The often outspoken owner says it’s not the last we’ll see of him. After having run in the past for both mayor and lieutenant governor, I believe him. But unfortunately, I’m afraid his next venture might not be in the restaurant industry at all, especially considering all of the ups and downs he’s experienced as business owner. Katz has filed for bankruptcy multiple times (most recently in July) and as well owes several thousand in back taxes.

Despite whatever poor business practices may have ultimately led to the decline of my former favorite West Sixth Street restaurant, there remains a beacon of hope for those of us willing to travel. Barry Katz, Marc’s son, is still operating the hugely popular (and hopefully hugely successful) Katz’s Deli in the Montrose area of Houston. So if you’re craving a reuben and cheescake shake – my absolute two favorites – then it’s time to come up with a reason to visit the Bayou City.

Legislative leaders of the proposition, backed by Comptroller Susan Combs, claim that writing out the requirement (in place since 1984) would save hundreds of millions of dollars and give the school districts “more flexibility” in education. But at who’s expense?

Well, there are several right answers here. For one, the change would cause the loss of as many as 12,000 teaching jobs, according to teachers groups backed by Democrats in the House and Senate. It’s no secret that a rise in unemployment only has the potential to further damage the economy (which is already part of the reason the budget is in such bad shape). Not to mention the fact that larger classrooms would only mean that students would receive less individualized attention and support – a factor I personally believe is quite important to students who are just beginning their educational development.

Regardless of the outcome and it’s potential effects,  there’s one thing that’s for sure – expect heated debates in the state Congress this week.

Check on Liens

If the owner of the home has defaulted on the home mortgage loan, chances are good that there are liens on it as well. Therefore, you should be sure to find out if there are any liens from unpaid tax bills, repairs, association fees or any other organization that might have put liens on the property. Having liens doesn’t necessarily mean you shouldn’t purchase the property, but you need to keep these liens in mind when determining whether or not you are really getting a good deal.

Procedural Differences

Purchasing a foreclosed property involves following different procedures from the standard home purchase. As such, you don’t enjoy the same safeguards and other protections that are found with a regular home purchase. Furthermore, the purchasing process is different with foreclosed properties. In fact, in many case, you will need to have proof of financing as well as 5 to 15 percent of the purchase price to provide as a deposit. Therefore, you need to be prepared to come up with a significant amount of money within a short period of time if you plan to purchase a foreclosed property.

Dealing with Unwanted Tenants

In some cases, the previous occupants of foreclosed properties will be reluctant to leave. In this case, you might have to go through the trouble of evicting them. While the law will be on your side in this situation, it can be a very stressful experience.

The Condition of the Property

While there are plenty of foreclosed properties that are in great shape, some are in less than desirable condition. In fact, some previous owners will purposely damage the home simply out of spite. Since the properties are generally sold “as is,” you could potentially find yourself in a bad situation when purchasing a foreclosed property. To protect yourself from this possibility, you should be sure to get a thorough inspection of the property before you make a purchase.

Foreclosed Property Listings Can Be Found in Many Places

The best way to find out about available foreclosures is to contact a Broker or Realtor, but you can also obtain lists of foreclosures from a variety of different sources. These include the REO departments of various banks, the US Marshall’s Office, the VA and the IRS. If you wish to purchase a HUD foreclosure, however, you will need to go through a Broker.

About the Author: Brian Kinkade is a broker and team lead with Brokers Guild – Cherry Creek Ltd, one of Denver’s fastest growing full service Denver real estate firm. Brian’s team of Internet savvy agents service the Denver Metro area while specializing in Denver luxury homes, Colorado horse property and International sales. They invite you to visit their advanced real estate website today to search for homes, gather local information, and learn about Denver neighborhoods. Brian and his team are standing by and ready to assist with your home purchase, property sale or relocation needs.

Fortunately, there are a number of economical green home improvements you can pursue:

•    Caulk your exterior doors and windows. This is as simple and inexpensive as it sounds. Simply adding some caulk around your doors and windows that lead outside can limit the amount of draft that you get inside. The caulk itself is relatively inexpensive, and you’re likely to see improvements in your home’s energy efficiency almost immediately. Alternatively, you can add door or window weather stripping along with your caulking.

•    Switch out your bulbs. Unless you’ve been hiding under a rock, you know that CFL bulbs use less energy. Yes, they’re more expensive, but they last much longer than traditional bulbs, as well. Your cost is probably going to be a wash, and in the meantime you’re still greening your home.

•    Insulate your hot water heater. Using a purpose-made insulating blanket for your hot water heater will greatly reduce the cost of heating water in your home. It means that the tank has to reheat its water much less frequently. Alternatively, you can consider using a tankless hot water heater (although this is going to be much more expensive, of course).

•    Add insulation to your attic. Most attics are terribly underinsulated. The fact of the matter is that the attic is a major source of heat loss. When the warm air from your home hits the upper level of the house, it can get out through the attic. Make sure your attic is insulated to at least an R-49 rating.

