Austin TX Real Estate - Hill Country Austin Lakeway Homes for Sale: October 2006

When people think of Texas, they think of Dallas (1.2 million people), Fort Worth (624,000 people), Houston (2+ million people), Austin (690,000 people), and San Antonio (1.3 million people) which are the 5 largest Texas cities across the state.

However, people forget about the smaller cities.  They forget about them because we don't really give them their own identity as we group them into the larger city.  Below is a list of the top 11 faster growing smaller cities in Texas.  Fate, Little Elm, Murphy, and Frisco are all considered "Dallas".  Hutto, Kyle, Bee Cave, and Leander are all considered "Austin".  In the great state of Texas, the metro areas are so large, that they encompass large areas.  The population of the "City of Dallas" might only be around 1.2 million people, but the entire Dallas Metroplex, with all its little communities, has over 4 million people.

Fastest Growing Small Texas Communities 2000-2005

I just spent the last three days taking a 30 hour class o Arbitration.  Something new has come to Texas and it's very exciting!  Unlike many other states, Texas homeowners are sent a new tax value the first week of May every year.  If a home owner is unhappy with the value, they are allowed to fight the value assessed.  This value is not necessarily the market value of a home, or what a buyer will pay for the home.  This is just the tax value of the home that the appraisal district assesses.

Once you receive your notice, you have a certain amount of days to make it known that you're not happy.  Most people just go to the county appraisal office during business hours and ask to speak with one of the assessors.  If not  happy with a one on one conversation, the home owner can then chose to go to the ARB, Appraisal Review Board.  This is where the home owner gets 15 minutes to state their case and a panel of 3-5 people decide what the value should be.

If the home owner still is not happy with the value, they can then file for Arbitration.  They send in a notice to the State Comptroller's Office along with $500 and wait for a hearing.  That's where I come in!  When someone requests a hearing, they have the opportunity to chose an arbitrator as long as both parties agree, but what's mostly been happening is the Comptroller's computer spits out a name and when I'm sent a notice, I can either accept it or decline it.

Once the hearing is accepted, I have 120 days to render an award.  This means I need to send out notice to both parties to have a hearing within about 45-60 days in case either needs to reschedule somewhere in there.  Arbitration means the home owner cannot file suit in court to fight their value once a decision is made.  If the home owner prevails, they will receive $450 back from their initial $500 deposit.  If they lose, they lose their $450 as well.

This is a new process in Texas and I'm sure there are going to be some glitches the first couple of years, but I'm excited to have just completed the required course work and roll plays, and I'm sending in my application today!

This is scary.  I was only in elementary school in the 80's, so I don't remember what real estate was like, but I can imagine it was pretty bad since I've heard many times about the interest rates of the 80s being upwards in the high teens.  We moved to Texas in 1984, and when I sold that house about 5 years ago, I noticed my parents had assumed the loan in order to buy the house.  I guess assumptions were the main way to keep your rates low, though I can't believe they paid what they paid back then just to get into the house.

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Nearly 4,000 homes are in foreclosure this month for Dallas, Tarrant, Denton, and Collin Counties, the 4 main counties in the North Dallas area.  That's a 49% average increase over this time last year. 

The "average" value of foreclosures is around $115,000.  This is sad because what this means is that we got a lot of first time home owners into the market, probably on an ARM, and they thought they could own a home for the same price as they pay for an apartment, but still didn't understand the responsibilities of home ownership.

3 of my last 5 listing appiontments have been with people who can't afford to actually sell their homes.

Many of the other foreclosures are people over $500k.  Yes, these are mostly the telecom executives who are living beyong their means, got an interest only ARM and now can't afford their payments...

Frisco, TX, a fast growing suburb of Dallas, has been trying to extend their drinking hours for years.  Currently, restaurants and hotels and other type establishments can only serve alcohol until midnight.  The time is extended to 1am on Saturdays.

There are arguments on both sides, but I think the best argument is to keep people local.  If you extend the drinking hours, you're going to have more people in the restaurants and out entertaining which brings in more tax revenue.  As it stands, people from Frisco must go to a neighboring city where they serve until 2am.  During the week, and especially on Friday nights, this could mean a lot of additional profit for the city.

