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A view of what kind of view $13 million can buy on Lake Travis
Let's face it—we're all tired of staring at the same four walls during this pandemic. Here are a few homes that have hit Austin's booming luxury real estate market, because we're in the mood for a little escape.
Toreador
<img lazy-loadable="true" src="https://assets.rebelmouse.io/eyJhbGciOiJIUzI1NiIsInR5cCI6IkpXVCJ9.eyJpbWFnZSI6Imh0dHBzOi8vYXNzZXRzLnJibC5tcy8yMzQ0MTM2OC9vcmlnaW4uanBnIiwiZXhwaXJlc19hdCI6MTYyOTY0NjQ5M30.MzKJ3S4l1z7oaKgRRoOUFG18BfZdVF9KUN9XeVOrDyQ/img.jpg?width=980" id="c4a86" class="rm-shortcode" data-rm-shortcode-id="20768e7a26faddae6bfb970bd4d2936b" data-rm-shortcode-name="rebelmouse-image" /><p>This 7-bedroom home sits on 5 acres of land in Westlake and is listed for $10 million by Kumara Wilcoxon of <a href="http://www.kuperrealty.com" target="_blank">Kuper Sotheby's International Realty</a>. </p>Island Wood
<img lazy-loadable="true" src="https://assets.rebelmouse.io/eyJhbGciOiJIUzI1NiIsInR5cCI6IkpXVCJ9.eyJpbWFnZSI6Imh0dHBzOi8vYXNzZXRzLnJibC5tcy8yMzQ0MTMxNi9vcmlnaW4uanBnIiwiZXhwaXJlc19hdCI6MTY1MTA3NDI2N30.RVLf3H2cwMQJArXFMW0akGrw7fK0TMJ4MXa8976iwKY/img.jpg?width=980" id="06c93" class="rm-shortcode" data-rm-shortcode-id="402f9c47142ab28798acfb6e7d0af899" data-rm-shortcode-name="rebelmouse-image" /><p>This 7-bedroom Westlake home sits on 2 acres of land. It is listed for $10.95 million by Kathryn Scarborough of<a href="https://austin.evrealestate.com/" target="_blank"> Engel & Völkers.</a> </p>Wild Cat Hollow
<img lazy-loadable="true" src="https://assets.rebelmouse.io/eyJhbGciOiJIUzI1NiIsInR5cCI6IkpXVCJ9.eyJpbWFnZSI6Imh0dHBzOi8vYXNzZXRzLnJibC5tcy8yMzQ0MTMxNS9vcmlnaW4uanBnIiwiZXhwaXJlc19hdCI6MTYxOTkwMDcxNX0.Cr5Q03di0xZ-3SHLmAeN605i5IZesika5dgws0fWps8/img.jpg?width=980" id="ca51a" class="rm-shortcode" data-rm-shortcode-id="412b7e62d905f7df1c5cb3606742956a" data-rm-shortcode-name="rebelmouse-image" /><p>This <a href="http://modernwestlake.com/" target="_blank">$10 million home </a>is privately listed by <a href="https://www.moreland.com/" target="_blank">Moreland Properties</a>. It has 4 bedrooms, 6 bathrooms and a 2-car garage. </p>The Nautilus
<img lazy-loadable="true" src="https://assets.rebelmouse.io/eyJhbGciOiJIUzI1NiIsInR5cCI6IkpXVCJ9.eyJpbWFnZSI6Imh0dHBzOi8vYXNzZXRzLnJibC5tcy8yMzQ0MTM0NS9vcmlnaW4uanBnIiwiZXhwaXJlc19hdCI6MTYwNDc3NTk5Mn0.EtZLb19JX37zThAFNvSZOVCum-mHQ_86NzePOR7IbXM/img.jpg?width=980" id="3fa7f" class="rm-shortcode" data-rm-shortcode-id="6742d364a067f4a914f19f3735749220" data-rm-shortcode-name="rebelmouse-image" /><p>This $12.5 million home sits on the banks of Lake Austin and is listed by Kumara Wilcoxon of <a href="http://www.kuperrealty.com" target="_blank">Kuper Sotheby's International Realty</a>.</p>Portofino Ridge
<img lazy-loadable="true" src="https://assets.rebelmouse.io/eyJhbGciOiJIUzI1NiIsInR5cCI6IkpXVCJ9.eyJpbWFnZSI6Imh0dHBzOi8vYXNzZXRzLnJibC5tcy8yMzQ0MTM0OS9vcmlnaW4uanBnIiwiZXhwaXJlc19hdCI6MTY0NjM2NDg1N30.PldY4aIXz7Muotu4Nrs7M7fYYWT4tR1RZDIiS8foDQ0/img.jpg?width=980" id="1f93f" class="rm-shortcode" data-rm-shortcode-id="8cb430f934a1d6e39026bf000a8a918b" data-rm-shortcode-name="rebelmouse-image" /><p>This 4-acre property is listed for $12.9 million by Gary and Michelle Dolch of <a href="https://austinluxurygroup.com/" target="_blank">Austin Luxury Group</a>. </p>Comanche Trail
