Austin has a great growth rate consistently. Mayor Will Wynn is a responsible leader and a great listener. He does a great job at managing growth. The downtown development that I've seen is primarily being purchased by retired buyers and second home buyers. As Austin grows steadily like a blue-chip stock, it is great to be attracting these times of buyers in addition to working residents.

Wed May 14 2008, 17:19

As a woman who has traveled, I see too many of the same architectural style (or lack of style) buildings in austin. There are other materials besides granite and stained concrete! So I see it as over saturation and perhaps too much, too fast. When one style becomes dominant it becomes boring, less unique, less valuable. Seems also to be a missing price point: affordable to the average citizen. I say slow it down (growth) and spice it up! I have always loved Austin for not following the crowd. Gotta run darlings...I think I hear a herd of sheep in downtown austin!

Mon May 12 2008, 11:34

Definately. We need more commercial space downtown.

Wed Mar 12 2008, 15:36

We saw some overbuilding here in the 1980's when I was in high school. In about 1985 or so, we started a rut in which there were huge amounts of empty office space. At the time, Austin was a town with small business, Gov't and University jobs, and oil money was good. Then oil went south (hard to believe today, I know...) The result was hard times here. Today, several key elements are different:

1) Bank Lending: Nowadays, there is a lender on every corner, and most of them have a big presence-even national. Part of the big runup back in the 1980's was all that oil money sitting in banks. Bankers were chasing projects, looking for a place to loan. Since all the banks were local, the money stayed local. Nowadays, if you are a millionaire and you deposit in Citibank, B of A, or another bank like that, they may loan out that money in Dallas, Nashville, Seattle, or whereever they do business. Banking has diversified that way.

2) Diversification: Put simply, city and business leaders have gotten smarter about putting all their eggs in one basket. In the 1990's we were all tech. Then tech busted. So we began to think outside the box. Things like "Opportunity Austin" got started.

3) TV shows glamourized downtown living. You've seen them. "Friends," "Will & Grace," "Frasier," "Sex and the City." The list goes on and on. Todays yuppies and young folks are plugged in and intrigued by the prospect of downtown living. It's "cool." It also works for the "Green" crowd, and my gosh, with gas prices seeing no end in site, I may sell the ranch and buy a condo myself!!

Austin is not immune to a slow down, but we are in much better position than we were in the last two decades. In addition, we haven't had a bubble swelling and ready to burst like other parts of the country.

Wed Mar 12 2008, 12:01

Yes! Being a world traveler you know better than others that a densely populated downtown is inevitable. It's not a true "Down Town" otherwise. As I have said all along, "we are just catching up!" Same theory applies to the price of gas, (Europe has been paying over $3 per LITER for a long time now.) I also see the oversaturated market as a result of tighter lending criteria. It's unfortunate that the 215k price point is missed by almost every project. There are a few with units under that price point, but it will be interesting to see if there will be more as a result of slow sales. I

Wed Mar 5 2008, 12:19

I think there is some oversaturation and that not all proposed projects will make their way to completion. Overall, I think we're fine but the stats tell us a lot and the facts say that there is a significant supply of actives and marginal solds. It's a buyers market downtown.

Wed Mar 5 2008, 11:08

I think Austin can most definintly support all it's growth as long as they don't forget to "Keep Austin Weird" lol

Wed Mar 5 2008, 10:53