities.

Although the Ethics Commission in 1996 said lawmakers could use campaign dollars to pay rent to spouses for use of the spouse’s separate property, the commission said in this case that Goodman’s "rent" was actually being used to pay off real estate loans in the couple’s names.

Click to continue reading article

Tags: austin by Aria
No Comments »

Austin attorney to help steer NACD

Greg Holloway, an attorney at the Austin office of Thompson and Knight LLP, has been elected as an advisory board member to the National Association for Corporate Directors.