<img lazy-loadable="true" src="https://assets.rebelmouse.io/eyJhbGciOiJIUzI1NiIsInR5cCI6IkpXVCJ9.eyJpbWFnZSI6Imh0dHBzOi8vYXNzZXRzLnJibC5tcy8yMzQ0MTM1NC9vcmlnaW4uanBnIiwiZXhwaXJlc19hdCI6MTYzMjYyOTQ1OH0.BqWZFHxCHw-3SUFgwX0Q0pJ7Mb1si2BHOHsykeWAQRM/img.jpg?width=980" id="ae5e8" class="rm-shortcode" data-rm-shortcode-id="e11090b39d3e8b236476917c0808802d" data-rm-shortcode-name="rebelmouse-image" /><p>This 13-acre estate sits on Lake Travis and is listed for $12,999,000 by Gary and Michelle Dolch of <a href="https://austinluxurygroup.com/" target="_blank">Austin Luxury Group</a>. </p><h5></h5><h5>Want to read more stories like this one? Start every day with a quick look at what's happening in Austin. Sign up for Austonia.com's free daily morning email.</h5>
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(Moreland Properties)
This 4-bedroom, $10 million Westlake home is privately listed by Moreland Properties. ModernWestlake.com
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When businesses closed their doors in March, Austin realtor Cord Shiflet did not think he would sell another house this year.
To his surprise, this has been the busiest month he has ever seen for well-funded buyers moving to Austin.
"In my 23 years of doing this, the last month has been the craziest, most active market I've ever seen, with big buyers moving into Austin," said Shiflet, who works for Moreland Properties. "COVID has set our market on fire."
Austin realtors say business is booming in luxury real estate, which is a pleasant surprise after expecting sales to plummet due to coronavirus.
The majority of his big buyers have usually come from California, Shiflet said, but now he is seeing a drastic increase in New York executives and business owners who want to move to Austin.
After months of stay-home orders and working remotely, people from both coasts seem to be reevaluating where they live.
"We've just been seeing New Yorkers coming out here in droves," Shiflet said. "They can work from really anywhere in the world, and these people don't want to live in the tight spaces that they're currently in."
Texas has long appealed to people living in more regulated states due to a business-friendly climate and lack of state income tax. Shiflet said realtors are struggling to keep up with the increased demand from new buyers, many of whom are shocked to see how much further their money can go in Texas.
"We're going through our Rolodexes and knocking on doors, trying to find the quality product that these people want," Shiflet said. "They have a hard time believing they can have so much house and so much space and land around them as opposed to the apartments they're coming out of in New York."
Michelle Dolch, a realtor from Austin Luxury Group, said she has experienced the same thing—she even has a few buyers who are looking in the range of $20 million and above.
"We don't really have a lot of real estate in that market," Dolch said. "Our inventory is really stressed."
In addition to those from California and New York, Dolch has seen an increase in buyers coming from Seattle and Chicago, citing complaints about coronavirus and taxes.
"It just seems that a lot of people that have been considering moving here over the years are now coming here all at once," Dolch said. "A lot of people have always considered Austin as a place they'd like to live in. They're not considering it anymore—they're moving forward with it."
