Les 's Blog

West Lake Hills Real Estate

Les Sherman, ABR, CRS, CNE (Re/Max Austin Associates) — Mon, 19 Oct 2009 16:37:19 -0500

About Westlake:

One of the most beautiful regions in Austin, West Lake, is located in the rolling hills along Lake Austin, just a short commute from downtown. It includes all neighborhoods within the prestigious Eanes School District and the surrounding areas. Westlake has a number of neighborhoods that are all unique in their own way, yet still share the same beautiful scenery and exemplary schools. Westlake offers activities such as cycling, jogging, hiking, and mountain biking through scenic trails, as well as kayaking and other water sports. Local attractions include the 360 (Pennybacker) Bridge, Austin Country Club, Barton Creek Resort and Spa, Barton Creek Greenbelt, Wild Basin Wilderness Preserve, and Zilker Park. Westlake is the perfect place to enjoy nature in the lap of luxury. There are plenty of delicious restaurants in the Westlake area that not only offer fantastic cuisines, but gorgeous views of the hills and Lake Austin.

A Few Westlake Neighborhoods:

WatersMark at Barton Creek - http://www.watersmarkbartoncreek.com/
Covered Bridge - http://www.coveredbridgeaustin.com/
The Madrones - http://www.madroneranch.com/
River Oaks - http://www.riveroaksaustin.com/index.htm
Steiner Ranch - http://www.steinerranch.com/
Davenport Ranch - http://www.davenportranch.org/
Senna Hills - http://www.sennahillsaustin.com/
Seven Oaks - http://www.sevenoak.net/NewFiles/Intro.html
West Rim - http://www.westrim.org/

For more information on these neighborhoods, feel free to contact Les Sherman.

WESTLAKE ATTRACTIONS:

Barton Creek Resort and Spa:

Barton Creek Resort and Spa

Wild Basin Wilderness Preserve:

Wild Basin Wilderness Preserve

Austin Country Club:

Austin Country Club

Pennybacker Bridge:

One of Barton Creek's Award Winning Golf Courses:

Barton Creek Square Mall:

Barton Creek Square Mall

A Couple of Prestiguious Schools Included in Eanes ISD:

Eanes ISD

Westlake Chamber of Commerce

Westlake Chamber of Commerce

The Community Newspaper - The Westlake Picayune

Westlake Picayune

Westlake Hills City Hall:

Westlake Hills City Hall

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8,000 reasons to buy: Time for you to make an offer

Les Sherman, ABR, CRS, CNE (Re/Max Austin Associates) — Mon, 19 Oct 2009 16:34:29 -0500

Hey Guys, this is a great article I found in the Statesman about the $8,000 tax credit. Time is running out!

By Michele Chan Santos
SPECIAL TO THE AMERICAN-STATESMAN
Sunday, October 11, 2009

If you've been dreaming and saving to buy your first home, the next few weeks present a unique opportunity.

For first-time home buyers whose income falls within certain limits, purchasing a house, condominium or townhome might make them eligible for a tax credit worth 10 percent of the purchase price of their home, or $8,000, whichever is less. This amount reduces the amount of taxes you owe, or increases your refund, dollar for dollar, according to the IRS. For example, if you normally would have a refund next spring of $100, with a qualifying home purchase your refund could be $8,100.

Because of the tax credit and other factors, "my perception is that it's a great time to buy," says Carol Dochen, who has been in real estate for 28 years. She is the owner of Carol Dochen Realtors.

"Interest rates are at a historic low," Dochen says. "Because the market has dipped, you will be buying at a lower price point instead of a higher one."

Amy McGowan, an agent with Keller Williams, says she's been urging her clients to understand the unique benefits of this tax offer.

"The biggest thing I try to tell them is, say they are looking at a $200,000 home, the tax credit is equal to a 4 percent appreciation in value," McGowan says. In fact, it's a financial bonus that requires little effort on the buyer's part. "It's money that comes to you in your mailbox."

Here is a guide to what you need to know to take advantage of the tax credit and get into your first home before the holidays:

Who is eligible for the credit?

People who filed individual income taxes for an income of $75,000 or less, or couples who filed jointly with an income of $150,000 or less. You must not have owned a home within 36 months of your date of purchase. You must occupy the property you buy as your primary residence (this program is not for people who want to buy something and rent it out, nor does it apply to vacation homes).

When do I need to have found a house?

Right now. Late October might be pushing it. "The program as we know it ends Nov. 30," says Diane Dopson, owner of Diane Dopson Properties. "This means that you must have closed on the house by that date. It is possible that the government will extend the deadline, but in case this does not happen, the latest time to have a house under contract would be mid-October," Dopson says. "Loan approval is taking four to six weeks." In other words, once you find a house and put it under contract, it could take another four to six weeks before you are able to close on it, and that needs to be done before Nov. 30.

"Try to be under contract no later than Oct. 25," Dochen says.

What should I do first?

If you have not already done so, you should get preapproved for a home loan and find a reliable real estate agent to help you shop for a home. You need to know what price range to search, as well as the part of town you'd like to live in.

"We sit down with our clients and have them talk to a lender, so we can show them the right-priced property, and we match neighborhoods to that price range," Dochen says.

Should I buy a house just because the tax credit is available?

"Be careful and make sure that for your personal situation, you are ready," says Nancy Taute, an agent with Carol Dochen Realtors. "You need to be ready to accept responsibility for homeownership." She cautioned that buyers need to be prepared to be able to sustain six months to a year of mortgage payments in case they lose their jobs.

For those who are financially ready, the time couldn't be better.

"If you are prepared, if you have done your budget and your job is secure, it's time to get serious," McGowan says. "The combination of low interest rates, the tax credit and affordability in the market" make it worth pursuing homeownership now, she says.

What types of properties does the credit apply to? Can I buy the property from anyone?

You can buy a single-family home, townhouse, condominium or mobile home (and the land under the mobile home), as long as it will be your primary residence, according to the IRS. You cannot buy the property from your parents or grandparents, or from your children, grandchildren or your spouse.

If I buy a house and receive the tax credit, but end up moving next year, do I have to pay the government back?

Yes. You must repay the credit if the house stops being your primary residence (your home) in the 36 months following the purchase date. As long as you live in the house for 36 months after you buy it, you don't have to pay the credit back, Dochen says.

How do I receive my tax credit?

You can file an amendment to your 2008 taxes, or wait and file it with your 2009 tax return. You will be filing Form 5405. Go to www.irs.gov for more information at http://www.irs.gov/newsroom/article/0,,id=205416,00.html.

What price range are most first-time home buyers looking in?

Most first-time home buyers are probably looking at properties between $100,000 and $350,000, Dopson says.

Angela Brutsch?, spokeswoman for the Austin Board of Realtors, says there has been a definite rise in the percentage of sales in houses in the $100,000-to-$150,000 range.

In August 2008, sales in this category made up only 3.7 percent of the houses sold that month, but this August, that category made up 7.9 percent, more than double the former amount.

In August, 55 percent of the houses sold were in the $100,000-to-$200,000 range, and another 19.2 percent were in the $200,000 to $300,000 range. Together these made up 74.2 percent of the homes sold.

The number of sales in "these price ranges are trending higher than last year," Brutsch? says, because they are popular with first-time buyers taking advantage of the tax credit.

What Central Texas neighborhoods are popular with first-time home buyers?

