Central East Austin Real Estate - Mueller and More

The Parade of Homes is on its last week at Mueller Austin, and the Home Builders Association of Austin has thrown out a discount to those nearest to the event. On Thursday 4th and Friday 5th June, Mueller residents get in for $10 rather than the usual $15.

It’s a thoughtful gesture to the 400 families that have moved in so far - giving a discount to see the homes we’ve watched go up on Camacho Street for the last seven months.

It’s not quite as good as the discount given to 8000 Austin real estate agents on Monday. A quiet invitation was sent saying that entry was free if you drop off a business card.

The Parade ends this weekend and is well worth a look if you want to see some innovative design. I volunteered over at one of the homes on several days and met all manner of people - people interested in interior design, people wanting to build their own homes, and people who just wanted to ride the elevator.

Garreth Wilcock is a Realtor® specializing in homes at Mueller where he lives. Get in touch to find out more about moving to the Mueller Development in Austin  - 512 694 8873.

The Austin Parade of Homes is set this year in Mueller - the walkable urban village at the site of the old airport. Here’s how to get there without upsetting the residents.

I’m not suggesting that Mueller residents aren’t understandably proud of our neighborhood. I’m excited for people to see the homes and the parks. Heck, after Memorial Day, the pool at Ella Wooten will be open to the public, so check out the parade homes, and then take a swim.

It would be nice to minimize vehicular traffic on the residential streets in my opinion. The streets have been designed to minimize cut-through traffic so that we have pedestrian and bike friendly residential streets.

So the plan for the Parade is to park and ride (or walk or cycle!). Or even park ride and swim!

The Parade starts on Saturday, and I look forward to seeing you out there!

In the coming week I’ll put more information about each of the Parade homes. I’m going to be helping guests at the Streetman Home 4217 Camacho during the following dates / times, so come and say “Hi!” if you’re visiting:

• Sunday 5/23 10a-3p
• Tuesday 5/26 10a-3p
• Friday 5/29 3p-8p
• Sunday 5/31 10a-3p
• Monday 6/1 3p-8p

Garreth Wilcock is a Realtor living and working in Mueller. He helps sell homes for people moving to Mueller and buyers find homes at Mueller. Call 512 694 8873 for a tour of the available homes and the neighborhood.

When I called the Homebuilders Association of Greater Austin, their information line sent me into a perpetual “press one for more information” loop. And their website was down briefly a few days ago when I was checking information.

Okay, so the 2009 Parade of Homes isn’t cancelled - it starts on Saturday 23rd May at 10am.

In the event of unclement weather, call (512) 454-5588 to find out if the homes are open. (There are a few thunderstorms in the forecast for this weekend here at Mueller, Austin)

Four of the five parade homes are listed for sale in the Austin Multiple Listing System, and the fifth is the Streetman home with the elevator and multiple elevated decks which is listed at $1.4m.

Interestingly, the model home for the affordable row homes on Zach Scott is out of use currently. Part of that could be due to the lack of affordable homes at the Mueller Redevelopment currently.

Not all market rate homes at Mueller cost a million dollars. The MuellerAustin.com homefinder is not perhaps the most up to date source of homes. There are additional floorplans not listed and the price ranges aren’t accurate.

There are floorplans starting at around $255,000 (David Weekley town homes), and yard homes homes in the $300,000s - $800,000s.

If you do want seamless corner windows, 4 bedrooms a free-floating staircase and retractable walls, you could always buy the Muskin company’s parade home designed by Michael Hsu. Or you could get a ticket for $15 and just take a tour through the parade homes.

Garreth Wilcock is a Realtor® specializing in homes at Mueller where he lives with his wife and daughter. Get in touch to find out more about moving to the Mueller Development in Austin  - 512 694 8873.

How do you sell your home at Mueller? The second attempt is under way right now. The first resale ended up leasing their home recently, after 37 days on the market. And now the second resale home is available.

I’m a little surprised by the listing for a number of reasons - there are no photos of it, and no sign is on the street.

Given the challenges of competing with the builders when selling a home in a development under construction, pricing and marketing are critical. Right now there are no photos of the home in the Austin Multiple Listing System. The one below I snapped while walking this morning.

There is no sign letting neighbors know it is for sale. (or the predicted 20,000-80,000 people coming to Mueller for the 2009 Austin Parade of Homes starting this week) I think this is a pretty good time to sell your home at Mueller - builder inventory is low, thousands of people are coming to the area, and there are few choices for people who want to move right away. To buy it, they have to be able to see it and they have to know about it!