Want to read more stories like this one? Start every day with a quick look at what's happening in Austin. Sign up for Austonia.com's free daily morning email.
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Homes sales in the city of Austin decreased by 33.1% in April when compared to last year, showing the impact of the coronavirus pandemic and the local stay-home orders that took effect in late March, according to the Austin Board of Realtors.
<p> While the number of sales were down, median prices increased 12.3%—to $421,000—compared to April 2019.</p><p>"It could have been much worse," ABoR President Romeo Manzanilla said in a press release, adding that home listings and showings are already on the rise. "We're hopeful this growth will continue in the coming weeks and months."</p><p>In the Austin metro area, the change was significant but less extreme, with home sales down 21.6% over April 2019 and median sales price up slightly—3.2%—to $325,000.</p>
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(Austonia staff)
It was already going to be a weird year at TCAD. (Austonia)
Before the coronavirus pandemic arrived in Austin, the Travis Central Appraisal District was preparing for its busy spring season, when appraisal notices are mailed and protests filed.
It was already going to be a weird year. After TCAD received a cease-and-desist order from the Austin Board of Realtors last May, preventing access to home-sales price data, Chief Appraiser Marya Crigler announced in February that the district would not re-appraise residential properties in 2020.
<p>This was a big deal in a county where 147,039 property owners protested their appraisal values last year, per TCAD data, and the median appraised home value increased more than 6% in the city of Austin, per budget documents. </p><p>New policies were also set to take effect. Most protests are resolved informally, meaning a property owner meets with an appraiser in an effort to resolve their concerns. Last year, TCAD handled all informal protests electronically, but some property owners were upset that there wasn't an in-person option—this year, the district had decided to resume in-person meetings.</p><p>But because of the pandemic, those plans have changed again—anything that can take place by telephone or online has shifted—and TCAD is preparing for a possible onslaught of protests. </p><p>The protest filing season began April 13 and will continue through May 30. Crigler said it's too early to tell if protests will drop this year, either because of the pandemic or due to the fact that homes will not be re-appraised. </p><p>"The load is light at this point, but that's to be expected," she added. "We see that every year." </p><p>But Crigler urged property owners to file their protests early, especially if they preferred to speak with an appraiser on the phone.</p><p>Another change to the protest process—already in place before the pandemic—is a new waiting period between when a protest is filed and when TCAD responds with an offer. The TCAD board made this decision in January in an effort to settle cases in a fairer and more uniform way. </p><p>"I want to make sure that a property owner doesn't get a better deal on Monday talking to Appraiser A than they might have gotten if they came in on Tuesday and talked to Appraiser B," Crigler said. </p><p>The appraisal district is also looking into how to scale its ability to handle the next stage in the process—the appraisal review board—on the phone or online, as opposed to in person. Hearings are set to start in June.</p><p>So far, the state has not issued any emergency rules affecting appraisal districts, although some jurisdictions <a href="https://communityimpact.com/houston/katy/coronavirus/2020/04/21/fort-bend-county-commissioners-court-approves-resolution-supporting-taxpayer-relief/" target="_blank"><u>have</u></a> <a href="https://www.google.com/search?q=news4sa&oq=news4sa&aqs=chrome..69i57j0l4j69i60l3.1481j0j9&sourceid=chrome&ie=UTF-8" target="_blank"><u>lobbied</u></a> for them. </p><p>What will not be affected by the pandemic is appraisal values, because the notices sent this spring are intended to reflect market value as of Jan. 1. But next year's might be.</p><p>The impact of the pandemic on home sales has yet to be seen. The ABoR report from March showed little change, but ABoR President Romeo Manzilla <a href="https://austonia.com/home-prices-up-after-strong-start-in-march-but-realtors-braced-for-what-happens-in-april" target="_self"><u>told Austonia</u></a> that would likely change. "Everything that was in the pipeline closed," he said. "We will see in April the true effect of the pandemic." In an April 22 email newsletter, Wendy Jansky-Serra of Realty Austin wrote that overall market activity is down by about 30% compared to last year. </p><p>Crigler's team is always looking ahead to the next appraisal season. </p><p>"We have not heard that there has been any significant price reductions in any areas, but we certainly have heard that there is not a lot of volume or activity going on right now," she said. "We will be keeping a very close eye on it so that we can appropriately adjust appraisals as necessary.</p>
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Adobe
While some renters are postponing moves, others are taking advantage of lower rents and other specials offered as property owners try to adapt to the current marketplace. (Adobe)
Peter Northfelt is graduating from the University of Texas-Austin with a master's degree in advertising this May. Before the coronavirus pandemic, he planned to move to Los Angeles. Now, he's moving back to Phoenix, where his family lives, because many advertising companies aren't hiring and he's unable to support himself on unemployment benefits alone.