First-time home buyers looking in the $100,000-to-$200,000 range and seeking a three-bedroom, two-bath house are looking in Cedar Park, Leander and Round Rock, as well as in Rancho Alto in Southwest Austin and Olympic Heights in South Austin, McGowan says.

Other neighborhoods popular with first-time home buyers include Maple Run, Westcreek, Cherry Creek, University Hills, Windsor Park, Balcones Woods and Pioneer Crossing, Taute says. Pflugerville, Buda and Kyle are also in demand.

Any other last words of advice?

The real estate agent's mantra is "location, location, location," and that holds true in this situation as well, the agents say. "Make sure the location works for you, job-wise, community-wise, school-wise," Dochen says.

Arlene Maze, an agent with Carol Dochen Realtors, says, "Do the morning and afternoon commutes from the house. Go to your activities to and from there. It has to work with your lifestyle."

Where can I look if I have other questions?

Talk to your real estate agent. In addition, there is a lot of information about the program at the IRS Web site: http://www.irs.gov/news room/article/0,,id=206291,00.html.

FULL STORY

Circle C Ranch in Austin Texas

Les Sherman, ABR, CRS, CNE (Re/Max Austin Associates) — Mon, 19 Oct 2009 16:27:57 -0500

Circle C Ranch is one of the Southwest Austin neighborhoods located in the scenic rolling Hills of Austin, Texas. Circle C is Austin's TOP SELLING NEIGHBORHOOD. Homes in this affordable Central Texas master-planned community are are priced from high $190s to the $400s. The area is designed to promote maximum open / green space and to integrate the natural beauty of the area. A school is planned for the center of the community.

Circle C Ranch New Home Builders

Newmark Homes in Circle C Ranch - Muirfield - Austin TX

Newmark Homes in Circle C Ranch of Southwest Austin in Travis County offer unique wooded home sites. uniquethe luxury amenities of your dreams. Located in the prestigious Muirfield area of Circle C Ranch, Newmark offers the Meridian '55 home community Just minutes from the Circle C Golf Club, shopping and major employers, it offers the convenience of city life with a hill country atmosphere. The objective of Newmark when building the Meridian in Circle C Ranch / Austin was to maximize open space, promote green building principles and native landscaping, protext wildlife habitat and provide state-of-the-art water quality protections. At the center of the community will be a planned elementary school, amenity center and Bear Lake.

Call Les Sherman 512-947-8333 for a tour!

David Weekley Homes - Circle C Ranch - Southwest Austin Neighborhood

David Weekley Homes provides homes in - Muirfield - Austin TX Neighborhood of Circle C Ranch. Muirfield at Circle C Ranch delivers the natural beauty of southwest Austin set among rolling hills. David Weekley Homes features a collection of distinctive residences from Custom Classics complete with the builder's award-winning design, choice and service. Here, residents enjoy amenities like: Acres of native grasses and plants Master-planned, gated community Golf-course within Pools, sports courts and trails Homesites with trees and scenic views

Call Les Sherman 512-947-8333 for a tour!

Circle C Ranch - Austin Neighborhood

Circle C Ranch is a master-planned community of southwest Austin. Started in 1988, this neighborhood of affordable homes with a convenient location offers an idyllic southwest Austin location, between the Ladybird Johnson Wildflower Center and the Circle C Golf Course, Circle C Ranch offers its residents Hill Country beauty and commuter convenience. Prices in Circle C, range from the $180s to the low $500s, entice a diverse group of buyers to this established community and encourage them to stay. Many buyers have moved up and moved down in home style as their needs have changed.

Circle C Ranch homes are between 1,500 to 4,500 square feet and generally have 4 bedrooms and 2.5 baths. New homes are constantly being built in the area by builders such as Newmark, D.R. Horton, Streetman and others. In addition to the wildflower center and the golf course, Circle C Ranch is a neighborhood which gives a sense of community with its numerous amenities. The Circle C Swim Center is home to the only heated, outdoor, Olympic-sized pool in Central Texas. With its park-like grounds and well-equipped facilities, the swim center is the site of a number of major swim meets and offers residents a great place to relax.

The Veloway, a three-mile track for bicycling and rollerblading, will be extended an additional three miles in the near future. The Circle C Child Care Center and Slaughter Creek Park are additional community amenities that help make Circle C Ranch a well-regarded community.

Find out more about Circle C Ranch

First-time buyers taking advantage of tax credit

Les Sherman, ABR, CRS, CNE (Re/Max Austin Associates) — Mon, 19 Oct 2009 16:18:49 -0500

By Shonda Novak
AMERICAN-STATESMAN STAFF
Saturday, October 17, 2009

In August, Helen Rodriguez bought a one-bedroom unit in the Monte Vista Condominiums in Northwest Austin near RM 2222 and Loop 360 (Capital of Texas Highway).

She paid $121,000 for the condo, which has a fireplace and Hill Country views. She also got an $8,000 tax credit under a federal program designed to spur home sales to first-time buyers.

"It's the cushion that made me comfortable making this purchase at this point in my life," said Rodriguez, 25, a senior account executive at Pierpont Communications Inc., a marketing and public relations agency. "Without it, I don't think I would have been comfortable buying."

The program gives first-time buyers a credit for 10 percent of the home price, up to $8,000. There are some income limits, and the closing must occur by Nov. 30. Given the amount of time that it takes to process a mortgage application, some buyers may be scrambling to make the deadline.

However, there are several proposals in Congress to extend the tax credit, including some that would expand it to all buyers. Developers, builders and real estate agents hope that comes to pass.

Kenton Brown, vice president of Sente Mortgage in Austin, said that 45 percent of home-purchase loans that Sente has made this year have been for first-time buyers. An end to the program, he said, "could slow sales pretty substantially."

"That's a majority of the purchase activity we're seeing now," Brown said. Not only that, but the tax credit is "creating a trickle-up effect," as owners are able to sell their entry-level homes and move into larger homes.

Brown and others are concerned that the program will lapseat a time of the year when home sales already tend to experience a decline, in the late fall and winter months.

"It will take a lot of first-time homebuyers out of the picture," said Richard deVarga, developer and architect of Cobra Studios, a condominium project with 24 live-work units in East Austin. "It's the one little carrot we've got right now, and that carrot is shriveling."

DeVarga said half of the 10 units that he has sold since late July went to first-time buyers who made the purchases mainly because of the credit. Prices range from about $130,000 to $170,000.

Artists Tim and Carli Price were among the buyers. The couple paid $129,000 for a unit with 840 square feet. They plan to use their tax credit to create their "dream space," said Tim Price, a painter. His wife makes jewelry.

The couple had been house-hunting for about two years but "could never find anything in our price range that wasn't ready for a bulldozer," Tim Price said. When the tax credit passed, "we knew we had to step up our efforts."

Price said he was riding his bicycle and looking for houses being sold by theirowners when he came across Cobra Studios, a no-frills project with open floor plans, a metal roof, rainwater collection tanks and glass-paned garage doors that open up the living room to the outside.

"Not only did we love the architecture, but we loved the price just as much," Tim Price said. "For being as close to downtown as it is, we couldn't have found a better setup."

The National Association of Realtors estimates that in Texas, 189,200 first-time buyers will be able to take advantage of the tax credit.

Locally, real estate agents say the tax credit has been responsible for much of the strength in the resale and new-home market. Critics, however, say the program is too costly, with much of the money going to people who would have bought a house anyway.

Ed Solter, president of Presidential Mortgage Co. in Austin, said the absence of the credit would be a test of the market, to see "if it can stand on its own wobbly legs."

