Bill Morris, Realtor

Austin Market Dashboard Update

The February market snapshot shows mixed results, but important point of emphasis regarding the Austin/Central Texas residential real estate market remains remarkable strength in property values. Continue reading →

Sensational Post?

The benefits of homeownership are so obvious, that I simply can’t accept the James Altucher believes what he blogged on the subject. His advice may be exactly right for him, but for about 2/3 of Americans, owning a home has been the foundation for financial strength they would not have realized by saving a little of every paycheck for forty years. Continue reading →

Time to invest in Austin

The strength of current gross rents, and the stability in multifamily pricing for most of last year, suggest that we have seen the bottom of this cycle. New project announcements and building permits for multifamily construction (including substantial additions to the inventory of available apartment units) show that large investors and developers are betting on coming growth. Now is the time for smaller investors to take advantage of the trend as well. Continue reading →

Austin and other cities – sales and median price growth

Austin was one of only two cities to experience positive growth in both prices and unit sales over this 12-month period. Austin’s 5% increase in median price was below the 7.8% average rate of increase since 1990, but still a strong performance. Couple that with growth in unit sales of more than 3x the national average, and this is really impressive. Continue reading →

More news on multifamily construction

A couple of weeks ago I wrote about the strength and optimism of the multifamily residential market in the Austin/Central Texas market. I promised to keep an eye on this and report further news. Today, this article indicates the same kind of confidence nationally.

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Who’s adding jobs in Austin?

I have written frequently over the past year or so about many analyses in which Austin ranked at or near the top in terms of economic strength. This Chamber report includes some details of growing employers that I have not seen summarized in one place previously.

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Manufacturing Growth in Texas

The Austin Chamber of Commerce posted an interesting report today based on the Texas Manufacturing Outlook Survey. The outlook is optimistic. I want to comment on just a couple of charts from the Chamber’s article, and one from the source report.
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More about the RE/MAX Advantage

I am proud to be part of the RE/MAX family. This video and my earlier post highlight some important reasons.
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The Austin difference

Throughout the recession and housing downturn I have been writing about how different the Austin/Central Texas experience has been from national press stories on the economy. In less than four minutes, this video hits all the high points of what I’ve been saying all that time. Rock on! Austin Rocks!, posted with vodpod  

Groundwater in Texas — changes and progress

There is an argument that diminishing a landowner’s water rights directly diminishes the value of the land itself, and so constitutes a “taking” by governmental authority. There are differences in the needs of a landowner who plants cotton compared to a rancher, or compared to a landowner who bottles and sells water. At the same time, Texas is growing quickly, and cities’ water needs are under stress.
Continue reading →