I did a little research on rental condos in downtown Austin and wonder if any of you know these places and what do you think? 555 E 5th Residences at the Hilton 901 W 9th The Nokonah 710 Colorado The Brown Building 1212 Guadalupe The Penthouse Condominiums - This one is an older building and looks a little sketchy Anything else I should look at? The rental market looks pretty tight downtown right now so I am also just considering buying something at the bottom end of the market and then flipping it in a year. With all the new construction going on downtown is that a safe play? Thanks in advance, Drew
I've been in the brown Building I think. If it's the one I'm thinking of it's literally next door to the state Capitol on one side and next to the Governor's mansion on the other side. It's an older building but very nice. The 5FiftyFive is pretty new and seems really nice. I know of a couple of Ferrari owners who live there. If you want your cars to be kept in good company, stay there.
My cousin has a condo in Austin, but not sure she would know much about the numbers with it. Her dad mostly helped her with it. I got sick of the apartment thing right out of college and bought a condo up by Addison in 1997. One of the better things I ever did. Condo was 1,200 ft. with split bedrooms and bathrooms. Built in early 80's, but nicer than all the apartments in same price range. Had roommate that was thrilled with paying less than same condition apartment and his rent paid for almost 75% of my mortgage. So I lived in a nicer place for almost no money and didn't have lease contracts to worry about. Sold in 2001 after it appreciated about 30%. The single bedrooms aren't much less than doubles, so if looking for extra money, go for a split bedroom and rent it. With today's prices though, you won't see as much appreciation, condo's also get hit harder in market downturns. There is much risk out there right now.
Appreciate the offer of assistance. Based on what I see in Austin, and Chicago by the way, is that everyone is building luxury condos running $400 to $1000 a square foot. I can't imagine who is going to buy all these million dollar condos. Heck the numbers for Austin are that there are 3,000 residences in the downtown zip code today and close to 10,000 luxury units coming online in the next three to five years. So I am going to resist the urge to buy a nice place and probably just buy into the bottom of the market. I may have to hold my nose a little for the neighborhood but what else can I do? By 2010 there are going to be a lot of great deals in Austin and Chicago. Drew
I'm currently in the market to buy a duplex, been looking around. My realitor and several others are saying that condos are overloading the Austin market, and prices are NOT going to go up much because there are SO many, and they're building more. the general consensus is that condos are not good investment right now. That aside, if you want to live downtown, the whole area west of IH-35 is good, east is getting better. I have a friend at work who has one on the east side, $400K, but they like the access to all the downtown stuff.
I'm sure you'd love the 5fiftyfive residences! As Mike already mentioned, there are several fcars as well as other exotics in that parking garage. Plus, the view from there is unmatched.
I'd pick them in the order you have them listed. Although I don't like Brown Building at all. They are just old lofts and the inside smells like a musty old grandmas house. I like "new", so I'm biased.
Thanks everone. My house hunting trip is delayed till the the first weekend in October so far now I just keep crusing the web.
