Pflugerville, TX

My father-in-law and his wife were in town between Christmas and new year's eve, and he wanted to take us all out to dinner. We chose Texas Roadhouse as a viable option, partially just for its proximity to our house (about 10 minutes away). We had been there once before and enjoyed it.

Despite the fact that the wait was a little longer than we had anticipated for a Monday night, and the country music was louder than we would have preferred, it was a great night.

Our waitress was enthusiastic and friendly, and our kids were treated to tableside balloon animals (lady bug and turtle for the girls, monkey for my son). The guy doing the balloon art was raising money for a church youth ministry. Clearly, he scored the mother lode at our table - I think we probably paid about $8/animal or thereabouts.

The food was excellent, based on the mini-reviews that I heard from our party of seven. My father-in-law was so enthused about the green beans that he actually asked for the recipe. I had the catfish, which was a LOT of food. My wife had the veggie plate, and we ended up bringing about half of it home with us.

The atmosphere is fun and a little eclectic, with pictures of Willie Nelson and charicatures of Nascar drivers adorning the knotty pine walls. There were at least five or six TV's on showing football games when we visited. Additionally, they give you a small bucket of unshelled peanuts as a snack (just throw the shells on the floor if you like), along with warm yeasty rolls and cinnamon butter.

The aforementioned volume of the music would be my sole complaint. When I mentioned it to the waitress, they did turn it down for us.

Texas Roadhouse is a chain restaurant apparently, with locations around the U.S. This is the first one to open near us, and I would highly recommend it. It's not overly expensive, nor would I call it "affordable" for every budget. I didn't see our bill the other night, but I'm guessing that my family of five would likely pay $60 or so including tip.

QUOTE OF THE NIGHT: My seven-year-old daughter was very excited about this place. She said, "I liked it there. We got balloon animals! I also got to eat peanuts and act like a statue!"

In order to understand the last part of her quote, check out the photo of her and my son near the statue in the waiting area. ------------------->

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If you are looking to buy or sell a home in the general Austin area, I would love the opportunity to help you find the right place. My primary Austin, Texas real estate site is www.austintexashomes.com. Please feel free to call or email me anytime!

As a six-year resident of the Blackhawk area and a 13-year resident of Pflugerville, I like to keep an eye on the market values here in the area. When the toll roads opened two years ago, the prices started trending upward and they have continued to appreciate overall, although more slowly right now, with some tough economic factors at play. As a fellow homeowner in Blackhawk, this stuff is important to me, too!

Currently, there are 14 resale homes available on the MLS in the Fairways, with an average asking price of $239,303. The average square footage for these homes is 2,750, for an average price per square foot of $89.10.

Over the past calendar year (January 1st through today), there were 19 sales closed within the Fairways of Blackhawk. The average listing price for these sold homes was $243,102 and the average sales price was $231,955, which means that homes sold for 95.4% of the asking price. This does not account for any seller-paid closing costs on behalf of the buyer. Average square footage for sold homes was 2,703, for an average price per square foot of $86.31.

In other area news:

Located at the southwest corner of the intersection of the aforementioned toll roads (45 and 130), Stone Hill Town Center is slated to open within a few months, and it promises over 1,000,000 square feet of shopping and entertainment. Home Depot, Verizon Wireless, and Mattress Firm are now open, soon to be followed by Best Buy, Super Target, Chili's, several retail clothing stores, a large Cinemark theater, 24-Hour Fitness, and much more.

The Target and Best Buy stores are slated to open in February 2009.

To read more details about this center and to see a list of stores and restaurants, check out my recent article here:

Stone Hill Town Center - Pflugerville, Texas Shopping - UPDATE!

If you would like to see the proposed layout, you can visit the developer's website and see the site plan here:

http://www.newquestproperties.com/property_retail/property/Stone%20Hill%20Town%20Center/SitePlan/pfu5-07.pdf

If you are a consumer living in another area around Austin and you are interested in seeing the trends in your particular neighborhood, please don't hesitate to contact me, and I can create a custom report for you. All of my contact information is below.

If you are considering selling your home in the Fairways of Blackhawk (or anywhere in the general Austin area), please feel free to give me a call. I would love the opportunity to help you get it sold quickly. You can visit my primary Austin real estate website at www.austintexashomes.com. You can also reach me anytime on my cell phone at 512-796-7653 or via email at jason@austintexashomes.com. Thanks for checking out this brief analysis!

As a resident of the Meadows of Blackhawk for just over six years now, I like to keep an eye on the property values in the area. Ever since the toll roads opened a couple of years ago, demand has been strong despite a rocky real estate market in 2008.

Currently, there are 22 homes available in the Meadows, with an average asking price of $210,576. The average square footage for these homes is 2,450, for an average price per square foot of $87.59.

Presently, there are 5 homes under contract in the subdivision, with an average listing price of $214,754, and an average square footage of 2,912, yielding an average price per square foot of $74.80. This is slightly lower than the quarter before.

Over the past calendar year (January 1st through today), there were 39 sales closed within Meadows of Blackhawk. The average listing price was $217,074 and the average sales price was $210,815. This means that homes sold for approximately 97.1% of the list price. This number does not account for any seller-paid closing costs, nor does it include any price reductions.