One person who does know it is for sale is Hilary Herrin. I was at the Streetman home preview last night, getting ready for the Austin 2009 Parade of Homes at Mueller, and I caught up with another active Realtor who lives here - Hilary. I mention this not to name drop, but to make a point.
Hilary also focuses on Mueller, and has a deep knowledge of prices, buyers and floorplans here. She holds open houses here, lives here, and like me, she works here. We work with home buyers here at Mueller, and have a good grounding in the local market.

She would be a good person to interview if you were looking to sell your home at Mueller. I think I would be too. We’d work pretty hard to get your home sold.

That’s the end of my rant about “horses for courses”. Here’s the home:

The David Weekley home is only a block and a half from the pool at Ella Wooten.
4105 Scales St, Austin TX, 78723

• 3 Beds, 2 Baths
• Single Story
• 1437 sqft
• Austin ISD (Maplewood Kealing McCallum)
• MLS# 5917323
• Built in 2008
• $305,000

I haven’t looked inside this home yet, and all the listing says is that it has “many upgrades”.

Compare that with the builders who have model homes, fliers, staged furniture and people on-site to answer questions. It’s not hard to see who has mindshare of future Mueller residents.
[listing courtesy of Don Cox]

Garreth Wilcock is a Realtor living and working in Mueller Austin, TX, and represents buyers and sellers there. Read more about selling your home at Mueller in this 3 part series. Call or email to set up a viewing of the home above, or any other home at Mueller.

The Affordable Program at the old airport development in Austin provides a shared equity program to qualifying home buyers.

There are no affordable homes available right now, so you can’t take advantage of the $8,000 first time home buyer tax credit in conjunction with the affordable program?

Who qualifies for the Mueller Affordable program? Families who earn below 80% of the Austin area median family income. This has been updated in 2009, so 80% of the median family income for a 2 person household was $45,500 in 2008 it is $46,900 in 2009.

Who qualifies for the $8,000 Tax Credit? First time homebuyers earning less than $150,000 if married and filing jointly.

So can I get an affordable home at Mueller and an $8,000 tax credit? In theory, it’s perfectly allowable to take the $8,000 tax credit in conjunction with the Mueller affordable program. In practice, there’s a hitch.

The tax credit is only applicable to homes purchased before December 1st 2009, and right now, there are no affordable homes available. That will change if an existing homeowner wants to sell their home back to the Mueller foundation and it becomes available back on the affordable resale market.

The builders don’t have any new affordable homes under construction at this point, and there are none available.

If you would like to keep informed when new affordable homes become available, send me an email and I’ll let you know as more are about to be built, or as resale homes become available.

What alternatives are there to the Mueller Affordable Program? The City of Austin has a downpayment assistance scheme. One of the City’s options is a shared equity model very similar to the affordable program at Meuller, though is not limited to homes at Mueller. You could buy a qualifying resale home anywhere within the City Limits and get the City to pay your downpayment up to $40,000.

Garreth Wilcock is a Mueller Resident  and Realtor® and represents buyers of any homes at Mueller, and helps buyers with the City’s downpayment assistance program.

The residential development at the old Mueller Airport in Austin, TX is in its second phase as we move through Spring of 2009. Are we going to run out of homes here soon?

To say that home sales have been brisk here would be an understatement. Here are a few statistics that might shed some light on the interest in Mueller:

• David Weekley hit 114% of there sales targets in April (according to their project board which I noticed when I visited their project office last week). More on this later.
• Meritage have just nine homes in inventory and four homes that can be built in this phase.
• Standard Pacific had four inventory Andrews / Duren plan homes three weeks ago - now they are wrapping up contracts for all of those.
• Streetman sold four of their flex homes in eight days about two weeks ago.
• Muskin have sold out in the second garden court, and Saldana homes have two garden court homes left that are currently under construction.

So there aren’t many new homes that are “move-in ready” right now. There is still one resale home available at Mueller.

Are we going to run out of homes at Mueller? For a while below the $400,000 range, yes! There are still going to be future phases of development. The City of Austin will release land to the developer, Catellus, and the developer will sell it to the builders. The builders will take between 4 and 8 months to build on the average.

True, there are still lots available, but not many. David Weekley raised their prices at the start of May. You could see that as a reflection of the rising costs of construction, or you could see it as a reflection of limited supply versus higher demand.

In my opinion, the “affordability gap” will broaden in the near future, with mostly homes above $400,000 available while the rest of phase II sells out. Maybe we’ll see an “availability gap” as discussed in this short video.

Garreth Wilcock is a Realtor living and working in Mueller. He helps sell homes at Mueller and buyers find homes at Mueller.

It’s just over three weeks until the start of the Austin Parade of Homes 2009 here at the Mueller Development. There’s a list of the green builders in my article from November, but what can people expect to see?

