August 2008

Austin Rental Market Update – July 2008

August 23, 2008

The Austin TX rental market continues to do well overall. Rents are steadily rising for the third year in a row after falling for 4 straight years (2002 through 2005). Average rents for homes in Austin for July 2008 were $1,493 per month. Year to date the average rent is $1,425. the graph below shows [...]

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The Reputation of Your Austin Realtor Matters

August 22, 2008

An Austin Realtor who works with buyers in south Austin has brought the buyers for three of our listings in the past 6 months. Sylvia commented to me yesterday that when the agent called to say she was bringing another offer, she told Sylvia “I was so happy to see that it was your listing [...]

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Austin Real Estate Market Update – July 2008

August 21, 2008

The average sales price for houses in Austin in July 2008 remained about level, decreasing slightly (0.05%) to $262,114. The number of failed sales efforts (expired or withdrawn) was 42%, which is a large number. Days on market continues to climb also, to 60 days average on market and 39 median days on market. Those [...]

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Understanding Your Economic Stimulus Payment

August 9, 2008

I received this nice letter from the IRS called “Understanding Your Economic Stimulus Payment”. I got out a calculator to arrive at my own understanding and, from what I can tell, my stimulus award was taxed at a rate of 92.17%, which is the percentage of the $1,800 total that was taken back because we [...]

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All About GFIs and T&P Safety

August 8, 2008

By Bob Petersen, Precision Inspection This month I am going to discuss two of the more critical mechanical components of a house, the ground-fault interrupter (GFI) and the temperature and pressure relief valve (T&P). GFI’s (also called gfci for “ground fault circuit interrupter“) are generally found only on homes of relatively recent construction (since about [...]

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Consumer Reports Flawed Realtor Survey

August 6, 2008

There has been a lot going around about a recently published consumer reports survey of home buyers and sellers. I take these type of surveys with a grain of salt, but I don’t ignore them, especially when the information provided is so obviously incorrect. The survey says: Most people still close the deal. Eighty-six percent [...]

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