Solter said the health of the local economy, including its housing market, hinges on job growth, and the region is losing jobs.

In addition, Solter said he expects a 1 percentage point bump in mortgage interest rates during the first quarter of next year, which could also hurt home sales. Some other experts think that mortgage rates won't tick up until next summer.

David Reed, senior loan officer with Integrity Home Mortgage in Austin, thinks that the credit will be extended and noted that there is bipartisan support to do so.

"I'd hate to see it go away," Reed said. "Of all the government programs aimed at helping the economy, I feel this one is right on the mark. Not only does it get first-timers in the market as homeowners, but the tax credit acts as a boost to consumer spending when they get their refund check from the IRS."

If the program does end, Reed said, "the government will have really dropped the ball. The last thing we need right now is for any housing momentum to reverse course. It will definitely hurt."

At Cobra Studios, deVarga said the credit is enabling young couples and others who are entrepreneurs or in the creative arts to purchase condos there.

He originally hoped to have all 24 units sold by last month, but the recession, real estate slump and much more stringent lending rules on home mortgages changed all that. He has seven units left.

"My goal was to be 'unemployed' in September, and I'm still dealing with this," deVarga said.

But he considers himself fortunate to have 70 percent of the units sold or under contract. That means he will be able to pay off his construction loan.

"We are doing well. Flat is the new up," he said. "Doing OK today is just getting through and paying your debt."

Tax credit details

Amount:10 percent of the home price, up to $8,000. Townhouses, condominiums and mobile homes qualify as well as single-family homes.

Who qualifies:First-time buyers or anyone who has not owned a home in the past three years. There are some income limits.

Details:The house must be your primary residence. The seller cannot be a close relative. You must repay the credit if you sell or rent the house within three years.

Timing:Don't dawdle - it

takes at least four to five weeks to process a mortgage application and hold the closing. The closing must occur before Dec. 1 to get the credit.

Payoff:You can file an amendment to your 2008 taxes to get the money now or wait and file it with your 2009 tax return. You will be filing Form 5405. For more information, go to www.irs.gov.

Full Story Here at http://www.statesman.com/business/content/business/stories/realestate/2009/10/17/1017taxcredit.html

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New Listing! 3 Bedroom Home in South Austin

Les Sherman, ABR, CRS, CNE (Re/Max Austin Associates) — Thu, 15 Oct 2009 13:49:50 -0500

Les Sherman | RE/MAX Austin Associates | 512.947.8333

4607 Franklin Park Dr, Austin, TX

3BR/2BA Single Family House

offered at $99,500

Year Built	1976
Sq Footage	1,126
Bedrooms	3
Bathrooms	2 full, 0 partial
Floors	1
Parking	2 Car garage
Lot Size	6,621 sqft
HOA/Maint	$0 per month

DESCRIPTION

Cozy 3 bedroom 2 bathroom home with a covered patio, 3 storage buildings, 2 car garage. Priced to sell as-is, see agent regarding potential foundation work and exterior painting.

see additional photos below

PROPERTY FEATURES

- Central A/C	- Central heat	- Fireplace
- Walk-in closet	- Living room	- Dining room
- Dishwasher	- Yard

ADDITIONAL PHOTOS

Front View of Home	Living Room
Kitchen	Bedroom
Bedroom	Storage Space

Contact info:

Les Sherman

RE/MAX Austin Associates

512.947.8333

For sale by agent/broker

Equal Opportunity Housing

Posted: Oct 15, 2009, 9:41am PDT

Cute Home on 5 Gorgeous Acres!

Les Sherman, ABR, CRS, CNE (Re/Max Austin Associates) — Thu, 15 Oct 2009 13:48:14 -0500

Les Sherman | RE/MAX Austin Associates | 512.947.8333

7631/7633 Nez Perce, Manor, TX

Country Home on 5 Acres!

4BR/3BA Single Family House

offered at $220,000

Year Built	1970
Sq Footage	2,148
Bedrooms	4
Bathrooms	3 full, 0 partial
Floors	1
Parking	2 Car garage
Lot Size	5 acres
HOA/Maint	$0 per month

DESCRIPTION

Old farmhouse needing remodeling. 5 acres wooded. Recent architectural grade roof shingles, septic, A/C. Large barn. Fenced yard. Covered Porches, Four bedrooms, three baths, Study/office, two living areas, two dining areas, wood floors in main living area, rustic country kitchen.

see additional photos below

PROPERTY FEATURES

- Hardwood floor	- Living room	- Dining room
- Dishwasher	- Refrigerator	- Stove/Oven
- Yard

ADDITIONAL PHOTOS

Front View	Kitchen
Living and Dining Room	Road Frontage
View of Entrance	View of Acreage

Contact info:

Les Sherman

RE/MAX Austin Associates

512.947.8333

For sale by agent/broker

Equal Opportunity Housing

Posted: Sep 17, 2009, 8:51am PDT

Unique Home with Breathtaking Views of the Hills of Austin, Drastically Reduced!

Les Sherman, ABR, CRS, CNE (Re/Max Austin Associates) — Thu, 15 Oct 2009 13:46:50 -0500

Les Sherman | RE/MAX Austin Associates | 512.947.8333

8 Cove Creek Lane, Village Of The Hills, TX

REDUCED! Unique Home with an AMAZING view!

4BR/3BA Single Family House

offered at $359,500

Year Built	2006
Sq Footage	2,934
Bedrooms	4
Bathrooms	3 full, 0 partial
Floors	2
Parking	2 Car garage
Lot Size	6,993 sqft
HOA/Maint	$0 per month

DESCRIPTION

Most affordable newer construction (2006) in The Hills. Granite countertops and stainless steel appliance package in kitchen. Four bedrooms and three bathrooms. Fireplace. Formal Dining Room. Study/office/guest room with bath as 4th bedroom. Second floor outdoor kitchen and party deck with view of Lakeway and part of Bella Montagna. Scored/stained concrete floors, faux paint finish, high ceilings. Small yard for low maintenance. No room for a pool or large dog run. Tenant is on a month to mont

see additional photos below

PROPERTY FEATURES

- Central A/C	- Central heat	- Fireplace
- High/Vaulted ceiling	- Walk-in closet	- Tile floor
- Family room	- Living room	- Bonus/Rec room
- Office/Den	- Dining room	- Breakfast nook
- Dishwasher	- Refrigerator	- Stove/Oven
- Microwave	- Granite countertop	- Stainless steel appliances
- Washer	- Dryer	- Laundry area - inside

ADDITIONAL PHOTOS

Front View	Living Area
Kitchen	Dining Area
Patio	View

Contact info:

Les Sherman

RE/MAX Austin Associates

512.947.8333

For sale by agent/broker

Equal Opportunity Housing

Posted: Sep 17, 2009, 8:55am PDT

GREAT Investment Opportunity in Austin, TX just minutes from IH35!

Les Sherman, ABR, CRS, CNE (Re/Max Austin Associates) — Thu, 15 Oct 2009 13:45:10 -0500

Les Sherman | RE/MAX Austin Associates | 512.947.8333

1104 E 12th Street, Austin, TX

Great Investment Opportunity in an Up and Coming Area!