"I was graduating anyway, so I was going to move," Northfelt said. "It's just a matter of, the world was really big and then the world became really small."
<p>Northfelt is among many Austin residents whose relocation plans have been impacted in some way by the pandemic. The <a data-linked-post="2645815473" href="https://austonia.com/Coronavirus/austin-task-force-reopening" target="_blank">economic impact</a> of the virus, as well as uncertainty about when it will end and <a data-linked-post="2645661019" href="https://austonia.com/data-shows-significant-reduction-of-activity-in-travis-county-but-eckhardt-would-ask-people-to-do-more" target="_blank">concerns about transmission</a>, have provided fewer customers to local realtors. But, according to data and industry experts, there may be financial benefits for those who choose to relocate.</p><p>Moving is considered essential under the local "<a href="https://www.austintexas.gov/department/covid-19-information/stay-home-order" target="_blank">Stay Home-Work Safe</a>" orders, which were issued on March 24 and recently <a data-linked-post="2645815473" href="https://austonia.com/Coronavirus/austin-task-force-reopening" target="_blank">extended through May 8</a>. While some renters are postponing moves, others are taking advantage of lower rents and other specials offered as property owners try to adapt to the current marketplace.</p><p>Natalie Young is a licensed real estate agent and manager of A+ Apartment Locators in North Austin. Her office remains open, although it has seen a drop in customers. </p><p>"I think honestly some people don't know they can still move during this time," she said.</p><p>Although some customers have decided to pause their apartment search, others sense an opportunity. </p><p>Between March 31 and April 21 Austin rents decreased 1.1% overall, according to a market report compiled by ApartmentData.com. This may seem like a minor change, but Cindi Reed, the company's director of business development, said otherwise.</p><p>"Considering most management companies are budgeting rental rate increases of anywhere between 3-5%, a -1.5% effect in your budget compared to what a normal increase has been, it's significant," she said.</p><p>Perhaps more telling is the change in the local absorption rate, which shows the difference in occupied apartments from one month to the next. April is traditionally one of the busiest months for new leases, Reed said, and last year the Austin market absorbed 1,204 units in April. By April 21 of this year, however, the market absorbed 128 units—a nearly 90% change. </p><p>"[Apartments] kind of had the upper hand," Young said of the Austin rental market pre-pandemic. "And the tables have turned really overnight to where now they're reaching out to us to meet clients."</p><p>Young and her colleagues are now showing customers prospective apartments over Zoom using videos recorded by property management companies. </p><p>Emily Blair, executive vice president of the Austin Apartment Association, said that while fewer people are looking at apartments than usual, there is a higher closing rate among those who are. She added that more renters are choosing to extend their lease to avoid moving during a pandemic.</p><p>Logistically, Northfelt said the moving process hasn't changed much, but not every step of moving can be adapted for a pandemic.</p><p>"Usually … you have a going-away party [or] go to a music venue that you always loved," Northfelt said. "I'm sorry that I can't say goodbye to [Texas] in the way that I was expecting." </p>
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Katharine Jose
"We will see in April the true effect of the pandemic," said Romeo Manzanilla, AboR president. (Katharine Jose)
Home sales got off to a strong start in the Austin-Round Rock market in 2020.
On Jan. 2, Zillow declared Austin the nation's hottest market due to the city's affordability, low unemployment, attractiveness to young people and booming tech industry. Even March sales figures were in the black, showing a 2.2% increase over the previous March, as the coronavirus pandemic grew.
