Barton Creek Landing undergoing $8.8M upgrade

The 250-unit Barton Creek Landing residential complex will soon unveil about $8.8 million worth in renovations.

Denver, Colo.-based UDR purchased the Southwest Austin complex in 2002 for $17.4 million and recently began refurbishing the building constructed in 1986. The project is expected to finish sometime in the third quarter.

The construction includes a new club house, gym, pool and entertainment room. Also, the exterior of the apartments at 2800 Bartons Bluff Lane will be completely refinished. Rents range from about $906 a month to about $1,177 and the building is about 96.4 percent leased.

UDR at the same time reported its first quarter earnings. Its net income hit $46.8 million, or 28 cents per diluted share, for the quarter ended March 31, versus $55 million, or 35 cents per diluted share the same three months a year before.

The company attributed the variance to a $7.1 million record gain in the first quarter last year, which was associated with the repurchase of $160 million unsecured debt at a discount.

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Forestar Group net loss falls to $3M in Q1 Read more: Forestar Group net loss falls to $3M in Q1

Austin-based Forestar Group Inc. improved finances in the first quarter, though still posted a $3 million net loss compared with a $3.9 million negative the same three months last year.

“Our first quarter results reflect current market conditions for our business,” Forestar President and CEO Jim DeCosmo said.

“Although we are encouraged many elements of the economy have stabilized or improved, we remain cautious as job growth has yet to materialize - a critical component of demand for our real estate and natural resources.”

The real estate and mineral resources company lost about 8 cents per basic share during the first quarter, compared with 11 cents during the same quarter last year. Total revenues fell to $26.4 million from about $29.1 million the first quarter 2009.

Forestar's real estate division owns about 249,000 acres of land in nine states either directly or through ventures. The company also owns 25 percent interest in the Palisades West office park in Austin, 59 percent interest in Las Brisas apartments in Austin and 100 percent of the Radisson Hotel in Austin. Its mineral resources cover about 620,000 net acres of oil and gas interests located, primarily in Texas, Louisiana, Alabama and Georgia.

The company was formed as a spin-off of Temple-Inland Inc. (NYSE: TIN) in 2008 and has about 93 employees.

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Texas housing market continues recovery in 2010-Q1 according to Texas Quarterly Housing Report

Stable home prices and increased sales volume show market strength

May 3, 2010 – AUSTIN – The latest Texas Quarterly Housing Report, released today, shows statewide increases in both sales volume and price. Texas sales volume for existing single-family homes was 42,682 for the first quarter of this year, up four percent from the first quarter of last year. The median home price in Texas jumped from $137,200 in first quarter 2009 to $141,500 in 2010, a 3.13 percent increase.

The Texas Quarterly Housing Report is issued four times a year by the Texas Association of Realtors with multiple listing service (MLS) data compiled and analyzed by the Real Estate Center at Texas A&M University . “First quarter 2010 figures were up compared to 2009, despite sales being down in January and February,” said Jim Gaines, Ph.D., an economist with the center. Gaines noted that the positive year-over-year gain was due solely to significant March sales being strong enough to bring up the whole quarter. “With March’s increased figures we are cautiously optimistic that we’ll continue to see positive results in the second quarter,” he said.

According to Gaines, several local MLSs reported a larger percentage of sales coming from foreclosed properties. But he added that Texas has maintained a near-balanced market of 6.8 months of inventory, statistically unchanged from 2009. In addition, the market is showing strength by maintaining property values, indicating the market is absorbing the foreclosed properties and not experiencing an excess of supply.

“We are seeing gradual improvement in the Texas housing market and managing our foreclosure rates well compared to national rates,” Gaines said. “Other states, such asCalifornia and Florida , are seeing significant foreclosure increases due to high unemployment rates in combination with exotic mortgage-financing options such as option ARMs. Texas is not experiencing the same levels of pressure in these areas.”

Bill Jones, chairman of the Texas Association of Realtors, sees a correlation. “For more than a decade, our state’s home-equity lending laws have provided Texas homeowners with some of the strongest consumer protections in the nation,” Jones said. “And that’s one reason we’ve been able to avoid drastic foreclosure increases compared to other states.”

The Texas Association of Realtors played a pivotal role in getting these consumer protections passed in 1997 when the Texas Legislature was considering home-equity-lending legislation. Texas Realtors lobbied for and won several consumer lending protections for homeowners. The most important of these protections is that homeowners can only borrow a maximum of 80 percent of their appraised home value.

Chairman Jones continued, “Many of the states facing the highest foreclosure rates and largest drops in real estate values are the same states that allow homeowners to borrow 100 percent or more of their home value. Over time, Texas has maintained relatively low mortgage foreclosure and default rates as a result of these consumer lending protections.”