Our first white paper in January called for the City of Austin to add at least 100,000 new housing units over the next ten years to stabilize prices and tackle Austin’s affordability crisis. It also called for more diversity in housing types such as garage apartments, micro-units, row houses, etc. In the newest paper, we diagnose the barriers that are making this goal difficult to achieve. There are two main obstacles to building the housing that we desperately need:

Developers appear to be moving ahead with plans to build what would be Austin's tallest building — a 58-story condo tower dubbed "The Independent," with proposed costs and construction dates revealed in permit documents.

At the beginning of the year, woes in the energy sector made Texas a potential problem spot for the building industry. In the earnings reports that just wrapped up, the state indeed turned out to cause a blemish in an otherwise strong earnings season for many builders.

But energy woes, generally, haven’t been the problem. Instead, it was the weather wreaking havoc on starts and orders. Spring’s torrential rains kept buyers at home and, perhaps more importantly, delayed starts for many builders.

The Austin Apartment Association handed out its 2015 Property of the Year awards recently and Greystar — the Charleston, South Carolina multifamily giant — captured several awards.

If you believe everything you read, you know by now that 110 people move to the booming Austin region every single day. While not all of the 110 people settle within the city limits, those that do will soon have a few more food and drink options in East Austin. Here’s a rundown of some of the restaurants and bars under construction on the Eastside as of August 2015:

Rashed Islam, Texas Department of Transportation consultant, presented a concept plan for improvements to RR 620 in western Travis County—including adding a six-lane section from north of Lakeway Blvd. to Hwy. 71 and a median from the Colorado River to Hwy. 71.

In the past seven months, White Lodging Corp. has delivered two high-rise hotels in downtown Austin. The hospitality developer isn't easing up on the gas pedal.

American cities are riding a wave of renewed interest in urban living that revved up in the mid-‘90s and quickly reinforced itself with plummeting crime rates, improving schools and expanded infrastructure. Foreigners fleeing economic skittishness at home have stashed their thick wads of cash in Manhattan skyscrapers and Beverly Hills compounds. And 20 years after many predicted the Internet would all but eliminate the need for traditional office space, the latest tech boom has made corporate life more centralized than ever in live/work/play downtowns and city neighborhoods, until recently considered fringe.

Since no one really knows when interest rates are going to rise, borrowers are looking to lock in low long-term fixed-rates before they go up, rather than looking for short term lending products, ReadyCap Commercial’s CEO Jim Going tells GlobeSt.com

The Wall Street Journal recently published a front-page story — "Surge in Commercial Real-Estate Prices Stirs Bubble Worries" — in its Aug. 13 print edition. The article argued that rising real estate valuations coupled with low interest rates have created large demand for CRE assets. However, the current environment, particularly spurred in the last year, is reminiscent of the mid-2000s real estate boom — right before the market crashed, causing some analysts alarm.

Walkable cities—like Boston, New York and Miami—are more popular than ever. With new waves of wealthy Millennials looking for nearby amenities, mixed-use has found new life.

How customized should the improvement be? Generally, too much customization will not appeal to the next tenant in the space.

The last thing an owner wants to do is to pay for an improvement that must be removed in order to lease the space in the future. Additional office space usually falls into this category.

Building multifamily projects for Millennials usually requires a heavy focus on sustainability, but it may not be in the ways you think.

Date: August 27
Time: 2:00 pm - 3:00 pm
Online Webinar

This webinar serves as a great introduction to the Argus Valuation software for those who have little or no previous experience with the software, or for those who are interested in how it works.

The presenters will take it slow - starting with what you see when you first open the program. They'll take you through how to build an ARGUS model "from scratch" - without relying on the ARGUS Wizard or an existing template.

The presenters will then explain the initial set up of the Property Description pages and introduce the various ways that the Argus software can assist anyone in the valuation of any commercial real estate property.

Tuesday, September 22
11:15 am - 1:00 pm

The Four Seasons Hotel
98 San Jacinto Blvd.