The 2 Davids

The summary of housing prices in the nation for last year from the Federal Housing Finance Authority are out.  Nation wide housing prices fell 4.5%.  Texas home prices were up 2.1% in 2009.  Austin did even better with home prices increasing 4.4%.  Here are a few other select city results. Abilene up 2.7% Austin–Round ...

Austin is still growing at a good pace and that will help us all through the rough times in the national economy.  The US Census Bureau now puts the population of the Austin MSA at 1.65 million.  http://austin.bizjournals.com/austin/stories/2009/03/16/daily51.html?ana=e_du_pub

The number of foreclosures continues to increase.  However, we are now seeing the number of homes sold begin to increase again nationwide. http://austin.bizjournals.com/austin/stories/2009/01/26/daily4.html?surround=etf

10 Great Cities for Salary Growth     by Siri Anderson, PayScale.com   We all want to know what's going to happen with the job market in 2009, especially where salaries are concerned. Is a raise in your future? It might just come down to where you live. Yet the most recent and complete numbers for salary growth in metropolitan ...

This is from the latest report from the U.S. Department of Labor.  Over the previous year, non-farm employment rose in 11 of the 38 metropolitan areas surveyed with the largest year-over-year percentage employment gain recorded in Houston-Sugar Land-Baytown (up 2.1percent), followed by San Antonio (up 2 percent); Austin-Round Rock (up ...

Although the slowing in job creation in Austin is a concern to economists, we are still one of the best places to bo for real estate in 2009.  Here is the artice from the Austin American Statesman. http://www.statesman.com/blogs/content/shared-gen/blogs/austin/realestate/entries/2009/01/05/report_austin_office_retail_ma.html

As long as Austin continues to create jobs, we well fair quite well through this economic downturn.  As the following article shows, our new home construction remains in line with what our current economy can absorb. http://austin.bizjournals.com/austin/stories/2008/12/29/daily14.html?ana=e_du_pap  

ABJ - 12/2/08  Once again our stats show slow but steady growth.  Its good to be in Austin. http://austin.bizjournals.com/austin/stories/2008/12/01/daily24.html?ana=e_du

We have all noticed the cranes in West Campus the last few years.  ABJ put together a good summary of the changes.  http://austin.bizjournals.com/austin/stories/2008/12/01/focus1.html?surround=etf  Basically, the University Neighborhoods Overlay Plan, UNO, is working and there will be increasing opportunities for small retail and ...

Out of the 279,561 homes that entered the foreclosure process nation wide, only 9,900 of them were in Texas.  Texas represents 6.3% of the total population and only 3.2% of these foreclosures.  Here is the link to the full ...