Retail/Commercial

offered at $675,000

Year Built	Unspecified
Sq Footage	2,268
Floors	1
Parking	Uncovered spaces
Lot Size	20,000 sqft
Maint	$0 per month

see additional photos below

LOCATION FEATURES

- Premier Location, Just minutes from Downtown and I-35

ADDITIONAL PHOTOS

Angled Front View	Downtown View from Prop.
Front View Close Up	Street View Facing East
Property View From Rear

Contact info:

Les Sherman

RE/MAX Austin Associates

512.947.8333

For sale by agent/broker

Equal Opportunity Housing

Posted: Sep 17, 2009, 9:52am PDT

Les Sherman | RE/MAX Austin Associates | 512.947.8333

1112 E. 12th Street, Austin, TX

Business Opportunity

offered at $272,000

Year Built	Unspecified
Sq Footage	Unspecified
Floors	0
Parking	Unspecified
Lot Size	7,492 sqft
Maint	$0 per month

DESCRIPTION

7500 SF in the 1100 block of E 12th. Per NCCD Plan height restrictions and compatibility restrictions have been waived. 20' alleyway in place. 90% impervious cover required. Zoning- CS-MU-NCCD-NP. Strong potential for 20,230 SF adjoining to the west and 12,924 adjoining to the east to be added.

see additional photos below

PROPERTY FEATURES

- Great Investment Opportunity!

LOCATION FEATURES

- Premier Location, just blocks from I-35

OTHER SPECIAL FEATURES

- Up and coming area

ADDITIONAL PHOTOS

Rear View from Alley	Alley Facing East
Alley Facing West	Front View
Front View from Street

Contact info:

Les Sherman

RE/MAX Austin Associates

512.947.8333

For sale by agent/broker

Equal Opportunity Housing

Posted: Sep 17, 2009, 9:44am PDT

Another GREAT Investment Opportunity in the East Austin area, just minutes from I-35

Les Sherman, ABR, CRS, CNE (Re/Max Austin Associates) — Mon, 28 Sep 2009 17:53:08 -0500

Les Sherman | RE/MAX Austin Associates | 512.947.8333

1104 E 12th Street, Austin, TX

Great Investment Opportunity in an Up and Coming Area!

Retail/Commercial

offered at $675,000

Year Built	Unspecified
Sq Footage	2,268
Floors	1
Parking	Uncovered spaces
Lot Size	20,000 sqft
Maint	$0 per month

see additional photos below

LOCATION FEATURES

- Premier Location, Just minutes from Downtown and I-35

ADDITIONAL PHOTOS

Angled Front View	Downtown View from Prop.
Front View Close Up	Street View Facing East
Property View From Rear

Contact info:

Les Sherman

RE/MAX Austin Associates

512.947.8333

For sale by agent/broker

Equal Opportunity Housing

Posted: Sep 17, 2009, 9:52am PDT

Great Investment Opportunity-Commercial or Residential in a developing area of East Austin

Les Sherman, ABR, CRS, CNE (Re/Max Austin Associates) — Mon, 28 Sep 2009 17:48:58 -0500

Les Sherman | RE/MAX Austin Associates | 512.947.8333

1112 E. 12th Street, Austin, TX

Business Opportunity

offered at $272,000

Year Built	Unspecified
Sq Footage	Unspecified
Floors	0
Parking	Unspecified
Lot Size	7,492 sqft
Maint	$0 per month

DESCRIPTION

see additional photos below

PROPERTY FEATURES

- Great Investment Opportunity!

LOCATION FEATURES

- Premier Location, just blocks from I-35

OTHER SPECIAL FEATURES

- Up and coming area

ADDITIONAL PHOTOS

Rear View from Alley	Alley Facing East
Alley Facing West	Front View
Front View from Street

Contact info:

Les Sherman

RE/MAX Austin Associates

512.947.8333

For sale by agent/broker

Equal Opportunity Housing

Posted: Sep 17, 2009, 9:44am PDT

GORGEOUS and Unique Home with Breathtaking Views of the Hills of Austin! REDUCED!

Les Sherman, ABR, CRS, CNE (Re/Max Austin Associates) — Mon, 28 Sep 2009 17:45:40 -0500

Les Sherman | RE/MAX Austin Associates | 512.947.8333

8 Cove Creek Lane, Village Of The Hills, TX

REDUCED! Unique Home with an AMAZING view!

4BR/3BA Single Family House

offered at $359,500

Year Built	2006
Sq Footage	2,934
Bedrooms	4
Bathrooms	3 full, 0 partial
Floors	2
Parking	2 Car garage
Lot Size	6,993 sqft
HOA/Maint	$0 per month

DESCRIPTION

see additional photos below

PROPERTY FEATURES

- Central A/C	- Central heat	- Fireplace
- High/Vaulted ceiling	- Walk-in closet	- Tile floor
- Family room	- Living room	- Bonus/Rec room
- Office/Den	- Dining room	- Breakfast nook
- Dishwasher	- Refrigerator	- Stove/Oven
- Microwave	- Granite countertop	- Stainless steel appliances
- Washer	- Dryer	- Laundry area - inside

ADDITIONAL PHOTOS

Front View	Living Area
Kitchen	Dining Area
Patio	View

Contact info:

Les Sherman

RE/MAX Austin Associates

512.947.8333

For sale by agent/broker

Equal Opportunity Housing

Posted: Sep 17, 2009, 8:55am PDT

Great 4 Bedroom 2.5 Bathroom Home Located in a Great Neighborhood!

Les Sherman, ABR, CRS, CNE (Re/Max Austin Associates) — Mon, 28 Sep 2009 17:43:21 -0500

Les Sherman | RE/MAX Austin Associates | 512.947.8333

17307 Bushmills, Pflugerville, TX

Spacious 4 Bedroom in Great Neighborhood!

4BR/2.5BA Single Family House

offered at $129,750

Year Built	1997
Sq Footage	1,711
Bedrooms	4
Bathrooms	2 full, 1 partial
Floors	2
Parking	2 Car garage
Lot Size	6,961 sqft
HOA/Maint	$0 per month

see additional photos below

PROPERTY FEATURES

- Central A/C	- Central heat	- Fireplace
- High/Vaulted ceiling	- Living room	- Office/Den
- Dining room	- Dishwasher	- Stove/Oven
- Balcony, Deck, or Patio	- Yard

ADDITIONAL PHOTOS

Front View of Home	Living Room
Kitchen	Dining Area
Master Bathroom	Yard

Contact info:

Les Sherman

RE/MAX Austin Associates

512.947.8333

For sale by agent/broker

Equal Opportunity Housing

Posted: Sep 10, 2009, 9:28am PDT

Cute Farm Home on 5 Acres of Beautiful Land!

Les Sherman, ABR, CRS, CNE (Re/Max Austin Associates) — Mon, 28 Sep 2009 17:39:03 -0500

Les Sherman | RE/MAX Austin Associates | 512.947.8333

7631/7633 Nez Perce, Manor, TX

Country Home on 5 Acres!

4BR/3BA Single Family House

offered at $220,000

Year Built	1970
Sq Footage	2,148
Bedrooms	4
Bathrooms	3 full, 0 partial
Floors	1
Parking	2 Car garage
Lot Size	5 acres
HOA/Maint	$0 per month

DESCRIPTION

see additional photos below

PROPERTY FEATURES

- Hardwood floor	- Living room	- Dining room
- Dishwasher	- Refrigerator	- Stove/Oven
- Yard

ADDITIONAL PHOTOS

Front View	Kitchen
Living and Dining Room	Road Frontage
View of Entrance	View of Acreage

Contact info:

Les Sherman

RE/MAX Austin Associates

512.947.8333

For sale by agent/broker

Equal Opportunity Housing

Posted: Sep 17, 2009, 8:51am PDT

Twitter blackout left users feeling 'jittery,' 'naked'

Les Sherman, ABR, CRS, CNE (Re/Max Austin Associates) — Thu, 17 Sep 2009 13:43:52 -0500

By John D. Sutter

(CNN) -- Christina Cimino was logging onto Twitter on Thursday morning when something happened that she found deeply unsettling.

iReporter David Seaman says Twitter needs a competitor so users don't panic when it goes down.

