"Will I ever be able to afford a house in Austin?"

By Stephanie Kelley

Problems continue to challenge young home buyers in the Austin. As if it wasn’t hard enough to establish long-term assets like a first home, a recent article on statesman.com sheds light on the decrease in home sales in comparison to this point last year. The article, written by Statesman staff writer M.B. Taboada, shows how raising credit standards for mortgages might be one contributing factor to why home sales are down 10% from last year.

Taboada shows the most compelling stat, stating “the slowdown in sales was steepest for homes priced below $200,000, which makes up more than half of the Central Texas market.” As a college student or recent graduate, a first home usually falls into this category, and combined with the growing difficulty for younger people to get mortgages, we are left with more and more houses sitting on the market. Even though there are more houses on the market, the price is not going down. Due to steady population increases in Central Texas, these homes will remain solid in their value, regardless of the current declining trend.

Some real estate investors don’t view the situation as being quite as grim. After all, they more than likely have the opportunity to sell homes in various markets, worth, etc. But is the market forgetting the little people? Compared to other big cities like San Antonio and the DFW, where they saw declines of 13% and 7% respectively, Austin’s decline seems almost minuscule.

I feel concerned about this topic for a couple of reasons. With the median price for a house being over $192,000, I begin to wonder how and if I am ever going to be able to afford my first home. As long as more and more people move into the area making more money than I do, the price of homes does not look like it’s going to decrease anytime soon. And combined with the “tighter credit standards”, another way of saying the market is catering towards the wealthy, young home buyers and future home buyers like myself are left feeling overwhelmed.

Article: Austin housing market slowing

Sales in August were down 10 percent from previous year, but prices still rising

http://www.statesman.com/search/content/business/stories/realestate/09/25/0925homesales.html

By M.B. Taboada

Austin American Statesman

Tuesday, September, 25th 2007

Wastewater Plan Could Put Bear Creek in a Stinky Situation.

Dumping up to 500,000 gallons of wastewater per day into Bear Creek is a horrible idea, at least according to the residence of the area. Hays County Water Control and Improvement District #1 has requested a discharge permit that will allow them to dump up to 500,000 gallons of wastewater into Bear Creek to be able to keep up with current and future development. This could be the first time that discharging of waste water has been allowed in the Barton Springs section of the Edwards Aquifer.

Now at first glance my initial reaction was that of a teenage girl watching a horror movie for the first time. How could they pollute Bear Creek like that? Don't they think of all the wildlife that lives there and the impact it will have on the ecosystem in the area? Apparently I wasn't alone in this thought; the residents of the area have formed a group to protect Bear Creek.

After the initial shock of the whole situation has worn off I decided to dig into the story a little bit more because the article seemed bias after reflecting on what I had read.

According to the Hays County Water Control and Improvement District #1's website the water isn't wastewater so much as treated water. Wastewater gives the impression of steaming untreated sewage flowing out of an oversized pipe and pouring into a fresh lake. Treated water, on the other hand is various types of wastewater that has been cleaned and purified. In fact, the water is required to meet or exceed the state’s safety and quality standards for Type I reclaimed water, deeming it safe for humans and wildlife alike.

The Hays County Water Control and Improvement District also stated that it has no intention of dumping anywhere near 500,000 gallons of reclaimed water a day. The only reason that figure comes into play is because they permit requires them to apply for the worst case scenario amount.

Though [dumping 500,000 gallons a day] almost certainly will never occur, the Water District's responsible plan and scientific analysis is based on that possibility, which adds up to the 500,000 gallon figure.

With everything taken into account, this seems essential in the movement to keep up with current and future development and actually helps the environment by recycling wastewater for irrigation. The people living in the Bear Creek area won't be waist deep in sewage any time soon.

News 8 Article: http://www.news8austin.com/content/headlines/?ArID=192580&SecID=2
Hays County Water Control and Improvement District #1: http://hayscountywater.com/

-Gregory

Highrise Could Tower Over Historical Neighborhood

By: Jay Heinrich



Two recent articles in the Austin-American Statesman have two very different ideas of living. While one article almost makes me brace myself for the upcoming possible traffic increases and over-crowding of our downtown area here in Austin, the other brings a smile to this small town guy's face and brings to light a philosophy that could help keep a neighborhood from being further engulfed by the ever-expanding downtown area.


A September 20 article written by Shonda Novak is full of facts about one of the many new condo highrises going skyward in downtown Austin, including its negatives. A more recent article written on September 23 by John Egan has a different feel to it. That's because Egan's article brings to the reader's attention a different kind of living on ranches far, far away from any highrise skyscraper.



The new condo highrise is proposed to be built on West Avenue between 8th and 9th streets. According to the article, in an area where zoning laws currently cap the height of a building at 60 feet, lobbying is taking place by David Cox, president of Fortis Development, which is an Austin located business, to raise that limit to 250 feet, or about 20 stories. It is mentioned that many residents in this neighborhood have voiced their opinion that such a building would fail to "fit with the residential and historic character of the area."





Ummm.... you think? That's like saying next to DKR Texas Memorial Stadium the University of Texas will build a shrine to Texas A&M mascot Reveille and expect it to fit in. It's just not going to happen.



On the other hand, Egan writes of a thriving ranch land industry. One of the examples given is the land belonging to former high-tech executives and former Austinites Bill and Elaine Swiss. The Swisses have moved from the city out to a more comfortable Hill Country ranch out near Round Mountain. Mr. Swiss knows he is quite blessed of his good fortune to own the land he does, especially with prices for Central Texas ranch land ranging anywhere from $4,000 to $20,000 and acre. Purchasing a large amount of ranch land is quite a large investment. However, as long time veteran ranch broker Sherman Durst put it, "Today's buyer is not making a living off of the land." To me, that is what makes this type of living great.



Imagine buying a property and improving it to make it more beautiful and more peaceful to live. The Swisses daily happenings around the ranch include clearing unwanted trees, mowing grass, feeding horses, and hauling ranch supplies around. Their everyday tasks do not include building upwards 20 stories and possibly creating traffic problems for others around if, as Novak writes, market conditions change and residential highrises are turned into business offices.



At the end of Egan's piece on the ranches, Bill Swiss, when speaking of his ranch, said, "We have the joy of not doing anything if we want, which is a delight." Here's hoping David Cox and other developers follow Swiss's sometime philosophy and decide to "not do anything" in this particular neighborhood and build their highrises elsewhere.







Egan Link: http://www.statesman.com/business/content/business/stories/statesmanhomes/09/23/0923ranches.html



Novak Link:
http://www.statesman.com/business/content/business/stories/realestate/09/20/0920downtown.html