Garreth Wilcock Central East Austin Real Estate

Tomorrow from 1-5pm the Mueller Redevelopment in Austin, TX will host it's Spring 2008 Open House. Six builders, the retail center and the developers Catellus will open their doors to let the people of Texas see what's behind the doors.

David Weekley, Standard Pacific and Meritage have all had model homes at the site for a few months, with Streetman opening their model a few weeks ago. Tomorrow's event will also see Saldana Homes and The Muskin Company holding some of their homes open too.

Visitors are encouraged to collect a Mueller passport (pictured left) and get stamps from the builders and the Mueller Regional Retail marquis and be entered into a prize draw to win one of three $500 shopping sprees at Mueller.

The Mueller community is strong, with the first block party being held at the end of March. Residents are excited by the prospect of green living (all homes have to be 3 star green or above) and the new urbanism. It will be interesting to see how many of the visitors take the opportunity to walk between the models, rather than drive, in a community designed to cut down on private vehicular traffic.

I'll be there to see what people make of the elegant Caruthers, the Willie and the Antone (amongst some other floorplan names). Phase II of the development is due to commence this summer, and inventory is low here. As Mueller's Residential Realtor, I'll be on hand to answer questions and tell people about my move up program - where I sell their homes for free when they move to Mueller!

Curb appeal is often cited as the most crucial item to get right when selling your home. You've got to have good curb appeal to give buyers a positive first impression, and the photos have got to back it up. Depending on what improvements you've done and when you've done them, internet-savvy buyers may now get to look at the 'before picture' too. This is one virtual tour that you don't want buyers to see!

On March 27th, Google added Austin, TX to it's list of cities available for 'street view'. What does this mean? It means that you can now see 360 degree panoramic views of the streets of Austin. When searching for an address in Austin using maps.google.com you can now click on 'street view' to see a scrollable photo of the area.

How do google do that? They drive a specially equipped car around a city taking photos. The car has eight panoramic cameras on the roof, and the photos are tied to existing street data.

If you're buying a house, this gives point in time information about how the houses you are looking at might have once appeared. It allows buyers to see curb appeal (or the lack of it) from the past! There are pictures of one of my seller's homes in University Hills from over 6 months ago!

Say that you paint your house, do some front landscaping, and put on a new roof in April 2008 for an early summer sale. Google may have taken photographs in December 2007, which show your house as it was before the improvements, and this might be what someone who looks around your neighbourhood using google will see. This makes it even more crucial to use a Realtor® who uses a professional photographer to get the very best photos of your home possible.

I was researching a property in my neighbourhood that was coming on the market. University Hills has a good bus service downtown which I am well aware of. What I didn't know, until I zoomed in on the map, was that the Cap Metro bus schedule is integrated into Google Maps. I clicked on the bus stop symbol, and it showed me when the next bus was due.

There's a new service called Google Transit, which covers Austin (CapMetro) amongst other cities. It integrates maps and schedules, and will surely be increasingly useful as more transit-oriented development occurs here. I guess the Google Kiosk is next, where you can access all of this information at the transit stations themselves.

This week saw me move in to Mueller - a mixed use development in Austin Texas on the site of the old airport. Moving into a neighbourhood that is under construction can fray on the nerves of some folk, but the rumbling trucks only start work at 7:30am, and the excitement of being so close to some of my favourite areas in Austin in a brand new home offsets any downside so far.

Here are a few updates about the things happening in our new development:

• Work has started on phase two of the retail center at I-35 and 51st Street. The first wall of the new Home Depot went up last week.
• The Seton Hospitals HQ is being built on Philomena Street - a 156,000 sqft four story office due for completion this year
• The parking garage for Mosaic at Mueller - the first multi-family development - is being built. This will be surrounded and shielded from view by the Simmons Vedder apartment buildings, set for late-fall move in later this year.
• I ran along the side of the Southwest Greenway this morning - still scheduled for completion in the summer

There are several builders with available homes to build, or that are nearing completion - if you're interested in finding out more, drop me an email or fill in this form!

At the macro level, we have seen interest rates on a 30 year fixed jump up 0.375% in the last few weeks, but at the metro level things are still looking strong for the Greater Austin Area. Forbes magazines reports:

“Of course, if one looks at economic growth in the country’s largest 100 metros, the usual suspects jump to the top of the list. With an estimated 32% GMP growth from 2007-2012, Austin, Texas, is the winner for big metros.”

The area is still experiencing job growth and population growth. Interest rates are still at historical lows, and there are still plenty of neighbourhoods bucking every trend. Make sure you’re getting your real estate advice from someone who takes all of the above factors into consideration with respect to your particular situation before you buy, sell or invest!