The other side of the argument is real estate related.  People say Frisco is a friendly, family oriented city and extending the hours would hurt the kids.  Huh?  What city doesn't advertise that they're a friendly, family oriented city?  Who wants to move into a city that advertises that their the rowdy drunks with a lot of crime?  Every city thinks they're friendly and family oriented so I believe this is a poor argument.  People think their property values will decrease if the hours are extended.  They actually think people won't move to the area if you can buy alcohol past midnight.  What?  That is one of the silliest things I've ever heard!

I blogged previously about Dallas being #27 among the drunkest cities.  I think Frisco is bringing us down.  Come on, extend those drinking hours!!  (Personally, I'm not much of a drinker. I have a drink less than 2 times a month.  Please don't think I have a drinking problem.  I'm just blogging about current issues in the Dallas area.)

The DOW started out the day over 12,000 for the first time ever.  It hit about 12,049 before dropping back down.  This is significant because it took over seven and a half years to go from 11,000 up to the 12,000 mark.

It took only 24 days to go from 10,000 up to 11,000 back in 1999, but then we were hit with many things around the country and world to stop the climb many times.  In the past two weeks, there have been 7 closing records.

It looks like we're moving strong again with consumer confidence also rising.  When consumer confidence rises, so do home sales!!

Here's more of the story if you want details.

The President signed off on the Wright Amendment and the FAA finalized it this week.

Southwest just unveiled it's not flight schedule this morning.  Love Field will now be flying to 43 cities instead of just 18.  With at least a 14 day notice, fllights will be as low as $99 for one-way! 

American Airlines will also announce their new schedule as soon as they can figure out how to work around their automated system for Kansas City and St. Louis.  People will now be given the choice to fly from DFW International Airport or Love Field.  Prices are supposed to be comperable between the two airports, but you never know.

Also, part of the new rules is to demolish some of the terminals so there can only be a maximum of 20 terminals.  Since Love is still in a fairly residential area, times for flights are still under restrictive times, before 11pm.

This is going to open up many more flying option for the Dallas area!

A good portion of my buyers are Singles.  When I first got into real estate, I thought it was weird for singles to be buying homes.  I was also single at the time, and my train of thought was that it was easier to rent while single than having so many responsibilities with owning a home.  When was I supposed to do maintenance and mow the lawn?  After a year and a half of selling houses and not owning one myself, I bought a house as I thought it was hypocritical of me to preach the benefits of home ownership over renting.

Yesterday, I heard a crazy statistic... 51% of the US population are Single.  49% are Married.  WOW!  This number was compared to a number in 1930 when 84% of the population was married.

The phrase I heard within the report was that the Singles like to "Try before you buy" and they are taking this as far as buying homes with people that they're not necessarily going to marry.  My initial thought is that there are going to be many more foreclosures.  My thinking on this is because if they break-up, one party will have to buy out the other party for the house, and if they can't afford to do that, and if they just bought the house less than a couple of years earlier, there probably isn't enough equity to just sell it and get out from under it.  More than likely, people will  have to go through short-sales or just letting the houses go.  I'm not sure I like this.

Then, I remembered that I work with a lot of singles.  Maybe what's really happening is that Singles are buying homes, and then they're finding relationships and the other party moves in.  If they break up at that point, unless it's been a long relationship where common-law marriage steps in, it's obvious the original home owner retains possession...

BUT, this is where I might get some negative comments... If I moved in with someone while dating, that's one thing... When we get married, I couldn't live in "his" house.  We would need to get "our" own house together.  People couldn't believe I actually did this.  When my now husband and I decided to get married, we put both houses on the market.  Everyone asked why I didn't just sell my house and move into his.  I'm sorry, but my house was twice the size of his, though he had the better location, but only a better location for singles as it was within walking distance to all the eclectic restaurants and bars and shopping.  My house sold first, so I moved into his house until it sold.  I felt I couldn't do anything within the house without asking permission because it was "his" house.  We talked long and hard about making it work there, but I couldn't.

We bought a house last summer that is 3 times the size of his tiny house and we're very happy because it's "our" house.  What a tangent just to say that Singles out number Married people!!

Texas currently has the lowest credit scores in the Nation.  Texas is currently in the top 5 for Foreclosures.  Dallas is rated #27 as the drunkest city across the Country...

According to "The Gay and Lesbian Atlas", Gays and Lesbians are more likely to have children in TEXAS than in any other state!!  San Antonio holds the #1 spot and the Fort Worth/Arlington area hold the #5 spot. 

