Wednesday, March 5, 2008

In the largest redevelopment opportunity ever for downtown Austin, the city has issued a request for proposals for the purchase and redevelopment of the Thomas C. Green Water Treatment Plant and the adjoining Austin Energy Control Center. The two properties total about 6.1 acres or 5 city blocks.

The Green and Austin Energy sites are being heralded by city and business leaders as the missing anchor between the Second Street Retail District and the future activity of the Seaholm District redevelopment. The properties could bring the most significant retail to downtown to date, city leaders say. The city also plans to direct 40 percent of the property tax proceeds from the redevelopment to an Austin Housing Trust Fund towards creating affordable housing in the urban core.

The minimum purchase price will be based on the final appraised value of the properties. The preliminary appraised value is $41 million, but a final appraised value should be determined before March 31.

Click to continue reading this article

Tags: austin, austin real estate, building, downtown, economy, environment, green, neighborhoods by Aria
No Comments »

Wednesday, March 12, 2008 - 2:52 PM CDT

The San Antonio-based developer is building the 276-unit Residences at Oak Hill on a 45-acre tract west of the intersection of State Highway 71 and U.S. Highway 290 in Southwest Austin.

Dustin Slack, vice president of multifamily development for McShane, says that with single-family home prices in Southwest Austin pushing the limits of affordability, there’s an opportunity for new luxury rental communities that appeal to the area’s growing high-tech workforce.

“There is an enormous demand for luxury rental communities due to the recent completion of the corporate headquarters for AMD (Advanced Micro Devices Inc.) together with over 1 million square feet of new corporate campus office space in the immediate area,” says Slack. He also points out that the project is positioned near Sunset Valley to the east and the Hill Country Galleria to the west.

The garden-style rental community will feature a combination of one-, two- and three-bedroom units ranging in size from 600 square feet to 1,300 square feet.

Slack expects the first units to be available in January 2009.

Click to continue reading this story

For more information about this or any Austin real estate project, email me.

Tags: austin, austin real estate, building, condos, economy, investing, neighborhoods, real estate, real estate outlook, where to buy by Aria
No Comments »

Wednesday, March 5, 2008 - 3:50 PM CST

Austin Business Journal

The steel and glass residential towers set to reshape the downtown Austin skyline aren’t a pipedream. They’re coming–and they’re going to be filled, a new study shows.

The analysis from Texas economist Ray Perryman suggests that while the nation battles a housing correction, Austin’s residential market remains relatively healthy. Moreover, says Perryman, there is clear demand among Austinites to live in the city’s vibrant downtown.

There are currently about 6,000 people living downtown. And with about 4,000 residential units under construction or planned around downtown, that population is expected to double over the next two years. Perryman says with the Austin area adding more than 40,000 new residents annually, the local housing market will continue to fair well, and rising energy costs and traffic woes will drive a growing interest in urban living.

“This housing market will fundamentally support the type of housing being developed downtown,” Perryman said at a morning press conference at City Hall organized to discuss the report. “There is an amble population to absorb these units.”

Click for the rest of this story

Tags: austin, building, buyers, condos, downtown, economy, investing, neighborhoods, real estate, urban living by Aria
No Comments »

Home values have declined across the country, giving homebuyers the best buys they’ve had since 2004.

NEW YORK (CNNMoney.com) — It may be the best time to buy a house in more than four years.

Home prices have dropped so quickly and so far that valuations - the difference between what a home should cost and its actual price - are the lowest they’ve been since 2004, according to a report.

The Cleveland-based bank National City Corp. (NCC, Fortune 500), together with financial analysis firm Global Insight, revealed Tuesday that more than 88% of the 330 housing markets surveyed showed price declines and improved affordability during the last three months of 2007.

“Housing valuations are almost back to long-term norms,” said National City’s chief economist, Richard DeKaser. He called current affordability “the best in the past four years.”

But DeKaser cautioned that home prices could fall even further.

“This isn’t to say home price declines are over,” he said. “We could move below historic norms. By the end of 2008, housing markets could be broadly under valued.”

Prices still improving

There are still 21 housing markets, or 6% of those surveyed, that are severely over valued, including Atlantic City and Madera, Calif. That’s down from 56 overvalued markets at the peak of the housing bubble in 2006.

