Home Ownership is a priority for most Americans

Despite an unsteady economy and the recent housing down-turn, many Americans still value homeownership and consider it to be more than a simple financial investment, according to a recent Fannie Mae National Housing Survey.  Other findings:

• Eight out of 10 Americans believe homeownership is important to the economy.
• 64 percent think it is a good time to buy a house, compared with 66 percent who said it was a good time to buy in 2003, before home prices peaked.
• 37 percent of Americans think housing prices will rise and 36 percent think prices will stay the same over the next 12 months.
• 60 percent believe buying a home today is harder than it was for their parents, and 68 percent think it will be even harder for their children.
• Seven out of 10 homeowners say they believe buying a home continues to be one of the safest investments available, while 74 percent believe putting money into a savings or money market account is safe.
• 65 percent say they prefer owning over renting, citing nonfinancial reasons such as neighborhood safety (43 percent) and quality of local schools (33 percent).

Looking for the perfect community for your family and your horses?  Look no further than Bear Creek Oaks. This established community was created in the late 1970’s and has been popular ever since for its equestrian-allowing laws.  Buy one of the many lovely homes that have already been built or build your custom dream home on one of the many available acreages.  Lots here range in size from 1 acre to more than 9 acres.

If you have children rest assured that they will enjoy a quality education with the award-winning schools of the nearby Dripping Springs Independent School District.

This unique neighborhood has everything you would expect in an equestrian community.  Green rolling hills and miles of white fencing complete with grazing horses. The community enjoys big, mature trees,  wide open fields as well as a sense of privacy and seclusion that is priceless.

Bear Oak Creek is just minutes from Escarpment Village shopping area and the Y at Oak Hill.

Bear Creek Oaks is the perfect place to call home in Austin, Texas.

Use the Todd Smith Fine Austin Living featured Property Search to find more equestrian communities in Austin, Texas.

Time to work on that Fine Austin garden!

It’s that time of year when Spring is “springing up all around us, and it’s time to spruce up your garden for a beautiful, color-filled Summer.  Here are some tips to take note of during the month of April.

• Its time to fertilize your perennials.  Give them the nutricious boost they need to grow and flower and prepare them for the coming summer heat.
• Thin newly planted vegetables from the mid-March garden.
• Control downy and powdery mildews on vegetable plants by watering the early morning or in the early evening.
• Prune spring flowering shrubs after blooming (Azaleas, Flowering Quince, Indian Hawthorne)
• Don’t be concerned about the old leaves on Magnolia Photinia, Gardenia, Cleyera, Abelia, Ligustrum or Pittosporum turning yellow and falling.  This is a natural occurrence this time of year.

What to plant in April:

Vegetable Seeds: Lima Beans, Snap Beans, Beets, Chard, Okra, Black-eyed Peas, Radishes, New Zealand Spinach, Summer Squash, Cantaloupe, Sweet Corn, Cucumber, Eggplant, Pumpkin, Watermelon

Vegetable Plants: Eggplant, Pepper, Summer Squash, Sweet Potato Slips, Tomatillo, Tomato

Annual Flower/Ornamental Seeds: Ageratum, Balsam, Castor Bean, Celosia, Cleome, Coleus, Coreopsis, Cosmos, Cypress Vine, Four O’clocks, Globe Amaranth, Gourds, Hyacinth Bean Vine, Impatiens, Marigold, Moonflower Vine, Morning Glory Vine, Periwinkle, Sunflower, Tithonia, Zinnia

Annual Flower/Ornamental Plants: Ageratum, Ajuga, Balsam, Begonia, Blue Daze, Caladiums, Celosia, Coleus, Copper Plant, Gazania, Geranium, Globe Amaranth, Impatiens, Marigold, Penta, Periwinkle, Drummond Phlox, Portulaca, Purple Fountain Grass, Purslane, Torenia, Zinnia

Perennial Plants: Black-eyed Susan, Purple Coneflower, Shasta Daisy, Ox-eye Daisy, Four-nerve Daisy, Lantana, Plumbago, Salvia, Yarrow

Ornamental Grasses: Ornamental grasses produce their feathery or unique blooms in the fall, so plant them now! Mexican wire or Mexican Feather Grass, Big Muhly, Lindheirmer Muhly, Inland Sea Oats and Sideoats Grama

Warm-season Bulbs: Caladium, Elephant Ears, Lily

Austin, Texas is a forward thinking and no where is that more apparent than in its ever-growing environmentally-friendly home designs. There are many energy-efficient residential developments throughout Austin that boast recycled materials,energy efficient appliances, use of passive solar heating and advanced water conservation features.

There are also a few net-zero concept buildings that have begun to spring up in Austin a well.  The SOL Development in East Austin and the The ZeroHouse are both projects that are designed to save as much energy as it consumes.

The ZeroHouse utilizes a composting unit, solar panels, installation without excavation and energy and water-saving devices.  The concept is to focus on self-sufficiency and minimal environmental impact.

The ZeroHouse is still in the planning stage but is now “shovel-ready” but it is another example of just how forward-thinking Austin, Texas really is.

Use the Fine Austin Featured Property Search to find more environmentally homes in Austin, Texas.

Austin's robust economy great for small business

According to a new report in Portfolio.com/bizjournals, Austin ranked #1 as the place for small business vitality, based upon a complex metric of population growth, employment growth, and small business development.

See the full article here.

