Austin Among Cities on Best Places to Retire List

CNNMoney.com - Best Places to Retire List

Best Places to Retire

by Sarah Max and Amanda Gengler

Your post-work years are a time to improve your golf game, take up a new hobby, or just enjoy a well-deserved break. In these great college towns, you can expand your intellectual horizons too.

by Sarah Max and Amanda Gengler

Your post-work years are a time to improve your golf game, take up a new

Before Mike and Susie Bahnaman decided where to retire, they came up with their priorities: a nearby beach, mountains, and a new course catalog every semester. "We liked the idea of being able to learn about things we didn't have a chance to study while we worked," says Mike, who retired from Dow Chemical six years ago. Now the couple, both 59, bone up on everything from history to art at Duke University—and enjoy season tickets to the women’s basketball games. Like Duke, hundreds of schools welcome retirees back, providing access to university facilities, discounts at campus events, and the chance to take classes with fellow retirees. Many of these programs bear the name of the Bernard Osher Foundation, which funds 120 institutions in 50 states. For this year’s edition of Best Places to Retire, MONEY identified towns with notable lifelong-learning programs, as well as other attributes that retirees can appreciate, from low taxes to a!ordable housing to high-quality health care. In all of these places, you can enjoy the traditional trappings of retirement, be it warm weather or water views, and savor a rich intellectual environment too.

9. Austin, TX

Population: 799,267 % over 50: 22% Median home price: $196,600 Where to take classes: University of Texas at Austin Known widely for its burgeoning music and film scene, Austin is the cultural and literal capital of Texas. Music can be heard everywhere come October, when the Austin City Limits takes over the 46-acre Zilker Park along the banks of the rambling Colorado River. The three-year-old Long Center for Performing Arts, which is home to opera, symphony and ballet, has also become a cultural staple of Austin. If you'd rather perform than watch, you can waltz right into the Austin International Folk Dancers, a nonprofit that has been teaching cultural dance to Austinites for more than 50 years. While dance will keep your heart pumping, continuing education programs at University of Texas at Austin can keep your mind sharp. In addition to enrichment classes through its lifelong education program, the university offers a worldly "Road Scholar" travel educational odyssey for retirees. Photo courtesy of ACVB/Jean-Michel Dufaux

AOL Ranks Port Aransas Top US Beach Destination!

It's nice to see people say what we've known for years!

6. Mustang Island, Port Aransas, Texas
This 18-mile-long barrier island, connected by a causeway and 24-hour ferry to Corpus Christi, offers wildlife and wild life at party-hearty Port Aransas. Trolleys ply the historic honkytonk town, filled with down-home pubs and upscale galleries. Wide bay- and Gulf-side beaches, lined with dunes, seafood shanties and marinas, hikers, seashell collectors, and sandcastle architects (100,000 spectators ogle hundreds of entries at SandFest, the nation's largest sand-sculpting competition, every April). Aquatic activities abound: surfing waves off the jetty, kite-boarding off protected sandbars, casting for trophy tuna and tarpon. Tournaments lure international competitors, who spin tales of the ones that got away in fun funky bars. More than 500 bird species vacation here, dolphin frolic in the channel, and coyote roam Mustang Island State Park.

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August West Austin Luxury Comps...

(Area defined by: North of 35th St., Lake Austin, 2222 & MO-Pac)

-As we discussed last time, activity in the luxury home market in Northern 1B has been significant. Throughout the summer much of the activity in has been in the entry luxury price range and the ultra luxury bracket with more sluggish sales just under $1 Million. Last month 2 ultra luxury homes were under contract. One of these homes closed ($2.2 mil sold for $1.9+ cash) and the other fell off ($1.4 mil). Notably a $2.4 Million waterfront home on Tortuga Trail went under contract this past month. The home is a tear-down and the price reflects its 2+ acres and main body Lake Austin frontage.

There are currently 35 luxury homes available in this area with 4 others currently under contract. During the month of August 7 luxury properties sold, yielding a one month absorption figure of 5 months of inventory, which is very positive. Over the last 3 months 17 luxury homes have sold. At this rate of absorption there is 6.176 months worth of inventory and very close to market equilibrium, down from 7.615 in July. The 4 pending homes signify slower activity, and anticipate activity to be down from last month.

Last month 6 new listings hit the market and pending sales are down from 8 to 4. Even so, we are pleased to see inventory levels in this area have decreased and are near equilibrium. This are is still posting solid activity in the entry level luxury market and the ultra luxury tier. Although, the inventory level of ultra luxury property has increased recently. Currently 46% (16) of the homes available in this area are priced over $1 million and of these homes 8 are listed for more than $3 million.

Final Thoughts: The activity below $1 million has been solid and accounts for the majority of the sales. We are still seeing strong signs in the ultra luxury market as one property sold for more than $1.9 million last month and another is currently under contract. I anticipate the activity under a million will continue to be solid, but the increase in ultra luxury home inventory could make it more difficult to find a real buyer.

Thanks,

Marcus P. Cox
Co-Owner Avalar Austin
Realtor®, ABR, GREEN, GRI, TRLP
Austin Board of Realtors Board of Directors 2010-2012
512.921.3111