The report compares actual median home prices with what the authors determine are proper home values based on population density, relative income levels and interest rates, as well as historically observed market premiums or discounts, to determine whether markets are over or under valued.

The report also factors in market intangibles that make some areas more desirable places to live, and more expensive.

Click to continue reading this story

Tags: austin, austin real estate, buyers, economy, financing, investing, money, neighborhoods, real estate, real estate outlook, sellers, where to buy by Aria
No Comments »

Builders and remodelers who work steadily on readjusting their business practices in response to the current economic downturn stand a good chance of surviving until better times arrive and trouncing the competition during the recovery, according to housing industry veterans appearing at the International Builders’ Show (IBS) in Orlando last month with the battle scars to prove they have weathered previous housing slumps.

“Today’s housing market is obviously not the same housing market that existed a couple of years ago, and that means you can’t afford to run your company the same way you did then,” said Michael Sivage, of Sivage Community Development in Albuquerque, N.M., who moderated the panel. The industry faces “another challenging year” following a “tough” 2007, he warned, and the burden is on builders to persuade consumers to consider the home-buying opportunities in today’s market despite the daily barrage of negative reports in the news media.

Sivage asked each builder to track where their businesses have gone since the start of the downturn in 2006 and discuss what they are doing to get through 2008 and prepare for better times ahead. Among the accounts shared with the convention audience:

Robert Camp, of Camp Corporation in Lakewood, Wash., said that his company closed sales on only 35 homes last year, compared to 125 in a good market; saw declining profit margins; and ran into cash-flow problems. This year, his objectives are to reduce the inventory and cut interest costs by 50%. To get out from under the interest burden, he is offering his customers the opportunity to rent houses in the existing inventory and then purchase them in two years, with rent set aside to help them qualify for a mortgage.

Camp has also resorted to “bare bones pricing” that has cut the selling price an average of $20,000 per unit by trimming construction costs, such as scaling back to a one-car garage. In a new subdivision going up on developed property owned by the company, on a pre-sale basis only, starter homes are being offered for just under $200,000, compared to $250,000 to $275,000 previously.

“The idea is to do something every day to help your company get through this downturn,” he said. For example, he has stopped accepting bids on projects. “We tell subcontractors what we can afford to pay, making sure they make a profit so we all will be in business in 2009.”

Camp is looking for 60 sales this year and has already made it a third of the way to his goal. “Don’t crawl into a hole thinking you can avoid all of this. It’s not going to go away,” he said. He also advised builders to take advantage of the resources available at their local home builders associations and “find people who can tell you how they got through things.”

Click to continue reading this story

Tags: building, buyers, marketing, neighborhoods, where to buy by Aria
No Comments »

Friday, February 29, 2008

Austin Business Journal - by G. Scott Thomas Contributing writer

We live in stressful times. Consider the evidence:

• Forty percent of Americans say they are frequently subjected to stress, and another 36 percent sometimes feel that way, according to a January survey by the Gallup Poll.
• Nearly half of U.S. adults believe the stress in their lives has escalated during the past five years, as reported in an October study by the American Psychological Association.
• Three of every 10 Americans say they experience persistent stress or have panic attacks, as documented in a November survey by the Anxiety Disorders Association of America.

These numbers reflect the dimensions of a “national pressure cooker,” to use the American Psychological Association’s term, and it’s causing untold damage to physical and emotional well-being and relationships. Several factors contribute to the daily pressure felt by millions of Americans, ranging from finances and unemployment to traffic, crime and pollution. The intensity of this toxic mixture varies from market to market across the country, as does the level of stress.

 Click to continue reading this story

Tags: austin, environment, neighborhoods by Aria
No Comments »

By Shonda Novak | Thursday, February 28, 2008, 12:47 PM

Work is expected to start in about a month on the $120 million BartonPlace condominium development on Barton Springs Road, after the project won unanimous City Council approval for a zoning change today, the developers said.

The 270-unit project will replace the Shady Grove Trailer Park on Barton Springs, behind Austin Java.

