Austin, Texas is home to many different attractions with great food, shopping, and entertainment venues. Many think of Sixth Street as Austin's premiere hotspot, but there are several other interesting yet relatively overlooked areas in town. One of the m...

Many modern homes and condos are going up left and right in Austin, with local design and build companies behind the new residences. It is hard to pinpoint exactly why modern design is becoming so popular, but several factors possibly play a role. O...

While many timbres, like those which come from bowed strings and woodwinds, are readily recreated with synthesizers, percussive instruments are some of the most tricky to create convincing emulations of. Piano and harpsichord are most easily dealt with th...

One of the most timely and costly home improvement projects any homeowner can take on is a kitchen makeover. Whether a homeowner desperately needs a kitchen revamp, or is tired of the dated look of the kitchen, there are several options to freshen up the...

Just north of Austin’s urban center lies the Crestview neighborhood, bordered by Anderson Lane to the north, Justin Lane to the south, North Lamar Boulevard to the east and Burnet Road to the west. In 1948, developer A.B. Beddow began building the Cres...

Lying just west of IH-35 and south of Riverside Drive is one of Austin’s most appealing neighborhoods, Travis Heights. Its rolling hills and winding roads have long been a haven for a diverse culture, with a mixture of housing to match: perfectly kept ...

The recent government-sponsored bailout of Bear Stearns, one of the top five lenders in the United States, has shocked traders and left investors cold. Despite the chilly reaction on Wall Street, secretly many are breathing a sigh of relief. While Bear St...

During the subprime crisis we saw the advent of numerous bizarre loan products. In general the new loan products were designed to get people into houses they could not normally afford. As people started to default on their mortgages banks realized many ...

Many of the historic buildings in Austin are either privately owned, have been turned into modern-day businesses, or are open to the public in the form of museums. Luckily for those looking to actually live in such a building, even if for just one night,...

More times than I can remember I had a buyer interested in a property think that I would be thrilled when I found out they didn't have a buyers agents. I'm not excited. In fact I would prefer that they had a buyers’ agent. Here are the reasons why: ...

In the past I used to tell people to look at different mortgage rates for different loan products and determine what was best for them. If they were planning on moving soon a 5 Year ARM might work. If they planned on staying on the house longer they mig...

There are many decisions when buying a home. One of them is what kind of loan product to use. With interest rates, payment terms and points it can be a little overwhelming. In this article we are going to compare and contrast two popular loan products ...

On March 31st, the Treasury Department announced a new plan to help the troubled financial sector weather the sub-prime mortgage storm. This new system replaces some agencies while redrawing the jurisdictions of existing authorities like the Securities an...

One of Austin's oldest and most loved neighborhoods in Austin is Hyde Park. Located in Central Austin just north of The University of Texas, Hyde Park is over 100 years old. Founded in 1891 by the Missouri, Kansas, and Texas Land and Town Company, the ne...

On January 22nd, the Federal Reserve cut their most important interest rate for the fourth time in the past six months, in an attempt to stem the widespread sentiment that the US is in, or headed for recession. Their cut comes at a strange time, because t...