The average number of days on the market for the entire year was 78, which is about the same as the average for the entire Austin MLS. The square footage of the homes sold averaged 2,630, and the price per square foot for the sales was $80.97.

In other area news:

Located at the southwest corner of the intersection of the aforementioned toll roads (45 and 130), Stone Hill Town Center is slated to open within a few months, and it promises over 1,000,000 square feet of shopping and entertainment. Home Depot, Verizon Wireless, and Mattress Firm are now open, soon to be followed by Best Buy, Super Target, Chili's, several retail clothing stores, a large Cinemark theater, 24-Hour Fitness, and much more.

It is my understanding that Target and Best Buy are slated to open in February 2009.

To read more details about this center and to see a list of stores and restaurants, check out my recent article here:

Stone Hill Town Center - Pflugerville, Texas Shopping - UPDATE!

If you would like to see the proposed layout, you can visit the developer's website and see the site plan here:

http://www.newquestproperties.com/property_retail/property/Stone%20Hill%20Town%20Center/SitePlan/pfu5-07.pdf

If you are a consumer living in another area around Austin and you are interested in seeing the trends in your particular neighborhood, please don't hesitate to contact me, and I can create a custom report for you. All of my contact information is below.

If you are considering selling your home in the Meadows of Blackhawk (or anywhere in the general Austin area), please feel free to give me a call. I would love the opportunity to help you get it sold quickly. Also, You can visit my primary Austin real estate website at www.austintexashomes.com. You can also reach me anytime on my cell phone at 512-796-7653 or via email at jason@austintexashomes.com. Thanks for checking out this brief analysis!

As I have shared repeatedly here, my kids have a knack for making me laugh. The Christmas season is no different, of course. I just wanted to share a few of the humorous things that they said this year.

Abby is two and a half years old now, and she is a natural performer. Several times lately, she has appeared on top of the ottoman in our living room, or perhaps behind the puppet stage upstairs, proclaiming, "LADIES AND GENTLEMEN! WELCOME TO DA SHOW!" When I then ask her to perform, she seems to be out of ideas, but she will sing if prompted a little.

Abby actually loves to sing, and my wife still swears that she heard her harmonizing to a song a few weeks ago. It would not surprise me.

In fact, over the past month or so, Abby has developed her own very special rendition of "Jingle Bells":

Jingle bells jingle bells

Jingle all the way

Nobody has ANYthing, Yes and all the way.

I guess she takes after her father, since I am notorious for making up different lyrics to popular songs (please see these previous posts for more on that topic: Why do I have so much trouble with song lyrics? More about my "lazy ear syndrome" and MORE song stuff - Am I hard of hearing? My Lazy Ear Syndrome).

My son, Brandon, made me laugh pretty hard with some of his Christmas commentary. Two days ago, he said this to me:

"Dad, I really hope it's not foggy this Christmas Eve. Otherwise, we might have to call Rudolph. Who knows if he's even still alive? If he is, he has to be in his 40's by now!"

To those of you who say, "life begins at 40", apparently my son would beg to differ with you.

Last night, as I was putting the kids to bed, Brandon mentioned an interesting idea:

"Hey dad, you know how they have Elvis impersonators? There should be Santa impersonators, too. In fact, what if Santa sang songs and Elvis came to your house with presents?"

Actually, that would jazz up the holidays a bit, wouldn't it?

When he was five, my wife took Brandon shopping at a local mall, and there was a Santa there taking pictures with the kids. To understand how funny this is, you must know that we never pretended that Santa was real or really talked about it very much, since we wanted to be able to always tell our kids the truth. This stemmed partially from the fact that my wife was traumatized as a kid by someone who lied to her telling her that she was going to see Big Bird on a TV while she was having a medical procedure.

At any rate, when Brandon finally met "Santa", he said, "I think you're real." Santa replied, "Well, of course I am. What would I be if I weren't real?"

"A puppet."

Enough said.

Sometime soon, when I get sufficiently motivated, I will share some photos of our special day together today. In the meantime, I hope that you had a terrific Christmas.

May God bless you richly in the upcoming year! Thanks so much for reading.

I have lived in Pflugerville since 1995, when my wife and I bought our first home here.  In 2002, we opted to buy our second (much larger) home in this area, too.  What made us choose to stay?

• Affordability - we have a home that would likely cost at least twice as much in central Austin
• Convenience - with the advent of the toll roads in 2006, we can get just about anywhere in 15 minutes, including the Prime Outlets/IKEA area, Georgetown, Mopac/Spicewood, etc.
• It's quiet
• It's safe

I would talk about the schools, but we haven't had first-hand experience with this, since our kids are homeschooled. 

This chart illustrates that the median listing prices out here haven't changed much over the course of 2008, holding in a pretty tight range between $180k and 182k, despite what the media would have you believe.  It looks like inventory levels are starting to drop again, meaning that the choices are tightening up a bit. 

Some might attribute the inventory drop to the holidays, but it's still a bit too early for this, and we have seen a surge in activity that came with dropping gas prices and the end of the Presidential election season.

If you are considering a purchase in the Pflugerville/Austin area, feel free to call or email me anytime.  I hope to have the opportunity to help you find the right place!  You can search the entire database of Austin homes on my website at www.austintexashomes.com.  Thanks!