HometownGeorgetown.com

Want to see something cool? Go to the Williamson County Texas Appraisal District’s website, click Enter, and then click Find Property on Map on the left menu. This brings up mapping software that allows the user to zoom in - waayyyyy in - on any parcel of land in the county. Let’s look up my listings! The first is 2001 S. Church Street, which is at the corner of Church and 18th, right here in Old Town. We recently lowered the price of this fabulous bungalow, which is within walking distance of the square and (perhaps more importantly) Monument Cafe. The house was renovated in 2006 - rewired, replumbed, siding replaced, roof replaced… It’s like a new home but with the charm (and original pine floors) of a home built when the town was younger.

Then comes 415 Allen Circle, a gorgeous Jimmy Jacobs with white stone exterior and magnificent trees on a 1.13-acre lot. This home is in the highly desirable Fountainwood Estates.
See that area in green? That’s a greenbelt, and you’ll notice that the lot of 415 Allen Circle backs right up to the greenbelt. You should see the trees on this lot. Honestly, there’s one tree in the back yard (right behind the porch) that rivals the incredible live oak in front of the First Texas bank on Austin Avenue. It’s awesome.

And finally, we have 6720 FM 972, the wonderful four-acre property that started me on this mapping odyssey. This is horse country, folks. Miles to ride, and the view stretches on forever.

Call me at 512-876-6544 for more information about any of these properties, or click on the pictures on the right-hand side of this page on the blog.

The City of Georgetown announced a new program yesterday - SOAR: Senior Outdoor Adventure Recreation. People aged 50 and up are invited to attend a free Senior Play Day on April 3. This kind of innovative program to encourage people to use our parks more is typical of Georgetown’s Parks and Recreation Department. The folks at Parks and Recreation aren’t content to simply clean and maintain the parks and hope that people show up. They work proactively to attract people to our parks.

The park I use most often is the Bark Park, and my puppy and I have never been the only ones there. This off-leash dog park is so wonderful, in fact, that I have met people and pooches from Austin, Round Rock, and even Temple. My dog gets so excited that he starts whining and yelping to be let out of the car as soon as we turn onto Holly Street.

The hotsheet for the past seven days shows 23 sales in the MLS areas GTE and GTW. These sales total almost $6.5 million, including two sales for over a million dollars each. Other than those two sales, the highest sales price was $365,000, and the original asking price on that property was $445,000. The over $400,000 price range is still struggling here in Georgetown. There are currently 84 homes on the market priced between $400,000 and $600,000. These homes have been on the market an average of 111 days.

Compare that to an average of 89 days on the market (so far) for homes priced between $200,000 and $400,000 and 85 days for homes priced from $100,000 to $200,000.

52 homes were added to the marketplace over the past seven days. These homes are priced between $109,000 for an 832 square foot home in town on up to $995,000 for a 4724 square foot home in beautiful Escalera Ranch.

One of the price changes is for a listing of mine. I am so proud to offer 2001 S. Church Street for sale, and with the new price of $210,000, I think someone should snap it up. This home is in the highly desireable Old Town area of Georgetown, within easy walking distance to the square and Southwestern University. While the home has retained the charm of a historical home, it was fully renovated in 2006, so it has all the modern conveniences. Give me a call if you’d like to see it for yourself. My number is 512-876-6544.

Later today, I’m going to show a buyer some homes for sale in the Villages of Berry Creek, so I decided that now would be a great time to feature this neighborhood. (Knowledge is power.)

There are 14 homes currently listed as Active on the marketplace. When I first started the search yesterday afternoon, there were 14 homes on the market. Then one of the homeowners who I called for a showing told me that they had just accepted an offer for their home. (Great news for them - after just ten days on the market!) So I thought there would only be 13 homes for this morning’s blog. But this morning, I woke up to find another new listing in the Villages of Berry Creek. Often, websites lag behind the MLS by as much as two or three weeks. This is another reason why you’d be wise to hire a REALTOR to help you find a new home. The market changes every single day, and REALTORS have the tools to be able to tell you what’s happening as soon as it happens. We’re required to enter status changes into the system within a very short time. Those changes are effective immediately in our MLS software, but it takes some time for all the websites out there to update themselves.

The homes currently on the market are priced from $165,000 up to just over $265,000. That’s a wide range of prices in the neighborhood. The most expensive home has been on the market for 266 days. In that time, the sellers have only lowered the price by about $300. (That’s not a typo.) What’s most interesting to me is that this home is owned by the builder, and I would expect builders to be more realistic about price. For some reason, the builder is not in a hurry to sell this home but is content to let it wait for the right buyer at this price.

Ten homes sold for between just over $170,000 and just under $235,000. The average sales price was $192,487. The homes spent an average of 115 days on the market. One poor house sat on the market for over 300 days. The sellers lowered the price by $30,000, and the home ended up selling for more than the final asking price. (Most likely, this was done with an FHA loan, so the price was adjusted upward in order for the sellers could pay the buyers closing costs.) Only one of these sales took place in October, and not a single sale took place in November of last year.

During the past six months, three homes were withdrawn from the marketplace, and seven listings expired without a sale. These sellers were unable or unwilling to lower the price on their homes, so they made the decision to hold onto it rather than lower the price. That’s a tough reality to face, and I really feel for these folks. A home is worth what a buyer is willing to pay for it, so all a seller can really do is decide whether that’s enough money to make it worth his or her while. Sometimes, the best decision is not to sell. The market will pick up, the prices will rise again.