Investing

Investing in Small Commercial vs. Residential Real Estate

November 8, 2009

One of my commercial tenants skipped out on me earlier this year, so I have my office building on Manchaca Rd. for rent again. I knew it could possibly take 6 to 12 months to find a new tenant, and so far, even after dropping the rent from $1,700 to $1,495, I still don’t have [...]

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Austin Real Estate Sale Stats by MLS Area – Sept 2009 YTD

November 1, 2009

Austin’s real estate market is a “market of markets”, and thus the overall news reported about real estate activity in the Austin Metro area may or may not be reflective of conditions in the specific area in which you live, or the home you own, or the home you want to buy. Each quarter I [...]

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Austin Rental Market Update – August 2009

September 25, 2009

The Austin rental market continues to be strong.Average and monthly rents continue to rise. Days on market is low. But, even with recent gains in prices, we are nearing the end of a decade in which rental prices for landlords will have remained virtually flat. Let’s check the historic graph below before we get into [...]

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Austin Subdivision Smackdown – Circle C vs. Avery Ranch

September 20, 2009

Buyers often want to know which areas of Austin are more likely to hold value and/or appreciate over time. Not just investors, but home owners who want build home equity. My standard answer to this question is usually “stay as close in to Austin’s core (downtown) as you can afford, in neighborhoods that are established [...]

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Austin Real Estate Market Update for August 2009 Sales

September 17, 2009

Austin Real Estate values for August 2009 are down about 5% from the same month last year. Average sales prices for the 1,657 houses that sold are down 5.12%. Median sold prices are down 4.80%. The number of houses sold is down 15% from August 2008, which is less of a decrease than we’ve seen [...]

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Austin Real Estate Investing – Then and Now

May 2, 2009

Since the end of WWII, rent prices in the U.S. have run parallel to relative sales prices consistently over time. By this I mean that a $60K home would normally rent for about $600 per month, or 1% of its sales value. The chart below illustrates the gap in sale to rent value ratios that has [...]

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Crossland Team Buyer and Investor Seminar March 4th

February 24, 2009

Sylvia and I will be hosting our first ever Buyer and Investor seminar in Austin on Wednesday March 4th from 6PM till 8PM at our Keller Williams Office. Why do I refer to it as a “Buyer and Investor” seminar? Well, we think even owner-occupant buyers should approach the home evaluation and purchase process with [...]

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Austin Real Estate Networking Club

February 18, 2009

Tomorrow (Thusday Feb 19) I’ll be giving the stats presentation for the monthly Austin Real Estate Networking Club. Each month a different Realtor is invited to provide a real estate overview of the Austin market, and I’ll be up this month and March also. But that’s not why I want to encourage and invite you [...]

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Austin Rental Market Update for 2008

January 23, 2009

The rental market for single family homes in Austin continues its march upward. Rent prices increased about 6% in 2008 over 2007. Remember though that the 2008 average rent amount of $1,424 per month in Austin is still less than the year 2000 average rent of $1,497/mo. and the year 2001 peak of $1,524/mo. The [...]

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Mortgage Rates Plunge Below 5% – But Does it Help Investors?

November 26, 2008

From my Daily Realtor news feed: Mortgage rates declined Tuesday after the Federal Reserve said it would spend $600 billion to support the mortgage securities market. Rates fell to 4 7/8 percent, a 1 1/8 percentage point decline. David Beadle, president of BestInfo, said it was the sharpest one-day decline since 1988. “I hope that [...]

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