Apartments somewhat mirror the Austin residential real estate rental market (houses and duplexes), though not always directly. A weak apartment market, such as that which occured in Austin from 2002 through 2005, hurts the rental market for homes and duplexes. Renters who would normally not rent an apartment can’t resist the free rent and other [...]

The article below is from today’s Austin Statesman. I’m still amazed at the choice of words and phrasing used by newspaper journalists when writing about the Austin real estate market, and how they often focus myopically on “number of sales” when interpreting ups and downs of markets. Let’s look at a few examples. First, the [...]

In July 2006 I wrote a blog article titled “Austin Street Names – Does a Politically Incorrect Street Name Affect Home Value?”. I was simply curious whether or not street names such as Gun Fight, Shoot Out and Gattling Gun would dissuade buyers from purchasing a home on a street so named, and if such [...]

Saw this today in the Wall Street Journal. The Discount Broker Redfin has stopped allowing members of the public to post comments about MLS listings on the Redfin site. They’ve been fined $50K by the local MLS in Seattle. Interesting. Seems kind of creepy to me – many of the comments the hired “reviewers” would [...]