We live in challenging times. Unemployment remains high, and the U.S. lead in technology and science is slipping as many foreign countries gain ground. But some U.S. cities, though slowed by the Great Recession, still thrive by lifting good old American innovation to new levels. And that will help put more Americans back to work and keep our international edge.
In Kiplinger’s latest search for top cities, we focused on places that specialize in out-of-the-box thinking. “New ideas generate new businesses,” says Kevin Stolarick, our numbers guru, who this year evaluated U.S. cities for growth and growth potential. Stolarick is research director at the Martin Prosperity Institute, a think tank that studies economic prosperity. “In the places where innovation works, it really works,” he says.
Next time you’re shopping for a new property, keep the following factors regarding location in mind.
Centrality
What part of a city you choose to live in will drastically affect how much you pay for your home. Land is a finite commodity, so cities that are highly developed and are bound from large amounts of additional growth tend to have higher prices than cities that have too much room to expand. When sprawling cities experience a population exodus, it’s the outlying areas that tend to suffer the most severe declines in property value.
Neighborhood
Neighborhoods tend to be a matter of personal choice. However, a truly great neighborhood will have a few key factors: accessibility, appearance and amenities. Your neighborhood may also dictate the size of the lot on which your house is built.
Regarding accessibility, you should look for a neighborhood that is situated near your city’s major routes and that has more than one point of entry. Commuting to and from work is a big part of many people’s day, so a house with easy access will be more desirable than one that is tucked away and can only be accessed by one route.
The appearance of the neighborhood is also important. Large trees, landscaping and nearby green or community spaces tend to be desirable. You can also judge the popularity of the neighborhood based on how long homes in that area tend to stay on the market; if turnover is quick, you’re not the only one who thinks this is a desirable place to live.
A great neighborhood should also include important amenities such as grocery stores, shops and restaurants. Most people like to frequent places that are convenient – if you need to drive a great distance to get to anything, this is likely to make your house less attractive. The distance from and quality of local schools also play a huge role.
Development
It’s not just present amenities that matter, but future ones as well. Plans for schools, hospitals, public transportation or other public infrastructure can dramatically improve property values in the area. Commercial development can also improve property value. When you’re shopping for a home, try to find out whether any new public, commercial or residential developments are planned and consider how these additions might affect the desirability of the surrounding areas.
Lot Location
The next thing you need to consider is where the house is actually located. In this instance, there are a few things you should watch out for.
For example, if your home is on a busy road, you will probably get it for a lower price, but it will also be more difficult to sell down the road. The same may hold true for houses that stand next to or back onto commercial property, such as a grocery store or gas station, or houses on streets that get an unusual amount of parking traffic and parked cars, such as those near large churches or community centers. This is why a large number of such homes are rentals.
The House Doesn’t Matter
Suppose that you have narrowed your choices to two homes that stand side by side in a great neighborhood. One needs repairs and updates, but has a huge lot. The other is in tip-top shape but sits on a lot half the size. The prices of the two homes are similar. Which do you choose? This is one aspect of house hunting that surprises a lot of people (except for maybe real estate investors). In most cases, the beat up house is the better investment.
Why? Your house is a depreciating asset. The lot, on the other hand, will maintain its value (or likely appreciate) relative to the house. If you bulldozed both houses, the larger lot would sell for more. So, if you can, choose a bigger, better shaped or better situated lot over a nicer house. A less attractive house can always be updated, added on to or replaced altogether while the lot can’t be changed.
Here’s some good news for the struggling US housing market: Thanks to the European debt crisis, mortgage rates are at historic lows.
The current average rate for a 30 year fixed loan is 4.87 percent, according to Bankrate.com. That’s the lowest rate for the 30 years since Bankrate started keeping track 25 years ago.
Even jumbo loan rates-loans for more than $417,000-have fallen. The 30-year fixed jumbo loan is at an average rate of 4.5 percent, down from nearly 6 percent at this time last year.
“It’s the best time in our generation to buy,” says Mark Zandi, chief economist at Moody’s. “It may be the best time in any generation. Mortgage rates are so low and with homes prices down and lots of inventory, you couldn’t pick a better time to buy or re-finance.”
Offered at $550,000, this home sits on a huge lot (~.3 acres) with mature trees in Hyde Park Area. The main house has 3 bedrooms 2 baths and a 2 Car Garage. The 2nd house has 2 bedrooms, 2 bathrooms and 1 car carport with 47th street frontage. Windows everywhere provide great natural light. Solid hardwood floors and A white picket fence round out the cozy detail. The central location provides walkable restaurants, shops & the UT bus line.
Those ubiquitous white-and-blue Smart cars in the City of Austin’s nascent car-sharing program have spent a lot more time parked than rolling around Central Austin, based on statistics from the first three months of this year.
general public, officials said Tuesday, soon will get a chance to get behind the wheel of the tiny two-seat cars.
