Thanks to Drew Meyers for giving me the opportunity to host Carnival of Real Estate #166 this week.  We had a lot of great submissions, and it was extremely difficult to pare it down to the 5 best.  Nevertheless, here are the top 5 real estate posts of the week (in no particular order): How Much [...]

Content by Austin Real Estate broker, Eric Bramlett. [where:Austin, TX 78731]

Carnival of Real Estate #166

I’ll be hosting Zillow’s Carnival of Real Estate on this blog next week.  If you’d like to nominate a  post for inclusion, please tweet a link to the post along with the hashtag #carnivalofre. Thanks to Drew for allowing me the opportunity to host! Content by Austin Real Estate broker, Eric Bramlett. [where:Austin, TX 78731] Carnival of Real [...]

Content by Austin Real Estate broker, Eric Bramlett. [where:Austin, TX 78731]

Carnival of Real Estate

According to today’s New York Times, Congress will not only extend the current homebuyers’ tax credit, but will also liberalize the program. The article reports that the credit, currently slated to expire at the end of November, will go through April 30, 2010, would no longer be limited to only first time buyers and [...]

Content by Austin Real Estate broker, Eric Bramlett. [where:Austin, TX 78731]

Homebuyers Tax Credit 2.0 – Congress Says Go!

In what I think is the most awesome way to raise money & awareness ever, Movember.com is hosting an international moustache growing contest. What many people don’t know is that 1 in 6 men will be diagnosed with prostate cancer in their lifetime and that testicular cancer is the most common cancer in men aged 18-35.  [...]

Content by Austin Real Estate broker, Eric Bramlett. [where:Austin, TX 78731]

Moustaches Uniting Against Cancer: Movember

Third quarter numbers look very promising.  We obviously have to take into account the affect of the first time homebuyer tax credit, but it looks promising that it will be extended for 6 months, which will give our job market time to firm itself up a little before we ask the real estate market to [...]

Content by Austin Real Estate broker, Eric Bramlett. [where:Austin, TX 78731]

Austin Real Estate Stats: Q3 2008-2009 Change

In yet another, “Hey, things aren’t so bad here!” article, Businessweek has ranked Austin the second strongest economy of the major metro areas in the United States.  Texas & Oklahoma performed extremely well with San Antonio finishing #1, and Dallas, Houston, El Paso, OKC, & Tulsa all landing in the top 10. Content by Austin Real [...]

Content by Austin Real Estate broker, Eric Bramlett. [where:Austin, TX 78731]

Austin Ranked #2 Strongest Economy by Businessweek

The numbers for September look extremely promising.  Active listings are down by 10.5%, median & average prices are both up marginally, & sold volume is up by 6%!  The Austin Business Journal reported that Austin officially moved out of the recession in August 2009, so we might be seeing the start of a gradual increase [...]

Content by Austin Real Estate broker, Eric Bramlett. [where:Austin, TX 78731]

Austin Real Estate Stats: September 2008-2009

I’ve started creating real estate specific Wordpress themes.  They’re posted here: http://www.ericbramlett.com/wordpress-themes/ Feel free to download them and use them as you see fit.  All feedback is always appreciated. Content by Austin Real Estate broker, Eric Bramlett. [where:Austin, TX 78731] Real Estate Wordpress Themes

Content by Austin Real Estate broker, Eric Bramlett. [where:Austin, TX 78731]

Real Estate Wordpress Themes

The formula to intellectual success is being both a capital city and an academic hub, says The Daily Beast, a news and opinion Web site.  The cities of Austin and Denver prove that the formula works. Each ranked high in The Daily Beast’s first-ever “America’s Smartest Cities” list.  Denver ranked No. 5. Austin, which came [...]

Content by Austin Real Estate broker, Eric Bramlett. [where:Austin, TX 78731]

Denver and Austin: Two Smart Cities

Efforts by the Obama administration, and more notably the federal reserve, to revive the economy from this deep and prolonged recession have brought down interest rates on all forms of borrowing to some of the lowest levels seen in more than a half century. Low interest rates have given a needed shot in the arm to [...]

