Austin, as usual, fared well through the process. Austin’s average wage increased during the same period of time, as much as 1.4 percent. Housing costs are also increasing in the Austin Metro Area. There was a minor decrease in job opportunities over the reviewed time, .05%.

This is only one of several studies to produce a clear picture of how well the Austin metropolitan area is increasing, improving and developing even through a recession that has brought most of the country down.

Here are Austin’s rankings:

Regarding best or lowest cost of living, Austin ranks 3 out of 50. For housing opportunities, as in open homes for rent or sale, Austin’s metropolitan area ranks 24 of 50. The unemployment rate they are 1 of the 50 cities, meaning of all the cities surveyed, Austin has the lowest unemployment rate and the most jobs or job growth. Regarding the average salary in Austin, it ranks 20th of the 50 cities. These stats combine to create the best reason for people to love to live in Austin.

As often as Forbes does their surveys, Austin continues to surprise them by topping the lists. From green recognition to best bang for your buck, this is the place to live. Moving to Austin is easier than ever, with the right Realtor. When are ready to move, contact the team here to find your place to live in this wonderful city we call Austin.

The big job increases for 2009 have been in the areas of Hospitality, Retail, and Restaurants. These services are provided direct to the public and even through a recession they are seeing modest growth opportunities. Direct impact on Austin’s job market, goods producing industries and technology based industries are down across the region. The jobs in the direct to consumer industries mentioned above, compensate significantly for those jobs lost.

Within the Texas borders Austin’s 5.8% unemployment rate ranks at the top of the list. Dallas-Fort Worth stands with 6.6% and Huston at 6.3% unemployment rates for April. The only Texas City with a better unemployment rate was San Antonio at 5.4%. Many of the smaller metro areas reported more than 8% unemployment.

In 1954 the Starr building served as American National Bank, who included Austin’s first escalators and the first drive up banking center in the area. On the interior lobby wall is a mural that made Fortune magazine’s shortly list of distinguished national architectural paintings, this mural was designed by modern artist Seymour Fogel. These are just some of the historical attributes associated with the incredible building.

The goal of the Kemp renovation will be to preserve the historical value while bringing it into a green and energy efficient design. They will be leaving the renovation and planning to the capable and renowned company of McGarrah Jesse firm. Their plans and architectural expertise has been seen in several preservation and renovation projects around the city and the world. To their credit the list includes the Lady Bird Johnson Wildflower Center along with the LBJ School Renovation.

The example this acquisition makes for all of Austin is that commercial real estate is still a viable investment for any company. Finding the right commercial establishment, rich and full of history is an investment that can enhance any business, even in troubled times. This process will be made fair with the use of your commercial real estate agent.

Even as the market is moving forward, home buyers can expect prices to continue to fall in different areas around the country. One benefit of shopping for a home in the Austin market is that it has not been a part of the huge pricing swings. Prices in this market are not expected to swing in one direction or the other.
According to the Austin Board of Realtors there were 1,919 pending sales anticipated to close in May, bring the April total up 3%, the highest number since July 2008.

Home prices will increase once foreclosures stabilize again. Currently on the national level, there is still a plethora more homes in the sales inventory base, than home buyers. This is changing, as seen in the evidence from April, and forecasters only expect this trend to continue until the end of the year.

With the growing expectations and the increase in pending home sales, the market is ripe for new home buyers. For 2009 there is available an 8,000 dollar new home buyer tax incentive. This is an increase from the previous 5,000 and in addition to any incentives being offered at the state level. This means that the buyer’s market is reaching its pinnacle in 2009.

I’ll run it in sort of a time-line style.

1) Austin passes Mandatory Energy Audit Ordinance
Austin Ordinance

2) Texas Legislature inserts a statement into SB 546 making it illegal for a municipality to impose a criminal penalty (fine in the case of Austin’s Energy Rule) on the seller of a piece of real property (real estate) for failure to perform an energy audit.
Bill Info

3) SB 546 passes both houses by 5/18/09
SB 546 Bill progress

4) The Texas Governor is next up on the SB 546 path to resolution
Governor’s Action

5) The 81st Legislative session ends June 1, 2009 and the Governor has until June 21, 2009 to veto or approve the bill
Important Dates

So as I read it…

Outcome 1: Governor approves SB 546 and the bill becomes law. I assume that this would then become law immediately, but not sure.

Outcome 2: Governor vetoes SB 546. In this case, the bill goes back to the legislature and needs 2/3rds to override the veto.

Outcome 3: Governor does nothing. Then on June 22nd, 2009 the bill becomes law. Of course that is if the bill could not become law immediately for some reason (read some of those crazy rules the government makes to keep itself feeling important and noted above) then it would become law 91 days after the session ended on September 1, 2009.

