About Georgetown's Sun City

There is still no shortage of press coverage on Austin these days. Recently, an article that caught my attention forecasted Austin as the 5th fastest growing metro area among 250 US cities. They are expecting the greater Austin area to grow 87% from 1.5 million residents to 2.7 million by the year 2025! Depending on your perspective, this kind of story could be interpreted as very good or very bad.

There was also an interesting article written about Las Vegas home prices stabilizing that made reference to Trulia's top 10 cities where sellers were reducing their home prices in response to the market. Unfortunately, Austin was #9 on their list where Trulia claims 31% of homeowners reduced their prices an average of 8% in June.

Fortunately, this trend has not yet shown up in the prices homes are actually selling for. According to the Austin MLS, the average price of homes sold in the second quarter of 2009 was only 3% lower than in the same period in 2008. The number of homes sold was down 18% while the overall volume was down 20%. You can see a detailed 2 year historical comparison on our market statistics page. If you would like to see similar charts for a specific neighborhood, community, price range or property type, please let me know.

Now that some of the moratoriums are lifted, I am starting to see more foreclosures and short sales on the market. Austin area foreclosures are up 47% over last year, now at an all time high. If you are are looking for a deal, there are currently 354 foreclosure and short sale properties listed on our website.

For first-time homebuyers, the enticement of an $8,000 tax credit is an incredibly strong incentive to shop for a home this year, especially given the historically low interest rates in and the reduction in home prices. My conversations with potential first-time homebuyers show that there's a great deal of misinformation circulating about both the benefit itself and the timeline you have to take advantage of it.

Thanks for reading my Austin real estate update. If you'd like me to email you any of the articles mentioned, please let me know.

Romeo Manzanilla, REALTOR

www.RomeoM.com

video link for Sun City Georgetown

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I just came from Sun City, Georgetown, Tx and while I was only going to check on my listing. I ended up staying all afternoon. I drove up in the driveway at 241 Crockett Loop (my listing) and out came the next door neighbors, who bought the home from me when they moved in from California.

Once the across the street neighbors saw us jibber jabbering, well out they came to visit as well. This went on for several hours, people walking, jogging, biking all stopped to say HEY and what a great time I had meeting all you guys!! Next time I will bring the wine because we had so much FUN!

Now, I don't know if any of you do this, but I am going to start doing it more often. It was better than an Open House for people just driving around. Invite the neighbors and let them do the selling for you - they all know other people who want to move to the area. IT WAS GREAT!! So, next weekend, I think I will grab Rachelle (another Sky Realtor who likes to work Fun City) and we are going to have the neighbors over for wine. woohoo.

Rachelle was so excited about it, she made a video which I have included the link to - it's great.

http://www.youtube.com:80/watch?v=PBHtrsdEH7s

This month's newsletter was the easiest to write in quite some time. It seems as though the press just can't stop saying enough good things about Austin. Take a look at some of these amazing headlines from some very reputable news sources:

• Forbes: Austin is nation's best bargain city
• Austin only major city to gain jobs in last 12 months
• Austin forecasted as 5th fastest growing US city
• Austin best city for a 'fresh start'
• Austin home prices rise, continue to drop elsewhere
• Texas in top 5 states to lead nation out of recession
• Texas foreclosures decline 9% in April 2009
• Austin unemployment rate drops in April 2009

First time home buyers also got another dose of good news as the Federal Government rolled out a new plan that allows the $8,000 first time home buyer tax credit to be used at closing toward down payment and closing costs instead of waiting until they receive their tax refund next year.

Now that school is out, the summertime home buying season is in full swing and I have noticed a definite increase in buyer activity. While the statistics indicate that we aren't selling as many homes in Austin as in recent years, the overall trend is improving.

If you'd like me to email you any of these articles or statistics, please email me at Romeo@RomeoM.com

For more Austin Texas Real Estate news and information please visit http://www.RomeoM.com