Visitors will get to see Mueller - now 400 families strong, with the Mosaic Apartments open for business, and the builders here all going strongly. It’s going to be hard to buy a home here during the parade - May 23rd - June 7th. Why? Well there aren’t that many left in Phase II right now, and there are probably going to be only a few left in a few weeks time.

Visitors will also get to see five incredible homes. I was walking around Streetman’s home yesterday, and every time I went to another of the three floors, I was floored by what I found. The view from the top balcony is phenomenal. From the Frost Bank Building downtown to the new Frost building at Mueller and all the parks and people in between.

What will residents get to see? Well they’ll see transit oriented development in action. Or that’s the theory. The idea is that visitors will park at the periphery of the development and take shuttle buses down Camacho.

• The parade homes are open weather permitting, and closed on Wednesdays.
• The homes are open between 10am and 8pm Thursday to Tuesday.
• Tickets are $15 for regular admission for a day

Garreth Wilcock is a Realtor® specializing in new homes at Mueller. Get in touch to find out more about moving to the Mueller Development in Austin  - 512 694 8873.

One of the challenges a home seller in a new development faces is competing with the builder, and the first resale home at Mueller Austin is available on the Austin MLS.

The Meritage 1901 home is close to the park and pool at Ella Wooten. Here are a few vital statistics:
4121 Lawless St, Austin Tx, 78723

• 3 Beds, 3 Baths
• Single Story
• 1720 sqft
• Austin ISD
• MLS# 7648939
• $320,000

A very popular Meritage floorplan with upgrades like diagonal tile backsplash in the kitchen.

[listing courtesy of Horizon Realty]

Why would a buyer choose this above building their own Meritage home to their own specification? Timing and price are two big factors that influence buyers. This home is available right now.

If the four people at the local newsletter editorial meeting tonight are anything to go by, most of the residents at Mueller are checking out their new tax appraisal values, and may have looked up on this home for sale.

Selling the first resale homes at Mueller will give some comparable sales from which to figure out true market values.

Garreth Wilcock is a Realtor living and working in Mueller Austin, TX, and represents buyers and sellers there. Read more about selling your home at Mueller in this 3 part series. Call or email to set up a viewing of the home above, or any other home at Mueller.

Let’s just call it the old airport development in Austin Texas. It may be the most intriguing green development in Austin, but that doesn’t guarantee people will spell it right or say it right.

How to pronounce Mueller:

When people are looking for homes at the Mueller redevelopment, they soon learn that there are different ways to pronounce it. There’s the old Austin way (the same people who pronounce Koenig Lane as “Kay-nig” Lane rather than attempting a phonetic pronunciation)

They say “Mewl-ur”. That’s what everyone called the airport from 1930 until Bergstrom opened and the last planes flew out in 1999.

Then there’s the Mueller family themselves. The airport was named after council member Robert Mueller who died in 1927. They asked for the pronunciation to be updated to reflect that of their family name. The Mueller developer Catellus has taken this on, and if you walk into a model home, everyone will say “Mill-er”.

Then there’s the people who live there. I say “Mill-er, mewl-er” so that I’m understood. I like to say “Mill-er” so I can say “It’s Miller time!” when I wake up every day.

I have a Welsh name that is often misheard as Garreth, Gareth, Garith or Garrett, so I’m used to confusion, mispronunciation and misspelling.

Whatever you call it, the old airport is developing nicely, and buyers are seeing the value, and the realization of the master planned dream. Watch out for my post where I recap on recent sales - it’s the fastest selling development in Austin right now.

Garreth Wilcock is a pioneer and Realtor at Mueller and helps buyers and sellers find homes at the old airport in Austin.

The first rental apartments at the Mueller Redevelopment are now being occupied. There are 441 units being completed and released for rental on Mueller Boulevard.

The Mosaic Austin tag line is “Live in the center”, and the apartments are centered in a few ways. They surround central courtyards, they are close to the center of Austin, and they’re opposite the planned Town Center of Mueller. Central indeed.

I took a sneak peak before they were completed, and went back for a second look on an official tour.

The units they showed were spectacular - full of great features with huge closets and bathrooms. Sample pricing is in my earlier post about the apartments. The views were interior of the beach courtyard, and external of the city skyline.

A neighbor pointed out to me on MuellerCommunity.com that the name Mosaic was reflected in the different styles available being pieced together. Like a mosaic. There’s more in the video below about the different courtyard styles, as well as a quick run through the gym, gaming room, and a few apartments.

Garreth Wilcock is a Realtor® living and working in the Mueller Development. Since he can walk there, he offers a $500 gift for those he helps rent at Mosaic, Mueller.