With population growth of 19.5 percent between 2003 and 2008, employment growth despite the economic downturn of 15.6 percent between 2004 and 2009, and the increase in the number of small businesses in Austin between 2006 and 2007 of 5.6 percent when most comparable metro areas grew at an average of 1.4 percent, Austin’s the place to be for small business creation and development!

Copperfield is an established community that has been satisfying potential home-buyers since 1982. This lovely, north Austin neighborhood is an affordable alternative to to higher price homes in downtown Austin, Texas.

More than 42,000 residents call Copperfield home and is located just minutes from downtown Georgetown and Cedar Park.  This centrally located community enjoys tons of shopping, dining and entertainment options.

The community boasts mature tree stands and lots of vegetation due to its mature age.  Homes enjoy a wonderful sense of privacy.  Typical single-family homes average around 1,300 square feet and cost about $86.per square foot. The attractive pricing of Copperfield is inviting  to young, single professionals as well as young families just starting out.

Copperfield is also blessed with a wide array of recreational opportunities including  nature trails, open space and beautiful  community parks.

Use the Fine Austin Featured Property Search to find more single family homes in Austin, Texas.

Homebuyers shift payment priorities

U.S. News & World Report recently published an article that indicated a pretty dramatic change in the way homeowners are now tackling their debt.

According to the article, a study released by Transunion showed that Americans are increasingly more likely to make payments on their credit cards before payments on their mortgages. The data shows that roughly 6.6 percent of borrowers paid credit cards first in the third quarter of 2009, up from just 4.3 percent in the first quarter of 2008.

This is a shift in the historical norm; which has long been slanted toward house payments as a priority ahead of other bills. Credit the housing bust nationwide for the change.

 As homeowners struggle with unemployment and drops in their homes’ value, they have perhaps become reluctant to commit more money into an asset that might not be worth what they owe on it. Whereas keeping up with credit card payments continues to give them access to necessities such as gas, clothing and groceries.

It also probably signifies part of the issue that caused the housing bust. Access to no-money down or low-down payment loans that proliferated the market during the housing boom allowed buyers to get into homeownership without much “skin in the game.”

In the days of 20-percent down payments, homeownership was something you worked for, saved up for and therefore something you were less likely to give up so easily. It’s a lesson that you can bet banks are heeding.

White House feeling the effects of recession

According to the folks at Zillow, not even the nation’s most recognized and iconic home can escape the deterioration that typifies today’s real estate landscape. The value of the White House fell 5.1 percent last year.  In January 2008, Zillow.com put the value of the White House at $308 million. Twelve months later, and the 132-room mansion built in 1792 is worth $292.5 million.

See the full article here

Market stabilization underway!

The National Association of Realtors has released its December 2009 data on pending homes sales, which were up 1 percent from November.

Pending home sales are an indicator of future completed sales, meaning that markets are continuing to stabilize heading into the spring buying season. The index the NAR uses to determine pending sales was at 96.6 for December compared to 95.6 for November, and up nearly 11 percent from December 2008.

 NAR chief economist Lawrence Yun in a news release said that fluctuations in the number of sales contracts have been impacted by the government’s tax credits.

 “There are easily understood swings in contract activity as buyers respond to a tax credit that was expiring and was then extended and expanded,” he said in the release. “These swings are masking the underlying trend, which is a broad improvement over year-ago levels. December activity was the fifth highest monthly tally in two years.”

Yun projects about 5.6 million existing home sales in 2010, compared to 5.16 in 2009. The rising volume, he said, should help stabilize prices further.

 “For several months now we’ve been seeing stabilization in all of the home price measures as inventory is pulled down,” Yun said. “As a result, the housing wealth for many middle class families has begun to stabilize.”

Seasonally adjusted home sales

Maybe you’ve seen by now the statistics for nationwide home sales in December, released by the National Association of Realtors. The grim-sounding data show that home sales dropped almost 17 percent in December from November. It represents the largest monthly decrease in 40 years, according to the Associated Press.

Of course, a great deal of the decrease can be attributed to the extension of the first-time home buyer tax credit. November’s sales were boosted by a number of first-time buyers scrambling to get the credit, for which they originally had to close by the end of the month. Once the credit was extended, the emergency was off. Buyers now had time, which was bound to lead to a decrease in December sales.

The situation does leave a couple of questions, however, regarding the overall housing market:

1. Are most of the first-time home buyers now out of the market, having already purchased their home?

2. What’s going to happen to the market when the government’s tax credit enticements – now pushed to “move-up” buyers, too – expire at the end of April?

These certainly are big question marks hovering over the market. However, December’s data also shows some signs of further stability: The NAR stats show that while the volume of sales dropped, the median price of single-family homes rose for the month of December, about 1.5 percent from the year before. This marked the first month since August of 2007 that saw a year-over-year increase in prices.

The other sign of stability is in the existing inventory of unsold homes, which fell about 7 percent. That, the NAR is reporting, is now at about a 7.2-month supply. A six-month supply is considered healthy, and the market is creeping toward that number. With the tax credits set to expire this spring; mortgage rates likely to rise around the same time; and a consistently shrinking inventory of homes on the market, sales could take a big jump. That leaves the possibility that home buyers will have to be ready to move fast this spring when they find a home or investment property that suits them. Keep in mind that this time of year is traditionally a good time to buy, as winter often means fewer buyers and therefore more flexible sellers.