This week I'd like to share a video that's a little longer than others I've asked you to watch. It'll take about 6 minutes of your time, and I'm just going to lift the description from YouTube to introduce it to you:

"Texas Exes Austin Professionals' panelists answer questions about local business resources and challenges, the Austin business scene and its relationship to the 'weird' local culture. These UT alumni were panel speakers at the 'Hooked on Austin Business' event that was held at the Etter-Harbin Alumni Center on March 9, 2011. Panelists interviewed in this video include: Colin Pope, Editor, Austin Business Journal; Eve Richter, Emerging Technologies Coordinator for the City of Austin's Economic Growth & Redevelopment Department; John…

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This week I thought you might like to know how things are shaping up with progress on the Formula 1 race track. The developers have been told to have the facility ready to host a race by June 2012. Needless to say, they're not taking any long lunch breaks on the site. Right now they're working 12-hour days and still taking Sundays off, but that may change if they get in crunch mode. Most of the current work is going into clearing ground for a future parking lot.

Frankly, it doesn't look like much if you go out there, so let's turn our intention to what is impressive right now -- The numbers. TexasEconomicImpact.com just finished a study for the promoters and concluded the project will spend $144.9 million in 2011, which will pump $68.4 million in…

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This week I'd like to recommend some "homework" for you. I think your time would be well spent on a careful read of the piece AnnaMaria Andriotis did for SmartMoney, "The New Costs of Renting." First, there's good -- and encouraging -- information there:

- Nationally the average vacancy rate for rentals fell 17 percent last year to just 6.6 percent.

- Rental prices are up with the average monthly on studios and one and two-bedrooms at $986. (Pre-recession was $930.)

Lots of folks are renting for lots of reasons. Some can't qualify for a mortgage. Some don't like the real estate market and are waiting for things to stabilize before buying. Folks who have just come out of a foreclosure really don't have much choice. They're getting their lives…

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You may recall that on February 4 we talked about the Third Annual Housing Forecast co-sponsored by the Home Builders Association of Greater Austin and Austin Board of REALTORS. Boiling it down to the most simplistic explanation, "they said" -- slow and steady for 2011, picking up strength at the beginning of 2012.

Truth be told? I really hate to try to "report" on things like that because the fine points and nuances are always lost in the telling. That's why I was so pleased to find this YouTube video that literally puts the words back in the horses' mouths.

It's 5:32 minutes that are well worth your time to understand what we're looking at in 2011 and where we're going at 2012. Just click the play button below and you can watch the video right here on the…

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I don't like "negative" numbers of any kind. Not the ones that show I'm losing my money or that my clients are losing their money. And I really don't like reporting something negative like a 22 percent jump in foreclosure filings in Texas in January 2011 over the 2010 numbers.

But wait, you say, aren't we in this to buy property and make money? Of course we are, and foreclosures mean more properties that will be attractive to investors. But we certainly don't have to enjoy buying up and re-packaging someone else's dream.

In the statement announcing the numbers RealtyTrac CEO James J. Saccacio said, "We've now seen three straight months with fewer than 300,000 properties receiving foreclosure filings, following 20 straight months where the total…

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This week we have an interesting set of factors to discuss that interact to really show the rising rental activity in the Austin Market.

As predicted, existing home sales are contracting a bit, with prices in the Austin -Round Rock - San Marcos region down about 2.5 percent for December. I don't see that as a cause for any particular concern. We've already discussed that the market for existing homes isn't really going to pick up until the opening months of 2012, so homeowners who can wait to put their property on the market are doing just that.

Condo prices, on the other hand, are inching up. Real estate investors can leverage this in a couple of ways. As an example, the W Austin Hotel & Residences downtown opened in December of last year. Units…

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On Thursday, January 13, the Home Builders Association of Greater Austin and the Austin Board of REALTORS® held their Third Annual Housing Forecast. The event didn't forecast smooth sailing for the area's housing market, but it did support everything we've been reading and discussing in terms of a recovery.

This is the only comprehensive housing forecast for Austin and the surrounding region, so it bears looking at closely. Metrostudy, which is the country's leading provider for primary and secondary housing market information, is telling us to look for a new surge in home building starting in 2012.

Now, let's think about that as real estate investors for just a second. We're ten months away from the time period to which they're pointing.…

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In looking at the future of real estate investment in our area, I think it's absolutely essential to understand where the region as a whole is headed both as a way to judge demand and buying trends, but also to just understand the kinds of people who are likely to be calling Austin home over the next decade. That's why I'm so pleased about the Pflugerville Solar Farm.

The ground breaking on December 15 signaled the start of the development of the 720-acre facility, which will be the largest in the nation. Yes, you read that right. The largest in the nation, with 400,000 solar panels. That doesn't just mean that enough power will be generated to light up 40,000 homes or that 350 construction jobs will be created over the next two to three years. It…

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I was surfing YouTube© and found this video clip of CBS' Anthony Mason taking "a closer look into why Austin, Texas is leading the nation in job growth."You may recall my excitement with the Texas Workforce Commission figures in my December 2nd post.Take the 5 minutes to check it out.

Unfortunately, at the request of CBS, the embedding has been disabled.Please click here to view the video.

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Werre still firmly in the season when folks are making forecasts for the coming year. Monday, Grubb & Ellis Co. released their "2011 Real Estate Forecast" and placed Austin as the 10th strongest real estate market in the nation -- for the next four years. That's 2014 if any of you are counting on your fingers.

Now, personally, I think we're going to move steadily up that ladder, but there are worse places to start than the top ten. Basically these analysts are saying we'll begin at a slow pace, but the recovery will be steady in the leasing market. That is excellent, excellent news considering all the other economic factors we've discussed over the past few weeks. (Just think how much potential there is for commercial lease space around the new F1…

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