Texas, once again, stands high at the top of a list!  This is actually a really good statistic.  Texas is supposed to be a "Republican" state, but day after day, it's things like this that show times are changing, and for the better.

Collin County law enforecment is out in full force this week.  They plan on rounding up all the people with outstanding warrants against them.  This takes a lot of man-power and man-hours to go door knocking and showing up at people's homes or offices.

Their goal for the week is 300!  That sounds like a lot, right? There are 7 days in a week.  That's almost 43 arrests a day.  I'm not sure they'll be working 24 hours around the clock, but even if they work only 7am-9pm, that's just over 3 arrests an hour.

Collin County people, you better get to the police station or the court house and take care of your business!!

The Associated Press put out a brief report this morning saying that commutes are increasing.  More and more people are leaving for work between 5 am and 6:30 am.  When I was in corporate America, I remember leaving for work at 7:35 am in order to be at work at 8am.  What a difference!  If I had to leave at 6:30, I wouldn't be a hampy capper (happy camper) throughout the day due to lack of sleep.

There has been a 50 precent increase  for commutes over 60 minutes from 1990-2000.  However, many more commuters are going from suburb to suburb instead of suburb to city.  More and more companies are moving to where the employees are, and that's a good thing!

There are several companies in the Dallas area that have satelite offices around the Metroplex.  That way the commutes can be shortened and work more productive.

Come November, people in Richardson, TX will be voting on a new ordanance for registered sex offenders and where they can live.  The debate is whether or not the boundary should be after 1000 feet of the "premise where children commonly gather" or after 2000 feet. 

If you spread it out past 2000 feet, you limit many many areas as Richardson has many parks and schools.  Either way the vote goes, my immediate area is "safe", but if they only need to be 1000 feet away, part of the southern part of my community would be a place of interest.

Overall, right now, the number of sex offenders in Richardson is down to 38 from the earlier number this year of 43.  Only 5 reside in the panhandle of Richardson, and this is the main area it's being fought to keep the distance at 2000 feet.

Come November, we'll see how it's passed!

To get further information on where sex offenders reside, you can go to this website.

The petition to add a Beer and Wine vote to the November election was sucessful!  Richardson has been "dry" for way too long.  Dallas to the south is mostly full wet which means the majority of Dallas can sell Beer, Wine and Liquor.  Plano to the north is "moist" which means it can only sell Beer and Wine.

For years, Richardson residents have always had to plan a drive in order to get Beer, Wine, and/or Liquor.  Hopefully, those times are coming to an end.

The vote has the basic stuff like they can't sell within a certain distance of a school or residential neighborhood.  They're even putting on the ballot that Richardson could have drive-thru Beer places.

Richardson is basically completely built out so there are no more high priced homes being built that would increase tax revenue.  Plus, a good portion of Richardson is over 65 so their taxes are frozen with the over 65 exemption.  Bringing in Beer and Wine will add a lot for the city!  I'm excited!

There's some good news and some bad news.

The good news is that Texas saw a 16% decrease in foreclosures in September over August.

The bad news is that Texas saw a 23% increase in foreclosures in September '06 over September '05.

There are 11,988 homes in some type of foreclosure, and since many people are just late on their payments, this isn't the actual number that will be foreclosed on.  With these numbers, Texas is 1.5 times the national average... so sad...

I've read lots about Time Management, and I've taken a couple of classes that also talk about scheduling and learning to manage your time.  My problem with all this information is that I've never seen or heard anything about how to schedule in Bathroom Breaks!

Bathroom Breaks are very important, and sometimes I'll have to go for a couple of hours before finding 30 seconds to "sit down."  It's not good for your bladder or your kidneys.  What's funny is that I'm typing this because I've been trying to get to the bathroom for over an hour now, but emails keep coming in or the phone keeps ringing and then I have to follow up with others when I get off the phone that requires more information.  So, instead of getting up and going, since I now had 2 minutes to spear, I decided to type this out with my foot tapping.

It's a fierce circle throughout the day, and I drink A LOT of water!!

Does anyone have any tricks on working bathroom breaks into your busy schedules?

Is anyone getting the flu shot this year?  I got the flu shot for the first time two years and after two weeks, I got so sick and was sick for about 3 weeks... it  was horrible.