<p>Austin homes were rapidly appreciating, with median sales prices up 11.7% over the previous March. It was a bubbling sellers' market. </p><p>"March was a hangover from a fast start," said Romeo Manzanilla, president of the Austin Board of Realtors (ABoR) "Everything that was in the pipeline closed. We will see in April the true effect of the pandemic."</p><p><br/></p><p><br/></p><p class="shortcode-media shortcode-media-rebelmouse-image">
<img alt="Romeo Manzanilla" class="rm-shortcode" data-rm-shortcode-id="3b45d8b44b04023ef744cc89900081ad" data-rm-shortcode-name="rebelmouse-image" id="d09fb" type="lazy-image" data-runner-src="https://assets.rebelmouse.io/eyJhbGciOiJIUzI1NiIsInR5cCI6IkpXVCJ9.eyJpbWFnZSI6Imh0dHBzOi8vYXNzZXRzLnJibC5tcy8yMzEzNTIxMi9vcmlnaW4uanBnIiwiZXhwaXJlc19hdCI6MTYyNDE4MDA0MH0.4q17B-gtbUPp97ve2OBdaJ-OSAMAwsW2xhdPpm0b4Qo/img.jpg?width=980"/>
<small class="image-media media-caption" placeholder="Add Photo Caption...">Romeo Manzanilla, president of the Austin Board of Realtors</small><small class="image-media media-photo-credit" placeholder="Add Photo Credit...">Romeo Manzanilla</small></p><p><br/></p><p><br/></p><p>Of course the COVID-19 outbreak has had more deadly consequences, but it came at a bad time for sellers and buyers. The peak time for home sales is April through August. </p><p>Depending on shelter-in-place and restrictions on travel, Manzanilla predicts the Austin market will recover in the fourth quarter, perhaps active even in the holiday season. "Being both optimistic and realistic, there will be a lot of pent-up demand," he said. Sales numbers could be in line with last year, he added. </p><p>Manzanilla, 47 years old, moved to Austin in 1999. He is the broker-in-charge of Realty Austin, which is owned by Jonathan and Yvette Boatwright. The business has 560 agents and reported $3.45 billion in total sales in 2019. Manzanilla and his wife Monica live in Avery Ranch. </p><p>This still could be a good year for you if you're a certain kind of buyer. Mortgage interest rates are low, ranging from 3.2 to 3.9%, depending on the duration of the mortgage. Yet, jumbo loans—those exceeding $510,400 in Texas—have all but vanished. </p><p>Favored in today's market is the luxury real estate buyer who is liquid. "Instead of competing with 10 offers, they may find three or four offers on a home," said Manzanilla. </p><p>Not favored is the highly-leveraged borrower with drooping stock holdings and an unsteady job situation. "It's still a sellers' market," said Manzanilla, "just not quite as unbalanced [in favor of the seller] as it has been."</p><p>Sellers are more likely to negotiate extensions on closings, with appraisal and approval processes slowed by shelter-in-place and heavy demand for refinancing.</p><p>ABoR is advising agents to comply with social distancing, foregoing open houses and individual house calls in favor of pictures and virtual tours on web-based listings. Drones are being used for flyovers to substitute for walk-arounds. Online research by buyers has picked up, said Manzanilla. Realtors "should follow the CDC guidelines to minimize exposure to clients," he said, "and anything that puts you in a precarious situation." </p><p>Among his own clients, he added, a lot of prospective sellers are withholding their homes from the market, and those who have listed are holding firm on asking prices. Sellers know that there is a diminished pool of homes.</p><p>In good times and bad, Manzanilla loves real estate and interacting with clients. The best and worst of real estate? "Some clients you absolutely love. Some clients you absolutely love when a transaction ends." </p>
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(Kerry Tate)
Kerry Tate (left) and Dawn Moore are founding partners at Moore-Tate Projects+Design. (Kerry Tate)
About 60,000 to 65,000 construction workers are on the job in the Austin area today. They are working on towers rising high over downtown, or on apartments and homes fanning out from the city.
