Donna Harris, REALTOR® & ASP - Hill Country Austin Lakeway Homes

Real Estate - Homes for Sale in Austin TX and Central Texas rose 6.4% in September!!  That's huge!!  That's the first substantial increase, year-over-year, in more than two years!!

What else did the Austin Board of REALTORS® report?? The median sales price in the area was also up, by 2% to $185,250.

In August, homes for sale were strong with 1748 closed transactions. However, in September, which is traditionally a slower month since school just started back in session, closed transactions were at 1780 strong. To compare, there were only 1673 sales in September 2008.

There are many reasons why we're having an increase in sales, and it's not just the $8000 tax credit for first time home buyers. Have you looked at rates lately? They're well below 5% still. I'm not a big fan of the tax credit because, as a country, we're already broke and shouldn't be handing out money like that.  However, I'm a huge fan of the low interest rates!

Because of the rates, people are still able to sell their starter homes and move up to larger homes, and potentially keep their same mortgage payments.  How great is that!  They could have an 1800 sqft home with an interest rate of 5.75% and turn around to buy a 2500 sqft home with an interest rate of 4.875% and equal out the price to payments.

Even if your family isn't getting larger, your kids are getting bigger and need more room.  This is the perfect time to make that change!

If you have any questions or concerns about homes for sale in Austin TX, whether you're a buyer or a seller, please call or email me today!

**Are You Packed Yet?** 

Donna Harris, REALTOR®
RE/MAX Austin Skyline
www.DonnaHomes.com
Donna@DonnaHomes.com

Austin TX Real Estate
and the surrounding areas of Lakeway, Bee Cave, West Lake Hills, Cedar
Park, Round Rock, Spicewood, Circle-C, Steiner Ranch, and everywhere in
between... Hill Country Austin TX Real Estate and beyond. Whether you're buying or selling an Austin home, I'll be with you every step of the way. 

For real time Homes for Sale in Austin TX, click here.

** #1 Agent in my Office for all of 2008 **

Copyright© 2009 By Donna Harris, All Rights Reserved. You may re-blog with links back to this post.
* Real Estate - Homes for Sale - Austin TX - Sales Increase 6.4% * was first published on donnahomesblog.com

Buying a House in Austin TX can be simple, if you break down the process.  There are several steps, but knowing what those steps are, and in what order to do the steps, can make buying a house less intimidating.

A couple of months ago, I wrote a seven part series on the main steps of buying a house, but I wanted to put those steps all in one place for easy reference for anyone buying a house in Austin TX to find and follow.  Below are the links to those steps with a brief description of each.

• Getting pre-APPROVED verse getting pre-qualified for a home.  Ask for a Good Faith Estimate and compare apples to apples between lenders.

• Looking for houses.  Drive the different neighborhoods multiple times for narrowing down where you want to concentrate your search. Make the drive to and from your office in rush hour traffic as well.

• Looking at houses.  Know upfront how much you're willing to spend to make a house your home, so you can look past cosmetic issues while you concentrate on structural and functional issues.

• Writing an Offer. Make sure your REALTOR® pulls up as much history about the property and the comparables in the neighborhood to give you enough information for an educated and well thought out offer to the sellers.

• Inspections are important, but you're buying a house "as is".  Inspections are for the buyers' knowledge of the house; they are not so the buyer can give a laundry list to the seller for items to fix.

• The Waiting Game is hard.  At this point, you've turned in all your paperwork to the lender and you're just waiting for the closing date to arrive... do NOT make any changes to your work history or to your credit!!

• Practice writing out your name.  It sounds silly, but if you have an illegible signature, you need to learn to write your full name out, probably including your middle initial if the lender used it.

By following the steps above, buying a house in Austin TX should be a breeze for you... though I'm not guaranteeing that it'll be stress-free.  There are lots of emotions throughout each step above, and as long as you're prepared with what comes next, the emotions won't get the better of you.

If you have any questions or concerns about Austin TX Real Estate, please call or email me today!

**Are You Packed Yet?** 

Donna Harris, REALTOR®
RE/MAX Austin Skyline
www.DonnaHomes.com
Donna@DonnaHomes.com

Austin TX Real Estate
and the surrounding areas of Lakeway, Bee Cave, West Lake Hills, Cedar
Park, Round Rock, Spicewood, Circle-C, Steiner Ranch, and everywhere in
between... Hill Country Austin TX Real Estate and beyond. Whether you're buying or selling an Austin home, I'll be with you every step of the way. 

For real time Austin TX listings, click here.