Man, I’m confused. Can anyone add some lucidity to this whole deal for me?
Joe

Buyers are still skeptical about buying in a down market. This is evident from the low home sales so far through 2009. One major hurdle that interested buyers are facing is the credit crunch that has limited many options for loans. These days, it is harder than ever to secure financing for a large investment. While this may mean that those who are purchasing may have less trouble with continuing payments, it has taken a lot of people out of the running for new homes. People who may have been approved just a few years ago are no longer eligible.

Home values in Austin have not dropped as dramatically as in other cities, though they are down by about 4% from last year. The strong local economy, availability of employment, and pleasant atmosphere all help to boast the housing market. These traits continue to bring newcomers to the area, which will continue to help the housing market. The market here is not expected to start looking up until late this year, or possibly into 2010. Until then, Austin will likely remain as steady as possible in such a difficult time.

An amendment attached to a solar bill that’s steaming through the Legislature could torpedo a City of Austin energy efficiency program.

The Austin rule taking effect June 1 requires Austin homes receiving electricity from Austin Energy to have an energy audit before being sold. (Homes can be exempted for a number of reasons, such as if they’re less than 10 years old at time of sale or have received energy-efficiency improvements through Austin energy.) The goal of the plan is to make old building stock more efficient, by encouraging buyers and sellers to learn ways they can cut energy use by doing things like adding insulation.

Violating the ordinance is a Class C misdemeanor, and violators can be fined up to $500.

Read the rest at Latest on Austin’s Energy Audit Ordinance

My comment…

If you want to get an energy audit, no one is stopping you. Go and upgrade your home as you see fit. Be ready when the buyer decides to give you exactly what you’d get for a home without the audit or upgrades, but do it because it’s right and you can afford it. If you want to keep your house at 60 degrees, go ahead, but be ready for the bill.

Many people struggle to pay their mortgage and don’t make a ton of money when they sell so the audits can amount to a monthly payment to them. There is no way anyone should face criminal charges and fines for failure to comply with an unfair law anyway.

If you want to list with a real estate agent who charges $500, do it. If you want full service, pay for it. That’s the beauty of choice and freedom.

Why people think it’s ok to turn Austin from a group of laid back folks who want to coexist with others of differing viewpoints to psycho, militant, legislate everything ya do nut-balls, I’ll never know. But it isn’t cool. It isn’t Austin. At least not the Austin I love and enjoy calling home.

Joe

As an aside, I do feel sorry for all the people who rushed out to corner the mandatory energy audit market and are now potentially sitting on a goose egg. That’s kinda rough.

They government agency known for making home ownership possible, is still working toward that goal. They are looking for a way to allow first time home buyers access to their 8,000 dollar credit, at closing instead of next year. The Federal Housing Authority has a list of approved lenders. These aforementioned lenders will be able to loan the money as an advance to the first time home buyers. Currently there is not time table, but this process has already begun.

Several states have begun to develop similar plans to help first time home buyers now. This state level loan gives home buyers the ability to open up funds otherwise set aside to spend on furnishings for the new home. This money will then do exactly what it was intended to do, stimulate the economy. This will enable growth and recovery. It is only a brief matter of time before Austin will see the benefits.

I just had a transaction get pushed out a week, a family lose a weeks worth of on the market time for their existing home, and a family end up putting $5k extra down that they didn’t have to put down because of an appraiser who did a sloppy job. Of course, I pulled the data that showed an error in the comparable lot size the day we got the appraisal a week before the originally scheduled closing. I forwarded the evidence of the error to the lender, who forwarded it to the appraisal management company, who forwarded it to the appraiser, who did nothing about it. Why should he? He can’t be fired from the bank’s list of appraisers. We can’t talk to him or say hey man, are you retarded? Look at the lot? Turn your head 90 degrees and look at the lot next door, can’t you tell that it’s not twice the size of the lot you are appraising and that therefore your adjustment and the data on the appraisal should be fixed? I plan on filling a complaint with the Texas licensing board for this and every single apathetic appraiser that I run across now.

In what other free market do people get handed business with their license and then get removed from responsibility for the quality of work they do and professionalism with which they do it? Your license is your ticket to the game, not tenure and guarantee of business. Sorry, but real estate is a rough and tumble business. 95% of agents don’t make it 5 years. It should be the same way with appraisers as with all other new businesses. Find a way or find the door.

I’m open to hearing other viewpoints, but right now, this whole deal seems like a cop out.

One last thought. When other groups like NAR put aout a Code of Conduct or Code of Ethics as NAR calls it generally speaks to how the group’s members should act. When the appraisers lobby for and get passed a Home Value Code of Conduct it speaks to what everyone else must do. Strange huh?

A slightly miffed Austin Realtor.

Joe