Content by Austin Real Estate broker, Eric Bramlett. [where:Austin, TX 78731]

Why Interest Rates May Rocket & How You Can Protect Yourself?

Long term real estate investment has been one of the most attractive and lucrative financial investments this country has ever had and continues to offer. Many people do not realize that a large portion of our country’s economic structure is based on home and property ownership.  From tax incentives for businesses to tax deferred income, our [...]

Content by Austin Real Estate broker, Eric Bramlett. [where:Austin, TX 78731]

Real Estate investments in this economy

I just went live with the first acceptable revision of my new theme (in case you hadn’t noticed.)   If anyone has feedback on the design, it would be greatly appreciated. Content by Austin Real Estate broker, Eric Bramlett. [where:Austin, TX 78731] New Site Design Feedback

Content by Austin Real Estate broker, Eric Bramlett. [where:Austin, TX 78731]

New Site Design Feedback

If you’ve read Robert Kawasaki’s book Rich Dad, Poor Dad, you’ve probably caught the passive income bug. The bug that says if you buy property, rent it out, you’ll have free passive income forever. Post 2008, this dream is much harder to come by now since the value of homes has fallen through [...]

Content by Austin Real Estate broker, Eric Bramlett. [where:Austin, TX 78731]

Income Generator… the Austin TX Duplex

So I’m WAY late posting these, and the numbers were fairly close to what I expected.  Median price is down by 4%, while average price is down by almost 5%.  Sold volume was down just over 10%, but inventory is being absorbed, as active listings are down by almost 8%. Content by Austin Real Estate broker, [...]

Content by Austin Real Estate broker, Eric Bramlett. [where:Austin, TX 78731]

August 2009 Real Estate Statistics

I received a contact request this morning from someone apparently upset about my boundary definition of Hyde Park.  I attempted to email her back, but the email address wasn’t valid.  So…I thought I’d post the conversation here and get others’ thoughts: Just so you’re aware, Hyde Park doesn’t run “east of Guadalupe, west of Red River, [...]

Content by Austin Real Estate broker, Eric Bramlett. [where:Austin, TX 78731]

Central Austin Neighborhoods: Boundary Definition Difficulties

My third day in Austin started with rainy weather throughout the day which, although a bummer for walking, made me glad I rented a car today. Three days in and I started to feel like I needed something that reminded me of New York. The answer to my New York woes ended up being pepperoni [...]

Content by Austin Real Estate broker, Eric Bramlett. [where:Austin, TX 78731]

Roppolo’s Pizzeria on 6th St, Downtown Austin Texas

I’ll be in the Austin area from Sunday, September 20th to Saturday, September 26th so if you’re in the area or know of cool stuff to do/see locally drop a comment in the box below! During my trip I’ll be doing a ton of awesome stuff including: Checking out the restaurants & Sixth St Looking at some of [...]

Content by Austin Real Estate broker, Eric Bramlett. [where:Austin, TX 78731]

Coming to Austin This Week Only: Me!

About two years ago, the city was talking about adding whitewater rafting to the Waller Creek redevelopment project.  This would have been an awesome project.  Someone recently commented on that post asking about the idea, and asking about whitewater rafting options around Austin.  James Stewart, one of the project’s biggest proponents, responded to me: Hi Eric, Austin [...]

Content by Austin Real Estate broker, Eric Bramlett. [where:Austin, TX 78731]

What Happened to Downtown Whitewater Rafting?

Forbes recently rated the stress levels in America’s top 40 largest MSA’s.  Austin ranked dead last in stress, or first in “laid back” (which is how I like to think of it.  They cited our 1% year over year median price drop in real estate (which shows what’s on everyone’s minds, in my opinion) and [...]

Content by Austin Real Estate broker, Eric Bramlett. [where:Austin, TX 78731]

Forbes Says We’re Laid Back

I recently had the pleasure of taking on a buyer client interested in new townhouses. They have a unique situation: They’re getting married in October and need to register their kids for school by early September so they need to find a home. Oh, and it’s the second to last week of August. My next question [...]

Content by Austin Real Estate broker, Eric Bramlett. [where:Austin, TX 78731]

3 Reasons Why You Should Stop Wasting Your Time Online And Call An Agent Instead