Archive for December, 2008

Georgetown’s incredible new Rec Center will open in January

Tuesday, December 30th, 2008

The Rec Center in Georgetown is undergoing a massive expansion, and the city has announced that the grand opening should take place on January 31. Not quite in time for New Year’s resolutions, but pretty close, and you will still find lots going on even before the grand opening of the addition. It looks like a fabulous facility, with well thought-out features that will enhance the lives of city residents. They’re going to have an elevated track around the gym and weight training areas, so that runners and walkers can get their workout simultaneously with folks playing basketball or doing other types of cardio.

I am so proud of Georgetown’s Parks and Recreation Department, and of our citizens for supporting Parks & Rec. Our parks bring great quality of life to our community. Our hike & bike trails are renowned, deservedly so, and I spend a lot of time at the Bark Park. We have a number of small neighborhood parks sprinkled throughout town, which don’t get a lot of glory, but which are well used and well loved by people who live nearby. I live close to Old Town Park, which, at half a city block, is one of the smallest parks in town. People use the park every day. Over the Christmas holidays, families were out playing pick-up games of soccer, laughing, calling out to each other, and having great fun.

You can find more information about joining the Rec Center here. Non-residents are welcome to join, so if you don’t live within the city limits, don’t count yourself out.

Online social network for grown-ups coming to Georgetown

Saturday, December 27th, 2008

I love the internet! (Can you tell?) I love that we can now read papers from the other side of the country and, for that matter, from the other side of the world. This evening, I happened upon an article from Portland, Oregon about a new kind of social networking site that’s in a trial phase there. Why do we care? Because the developers are working on a site for Georgetown, Texas, as well.

The site is called Bright Neighbor, and the article bills it as My Space for grown-ups. Basically, it’s an online neighborhood that consists of your real-life neighbors. The internet is a great way to meet people who share your interests, but it can be frustrating sometimes to form friendships with people you never get to meet face-to-face. Bright Neighbor offers an exciting alternative. Because it’s localized, the people who join are people you could actually meet for lunch if you so chose. People post on the site their interests, classes they’d like to take or that they might be willing to teach, and even items they’d be willing to loan to people whom they trust.

I think this has wonderful potential for making Georgetown even friendlier than we already do. On the Bright Neighbor home page, there’s a box where people can request rides or offer rides. Isn’t that nice? Say you’re going to a concert in Austin. Why not share a ride with other Georgetown folks?

I’m not sure who it is in Georgetown who’s started this, but I’m excited about the possibilities. Sign me up!

Super fun kids’ activity on no-school days

Wednesday, December 17th, 2008

Mel’s Lonestar Lanes, Georgetown’s own fabulous family entertainment center, is offering something very creative next week at 10 a.m. on Monday and Tuesday… Bowling with Santa! Isn’t that cool? $5.00 per child includes an hour of bowling and shoe rental. Bring your camera so you can get a picture of your children bowling with St. Nick. Reservations are requested, and you can make them by calling 512-930-2200. Bowl with Santa at Mel's Lonestar Lanes
The bowling alley will be open on Christmas Day, too, from 3 p.m. until midnight (half-price until 7 p.m.) Santa won’t be there that day, as far as I kow. He’ll probably be recuperating from a long evening flying all over the world.
At CJ’s Sports Bar & Grill, in the Mel’s entertainment complex, there’s going to be a New Year’s Eve party. I spent a couple of hours at CJ’s last week, and it was the most fun I’ve had in a long time. It’s a casual, adult place to hang out. A pub, cozy (but not small). Each lane has soft, comfortable sofas in a booth-type setup. No smoking allowed, so you don’t have to fight your way through the air to get to your booth. There’s a full bar, too, as well as pool tables. This really would be a fun place to spend New Year’s Eve.