1 of 2

"I got some weird error message, and I'm like, 'What's going on!?" the 24-year-old said.

That error message was the scourge of online social networkers worldwide on Thursday as cyber-attacks shut down Twitter and caused sustained glitches in other social-media sites like Facebook and the blogging site LiveJournal.

Twitter co-founder Biz Stone wrote the sites were the victims of what "appears to be a single, massively coordinated attack." And a pro-Georgian blogger, whose accounts on Facebook and Twitter reportedly were the targets of the denial-of-service attack, told CNN the online strike was timed to coincide with the one-year anniversary of the Russia-Georgia conflict.

What may prove more lasting about the day social networking suffered its first major blackout is the degree to which people cared. Near-panic erupted in some corners of the Internet as people lost cherished links to their online friends, family members and news feeds.

Part of the panic relates to the sheer popularity of the sites.

Twitter saw a more than 1,300 percent jump in unique visitors between February 2008 and February 2009, according to Nielsen NetView. The site, which lets users post messages of 140 characters or less, had more than 44 million worldwide users in June, according to comScore. More than 120 million users log onto Facebook at least one time each day, the site says.

To be sure, not all Facebook and Twitter users freaked out because of the attacks. Some people even reveled in the mayhem.

But for people like Cimino, who said she "felt naked" without access to Twitter, the attacks were a serious reality check -- a chance to evaluate just how dependent they'd become.

"You know how you pat your pockets for your cell phone and your keys? Well it's that same kind of phantom [limb] with Twitter," she said. "It's like, 'I can't update! I can't update!' It's just one of those bugs that gets in you."

She added: "I was pretty upset, actually. It feels like a lifeline for me ... Pretty much everyone knows almost every detail of my life by what I'm doing on Twitter."

It's not worth analyzing whether these online connections are good or bad because the reality is that Twitter and Facebook are now an important part of our lives, said Marc Cooper, a journalism professor at the University of Southern California's Annenberg School for Communication.

"For many people, and not just young people, the Web is not just media, it's actually a place where they conduct their lives or a portion of their lives," he said.

"So the panic [Thursday] morning is only reflective of that. This is not just a hobby or an amusement or another accoutrement, it's actually deeply woven into their lives and is integral to their social interaction. So when it's cut off, it's a problem."

Others saw Twitter's existence as the problem and relished the chance to make fun of a Web site that has become so omnipresent in news cycles.

"Horrors!!! People will have to communicate face to face!" one user commented on CNN's SciTech blog.

Another commenter said, "Turn off your computers and read a book or get outside and discover there is more to life than cyberspace. The Internet has become nothing more than the new cocaine."

Now that Twitter is back online, the No. 1 conversation thread on the site is called "whentwitterwasdown," where users discuss what they did without their real-time Twitter updates.

Some people are mocking the blackout. A user named PaulWilks, for instance, wrote, "I took up juggling."

Others seem concerned. "I did absolutely nothing. It's like my heart was gone," wrote a user named HarajukuxBarbie. "I felt so empty inside," wrote another Twitter user called freinhar.

Some business people on Thursday realized just how much they depend on Facebook and Twitter to do their work.

Adam Ostrow, editor-in-chief at Mashable, a blog that covers social media, said the outage made it difficult for his organization to cover the news and to promote its stories.

"For someone like myself who spends all day on Twitter, it's incredibly frustrating," he told CNN.com Live .

Justin Stauffer, a 31-year-old who works in Web strategy at a marketing company near Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, said Thursday's attack made him realize just how dependent on Twitter he had become.

"When something that's so central to how you do your business or how you gather information goes down, yeah, you get a little jittery -- like, when's it going to be back," he said.

"I didn't break out in hives or anything like that," he said, jokingly.

David Seaman, an iReporter in New York, said he thinks Twitter needs a competitor so users will have an alternative if the site is down. Watch Seaman's talk about the issue on CNN's iReport

And Amy Gahran, who writes about social media on a blog called Contentious, said all technologies can break down, so people need to make contingency plans.

"Hell, when you get down to it, you can lose your voice or break your writing hand or have a stroke and be unable to communicate. We are fundamentally social creatures, and when we lack our usual communication channels it's scary," she writes.

"Don't panic. Have a backup plan, and be prepared."

Cooper, the USC professor, said the fuss surrounding Thursday's attack is a sign that instant, online communication is here to stay.

Fighting the trend would be like trying to stop the ocean's tides, he said, but it's unclear where the technology will take our society.

"The bottom line is that we don't know. All of this is too new," he said. "It's like sitting around in the year 1500 and trying to figure out where the printing press was going to take us."

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Facebook buys FriendFeed: Is this a big deal?

Les Sherman, ABR, CRS, CNE (Re/Max Austin Associates) — Thu, 17 Sep 2009 13:39:44 -0500

(CNET) -- Surprise! Facebook has acquired FriendFeed, a Bay Area-based social-network feed aggregation start-up.

FriendFeed consolidates updates from social media and bookmarking sites, blogs and RSS feeds.

"Facebook and FriendFeed share a common vision of giving people tools to share and connect with their friends," FriendFeed co-founder Bret Taylor said in a release.

"We can't wait to join the team and bring many of the innovations we've developed at FriendFeed to Facebook's 250 million users around the world."

TechCrunch reported the news on Monday, a matter of minutes before Facebook confirmed the acquisition.

I'm going to go out on a limb and say it: This is not as ridiculously huge of a deal as the Silicon Valley hype machine is going to have you believe.

Basically, FriendFeed has been coasting on a lot of hype and not a lot of mainstream recognition, and it's not a bit surprising that it would be seeking an exit at this point.

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Facebook acquired it for its talent; prior to FriendFeed, Taylor was part of the team that helped launch Google Maps. So the real story here is that Facebook made the rather expensive hire (and we don't know the terms of the deal) of some very talented former Googlers.

FriendFeed's co-founders "will hold senior roles on Facebook's engineering and product teams," according to the release, and the rest of the company's 12 employees will also join Facebook.

This would also be consistent with Facebook's minimal past acquisition history: the company bought little-known start-up Parakey two years ago with the primary objective of getting its founders, the creators of the Firefox browser, on board.

It's also well-known that Facebook tried hard to acquire Twitter -- which would've been a far more significant acquisition than FriendFeed -- and was turned down. (Well, there was also ConnectU, whose assets Facebook acquired pretty much just to get that pesky lawsuit off the table.)

The release from Facebook repeatedly hinted that this is about talent more than product.

"Since I first tried FriendFeed, I've admired their team for creating such a simple and elegant service for people to share information," Facebook founder and CEO Mark Zuckerberg said in the statement.

"As this shows, our culture continues to make Facebook a place where the best engineers come to build things quickly that lots of people will use."

Yup.

"As we spent time with Mark (Zuckerberg) and his leadership team, we were impressed by the open, creative culture they've built, and their desire to have us contribute to it," said FriendFeed co-founder Paul Buchheit, another ex-Googler who was instrumental in building Gmail.

