Austin's Broken Spoke takes big step closer to historic landmark status "The Broken Spoke, the popular and iconic South Austin honky-tonk established in 1964, on Thursday boot-scooted even further into local legend. Austin City Council approved a resolution initiating historic zoning for the dancehall in order to 'provide permanent protection to the structure and the operations of the venue.'" (Hannah Ortega and Eric Webb, Austin American-Statesman)
Congress Avenue’s First Residential Tower Plan in Years Takes Shape, Maybe "A plan to construct a 55-story tower containing multifamily residences behind historic storefronts on Congress Avenue would be the first new residential building on the so-called Main Street of Texas since the completion of the Austonian condos in 2010 — but the proposal faces scrutiny from the city’s Historic Landmark Commission due to this important downtown corridor’s many protections and design restrictions." (James Rambin, Towers)
Taller commercial buildings cleared to rise in EastVillage neighborhood being built near Samsung "Taller commercial buildings are set to rise in a large North Austin neighborhood under construction. New York-based developer Reger Holdings LLC has permission to build bigger within the $1 billion, 425-acre EastVillage, after Austin City Council on Oct. 27 approved a zoning change." (Mike Christen, Austin Business Journal)
Effort to designate West Austin house historic fails at Council "At its regular meeting last week, City Council did not pass an item that would have designated West Austin’s Delisle House a historic landmark. Before the vote, Mayor Steve Adler explained that the measure would need a nine-vote supermajority to pass on all three readings. The final vote was 3-7-1, so the measure did not pass." (Nina Hernandez, Austin Monitor)
CBRE to cut $400M largely through job cuts "CBRE Group Inc. is trying to slash costs by $400 million, mainly through job cuts, though it is not clear how the plan will affect the real estate firm's sizable Austin office. In third-quarter earnings, Dallas-based CBRE said $300 million worth of reductions would be permanent and largely affect headcount, with company officials planning to act on $175 million in targeted costs by the end of the year." (Cody Baird, Austin Monitor)
Homes in Austin’s white neighborhoods are valued much higher than ones in communities of color "People of color in Austin can expect their homes to be worth nearly three times less than homes owned by white residents, according to a new report. Researchers with Washington University in St. Louis and the University of Illinois-Chicago found that while the average appraised value of a home in a white neighborhood in Austin is $873,758, a similar home in a community of color is valued at $318,496." (Audrey McGlinchy, KUT 90.5)
Foreign buyers still snapping up Austin-area homes, new report finds "From April of 2021 to March of 2022, buyers from other countries pumped $613 million in sales into the Austin region’s economy, according to the 2022 Central Texas International Homebuyers Report from the Austin Board of Realtors. That was a 3.3% decline from the previous 12 months, when international homebuyers generated $634 million in sales in Central Texas." (Shonda Novak, Austin American-Statesman)
Nation’s Real Estate Pros Say Austin’s Still Pretty Hot "Austin continues its run in the Top 5 hottest markets in the country, according to the 2023 edition of Emerging Trends in Real Estate, a closely watched annual report on the state of the industry by the Urban Land Institute and PricewaterhouseCoopers." (Mike Clark-Madison, Austin Chronicle)
