Austin Real Estate

Features:

Forbes magazine released its list of the "Top Places to Buy a Home" in the U.S., analyzing the 40 largest metro areas across the country.  Austin was named the 2nd best place to buy a home right now in the nation, topped only by the Houston market.  San Antonio and Dallas also fared very well in the study, at #5 and #6, respectively. 

Clearly, Texas is still a great place to buy!

With a current population of just over 92,000, Round Rock has grown precipitously since I moved to the Austin area in 1988.  In fact, I looked it up, and the population that year was around 25,000, so Round Rock is almost FOUR TIMES the size that it was 20 years ago.

I took a lot of marketing classes when I was in college (it was my favorite subject), and I am the broker and co-owner of a real estate brokerage now, so I feel like I have a pretty good handle on how marketing and advertising work. 

I saw an ad the other day for the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation (FDIC) in People Magazine.  Yes, you read that last line correctly.

Yesterday, I met some friends at Chipotle in the La Frontera Shopping Center in Round Rock (NW Corner of 45 and I-35).  I had never tried it before, but I was very pleased to find out about this new option for lunch in the area.  Well, I guess it's not new, but it's new for me. 

Located next to Firebowl Cafe (a favorite of mine) and Maggie Moo's Ice Cream, Chipotle's is just behind the traffic circle at La Frontera. 

About five minutes from our home sits the Pflugerville Pizza and Wing Pfactory (not a misspelling - this is how things are typically done around here, as evidenced by my recent post about the first annual Pfireworks Pfestival).  We had tried to visit this establishment not too long ago, but I think we went on a holiday, and they were closed, so yesterday was our first official meal there.

 I remember exactly where I was the first time I heard the word "SoCo".  It was the summer of 2003, and I was working with some clients who were relocating from Minnesota and looking in the downtown Austin area.  We were in the driveway of a home that we had just seen and eliminated.

"So, what can you tell us about SoCo, Jason?", he asked.

"Excuse me?", I replied.

"SoCo.  Someone mentioned it to us at the hotel."

I first thought of titling this post, "Why You Should Call Me First for Austin Real Estate", and you will soon see why.  If this post doesn't serve as adequate evidence that we work hard for our clients, nothing will. 

I wrote a post that ended up getting featured a couple of weeks ago with regard to a home that had an appraisal review that came in $55,000 under the original third-party appraisal.  You might want to read that one first:

In the upcoming months between now and the spring of 2009, Pflugerville will be adding two large shopping centers.  At the southwest corner of 130 and 45, Stone Hill Town Center will be opening with over 1 million square feet of shopping and restaurants (Home Depot opened in May in this location).