"It was immediately obvious to us how passionate Facebook's engineers are about creating simple, groundbreaking ways for people to share, and we are extremely excited to join such a like-minded group."

But Facebook director of product Christopher Cox said to CNET News later, "I wouldn't call it a talent acquisition."

He elaborated, "We really have a vision that's focusing on Facebook being not just a destination but being a service. ... We think FriendFeed's been focused on how that's going to work in an open way, and that's something we're excited about, not just the people but the product they've built."

FriendFeed earned praise from prominent voices in Silicon Valley -- most notably Robert Scoble -- but its aim to aggregate all of a user's social networking activity feeds in one place didn't catch on with the mainstream.

But Facebook eventually began to mimic the FriendFeed model through upgrades to its central "news feed" feature, letting members pull in select third-party updates.

Bret Taylor said that FriendFeed wasn't shopping itself around. "We weren't up for sale. We had a healthy amount of financing and a really efficient company," he told CNET News.

"As we noticed our products were really converging in terms of product vision, we started having casual conversations with Facebook."

It's not clear what will happen to the FriendFeed service, because it sure sounds like Facebook is eager to get its team onto the engineering fast track. "FriendFeed.com will continue to operate normally for the time being," a post by Taylor on the FriendFeed blog read.

"We're still figuring out our longer term plans for the product with the Facebook team."

Taylor elaborated more to CNET News later on Monday: "Anything that we would do would be more of a transition, not shutting down. I think our users have invested in our product by putting their data in it, sharing it with their friends. ...We absolutely wouldn't shut (FriendFeed) down."

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The 12 most annoying types of Facebookers

Les Sherman, ABR, CRS, CNE (Re/Max Austin Associates) — Thu, 17 Sep 2009 13:36:57 -0500

(CNN) -- Facebook, for better or worse, is like being at a big party with all your friends, family, acquaintances and co-workers.

Facebook can be a great tool, and an occasional annoyance. What kind of Facebooker are you?

There are lots of fun, interesting people you're happy to talk to when they stroll up. Then there are the other people, the ones who make you cringe when you see them coming. This article is about those people.

Sure, Facebook can be a great tool for keeping up with folks who are important to you. Take the status update, the 160-character message that users post in response to the question, "What's on your mind?" An artful, witty or newsy status update is a pleasure -- a real-time, tiny window into a friend's life.

But far more posts read like navel-gazing diary entries, or worse, spam. A recent study categorized 40 percent of Twitter tweets as "pointless babble," and it wouldn't be surprising if updates on Facebook, still a fast-growing social network, break down in a similar way.

Combine dull status updates with shameless self-promoters, "friend-padders" and that friend of a friend who sends you quizzes every day, and Facebook becomes a daily reminder of why some people can get on your nerves.

Here are 12 of the most annoying types of Facebook users:

The Let-Me-Tell-You-Every-Detail-of-My-Day Bore. "I'm waking up." "I had Wheaties for breakfast." "I'm bored at work." "I'm stuck in traffic." You're kidding! How fascinating! No moment is too mundane for some people to broadcast unsolicited to the world. Just because you have 432 Facebook friends doesn't mean we all want to know when you're waiting for the bus.

The Self-Promoter. OK, so we've probably all posted at least once about some achievement. And sure, maybe your friends really do want to read the fascinating article you wrote about beet farming. But when almost EVERY update is a link to your blog, your poetry reading, your 10k results or your art show, you sound like a bragger or a self-centered careerist.

The Friend-Padder. The average Facebook user has 120 friends on the site. Schmoozers and social butterflies -- you know, the ones who make lifelong pals on the subway -- might reasonably have 300 or 400. But 1,000 "friends?" Unless you're George Clooney or just won the lottery, no one has that many. That's just showing off.

The Town Crier. "Michael Jackson is dead!!!" You heard it from me first! Me, and the 213,000 other people who all saw it on TMZ. These Matt Drudge wannabes are the reason many of us learn of breaking news not from TV or news sites but from online social networks. In their rush to trumpet the news, these people also spread rumors, half-truths and innuendo. No, Jeff Goldblum did not plunge to his death from a New Zealand cliff.

The TMIer. "Brad is heading to Walgreens to buy something for these pesky hemorrhoids." Boundaries of privacy and decorum don't seem to exist for these too-much-information updaters, who unabashedly offer up details about their sex lives, marital troubles and bodily functions. Thanks for sharing.

The Bad Grammarian. "So sad about Fara Fauset but Im so gladd its friday yippe". Yes, I know the punctuation rules are different in the digital world. And, no, no one likes a spelling-Nazi schoolmarm. But you sound like a moron.

The Sympathy-Baiter. "Barbara is feeling sad today." "Man, am I glad that's over." "Jim could really use some good news about now." Like anglers hunting for fish, these sad sacks cast out their hooks -- baited with vague tales of woe -- in the hopes of landing concerned responses. Genuine bad news is one thing, but these manipulative posts are just pleas for attention.

The Lurker. The Peeping Toms of Facebook, these voyeurs are too cautious, or maybe too lazy, to update their status or write on your wall. But once in a while, you'll be talking to them and they'll mention something you posted, so you know they're on your page, hiding in the shadows. It's just a little creepy.

The Crank. These curmudgeons, like the trolls who spew hate in blog comments, never met something they couldn't complain about. "Carl isn't really that impressed with idiots who don't realize how idiotic they are." [Actual status update.] Keep spreading the love.

The Paparazzo. Ever visit your Facebook page and discover that someone's posted a photo of you from last weekend's party -- a photo you didn't authorize and haven't even seen? You'd really rather not have to explain to your mom why you were leering like a drunken hyena and French-kissing a bottle of Jagermeister.

The Obscurist. "If not now then when?" "You'll see..." "Grist for the mill." "John is, small world." "Dave thought he was immune, but no. No, he is not." [Actual status updates, all.] Sorry, but you're not being mysterious -- just nonsensical.

The Chronic Inviter. "Support my cause. Sign my petition. Play Mafia Wars with me. Which 'Star Trek' character are you? Here are the 'Top 5 cars I have personally owned.' Here are '25 Things About Me.' Here's a drink. What drink are you? We're related! I took the 'What President Are You?' quiz and found out I'm Millard Fillmore! What president are you?"

You probably mean well, but stop. Just stop. I don't care what president I am -- can't we simply be friends? Now excuse me while I go post the link to this story on my Facebook page.

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Cute 4 Bedroom Farm Home on 5 Luscious Acres!

Les Sherman, ABR, CRS, CNE (Re/Max Austin Associates) — Thu, 17 Sep 2009 13:32:52 -0500

Les Sherman | RE/MAX Austin Associates | 512.947.8333

7631/7633 Nez Perce, Manor, TX

Country Home on 5 Acres!

4BR/3BA Single Family House

offered at $220,000

Year Built	1970
Sq Footage	2,148
Bedrooms	4
Bathrooms	3 full, 0 partial
Floors	1
Parking	2 Car garage
Lot Size	5 acres
HOA/Maint	$0 per month

DESCRIPTION

see additional photos below

PROPERTY FEATURES

- Hardwood floor	- Living room	- Dining room
- Dishwasher	- Refrigerator	- Stove/Oven
- Yard

ADDITIONAL PHOTOS

Front View	Kitchen
Living and Dining Room	Road Frontage
View of Entrance	View of Acreage

Contact info:

Les Sherman

RE/MAX Austin Associates

512.947.8333

For sale by agent/broker

Equal Opportunity Housing

Posted: Sep 17, 2009, 8:51am PDT

Gorgeous Home with Unique Floorplan and Breathtaking Views of the Hills of Austin!

