What a year it’s been in Austin, the Live Music Capital of the World, home of the University of Texas Longhorns and the wonderful Texas Hill Country.  We’re so thankful to live and work in one of the very best cities (and real estate markets) in North America.  And we’re not just saying that…the following publications all put Austin at-or-near the top of their lists in 2009, and we thought you might want to share the pride of our community!

Legend: Rank | Category | Publication, Date

#1 – Best Bargain City in the USA – Forbes Magazine, 5/09

#1 – Top 10 Performers of the USA’s 200 Largest Metro Areas – MilkenInstitute.org, 11/09

#1 – Best Cities in the USA for Recession Recovery – Forbes, 6/09

#1 – Best Cities for Advancing Your Career – Shine (Yahoo.com), 5/09

#1 – Best Cities for a Fresh Start – Relocation.com, 5/09

#1 – Best Big Cities for Jobs – Forbes, 4/09

#2 – Best Cities for Working Moms – Forbes, 8/09

#2 – Healthiest Housing Markets in the USA – BuilderOnline.com, 2/09

#2 – Top 10 Cities Where Americans are Relocating – Forbes Magazine, 3/09

#3 – Best Cities for High-Paying Jobs – Forbes, 7/09

#3 – Top 10 Best Places to Live in the USA – US News & World Report, 6/09

#4 – Top 10 Cities for Most Job Postings per Capita – USNews.com, 7/09

#5 – Fastest Growing U.S. Metro Area – Bizjournal.com, 5/09

#5 – Top North American Cities of the Future – FDI Magazine, 5/09

#7 – Best Technology Centers in the USA – Bizjournal.com 5/09

#8 – Top 10 Best Cities of 2009 – Kiplinger.com, 7/09

#8 – Best Places for Business and Careers – Forbes Magazine, 3/09

#9 – American Fitness index Rankings – ACSM.org,  5/09

#10 – Best Cities in the USA for MovieMakers – MovieMaker.com, 2/09

#11 – Best Cities in the U.S. for the Outdoors – Forbes, 5/09

#14 – America’s Strongest Housing Markets – Forbes, 1/09

#14 – Coolest North American Cities – MSNTravel.com, 2/09

If you would like us to send you a PDF of all of the 2009 rankings of these lists, just let us know!

Fine Living in Austin (or anywhere, for that matter) often requires a command of the English language. Instead of using terms like “Whatchamacallit” or “Thingamajig”, being able to identify these everyday objects might just come in handy if you’re trying to impress that special someone in your life.

For example … did you know that a BOBECHE is a collar on a candle that catches wax drips?

Try to see how many of these you can correctly identify:

1.       AGLET

a.       A bill on a baseball cap

b.      A fold of cartilage outside the ear

c.       The sheath at the end of a shoelace

2.       BESOM

a.       The second horn of a rhinoceros

b.      A broom made of twigs

c.       A coal miner’s headlamp

3.       CROTCHET

a.       A nutcracker

b.      A dust ball

c.       A quarter note in music

4.       TITTLE

a.       A bell on a bicycle

b.      The dot over the letter “I”

c.       A gap between front teeth

5.       CLAQUE

a.       People paid to applaud a show

b.      A group of ducks

c.       A windmill blade

6.       ZILLS

a.       Cat’s whiskers

b.      Holes in Swiss cheese

c.       Dancer’s finger cymbals

7.       GNOMON

a.       The shadow-casting part of a sundial

b.      A pencil stub

c.       A wisdom tooth

8.       ROWEL

a.       The wheel on a cowboy’s spur

b.      A ring left by a wet glass

c.       A curve banister

9.       SAMARA

a.       Headscarf worn by Muslim women

b.      Tile in a mosaic

c.       Winged fruit of certain trees

10.   ULLAGE

a.       A radiator’s air valve

b.      Unfilled space in a wine bottle

c.       The uneaten portion of a meal

Think you guessed them all correctly?

Answers below.

DON’T PEEK UNLESS YOU’RE FINISHED GUESSING!

ANSWERS

1.       C

2.       B

3.       C

4.       B

5.       A

6.       C

7.       A

8.       A

9.       C

10.   B

The Austin Convention and Visitors Bureau (ACVB) is conducting it’s 2009 Austin Theme Song Contest, and we’re taking this opportunity to plug a friend of ours who has been selected as a finalist!

Yes, the ACVB thinks we need a “power ballad” to tell others why Austin is such a great place to live, and one of the five finalists (out of over 100 entrants!) is Jimmy Shortell, a local musician singer/songwriter that you probably never heard of…but he’s a friend so I’m doing this shameless plug to get you to vote for his ballad. It’s actually pretty clever!

But you’ve gotta place your vote by May 5th!   Here’s the link:  http://www.austintexas.org/musicians/contest_index

and of course, he’s positioned #4 on the ballot (in case you need your reading glasses!!)

Austin IS truly a wonderful place to live, and all of these songwriters have crafted very unique tunes to sum up what makes our city special, so I hope you enjoy a bit of musical entertainment from your friends at Fine Austin Living.

And a one..and a two…   VOTE FOR JIMMY!

Come and discover the beautiful world of native wildflowers at the ladybird Johnson Wildflower Center.  This popular Austin attraction displays native varieties of Central Texas Hill Country plants in a beautiful natural setting.  The mission of the garden   is to conserve native wildflowers, plants and landscape.   The Plant Conservation Program at the center strives to protect rare and endangered flora that is part of the Texas heritage.

Browse through their collection of 23,00 native plant images and ask resident horticulturalists your toughest questions. In 2006, the Center became an Organized Research Unit of the University of Texas at Austin.