** #1 Agent in my Office for all of 2008 **

Copyright© 2009 By Donna Harris, All Rights Reserved. You may re-blog with links back to this post.
* Real Estate - Buying a House - Austin TX - The Simple Steps to Follow * was first published on donnahomesblog.com

The City of Bee Cave TX finally opened their long-awaited Bee Cave Central Park.  Bee Cave's park was actually completed several months ago, but because of the drought in the area, the City of Bee Cave decided to postpone the opening. They wanted to allot enough time for the grass to grow in and the trees to take root so it wasn't very muddy.

Just in time for this past weekend, the City of Bee Cave made it happen!!  For the occasion, my mom's group of friends decided to have a playdate at the Bee Cave Central Park.  Over 50 people showed up!  And even with so many kids running around and climbing on the equipment, there was still plenty of room for more kids.

The space is quite large and it's anchored by a covered Pavilion with water fountains and restrooms.

There is even a Basketball Court with about 6 different nets with room for several games to play at once.

At the other end of the parking lot is another, smaller Pavilion along with more play equipment, geared for the smaller kids who don't want to play with the bigger kids.

The hours for the Bee Cave Park are a little ambiguous as the sign says from "Sunrise to Sunset" and those times differ throughout the year.  However, the sign below is a little more specific when it says from 8am to 30 minutes before Sunset.

I imagine my daughter and I will be spending a lot of time here...

**Are You Packed Yet?** 

Donna Harris, REALTOR®
RE/MAX Austin Skyline
www.DonnaHomes.com
Donna@DonnaHomes.com

Austin TX Real Estate and the surrounding areas of Lakeway, Bee Cave, West Lake Hills, Cedar Park, Round Rock, Spicewood, Circle-C, Steiner Ranch, and everywhere in between... Hill Country Austin TX Real Estate and beyond. Whether you're buying or selling an Austin home, I'll be with you every step of the way. 

For real time Bee Cave TX listings, click here.

** #1 Agent in my Office for all of 2008 **

Copyright© 2009 By Donna Harris, All Rights Reserved. You may re-blog with links back to this post.
* City of Bee Cave TX - Bee Cave Central Park - Finally Opened! * was first published on donnahomesblog.com

The City of Lakeway TX had their annual Halloween Goblin Glow last night at the Lakeway City Park on Hurst Creek.

This was our first time to go, so I didn't know what to expect. There were five hot air balloons and every so often, they would light their fire and make the balloons glow. You could go right up to the baskets of the balloons and trick-or-treat. They gave out lots of candy.

There was also face painting, hair spraying with colors, people on stilts, and a balloon artist. Alyssa got her hair sprayed Orange to go with her LongHorn Cheerleader outfit.

And, of course, you can't forget the Live Music. There was a great band, whose name has slipped my mind, but there was lots of dancing from the little ones.

Here are some pictures I took of the Goblin Glow balloons lighting up.

There are always Austin TX Activities with some Austin TX Entertainment for all ages and areas in and surrounding Austin.

**Are You Packed Yet?**

Donna Harris, REALTOR®
RE/MAX Austin Skyline
www.DonnaHomes.com
Donna@DonnaHomes.com

Austin TX Real Estate and the surrounding areas of Lakeway, Bee Cave, West Lake Hills, Cedar Park, Round Rock, Spicewood, Circle-C, Steiner Ranch, and everywhere in between... Hill Country Austin TX Real Estate and beyond. Whether you're buying or selling an Austin home, I'll be with you every step of the way.

For real time Austin MLS listings, click here.

** #1 Agent in my Office for all of 2008 **

Copyright© 2009 By Donna Harris, All Rights Reserved. You may re-blog with links back to this post.
*City of Lakeway TX - Lakeway City Park - Halloween Goblin Glow* was first published on donnahomesblog.com

Here is my very own University of Texas Longhorn Cheerleader! She is dressed and ready for today's game against that Okie team, the Red River Rivalry.

UT has won 3 out of the last 4 games, and OU is coming off of some injuries, so if I were to bet on the game, I would put all my money on UT!

Hook 'em!!

**Are You Packed Yet?**

Donna Harris, REALTOR®
RE/MAX Austin Skyline
www.DonnaHomes.com
Donna@DonnaHomes.com

Austin TX Real Estate and the surrounding areas of Lakeway, Bee Cave, West Lake Hills, Cedar Park, Round Rock, Spicewood, Circle-C, Steiner Ranch, and everywhere in between... Hill Country Austin TX Real Estate and beyond. Whether you're buying or selling an Austin home, I'll be with you every step of the way.

For real time Austin MLS listings, click here.

** #1 Agent in my Office for all of 2008 **

Copyright© 2009 By Donna Harris, All Rights Reserved. You may re-blog with links back to this post.
* Silly Saturday - My Very Own UT Longhorn Cheerleader * was first published on donnahomesblog.com