Like most of the rest of us, the developers and builders, the ultimate bosses of those workers, retreated to the safety of their laptops on dining room tables in mid-March. As we did, the COVID-19 outbreak began to cast a lengthening shadow over Austin.
Kerry Tate sees a disparity in this.
<p>She is a partner with Dawn Moore in Moore-Tate Projects + Design, which builds 10-12 homes each year with an average price of $950,000 in South Austin. Moore-Tate's workforce includes about 125 contractors and subcontractors, and Tate says 98% of them are Hispanic men. </p><p>"We encouraged workers to stay home without penalty of losing their place with us. And, if not, to be more aware, safe and take this more seriously than they seem to do. A few do. Most do not. They make it clear they are determined to work and will find it wherever they can, whether on our sites or elsewhere." </p><p>Yet they aren't really free to go home, says Tate. Construction workers live paycheck to paycheck. The White House has moved to restrict and reform immigration policies. According to Tate, Austin's construction workers are largely unprotected and "live in the shadows." </p><p>Although she is a builder, Tate has challenged her industry. She opposes action by the Real Estate Council of Austin (RECA) and allied groups in the construction industry that successfully petitioned Gov. Greg Abbott to reverse Austin and Travis County orders to shut down all but essential construction. </p><p>Tate, who is 65, is anything but a brick-thrower. While she is not a member of RECA, for years she was a central player in the Austin business world. She served as chair of the Greater Austin Chamber of Commerce in 1996. </p><p>She does not argue with RECA's efforts to reverse city and county stop-construction orders. RECA is a lobby, and lobbying groups represent their members. Indeed, Tate says she is "awed" by RECA's effectiveness in securing the governor's favor. </p><p>Now, however, Tate wants the construction industry to use that same power on behalf of their workers. She wants RECA to lobby for legal protections for the immigrant workers who are so vital to the industry and to the prosperity of Texas.</p><p>"If I had things my way, I would compel RECA to use this moment to use the stroke [influence] just demonstrated," she says, "to make a meaningful change—to be relentless in proving we are powerful enough to help our workforce achieve legal status with a clear path to citizenship." </p><p>Tate's call comes as the University of Texas-Austin released a study Friday claiming that if construction sites in the Austin area remain open, the number of COVID-19 hospitalizations in the general population by mid-August could triple from an estimated 10,000 to 30,000, and the hospitalization of construction workers could increase eight-fold. That could be the case, said UT's COVID-19 Modeling Consortium, if nothing is done to mitigate health risks on construction sites. Local building industry executives dispute the assumptions in the UT report. </p><p>City and county officials say they will work to mitigate health risks, but they can't do it all. The industry must pitch in. </p><p>Dianne Bangle, CEO of RECA, said Tate "raises really important issues" in her call to the industry to fight for a path to citizenship for construction workers. "RECA has always been the one to continue these discussions, be at the table and participate, and help guide any solution."</p><p>However, Bangle said, "what is absolutely in front of us now is the protection of the health and safety of the workers."</p><p><br/></p><p class="shortcode-media shortcode-media-rebelmouse-image">
<img alt="Diane Bangle" class="rm-shortcode" data-rm-shortcode-id="4ac70fd7b12cbcb3fc5e4d8eb1aa7ae3" data-rm-shortcode-name="rebelmouse-image" id="1ca9d" type="lazy-image" data-runner-src="https://assets.rebelmouse.io/eyJhbGciOiJIUzI1NiIsInR5cCI6IkpXVCJ9.eyJpbWFnZSI6Imh0dHBzOi8vYXNzZXRzLnJibC5tcy8yMjkzMDcyNi9vcmlnaW4uanBnIiwiZXhwaXJlc19hdCI6MTYzMDA5NzI0OH0.HiqhkS1wg1GTglgib3Rk-j7H8NVB8QwrxNgyMoLHgKA/img.jpg?width=980"/>
<small class="image-media media-caption" placeholder="Add Photo Caption...">Dianne Bangle is CEO of RECA. (Diane Bangle)</small><small class="image-media media-photo-credit" placeholder="Add Photo Credit...">Diane Bangle</small></p>
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