Les Sherman, ABR, CRS, CNE (Re/Max Austin Associates) — Thu, 17 Sep 2009 13:31:18 -0500

Les Sherman | RE/MAX Austin Associates | 512.947.8333

8 Cove Creek Lane, Village Of The Hills, TX

REDUCED! Unique Home with an AMAZING view!

4BR/3BA Single Family House

offered at $359,500

Year Built	2006
Sq Footage	2,934
Bedrooms	4
Bathrooms	3 full, 0 partial
Floors	2
Parking	2 Car garage
Lot Size	6,993 sqft
HOA/Maint	$0 per month

DESCRIPTION

see additional photos below

PROPERTY FEATURES

- Central A/C	- Central heat	- Fireplace
- High/Vaulted ceiling	- Walk-in closet	- Tile floor
- Family room	- Living room	- Bonus/Rec room
- Office/Den	- Dining room	- Breakfast nook
- Dishwasher	- Refrigerator	- Stove/Oven
- Microwave	- Granite countertop	- Stainless steel appliances
- Washer	- Dryer	- Laundry area - inside

ADDITIONAL PHOTOS

Front View	Living Area
Kitchen	Dining Area
Patio	View

Contact info:

Les Sherman

RE/MAX Austin Associates

512.947.8333

For sale by agent/broker

Equal Opportunity Housing

Posted: Sep 17, 2009, 8:55am PDT

Great Commercial Investment Opportunity in Great Area of Austin- Just Minutes from I-35 and Downtown - Potential to Connect to other Listing

Les Sherman, ABR, CRS, CNE (Re/Max Austin Associates) — Thu, 17 Sep 2009 13:29:25 -0500

Les Sherman | RE/MAX Austin Associates | 512.947.8333

1112 E. 12th Street, Austin, TX

Business Opportunity

offered at $272,000

Year Built	Unspecified
Sq Footage	Unspecified
Floors	0
Parking	Unspecified
Lot Size	7,492 sqft
Maint	$0 per month

DESCRIPTION

see additional photos below

PROPERTY FEATURES

- Great Investment Opportunity!

LOCATION FEATURES

- Premier Location, just blocks from I-35

OTHER SPECIAL FEATURES

- Up and coming area

ADDITIONAL PHOTOS

Rear View from Alley	Alley Facing East
Alley Facing West	Front View
Front View from Street

Contact info:

Les Sherman

RE/MAX Austin Associates

512.947.8333

For sale by agent/broker

Equal Opportunity Housing

Posted: Sep 17, 2009, 9:44am PDT

Great Commercial Investment Opportunity in an Up and Coming Area of Austin- Just minutes from Downtown and I-35!!

Les Sherman, ABR, CRS, CNE (Re/Max Austin Associates) — Thu, 17 Sep 2009 13:26:56 -0500

Les Sherman | RE/MAX Austin Associates | 512.947.8333

1104 E 12th Street, Austin, TX

Great Investment Opportunity in an Up and Coming Area!

Retail/Commercial

offered at $675,000

Year Built	Unspecified
Sq Footage	2,268
Floors	1
Parking	Uncovered spaces
Lot Size	20,000 sqft
Maint	$0 per month

see additional photos below

LOCATION FEATURES

- Premier Location, Just minutes from Downtown and I-35

ADDITIONAL PHOTOS

Angled Front View	Downtown View from Prop.
Front View Close Up	Street View Facing East
Property View From Rear

Contact info:

Les Sherman

RE/MAX Austin Associates

512.947.8333

For sale by agent/broker

Equal Opportunity Housing

Posted: Sep 17, 2009, 9:52am PDT

Work starts on $8 million electronics plant in Georgetown

Les Sherman, ABR, CRS, CNE (Re/Max Austin Associates) — Wed, 19 Aug 2009 14:31:46 -0500

What's going up?

Thursday, August 06, 2009

What: AirBorn manufacturing facility

Where: 3500 Snead Drive in Georgetown, off Georgetown Inner Loop east of Interstate 35

Who: The building was designed by Round Rock-based Moman Architects. Raymond Construction is the project's builder.

When: Ground was broken Wednesday on the $8 million project, which is scheduled to open next spring.

Details: AirBorn, which makes electronic components for the aerospace, avionics, defense, energy, medical and automotive industries, employs about 350 people at its current location in Georgetown.

At 58,000 square feet, the new facility will allow the company to add an estimated 150 employees in the next few years.

AirBorn will receive $300,000 in incentives from the City of Georgetown based on benchmarks for investment and job creation during the next five years. The incentive was approved by the Georgetown City Council.

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Economists tempering hopes for rapid recovery

Les Sherman, ABR, CRS, CNE (Re/Max Austin Associates) — Wed, 19 Aug 2009 14:27:36 -0500

By Neil Irwin
THE WASHINGTON POST
Tuesday, August 18, 2009

The wounded U.S. economy has shown signs of improvement in recent weeks. But many economists, who were caught off guard by the brutality of the downturn, are accentuating the negative, bracing for head winds that could cause the recovery to be weak.

Huge swaths of the financial system have been damaged, which could lock consumers and businesses out of loans for years to come. American families are saving more and relying less on borrowed money. In this global recession, no part of the world appears poised to lead a buoyant recovery. The government's aggressive stimulus efforts may need to wind down before the economy returns to solid footing.

Typically, a deep downturn is followed by a robust recovery. The 1981-82 recession was followed by explosive growth through the rest of the decade. Many top economists doubt that a boom will follow this time.

"Traditional economic models are built like a rubber band: You pull it hard, and it will snap back," said Martin Neil Baily, an economist at the Brookings Institution. "I find it hard to see where that will come from in this case."

Investors seemed to agree Monday, with major stock indexes falling at least 2 percent on concerns that consumer spending won't rebound anytime soon and that the recent rise in stocks was overly optimistic.

Unlike past recessions, this downturn has its roots in the breakdown of the financial system, triggered by the implosion of massive bubbles in the housing and credit sectors.

It appears increasingly likely that the U.S. economy will grow at a solid pace in the second half of the year, as companies restock depleted inventories. But it is unclear what would come after that, given the ongoing restrictions on credit.

Banks have sustained deep losses, and a wave of soured commercial real estate loans threatens to further limit their ability to lend in the year ahead. A bigger problem looms in credit markets, which account for vast chunks of mortgage lending, consumer loans and commercial real estate loans.

That makes it more expensive for people or businesses to borrow money - if they can get a loan - which could serve as a powerful brake on any recovery.

"Credit fuels housing. It fuels consumer durable goods. It fuels business investment," said Carmen Reinhart, an economist at the University of Maryland. "Credit makes recessions after a financial crisis longer, and all the signs are that is happening this time as well."

A related head wind comes from consumers. Americans are saving more and paying down debt; the savings rate was 1.2 percent of disposable income in early 2008. By the second quarter of this year, that rose to 5.2 percent.

"The household sector has never been so stressed," said RGE Monitor Chairman Nouriel Roubini. "Savings has to go much higher, and that is going to slow growth of consumption even once incomes start growing."

Every dollar that Americans save is one fewer dollar for consumption, which means less economic output.

When the savings rate goes up by a percentage point, spending decreases by more than $100 billion, according to the McKinsey Global Institute.

When nations in financial crisis have defied the trend and experienced a rapid recovery, it was often because of strength elsewhere in the world. But what market today is clamoring for U.S. products?

