Monthly Archives: July 2010

Neighborhood Spotlights

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Austin Neighborhood Market Spotlights

I have selected some random neighborhoods in Austin below and listed some current real estate market data.

Understand this data is specific to single family houses.  The selected neighborhoods all show healthy days on market timelines.  Please note higher and moderately priced neighborhoods are showing similar days on market.  Low interest rates are certainly influencing homes sales.

If there is an area you want me to spotlight -please let me know.

Barton Hills

Number of Active Homes on the Market: 14

Average Days on Market: 40

Median Home Price: $ 442,000

Tanglewood Forest

Number of Active Homes on the Market: 14

Average Days on Market: 91

Median Home Price: $ 178,900

Cat Mountain

Number of Active Homes on the Market: 27

Average Days on Market: 93

Median Home Price: $ 534,450

Wells Branch

Number of Active Houses on the Market: 46

Average Days on Market: 78

Median Home Price: $ 174,700

Great Hills

Number of Active Houses on the Market: 45

Average Days on Market: 87

Median Home Price: $ 444,500

Senna Hills

Number of Active Houses on the Market: 11

Average Days on Market: 71

Median Home Price: $ 645,000

Upgrades on New Construction

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 Upgrades are often priced for a moment in time, and aren’t going to add any profit 10 years from now, so choose them for you. I went on a listing appointment where the owner was pointing out all of the upgrades he paid for 10 years ago. Though certain features add substance like crown molding, other things just don’t. You may have paid $500 more for an upgraded bathtub 10 years ago, but understand it is now 10 years old. When I work with buyers on new construction, I ask this question. Are you doing this for you or the next owner? In all likelihood, the next owner isn’t going to be impressed with your upgraded light switch plate. Spend money on the things that will bring you joy, instead of trying to anticipate how someone might appreciate them in the future.

Useful Utility Rooms

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As an Austin Realtor, I see many houses.  Do you ever walk into a house and wonder what they were thinking? Well, I do it all of the time, often when it comes to the placement of utility rooms or closets. The truth of the matter is that ‘they’, were not thinking. I experienced this during my own custom build. You get so caught up in designing the kitchen and master bedroom, that the utility room becomes an after thought. The placement of the washer and dryer often become a matter of where you can fit it, in relation to the plumbing. People with children open their washing machine, almost as often as they open the refrigerator. If the secondary bedrooms are on the upper level, you are not going to walk the laundry downstairs, across the kitchen to a hallway, which holds the washing machine, but the back door to the house as well. Families need room to do laundry.