The developers are Larry Warshaw and Perry Lorenz of Constructive Ventures Inc., builders of the The Pedernales, Saltillo Lofts, TwentyOne24, and Este condo projects in East Austin. Constructive Ventures is partnering in BartonPlace with Rick Engel, co-owner of Austin Java, Little Woodrow’s, Paggi House and Uncle Billy’s.

The development team has signed a private agreement with the Zilker Neighborhood Association that will forever limit the development of the portion of the property that fronts Barton Springs Road, to help preserve the local businesses that make up Austin’s popular “restaurant row.”

Click to continue reading this story

Tags: austin, austin real estate, building, buyers, condos, downtown, economy, investing, marketing, money, neighborhoods, real estate, urban living by Aria
No Comments »

By Shonda Novak | Tuesday, February 26, 2008, 03:25 PM

Groundbreaking has been delayed for the condo project called 1155 Barton Springs, which is destined to replace the long-vacant Treehouse restaurant and nightclub at Dawson and Barton Springs Road.

Developers Elisabeth and Steffen Waltz and their partners had hoped to start construction on the project by the end of 2007. But yesterday, Elisabeth Waltz wrote in an email:

“These times seem to call for a measured approach. It may take us a few more months to start construction; we will start when we have 50% or more of the residences sold. (Personally, having been a real estate broker for many years, I would prefer all of them pre-sold).”

Click to continue reading this story 

Tags: austin, austin real estate, condos, downtown, economy, environment, financing, green, investing, neighborhoods, sellers, staging, urban living, where to buy by Aria
No Comments »

NEIGHBORHOOD SPOTLIGHT

Lost Creek tucked away in the western hills, with views

By Clayton Stromberger
SPECIAL TO THE AMERICAN-STATESMAN
Sunday, February 17, 2008

Saying goodbye to the cosmopolitan bustle of Washington, D.C., was not easy for Nancy Vaden-Kiernan and her husband and young twin boys.

Headed back to Texas for family and work reasons, the four were leaving behind a classic, old two-story home down the street from the Washington National Cathedral and all the parks, museums, and cultural events a big city has to offer. Vaden-Kiernan knew they’d need a special new home to make the twins excited about the move.

“We wanted a view and a good school,” she says. Searching online, they found both — and a swimming pool — in a home in Lost Creek, just off Loop 360 in the Eanes Independent School District. They flew out for a visit, gazed at the hills and valleys of the Barton Creek greenbelt from the back deck and bought the house that weekend.

>>> Click for entire article

Tags: austin, buyers, neighborhoods by Aria
No Comments »

The burbs no longer beckon residents who want to end commutes and be close to it all.

By Shonda Novak
AMERICAN-STATESMAN STAFF
Sunday, February 10, 2008

‘Urban Re-Renewal: Downtowns making a comeback as places to call home.”

“Downtown Living All the Rage.”

“Crazy for condos: Downtown Scottsdale joins nation’s upscale urban living boom.”

Headlines in cities across the country document the continued popularity of downtown living, a trend that re-emerged in the 1990s locally and nationally. In this sense, Austin isn’t so weird after all.

Like Boston, Detroit, Denver and many other cities, Austin has its share of singles and young professionals, executives, empty nesters, retirees and, increasingly, young families headed to where the action is: downtown.

They’re being drawn by the dining, music, nightlife and recreational and cultural amenities, from galleries and performing arts venues to Lady Bird Lake.

They are a diverse group, of all ages and occupations.

“Time is the most important commodity that people have in their lives, and living downtown means people spending less time stuck in traffic and more time enjoying life,” says Larry Warshaw, a co-developer of four condominium projects in East Austin and the 42-story Spring tower under construction downtown. “I see it being a trend that will continue for several decades.”

Warshaw echoes the views of other experts, including John McIlwain, senior fellow resident for housing with the Urban Land Institute who himself moved from the suburbs of Washington, D.C., to live in that city’s downtown.

“There are and always will be those who want a house with a yard in the suburbs,” McIlwain says, “but more and more are opting to move to the revived cities. Decades of major investments in cities by the federal government along with mayors focusing on the basics have made cities safe and vibrant places to live.”

>>> Click for entire article

Tags: austin, building, buyers, condos, downtown, investing, money, neighborhoods, urban living, where to buy by Aria
No Comments »