single family

Prices for single-family homes have fallen to their lowest level since the housing bubble burst in 2006. The latest S&P/Case-Shiller index for March shows prices dropping in 18 out of 20 major metro areas.

The nationwide index fell for the eighth straight month. A glut of foreclosures is a major reason home values continue to deteriorate.

The average rent for a single family home in Austin for Aug 2010 was $1,569/mo., a 4% increase over last...

(via Austin Property Management Blog)

Permits to build new homes jumped over 10 percent last month, according to new numbers from the Commerce Department on Tuesday.

Much of the growth was in the apartment and condo sectors, up 32 percent from the month before. Construction of single family homes, which makes up the bulk of the housing market, rose at a much more modest rate of 4 percent.

People born and raised in Suffolk County, N.Y., complain about dozens of people living in single-family homes; immigrants complain that they are victimized by locals.

An Ecuadorean day laborer was murdered last year, allegedly by teenagers who said they regularly looked for immigrants to bash.

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While I'm on the subject of duplexes, Austin has always struck me as having an unusually large number of duplexes.  I finally got around to looking up the numbers.  Duplex units make up 5.3% of Austin's housing stock.  By comparison, they make up just 1.8% of Houston's stock, 1.7% of Dallas's stock, and 2.2% of San Antonio's stock.*  Austin thus has more than three times as many duplexes as Houston or Dallas (relative to the total housing stock), and more than twice as many as San Antonio.

Why?

I'm no

Allandale along with several other neighborhoods were recently added tot he City's Restricted Parking Area Map which "prohibits the parking of motorized vehicles in the front and side yard of single-family residences, except in a driveway or paved parking space."...