The 125 cars in the stable provided for city employee use by car2go, a Daimler AG subsidiary, have been “leased” about 118 times each weekday since Jan. 1, meaning that on average, each car has been taken out once a day. The average time of usage has been about 71 minutes. The city, under a pilot program that began in November, does not actually pay Daimler when its workers use the cars on municipal business, so the statistics do not reflect what usage might be if there were money involved.
Austin could land a solar panel manufacturing plant and a local office for the Facebook social networking service, projects that together could bring 500 jobs within the next few years, city and state officials said Thursday.
Facebook Inc. plans to create a 200-employee sales and operations center in Austin, and Yingli Green Energy Americas Inc. is considering Austin and Phoenix, Ariz., for a large solar panel manufacturing plant and its North American headquarters.
Capital Metro plans to resume full-speed commuter rail testing next week, in preparation for a March launch of the much-delayed Red Line, an agency official said Monday.
Federal railroad inspectors will be on the scene next week and likely will stay until the line opens to the public.
“These are not showstoppers,” said Elaine Timbes , an executive vice president with the agency and overseer of the rail project. “These are just things they want to observe.”
1 Buying an efficient air conditioner or furnace will automatically reduce my energy bill.
This is true to some extent, but you won’t realize all the possible savings if the equipment is not sized or installed properly. Studies have shown that typical air conditioner and duct systems are improperly installed, wasting 1/3 or more of the energy used by the air conditioner. New and replacement equipment (and ducts) need to be properly designed and installed to realize all the possible savings. The same caveats about proper installation hold true for insulation, windows and many other energy-efficiency upgrades.
2 Duct tape is good for sealing ducts.
Unfortunately, laboratory research has concluded that duct tape has very low durability when used to seal ducts. On new installations, tape may fall off due to poor surface preparation, because ducts are installed in dirty and dusty locations and conditions. On older systems, the tape falls off as it ages and the adhesive dries out and tends to wrinkle.
3 When my appliance is turned off, it is off.
In fact, we’ve found that most devices continue to consume power when they’re switched off, sometimes as much power as when they’re on!
4 Cleaning refrigerator coils saves energy.
While this seems intuitively logical, and very small savings may indeed arise, the few efforts to actually measure this effect have typically come up empty-handed. This is a classic example of a widely held belief based on assumptions rather than measurements.
5 Dimming my incandescent lights by 50% will cut my lighting bill in half.
Actually, the relationship is not linear and savings will be less than expected. As the voltage drops, the filament cools, the wavelength spectrum of the light output shifts further in to the infra-red, and efficacy thus suffers. Interestingly, fluorescent dimming is more linear and the savings for dimming are proportionately higher.
6 Turning up (down) the thermostat will make your home get warm (cool) faster.
It’s tempting to think of a thermostat like a water tap, i.e. the wider you open it the more water (heat/cool) will come out. In reality, it works more like a light switch in that if it’s “on” the same amount of light (heat/cool) will come out.
7 Installing foam gaskets in electrical outlets will significantly reduce air leakage.
Measurements have shown that less than 1% of a home’s air leakage is due to outlets.
8 Leaving lights, computers, and other appliances on uses less energy than turning them off and makes them last longer.
The small surge of power created when some devices are turned on is vastly smaller than the energy used by running the device when it’s not needed. While it used to be the case that cycling appliances and lighting on and off drastically reduced their useful lifetimes, these problems have been largely overcome through better design.
9 Fluorescent lighting is unhealthy.
Fluorescent lighting has changed dramatically in the last few years. Today’s fluorescents have greatly improved color quality. And the annoying flicker and hum have been eliminated from fluorescents that use electronic ballasts. Because they require less electricity, fluorescents generate less power plant pollution, emissions which have many known health effects. Fluorescent lights also contain small amounts of mercury and should be disposed of properly. However, additional mercury releases are avoided thanks to reduced use of mercury-containing fossil fuels used to generate electricity. If it’s been a while since you tried fluorescent lights, you might give them another chance.
10 Electric heating is more efficient than fuel-based heating.
It’s true that all, or almost all, of the electricity that goes into an electric heater is transformed to useful heat in your home. However, making electricity is an inefficient process, with as much as two-thirds of the input energy (coal, natural gas, etc.) being lost in the process. This is why electricity is so much more expensive for the consumer than direct fuels.
February 28th, a Beverly Hills, Calif.-based firm will auction 27 units in the Sabine on Fifth, a downtown condominium project whose future until recently had been clouded by a lawsuit and a foreclosure action. The auction is one of several that have taken place in Austin to allow some developers to quickly sell their remaining units in a slower real estate market.
Formerly an office building, the Sabine is a 10-story tower at East Fifth and Sabine streets that CWS Capital Partners converted into condominiums in 2007.