Founded by the former first Lady and actress Helena Hayes, the Ladybird Johnson Wildflower Center is a true treasure in the heart of Austin, Texas.

Let our agents find the perfect Austin house, condo or townhome for you.

Our friends at Community Impact – Austin report that the city is one of four cities in the country the U.S. Mint is visiting with a program to change how people think about change.

Real Change Exchange is an effort to educate the public about the $1 presidential coins the agency began producing in 2007. A mobile exchange that looks similar to an armored truck will visit several Austin area businesses offering to swap people’s paper currency for coins. The idea is to foster use of the coins as a convenient way to handle small transactions.

“The advantages of using the $1 coin is $1 coins last for decades,” said Greg Hernandez, deputy director of public affairs for the mint. “They last about 30 to 40 years. And when their service is done, they’re 100 percent recyclable, meaning we’ll melt them down, take the metals out and reuse them for other coins.

“If the nation uses $1 coins on a regular basis, we can save billions of dollars over time. The GAO — the Government Accountability Office — in 2000 did a study that if we were to go to $1 coins strictly, it would save about $522 million a year.”

Using $1 coins is also good for the mint. Though the price is down somewhat from a year ago, it still costs the mint slightly more to make pennies and nickels than the coins are worth. A $1 coin, on the other hand, nets a good return for the mint. That means more for the government’s general fund, to which the mint each year gives all money left over after covering operating expenses.

“It costs about 20 cents to make a $1 coin, and the Federal Reserve pays the mint $1 face value,” Hernandez said. “So the mint makes basically 80 cents seigniorage, which is the difference between production and what we get paid face value from the Federal Reserve.”

Austin was among the cities chosen for the program because the people tend to be more open to new ideas.

“We find that those particular four cities are also very progressive in accepting various types of new things, such as recycling, so we thought this would be the best place to test,” Hernandez said. “And we’re finding that in the Austin market. More than 200 retailers have signed on to participate.”

Though the mint is hoping the $1 coins will catch on, there are no plans to phase out the $1 greenback.

“The Presidential Coin Act of 2005 did not address the issue of replacing the dollar bill,” Hernandez said. “Both of them, for now, will coexist.”

Broadband use to be a luxury, something only available to the very rich or something that was restricted to the workplace.  Today everyone in Austin wants broadband and it is beginning to influence real estate decisions. Homes with broadband are selling more than rural homes hat don’t.  Areas with faster broadband are more popular and desirable than neighborhoods with slower access.

Because today’s lifestyles demand speed many potential homebuyers are shying away from areas that do not have good connectivity.  Nearly 55% of Americans now have broadband in their homes.  Austin area residents have several choices for broadband: Time Warner Cable’s Road Runner Service, DSL from local phone companies or Grand Communications Cable.

Use our Featured Properties to find your Austin dream home.

Austin is famous for its bats.  Every spring and summer, migrating bats call Congress Avenue Bridge in Austin, home. 750,000 to over 1.5 million bats roost at this bridge, it is the largest urban bat colony in the north America. There are many viewing spots along Town Lake  and Congress Avenue to watch the bat migration.

The bridge has narrow deep openings that offer the perfect accommodations for these bats.  Every evening, around sunset, a huge black cloud of bats emerges from under the bridge and go out in search of up to 30,000 pounds insects. It can take almost an hour for all of the bats to exit the bridge for the night.

Bats give birth in June and July.  In October mature and juvenile bats head back south to Mexico where they winter.

Discover more about Austin with our Austin Relocation Packet

Award-winning Mueller offers amazing convenience, located just 3 miles from the energy and buzz of downtown Austin. It is also close to the Texas State Capitol and the University of Texas at Austin.

Mueller strives to be a sustainable community and achieves this by meeting and exceeding extensive housing and economic development goals.

The 711-acre site of this exciting development is home to almost 10,000 people, 10,000 employees, 10,000 construction jobs.  There is more than 1,100 affordable homes and Muller boasts more than140 acres of public open space.  Mueller also offers other amenities such as a town center complete with cafes, shops, and plazas, it also has miles of hiking and biking paths.  Within the community is the Dell Children’s Medical Center of Central Texas so medical facilities are just a short walk away.

Mueller is the perfect Austin real estate to call home.

Thinking of relocating to Austin?  Use our complimentary Austin Relocation Guide 

Come discover "The Art of Living" at Lakeside, the second phase of urban living in this Austin new development.  La Frontera is 320 acres of business, shopping, dining and living in central Texas. Located in the bustling heart of Round Rock at the confluence of three major regional highways: the North Loop, SH 45, IH 35.

Lakeside offers exquisite apartments complete with Hill Country stone architecture, elegant french doors, nine-foot ceilings, crown moulding and energy efficient appliances.  The complex also offers a billiards room, coffee area, heated indoor/outdoor swimming pool, state of the art fitness center and a multi-level covered parking garage with direct access to apartments.

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In the competitive Austin real estate market today, sellers need to take advatage of evey opportunity.   To that end it is very important to "stage" your Austin home.  When staging your home all clutter must be removed, remove everything from your bedside tables, kitchen countertops and land line telephones. By removing all traces of you, the owner, buyers can more easily invision themselves in the property. Decluttering is important because if the perspective buyer feels that the house can’t hold all of your stuff than it probaly won’t hold all of their stuff aand they will move on.  Rent a storage unit so you can remove all necessary and non-essential items.  Keep  your home crip and clean and welcoming with a nice subtle scent wafting in the air.

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