Austin Texas Real Estate Blog

Austin Brings Home the Environmental Gold

December 17th, 2007 6:25 PM

I love living in a place where people, both in the private sector and the government, strive to do what’s right. It’s refreshing to see Austin continue to set the bar across the nation for protecting our environment.

In other related news, the Texas Commission on Environmental Quality (TCEQ) has proposed guidelines to implement legislation passed this year requiring electronics producers to provide recycling programs for consumers in Texas. Environmental advocates, local government leaders and electronics recyclers have argued that the proposed rules do not do enough to ensure the programs will be convenient for residents and provide responsible recycling.

Yesterday the three TCEQ Commissioners voted to invite broad comments so that they can consider alternatives that would strengthen the proposed guidelines, which are weak.

Visit www.TexasEnvironment.org for the latest details on the campaign to make electronics producers recycle.

Austin in top 10 list of greenest cities

…excerpt from the Austin Business Journal

Austin ranked ninth in a national survey of the top 10 green cities in the country.

According to data compiled by the EarthLab Foundation, a Kirkland, Wash.-based nonprofit, Chicago tops the list followed by New York, Boston, Los Angeles and Philadelphia. Remaining top 10 green cities are Minneapolis, San Francisco, Seattle, Austin and Portland.

The data used for the survey is based on a sampling of more than 1 million U.S. residents who used EarthLab’s Carbon & Lifestyle Calculator, which scores users’ personal impact on the environment, factoring in energy consumption, transportation, work, recycling and other lifestyle habits.

U.S. green-tech hot spots go coast to coast

Investments in green-tech start-ups are going through the roof. Which regions in the U.S. are in the lead?

excerpt from News.com

Texas

Texas netted 149 million in clean-tech venture dollars in the first nine months of this year, with more than half of that going to Austin-based HelioVolt, a company that is building solar electric cells using CIGS (copper-indium-germanium-selenide), an alternative material to silicon.

The Austin area is the hotbed of activity for Texas clean-tech start-ups, where there is a University of Texas-linked Clean Tech Incubator to foster development of new companies.

Austin benefits from the advocacy of Mayor Will Winn who is pushing for mass transit, a green-building program in conjunction with municipally owned Austin Energy, and plug-in hybrid stations. “You tell people (they) get to drive around on West Texas wind, not Middle East oil, and it resonates with a broader spectrum of people,” Winn says.

Texas has the fastest-growing wind industry in the U.S., according to the American Wind Energy Association. And its strong ties to the gas and oil industries make it a natural place to test material technologies to improve refineries and exploration.

Austin’s Econmic Outlook for 2008 - Healthy

December 13th, 2007 7:44 PM

With all the news about doom and gloom in the mortgage industry and a large portion of the country seeing slow sales, declining prices, and layoffs, it’s good to know that here in Austin we have a bright future ahead. A lot of people who are not familiar with the Texas economy and, in particular, not familiar with the cyclical growth of Austin/Central Texas, still seem to think that we’ll have a downturn in 2008. I disagree. The rational growth and limited investor speculation, along with a strong prosepct for job growth certainly make me feel better about this market than 2001-2004. Not that the early 2000’s were that bad, but they certainly weren’t great real estate wise.

The snipet below is from one of my favorite Austin Information sources, The Neal Spelce Letter (www.AustinLetter.com).

As 2007 draws to a close, the Austin-Round Rock metro area is in an enviable position, and when you examine the counties adjacent to the metro – especially those that make up the highly desirable and attractive Hill Country to the west – it looks even healthier economically.

A vibrant economy starts with jobs. When people are working, almost everything else falls into place. Sure, outside economic forces – such as tightened credit policies – have an impact. But, even then, tight credit may prove to be somewhat of a good thing if it keeps workers from getting deeper into debt.

The key point is that this part of Texas is a job mecca. For all practical purposes, anyone who wants a job has a job or can get a job. The five-county Austin-Round Rock metro area in October registered a miniscule 3.3% unemployment. And Travis County (Austin) with the largest population concentration had 3.2% unemployment.

The other four counties are also doing very well. Williamson County (Round Rock, Georgetown, Taylor) recorded 3.4% unemployment, Hays County (San Marcos) also came in at 3.4%, Bastrop County (Bastrop) tallied 3.5% and Caldwell County (Lockhart, Luling) notched 3.7% unemployment. All very, very solid.

And the job picture is even better in the adjacent Hill Country counties. While those counties are not officially included in the five-county Austin area, the population growth is surging west and many of their residents come into the Austin metro for shopping, health needs, entertainment and, yes, jobs. The Hill Country is very much a part of our trade area.

Consider Burnet County (Marble Falls) that abuts Travis County to the west. Its unemployment is an amazing 3.2%. Blanco County (Johnson City, Blanco) touches both Hays and Travis Counties and carries a 3.4% unemployment. And Gillespie County (Fredericksburg, Stonewall), adjacent to Blanco County’s western border, leads all the Hill Country and Central Texas with a 2.9% unemployment.

There is no other major metro in Texas with a better job picture than Austin-Round Rock and its neighbors. This isn’t to demean the others because the other biggies are all doing better than the very good 3.9% Texas state average. But it does reinforce how well Austin is doing.