•    Replace your toilets. Installing a low-flow toilet is reasonably expensive, and it will use about a third of the water that your old toilet uses. A family of four will use about 34,000 fewer gallons each year when compared to the old style toilets.

About the Author: Brian Kinkade is a broker and team lead with Brokers Guild – Cherry Creek Ltd, one of Denver’s fastest growing full service Denver real estate firm. Brian’s team of Internet savvy agents service the Denver Metro area while specializing in Denver luxury homes, Colorado horse property and International sales. They invite you to visit their advanced real estate website today to search for homes, gather local information, and learn about Denver neighborhoods. Brian and his team are standing by and ready to assist with your home purchase, property sale or relocation needs.

“I think this report shows there is life for Austin real estate after tax credits,” said John Horton, who is the chairman of the Austin Board of Realtors. “Sales volume was down only 4 percent compared to June 2009, which was last summer’s peak month.”

Horton further reported that that the average time it took to sell a home went down once again in June, which is the sixth month in a row the Austin area has experienced this positive trend. When compared to June of last year, the time homes spent on the market fell by 14 percent. In addition, while the volume of homes sold did decrease, the median price of the homes sold in June 2010 grew by 4% when compared to June of the previous year. The total dollar volume of properties sold also increased by 6 percent to $554 million, a phenomenon that is largely contributed to the fact that there was a larger demand for higher priced homes.

“The federal tax credits were most successful in getting first-time homebuyers into the real estate market, with most purchasing ‘entry-level’ homes,” said Horton. “This helped existing homeowners purchase ‘move up’ homes, which in turn helped spur activity in higher price ranges.”

Pending sales did decrease by 23% when comparing June 2010 to June 2009, but new listings went up by 2 percent during this same time period. Furthermore, active listings went up by 16 percent.

Although the federal first time homebuyer tax credit has expired, those interested in purchasing a home in Texas may still be able to take advantage of the $500 million Bond 77 program that was launched by the Texas Department of Housing and Community Affairs in May. Through this program, eligible first-time homebuyers can obtain mortgage loan assistance. For example, Texas homebuyers may be able to use the program to help them obtain a lower interest rate or they may be able to receive assistance with making a down payment.

“It appears that we are seeing some stabilization and the office market is turning the corner,” said Rick Whitely, who is a partner at Oxford Commercial, in a recent Austin Biz Journals article. “Most of all new construction has come online already so the vacancy rate should stabilize more easily.”

The Central Business District within the downtown area is showing particular promise, as its direct vacancy rate has now fallen for the third straight quarter in a row. In fact, during the fourth quarter of 2010, the rate was at 15.05%, but it fell to 14.98% during the first quarter of 2010 and then to 14.53% in the second quarter.

The retail market is also showing promise, with the Austin retail market being the only major Texas metro to show an increase in its retail occupancy rates during the first half of 2010. At the end of 2009, the retail market was reporting an occupancy rate of 91.5%. By the middle of 2010, the rate was just under 92%.

“While the increase remained small, it was still positive, thanks in part to the continued absorption of major vacancies on the market, as well as a major new project that opened substantially leased,” said Ian Pierce, who is a spokesman for Weitzman.

The largest vacancies within the Austin market were reportedly caused by the failure of the national chain Circuit City, which occurred in 2009, as well as the 2008 failure of national chains Shoe Pavilion and Linens ‘n Things. Many of these retail spaces, however, are now being re-used or have been backfilled. Furthermore, the capital city is on track to add another 600,000 square feet of new retail space in 2010. Most of the new space will be developed in phases and are part of projects that have already been set into motion, such as those involving the relocation or expansion of existing retailers. This still falls short of previous growth, such as the 2.8 million square feet that was added in 2008 and the 1.4 million square feet that was added in 2009.

While Austin certainly has earned its bragging rights when it comes to being a great city for young professionals, the city still has room for improvement in terms of its volunteer rates. In fact, according to a report released by the Corporation for National Community Service, the Austin-Round Rock area ranked number 36 out of 51 metro areas when it came to the volunteer rates of large cities. When it came to Baby Boomer volunteers, Austin ranked number 14 out of 51 cities, but the city came in the number 40 position when it came to the volunteer rates of young adults and teenagers. In all, just 25.3% of the city’s residents volunteered for a total of about $885.5 million worth of volunteer services being provided from 2007 through 2009.

Although researchers aren’t certain why Austin has such low volunteer rates, one theory is that the lower homeowner’s rate may be a contributing factor. With the national homeowner’s rate being 66.6% compared to the 60.6% rate in Austin, this is certainly one possible explanation. On the other hand, Austin has a lower-than-average poverty and unemployment rate as well as a higher-than-average education rate, both of which tend to be associated with higher volunteer rates.
According to the results of the report, Austin appears to be following the dominant trend found throughout the state of Texas. In fact, Austin has the second highest volunteer rate when compared to other metropolitan areas in Texas. Dallas, which took the number 19 spot, has the highest ranking in Texas, while Houston and San Antonio tied for 40th and San Antonio took the 46th position. As a whole, the state of Texas took the number 40 position.

