News On Austin

By Jacob Gordon of TreeHugger.com for MSN City GuidesAmerican cities aren’t just starting to blossom in the green arena, they’re fighting to see which can bloom the brightest. The following list is a quick hybrid cab ride through 10 cities doing the most to realize a sustainable metropolis. To learn more, visit the rest of our series, and see which cities need the most help—and which cities are greener than you think.

Austin
The politics in Austin, Texas, home base of Whole Foods Market and Lance Armstrong (at least part of the year), have earned it the title of “the blueberry in the bowl of tomato soup.” But the city’s energy portfolio could make it known as the ray of sunshine in the field of oil pumps. If you want to sign up for green power from Austin Energy, possibly the greenest power grid in the country, you can get in line—this year’s demand was unpredictably high, and they’re fresh out. Austin’s growing list of proactive energy maneuvers is, to say the least, striking. Not only does Austin lead the country in wind power and biodiesel production, but it has built advanced plug-in hybrid vehicles into its energy strategy.

As part of the recently announced Austin Climate Protection Plan, all facilities, fleets and operations will be carbon-neutral by 2020, and 100 percent of city facilities will be powered by renewable energy by 2012. There will also be CO2 caps and reduction plans for all utility emissions, something the federal government hasn’t dared do. According to Roger Duncan, Austin Energy’s deputy general manager, the city is ramping up to make both residential and commercial building codes the most energy-efficient in the nation,  starting by making all new single-family homes “zero net-energy capable”—meaning they could produce as much energy as they use—by 2015, and increasing energy efficiency by 75 percent in all other new construction. The Clean Energy Incubator, sparked by the National Renewable Energy Lab and managed by the University of Texas at Austin, works closely with the power utility and serves as a test bed for budding startup companies to develop green technologies ranging from solar, biofuels and wind to Internet-controlled irrigation systems.

Mortgage Rates Stabilize
After four straight weeks of rising mortgage rates, tame inflation data announced late last week may have halted the trend. On Wednesday, mortgage rates climbed to the highest levels seen since last July, but they dropped lower late in the week to finish close to where they began the week. As a result, many investors are now hopeful that mortgage rates have peaked, at least in the short term. During this stretch, mortgage rates ended more than one half-point higher than on May 11.

Another notable change last week was that investors began again to respond to incoming domestic economic data to make trading decisions. During the prior four weeks, worldwide investors steadily shifted their portfolios from mortgage securities to investments with higher expected returns. The release of what would ordinarily have been mortgage market friendly US economic reports rarely had much impact, but on Friday, in particular, there was a clear reaction to favorable data. The most watched inflation report of the month, Friday’s Consumer Price Index (CPI), came in a little lower than expected, and mortgage rates immediately dropped. Later that day, Consumer Sentiment also fell below the consensus forecast, and this produced another decline in mortgage rates.

In the housing sector, the Mortgage Bankers Association (MBA) released two reports last week. The first indicated a quarter-point weekly rise in average mortgage rates, measured from Wednesday to Wednesday, accompanied by a surge in both purchase and refinancing activity during that time frame. According to the other report, the delinquency rate for mortgage loans declined marginally during the first quarter of 2007 from the fourth quarter of 2006, while the foreclosure rate rose by a slightly greater amount. The performance varied greatly between different states.
Average 30 yr fixed rate:
Last week: +0.27%
This week: +0.02%
Stocks (weekly):
Dow: 13,645 +291
NASDAQ: 2.624 +59

Week Ahead

Squeezed between two crowded weeks, next week’s schedule of economic events is virtually empty. Tuesday’s report on Housing Starts will provide important information about the health of that sector. Beyond that, two reports which are generally not market movers, the Philly Fed manufacturing index and Leading Indicators, will be released on Thursday. In addition, Fed officials will deliver a final round of speeches before the blackout period leading up to the FOMC meeting on June 28.

Provided By Alamo Title Austin

June 10 - June 16, 2007(compared to the same week in 2006)
New listings up 38.45%.
Pendings up 1.73%
Solds down 10.53%.

As for Average Prices: June 10 - June 16, 2007
The “New Listings” average list price increased 6.45% to $320,296.
Sold average sales price decreased 0.51% to $246,107. In 2006 it was $247,247 for the same week.

May 2007
New listings were down by 11.89%.
Solds increased by 2.55%.

As for Average Prices:
The “New Listings” average list price is up 26.31% to 337,378.
Sold average sales prices increased 7.89% to $245,616 compared to $227,646 in 2006.