Clive's blog

Final April housing numbers are in … 23 months of year-over-year sales increases and April sales now surpassing pre-recession levels. Central Texas home sales jumped 32 percent last month, the highest sales level for an April since 2004.

The median price rose 8 percent from April 2012, to $227,250, according to the Austin Board of Realtors. I was talking to a local builder a couple of weeks ago and they see average prices having gone up 10% last year and projecting the same again this year.

South Lamar’s evolution continues and one of the biggest changes is happening at 1000 S. Lamar, the prior home of the 50 year old Lamar Plaza shopping center and the future home of Lamar Union, a multistory mixed-use project that will feature 443 apartments and 85,000 square feet of ground-floor retail space.

Today, as construction crews work, the only thing that remains is the building that’s houses the Alamo Drafthouse. By November, the famous Drafthouse, with 3 additional screens, will be totally remodeled and be one of the main attractions at the new development.

According to the Community Impact newspaper, Austin Mayor Lee Leffingwell has informed members of the Transit Working Group that the urban rail plan, part of Project Connect, could be completed in early 2014 and potentially put before voters in a 2014 election.

Project Connect is a partnership among Central Texas transportation agencies working to develop and implement a regional high-capacity transit system to connect our growing community. High-capacity transit makes fewer stops, travels at higher speeds, has more frequent service, and carries more people than standard buses.

The campaigning, debating and voting are now over and the results of the $892 million Austin ISD school bond package, Props 1 through 4, are in.

For the first time in 25 years a school bond did not pass … in fact two did not pass. Props 2 and 4 failed while Props 1 and 3 passed, much to the surprise of both supporters and opponents.

Here’s a link to a Blog in the Huffington Post talking about the Contradictions of Austin. A perspective on how opposing forces can start working together and how Austin is starting to achieve that.

Here’s a couple of extracts …

Here are the latest preliminary housing numbers for April released by one of our local Title companies ...

Units for Sale: (compared to April 2012):

• New listings are up 7.65%.
• Pendings are up 17.70%.
• Solds increased by 44.32%.

Preliminary data from the last 4 months show:

Well we’ve all heard that Google Fiber is coming to town, and quite a stir it has caused, too. But now there are rumors that it could get even better.

The Statesman has been doing some digging and some documents released this week show indications of a significant wireless Wi-Fi network that Google plans to build that would be closely linked to its fiber-based broadband network and expand its reach to Smartphone’s, tablets and laptop computer devices over various parts of the city.

Planners have been working on figuring out a way to improve I-35’s traffic flow for a long time. Recently it was announced that a new idea has been proposed from a well known local architectural company to dig us out of this immense challenge … literally!

Sinclair Black, from Black + Vernooy, has proposed putting I-35 underground from Lady Bird Lake to 15th Street and building mixed-use development, parks and an urban boulevard above it.

The Texas economy continues to create jobs at a pace twice the national average.

According to the Real Estate Center at Texas A&M in their latest Monthly Review of the Texas Economy, the state gained 322,600 nonagricultural jobs from March 2012 to March 2013, an annual growth rate of 3 percent compared with 1.5 percent for the United States.

The state’s private sector added 310,000 jobs, an annual growth rate of 3.5 percent compared with 1.9 percent for the nation’s nongovernment sector.

Austin remains the top-rated metropolitan area in the On Numbers Economic Index for April, which means it has the strongest local economy in the United States.

The Capital City is followed once again by No. 2 Provo, Utah in the Business Journals' latest analysis that measures the economic health of major metropolitan areas.

Texas dominated the top five spots. Dallas-Fort Worth took No. 3, followed by Houston and Oklahoma City.

Austin has held first place since February, thanks to its broad-based record of economic strength: