Speculating
Austin is named as one of five hot markets in real-estate speculation. The cover story of the Fortune magazine now on the stands (May 30, 2005) is “Real Estate Gold Rush: Inside the Hot-Money World of Housing Speculators, Condo Flippers, and Get-Rich-Quick Schemers.”
When anti-speculation measures went into effect in California, the action moved to Las Vegas and then on to the Phoenix area. According to this article, now it’s Austin’s turn.
The author accompanies a two-vehicle convoy of potential real-estate speculators. The pitch for Austin, when compared with Dallas and San Antonio, also on the tour for out-of-state people with money in their pockets, is “a little thing called quality of life.”
It looks like the entire article is available (no subscription required) here. Those with high blood pressure might want to avoid reading the description of the blood-suckers (both investor and realtor types) “helping” transform Austin into an over-priced real estate boondoggle in the making.