Floodgates Are Open - 06/27/07 07:41 PM
This is a distant shot of the 4 open floodgates in Mansfield Dam, which holds back Lake Travis.  Lake Travis is just west of Austin.  Marble Falls, which is west and upstream got around 18 inches of rain last night.  This reain reportedly fell in just 3-4 hours.  That is more like a hurricane than your ordinary thunderstorms.  The lake has been rising steadily over the last 2 months after 3 years of drought.  By tomorrow when it crests (without more rain), Lake Travis will have risen around 53 feet in two months.  What is troubling is that more rain is … (3 comments)

Make Your House Elder-Friendly - 06/19/07 05:49 PM
As my own parents have become elderly I have been thinking of things my brothers and I can do to their house to make it safer and more elder-friendly.  Things like grab bars in the bathrooms are a good start, but they are just the beginning.  Read eight ways to make your house elder-friendly.  If anyone has additional ideas, I would love to hear them.
… (0 comments)

How's Your Market? - 06/19/07 10:28 AM
Residential real estate in Austin continues to be quite healthy.  The stats for May support this comment.
May 2007New listings were down by 11.89%.Solds increased by 2.55%.
As for Average Prices:The "New Listings" average list price is up 26.31% to 337,378.Sold average sales prices increased 7.89% to $245,616 compared to $227,646 in 2006.
Stats provided by Alamo Title Co.
How's your market?
… (0 comments)

Meeting With Gary Keller - 06/14/07 04:24 PM
I was lucky enough the day before yesterday to be in a sort of mini mastermind with Gary Keller.    He invited the top 100 Keller Williams agents in Austin (production through May) to come and listen to him and get into discussions about a variety of things.  Gary doesn't travel and do this, but he does this on a larger scale with KW agents from around the country who travel here.
The thing that stuck most in my mind was the 80/20 rule and focus.  Gary talked a great deal about focus, but not just focus.  He talked about absolutely intense focus.  … (4 comments)

High School Football, Books and Robin Hood - 06/08/07 11:02 AM
In Texas we have something that we call Robin Hood.  This is a system that the legislature set up years ago to make school funding more "fair."  What the state does is take money from school districts that are considered property wealthy and then redistribute the funds to schools in property poor districts.  The result is that many school districts, like Lake Travis and Eanes in the Austin area, have 50% or more of the property taxes they collect go to the state for redistribution.  Get the Robin Hood thing?
I have had kids in the Lake Travis ISD for many years.  … (1 comments)

The Iguana Grill - 06/05/07 04:19 PM
I posted a couple of photos the other day that show how much Lake Travis has filled up.  I took them from the Iguana Grill.  The Iguana has become quite a cool place to hang out, especially after the Oasis burned.  After that fire, the Iguana became the place to go if you wanted to hang out at a place with a huge Lake Travis View.  They paved the driveway, added a stage, and made some other improvements.
Above is the stage at the Iguana Grill.  Local Trish Murphy is playing there on June 8.  Entertainment generally starts at 6:30, which I love … (2 comments)

Lake Travis Fuller Than Full - 06/03/07 01:26 PM

From this in November, 2006...
To this on May 31, 2007.  Isn't it amazing what a little rain does!
… (0 comments)

 
Sam_chapman Rainmaker_large

Sam Chapman

Lakeway, TX

More about me…

of Private Label Realty

Address: 8300 N Mopac #110, Austin, TX, 78759

Office Phone: (512) 293-2422

Cell Phone: (512) 293-2422

Email Me

Information and observations on the Austin real estate market including market stats and developments in and around Austin that affect residential real estate conditions. Perhaps a few other odds & ends as well!


Listings

Links

Archives

RSS 2.0 Feed for this blog

Find TX real estate agents and Lakeway real estate on ActiveRain.