Last year, I didn't get the shot because of the shortages in the area.  They weren't allowing the average person to get the shot.

This year, even though a shortage was delivered to the area, there are no restrictions so I got the shot this morning...  I'm really hoping I don't get sick like last time, but I'm feeling quite dizzy and getting hot flashes... and I'm way too young to be getting hot flashes!!  Plus, the made me get the shot in my right arm though my left arm is the designated shot arm.  Always has been.  They said something about it being regulated that everyone MUST get the shot in their right arm.  Has anyone heard of this rule?

How do others react to the shot?

Sales are down in North Texas and inventory is up.  We still have less than a 6 month supply, so it's still not technically a Buyer's Market like some would think.  However, many buyers are waiting to buy thinking they'll get that massive deal overnight.  Most Buyers are listening to National news which is typically quite different that our local news since the report came out a couple of months ago showing we're 18% undervalued compared to the rest of the country.  Still, people like to sit and wait.

Median sales price dropped 3%, a  decrease for the first time since September 2004.  September is typically one of my slowest months, but this was the busiest September I had ever had, with 4 closings.  November and December are typically my busy months, and I'm hoping to keep that tradition.

I got a call yesterday from a gentleman saying he saw my listing and wanted to put a contract on it. I'm saying, Great! Do you have an approval letter, or are you paying cash?  He responds that it'll be cash.  Great!  Can I get a letter from your bank showing proof of funds.  He says that's not a problem.

He tells me he's in Phoenix right now, but will be back in Dallas in 10 days at which time he then wants to look at the house before moving forward.  I explain to him that there has been a lot of activity on the house and I can't take it off the market to wait 10 days for him to come into town, but that I'll call him if I receive another offer before he gets to town.  He appreciates that.

Then, he talks further about how he's taking classes to get his real estate license.  I'm thinking, the smart thing would be to wait until you have the license before buying so you can collect the commission, but didn't say that.  He also mentioned it had been hard taking all the classes because he wasn't sure about quitting his job.  I then spark up and say, Hey!  I've got an idea.  When you get your license, if you want to continue to work full time, you can pass off any potential buyers and sellers to me and I can pay you a referral fee!

His reply was, "Yes, this is a referral deal."  I say, excuse me?  He says he wants a referral fee for the purchase because it's his friend wanting to buy the house.  OHHH, you're not the buyer??  No, he's calling for his friend.  OK, in the state of Texas, I cannot pay you a referral fee without a valid, active license.  He asked if I could pay it afterwards.  I asked what they were teaching in real estate school these days.  WOW!

Anyway, I explained how it was illegal.  I also told him I would talk with the seller about potentially buying the title policy for the buyer as that would help the buyer with costs.  He sounded excited about that and he said that was nice of me to offer to help the buyer like that.  (Sellers paying for the title policy is almost customary in my area, but he doesn't know that).

We'll see if I can get this house under contract... 9 days left before they get back in town.  Oh, and before we hung up, he asked if I could email him any other homes in the area under $300k.  I told him I needed to talk directly with the buyers before moving forward.  Everyone is always looking for their piece of the pie even if they don't deserve it...

This coming weekend, October 7 & 8 is the bi-annual Cottomwood Art Festival in Richardson at Cottonwood Park.  The Festival is from 9am-6pm.  This year features over 800 artists.  There is also live entertainment for people of all ages.  THe kid's corner always looks like so much fun, but until I get one of those "munchkin things" running around, I just watch.

Mike and I have been in our home just over a year now, and the walls are bare.  We'll be looking for some nice art to make a splash!

For more information, go to: www.cottonwoodartfestival.com

The State Fair of Texas is now upon us.  This year's fair runs from Sept 29 through October 22. 

This also means that the Texas/OU game is this weekend!  That means lots more traffic and longer waits at the restaurants, but these are the reasons Dallas begged the two schools to continue at the Cottonbowl for the next few years.

As for the actual fair, you can get more information at http://www.bigtex.com/.  Don't forget that there are many ways to not pay full price.  Why pay full price when you don't have to!  There are Coca-Cola days, Dr. Pepper days, after 6pm price, and many other things.  Go to the Sponsor page to check them all out.

Don't forget to eat a funnel cake for me!!  Powered sugar only, I don't like them with fruit on top.