In all, $2 billion was set aside by the stimulus package for use with federally-qualified health centers, with Lone Star Circle of Care receiving $3 million and the Texas Association of Community Health Centers receiving $983,000. Both organizations will be using the funds to help purchase equipment as well as to train and hire staff in the use of new technology.
Dell Inc is also taking steps to participate in the electronic medical record movement. In fact, Austin Biz Journals reports that Dell is partnering with San Francisco-based electronic medical record company, Practice Fusion, in an effort to improve medical electronic communication.

Currently, Practice Fusion provides a free electronic medical record service to approximately 40,000 doctors and health care providers. Dell has made plans to offer the product to small and mid-sized primary care practices that are interesting in installing digital records. The new bundle will combine the Web-based electronic medical records developed by Practice Fusion with the suite of health record hardware that Dell has already developed. The bundle will include desktop and laptop computers as well as specialized scanners, broadband hardware and printers. According to Dell and Practice Fusion, the bundle will make it possible for health care providers to replace their paper systems with electronic scheduling and charting while also making it possible for them to fill prescriptions and lab orders electronically.

In related news, Dell also formed a partnership with the American Medical Association. Through this partnership, Dell will supply hardware support and hardware to health care practices using the new electronic medical records platform established by the AMA.

It is because of partnerships such as this one that Dell, which currently employs about 16,000 people in Central Texas, was recently named the number one health care information technology services provider in the world by Gartner Inc.

This isn’t the only green initiative currently underway, however, as four locations in Austin were also recently chosen to pilot a sustainable landscape rating program as well. The program, which was launched in 2005 in partnership with the American Society of Landscape Architects, United States Botanic Garden, and the University of Texas’ Lady Bird Johnson Wildflower Center, was created in an effort to fill the gap that exists between green construction, design and maintenance.

A number of voluntary guidelines, which serve as performance benchmarks, are in place for this initiative. Areas which are addressed within these guidelines when it comes to creating, constructing and maintaining sustainable landscapes include:
• Water usage
• Soil
• Vegetation
• Materials
• Human health and well-being
• Construction and maintenance

Those sites participating in the program will receive star ratings according to their performance in each of these areas. Yet, despite the rigid standards that are set for those participating in the program, competition to participate in the program was quite tough among businesses and agencies around the country.

“We received hundreds of applications from an impressive array of federal agencies, international companies, major universities and non-profit organizations, among many others, to participate in the pilot program,” said Nancy Somerville, who is the vice president and CEO of the American Society of Landscape Architects. “The selected projects represent an elite group covering a diverse range of size, project type and geographic location.”

In the end, only 150 businesses, universities, agencies and organizations were chosen to participate. Those Austin locations that were selected to participate in the project include the National Instruments headquarters, the Austin Children’s Center, the city of Austin’s Rutherford Lane Campus and the Walmart Four Points. Blue Hole Regional Park in Wimberley was also selected to participate in the program.

According to the figures recently released by RealtyTrac, which is a private marketer of foreclosure properties, one in every 593 properties in the Austin area are either in foreclosure or are in danger of being foreclosed upon in April. These figures represent a 45% increase when compared to the figures from one year ago.

In all, RealtyTrac found that 1,109 homes were either foreclosed upon, in default or scheduled for Austin in Apri. This is a 1.6% decrease when compared to March, at which time 1,127 homes were foreclosed upon. In addition, Austin still comes in at number 115 out of 203 areas with the highest foreclosure rates that RealtyTrac keeps track of.

Overall, the state of Texas is doing better than other states when it comes to avoiding foreclosures. According to reports from April, 1 in 731 homes in the state received a foreclosure filing. On the national level, on the other hand, 1 in 387 homes have received a filing. In all, 333,837 foreclosure filings were reported throughout the country in April. While these are still large figures, this does represent a 9% decrease when compared to March of this year and a 2% decrease when compared to April of 2009.

According to James J. Saccacio, who is the CEO of RealtyTrac, these figures offer hope that foreclosure activity has started to plateau.

“April was the first month in the history of our report with an annual decrease in U.S. foreclosure activity,” said Saccacio. “Secondly, bank repossessions, or REOs, hit a record monthly high for the report even while default notices dropped substantially on a monthly and annual basis. We expect a similar pattern to continue for most of this year, with the overall numbers staying at a high level and ripples of activity hitting the various stages of the foreclosure process as lenders systematically work through the backlog of distressed properties.”

As things even out throughout the country, Austin residents can take confort in knowing that things are looking pretty stable within the area’s housing market. In fact, Austin still remains among the top markets expected to bounce back quickly from the recession.