A couple of Statesman article links for you on this Sunday:

50 Year Mortgages - Aaack! - Count me among those who doesn't really see much good, but a whole lot of potential bad, about these types of loans.  In a perfect world, I would love for all of my clients to be able to put 20% down and have 15-20 year mortgages for their personal home.  Of course, it's not a perfect world so I think there are still plenty of benefits to home ownership with much lower amounts down, but I do think it is pretty important to stay within your means, and much of the time interest only loans, and, by extension, 50 year mortgages, are used to stretch the amount of home a buyer can afford.  Call me silly, but I'd much rather have a client who is able to comfortably make their mortgage payments and actually have a little money to enjoy their life than a client who has to use special financing to stretch themselves into a more expensive home and then be stressed out about having to make the payments every month.  Maybe its just me...

Here's a story regarding what Mark Dotzour, chief economist and director of research at the Texas A&M Real Estate Center, predicted for Austin and Central Texas real estate in 2007.  Good stuff.

Nothing my clients don't already know, but the story here covers the continuing strength of the Central Texas real estate market.  Beyond the overall monthly statistics, I found the jump in sales of high end houses to be particularly interesting, with sales of homes priced over $1,000,000 up nearly 50%.  The article also reference that Travis Heights experience a 27% jump in median prices.  I actually know that to be true as I had a past client who bought in the area email me with a couple real estate related question and then thank me profusely for helping find such a great deal in the Travis Heights area before it popped up again.

If you are looking at buying or selling a home in Travis Heights, or any other Austin neighborhood, I would welcome the opportunity to talk with you about it.  I think it wouldn't take long until you would realize why our past clients keep referring to us and why we say West Elm Properties - just better!