November home sales in Georgetown, TX

Tuesday, December 16th, 2008

The holiday season has kept me from posting as often as I’d like. For the past week or so, I’ve been planning to write a nice, meaty article about home sales in the MLS areas of GTE and GTW (Georgetown East and West). Finally, today is the day. Hurrah!
Georgetown Texas real estate
I had a recent online conversation with a former math teacher who suggested I provide information on the mean sales prices, rather than the average. Instead, I decided to do both, and to throw in the median prices, too. For the past five Novembers, the mean and median sales prices were nearly identical.
Georgetown Texas real estate
As you can see clearly from this chart, the sales prices have continually risen, even in today’s tough real estate climate. For those of you trying to sell a home out there, please don’t use this as a reason to price your house too high. There are a lot of homes on the market. 597, to be exact. With just 57 sales this past November, that means we have more than 10 months of residential inventory at the moment. Buyers have the power. If you want to sell quickly, you need to price your house to sell.
The chart below tells another chapter of the November sales story. In 2007, homes spent an average of 74 days on the market. This year, that number jumped to 91 days. One home spent 330 days on the market before finally selling. That’s nothing compared to a house in Sun City Texas that’s been on the market but is finally now under contract. If you want to sell your home and get on with your life, then price your home to sell. Give the buyers such a deal that they simply can’t resist, and know that you’ll probably get just as big a deal on your next house.
Georgetown Texas real estate

Georgetown’s holiday home tour to be featured on TV

Wednesday, December 10th, 2008

Tune your TV’s to KXAN (Channel 36) Friday morning between 5-7 for coverage of this weekend’s Holiday Home Tour. The Home Tour will take place on Saturday and Sunday from noon to 5. The news coverage will air again on Saturday morning’s news program.

Homes on 1 acre + ($200,000 - $325,000)

Thursday, December 4th, 2008

Yesterday, a reader called me to ask for some very specific information. He’s trying to decide whether or not to buy a home, and he wants to get started by doing his due diligence. Smart! He wants to get to know the market so that when he’s ready to buy, he can make an informed decision.
He asked me if I could help him find some information about homes with at least an acre that had sold over the past two months for $250,000 to $325,000. I expanded that a little bit and started my search at $200,000. A little more information never hurts. I told him that I would write an article about my findings, and that I would send him a spreadsheet with more details.
I love when people call me to ask specific questions. This website is much more fun and interesting with that interactive element. I created HometownGeorgetown.com as a way to meet people who are interested in buying or selling a home, so I’m happy when my phone rings. All I ask in return is that when you’re ready to take that next step, you keep me in mind. Give me a call at 512-876-6544 or email me at jenel@HometownGeorgetown.com. I’m here to help!
Ten properties came up in my search of MLS areas GTE and GTW. The map to the right shows the location of these properties. The newest of the homes was built in 1997. The average year built is 1983. Newer construction on 1 acre plus tends to be priced significantly higher. Georgetown Texas home sales
I was surprised to find the majority of the sales were west of the freeway, in the MLS area known as GTW. I had expected to find homes in this price range to be in GTE. A couple of the homes are in Serenada, which is one of my favorite neighborhoods. The trees in Serenada are incredible. They’ve been there a long, long time, and so they look substantial and comforting. Just gorgeous.
The average sales price per square foot of these homes was $126.39. This number was brought up by one property that is on nearly 9 acres. When we take this property out of the mix, the average price per square foot drops to just over $120. This particular property sold the fastest, spending just a couple days on the market before going under contract. The average active days on market for the ten homes was 133. During the properties’ time on market, the list prices dropped by an average of about $43,000. This average was brought up drastically by the price reduction of almost $200,000 on two of the homes. The owners of those two homes obviously started out with a very unrealistic view of the worth of their properties. When you take these two homes out of the mix, the average price reduction was a much more reasonable $7,635, or 3%.

Anytime Fitness to open soon in Georgetown

Wednesday, December 3rd, 2008

Georgetown will soon have a 24-hour fitness facility. Anytime Fitness, which already has branches in Cedar Park and Leander, will open within the next two weeks. They’ll be open 24 hours a day, 7 days a week, including weekends and holidays. (Oh no! No more excuses!) Each of their treadmills has its own TV, which sounds great to me. Exercise can be tedious, but if you can do it while you’re distracting your brain with mindless fluff, it’s not so bad.

If you’d like more information on membership, give them a call at 863-9990. They’ll be located right across the street from Catfish Parlour on Williams Drive.

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