"Everybody in the world is experiencing the same constraints on credit and on consumption," said Mark Gertler, an economist at New York University.

In the adjustment that appears to be taking place, the U.S. is reshuffling the relative importance of different parts of the economy: reducing consumer spending and investment in housing while increasing exports and business investment.

Exports are down 16 percent in the past year as global trade has plummeted, and business investment is down 20 percent as corporations have become more cautious and as access to credit has diminished.

Although widely held among top economists, the idea that all these head winds will weaken the recovery is not universal. The economy has proved resilient in the past, emerging out of deep downturns with force.

"There is only one reliable regularity in business-cycle history in the United States," said Michael Mussa, a senior fellow at the Peter G. Peterson Institute for International Economics, in a presentation this year. "Deep recessions are followed by steep recoveries, and economic forecasts almost never take account of this regularity."

FULL STORY

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H-E-B to break ground on Dripping Springs store

Les Sherman, ABR, CRS, CNE (Re/Max Austin Associates) — Wed, 19 Aug 2009 14:23:06 -0500

By American-Statesman Staff | Wednesday, August 12, 2009, 05:07 PM

H-E-B said Wednesday it will open a store in Dripping Springs sometime next year

Construction is slated to begin this fall on the 68,000 square-foot store. It will be on the southeast corner of Highway 290 and Rob Shelton Boulevard.

"This hopefully will keep a lot residents shopping in their own community,"H-E-B spokeswoman Leslie Lockett said.

The H-E-B will have a gas station and car wash, a sushi bar and a bakery. It also will offer many items from the grocery chain's Central Market brand.

The store will be staffed by 300 employees, the company said.

The supermarket is part of Dripping Springs' largest retail initiative: a 55-acre development project that includes Home Depot, Chase Bank and Broadway Bank. Two sites are still available.

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Tips for choosing secure passwords

Les Sherman, ABR, CRS, CNE (Re/Max Austin Associates) — Wed, 19 Aug 2009 14:06:56 -0500

Monday, August 17, 2009

The Internet makes it possible to check our bank balances at midnight or talk to a friend across the globe via Twitter. But the explosion in high-tech tools also means we need a passel of passwords - and strong ones at that, because hackers get more sophisticated all the time.

If you're still logging in to all your accounts with your kid's name or your birthday as a password, CJ Romberger and Michael Fertik have some alternatives that will help keep your accounts safer.

Romberger is the founder and co-owner of Wildwood Interactive, an Internet, database and software company. She's known as Gadget Girl and writes a column of the same name for austinwoman magazine. Michael Fertik is the CEO of reputationdefender.com, a Silicon Valley-based business that offers services to help protect your reputation and privacy online.

• The longer your password, the more secure it is. Eight to 10 characters is a good range, Romberger says.

• If a word is in the dictionary, it shouldn't be part of your password, Fertik and Romberger agree. Hackers can run programs that repeatedly try to log in to your account using words from the dictionary.

• Fertik and Romberger also say to avoid the names of your spouse, child or pet in your passwords. With many of us revealing so many details of our lives on social media, these details are easier than ever for a hacker to figure out.

The availability of this information also makes it easier for hackers to guess your security question and reset your e-mail password.

• Your user name shouldn't also be part of your password, Romberger says, and Fertik points out that you should also avoid your nicknames or variations on your own name, such as adding an extra letter ("Michaell").

• So how can you create a secure password that's still memorable? Come up with a phrase, Romberger says, and use the first letters of each word in your password. For example, "Why has this summer been so hot?" becomes "whtsbsh" in your password. Capitalize every other letter to make the password even stronger.

• Another tip from Romberger is to use password combos that are easy to type but don't mean anything. Avoid something like "qwerty," but with an example like "qsefth," your fingers might remember what your password is even if your brain doesn't, as Romberger says (try the combo on your keyboard to see what she means).

• Now make your password even stronger by adding some numbers. But avoid sequential number ("123" or "321," for example), Fertik says. He adds that it's also better to intermingle numbers and letters: In other words, i0l3m1g9h7j0 is a better password than ilmghj031970.

Romberger points out that you should avoid obvious numbers in your password, such as your house number or the last four digits of your phone number. "Or if you're going to do something like that, transpose them," she says.

• Are you using a password like "wh33l" that replaces letters with the numbers that look like them? "You still have to be careful even with those, because those are common substitutions," Romberger says. It's not a big stretch for a hacker to run the program with dictionary words again and replace the e's in words with 3's, for example.

• If you're looking for an online password manager to store, secure and organize your passwords, Romberger recommends Passpack (passpack.com). Such sites and software are only as good as the company behind them, she cautions, and she likes Passpack's track record.

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Home construction rises for fifth month in a row

Les Sherman, ABR, CRS, CNE (Re/Max Austin Associates) — Wed, 19 Aug 2009 14:01:08 -0500

Market uncertainties linger, though, as building of multifamily units stalls.

By Alan Zibel
ASSOCIATED PRESS
Wednesday, August 19, 2009

WASHINGTON - Construction of single-family homes rose in July for the fifth straight month, edging up almost 2 percent to the highest level since last October, the government said Tuesday. Building permits climbed nearly 6 percent.

Each new home built creates about three jobs on average and generates about $90,000 in taxes paid to local and federal authorities, according to the National Association of Home Builders.

With new construction up 37 percent from its low point this winter, the industry is expected to help the overall economy this quarter for the first time in 3½ years.

"Housing is no longer a drag," said Mark Vitner, a senior economist with Wells Fargo & Co. "That's a good thing."

Of course, the housing industry is mired in the worst recession since the Great Depression, and construction is still more than 70 percent from its 2006 peak, making the impact from hiring and spending on materials such as wood and concrete somewhat modest.

In addition, hammers are silent at construction sites for apartment buildings. For developers, it makes little sense to build with many vacant homes and condominiums available for rent. Apartment construction fell 13 percent from June to July.

That pulled the combined construction rate for homes and apartments down 1 percent to a seasonally adjusted annual rate of 581,000 units, from 587,000 in June. Economists polled by Thomson Reuters expected 600,000.

There are still several threats to the recovery of the U.S. housing market.

The unemployment rate, now 9.4 percent, could surpass 10 percent, leaving more homeowners unable to pay their mortgages. Interest rates are still near historic lows but could rise, making homes less affordable. Foreclosures are still at record highs.

And July was the last month that most builders could start new homes and have them ready for buyers to qualify for a new tax credit. Buyers can save 10 percent on the price of a home, up to $8,000, if they complete the purchase by the end of November.

Builders and real estate agents are pressing in Congress for that credit to be extended. If it isn't, sales could easily slump again.

"I'm not seeing a tremendous amount of good news on the job or economic front, so I do think it's important that the credit get extended," said Richard Dugas Jr., CEO of Pulte Homes Inc.

On Tuesday, Pulte completed its acquisition of Centex Corp. for $1.53 billion in stock, becoming the largest homebuilder in the country.

One of the reasons for the purchase was Centex's focus on more affordable homes.

Since the housing bubble burst, many builders have shifted to smaller houses that can be sold at lower prices to woo first-time homebuyers. The median sale price for a new home was $206,200 in June, almost $30,000 cheaper than a year earlier.

More homebuyers also means more business to retailers like the Home Depot Inc., which Tuesday posted its first annual increase in quarterly sales in five years. Better still, the retailer saw improvements in Florida and California, two of its most important - and troubled - markets.

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