Living in Austin

Does the Austin Lifestyle Keep us all Feeling Younger?

October 3, 2010

Sylvia and I attended a friend’s birthday party last night at a local restaurant. We were among the oldest people there, but we blended in just fine. I met a college guy who just recently graduated McCallum High. Our friend is in his mid 30s and the crowd of guests ranged from young 20s to [...]

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The Changing Face of Texas – Population Forecast

July 28, 2010

A portion of our Texas Real Estate License dues goes toward funding the Real Estate Research Center at Texas A&M University. The Real Estate Center provides agents with press releases we are allowed to share. Below is the latest, which discusses the demographic shifts and population growth of Texas, both past future. At the bottom [...]

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The Joys of Downsizing to a Smaller, Better Located Austin Home

July 23, 2010

The Crossland Family has Super-Down-Sized from our nice, big, 2-year old custom home in Oak Hill to a crappy old 1970s house in Westlake. Now Me, Sylvia and our two teenagers are “crammed in” to an 1859 sqft rancher compared to the former 3316 sqft home, and 3701 sqft in the home prior to that. [...]

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What will be the Carbon Footprint Impact of Formula One Racing in Austin?

May 31, 2010

You may have read the news that Austin has been selected as the location for Formula One Racing in the U.S. A brand new 3+ mile Formula One Racetrack will be built probably somewhere near the airport that will seat 100,000+ fans. I’m thrilled about F1 coming to Austin, but I have one simple question: [...]

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Travis County Property Tax Protest Season is Here Again

May 5, 2010

I just received my property tax appraisals from Travis Country Appraisal District (TCAD)  and Williamson County Appraisal District (WCAD) for 2010. Doesn’t look like I’ll need to protest any property values this year. Some properties are borderline high, but not worth the time and effort to dispute because a) they are close enough, within a [...]

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Travis County Population Now Exceeds 1 Million – and Growing

March 24, 2010

The chart below, from this morning’s Austin Statesman article, shows why 2009 was probably the bottom of the real estate market for Austin. The inertia of population growth is going to, in the next year or two, overtake inventory and home prices will rise and continue to do so for the next 5 years or [...]

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How to Get Your Address Corrected on Google Maps

November 18, 2009

Anyone who spends a lot of time looking for addresses knows that the GPS systems and various online mapping softwares have errors and omissions. Newer neighborhoods, even those 3 or 4 years old, often don’t appear in GPS systems. Google Maps often doesn’t have these addresses either. Or my favorite, the GPS systems show streets [...]

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Travis County Tax Protest – My Formal Hearing Results

November 12, 2009

Like many other Travis County residents, I found myself staring at property tax appraisal bills this year that were over-valued. In September, the Travis County Appraisal District (TCAD) unilaterally offered a lower adjusted value for one of the properties before I even attended the informal hearing. I signed off on that and mailed it back in, [...]

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Prices Now Higher at the South Austin Dump

November 9, 2009

I made a trip to the south Austin dump this weekend. Aside from my own personal small dump load that I had from my recent garage cleanup, I had a small amount of debris that I had tossed into the back of my truck from one of my rental properties. Just some scrap lumber and [...]

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Travis County Appaisal District Tax Protest Update 2009

September 1, 2009

I just received a letter from the Travis County Appraisal District with regard to my upcoming property tax protest hearing. Instead of having the hearing, they want to just offer a lower value now, by mail. If I agree, I can just sign the letter and mail it back. The value will be lowered and [...]

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