Employing a two-page spread in yesterday’s Wall Street Journal (page D6, “Austin Luxury Properties,” prose byline Meta L. Levin) and plenty of quotes from local luminaries Charles Heimsath, Charles Betts, and our mayor, a certain sector of the Austin real-estate market was presented to a national audience in promotional prose and in display ads.

The promotional copy makes repeated references to Lady Bird Johnson Lake and includes two sections: “A Downtown Residential Renaissance” and “‘Live Music Capital’ Offers a Mix of Sounds.” In the second, Country & Western” were honored by upper-case letters, but rock, blues, jazz, and classical music were not. In the first, an entire paragraph is devoted to the residential preferences of our current mayor:

“In 2003, Mayor Wynn moved into a 2,476-square-foot, two-bedroom condominium apartment in towers–Austin City Lofts, 14 stories high, with prices ranging from $250,000 for an 870-square-foot, one-bdroom apartment to $1.5 million for a 3,100-square-foot, two-story loft home. From his seventh-floor apartment, the major can see the Capitol Building dome, the outskirts of Texas Hill Country and Austin’s gowing downtown skyline. A strong proponent of sustainable architecture and energy conbservation, he is more than pleased that his office is walking distance–about six blocks–from his home.”

The finances here are interesting. We all know pretty much what members of the city council earn, at least from the public budget, and we know how to find a property on the appraisal roll. This ad copy claims: “Within a two-mile radius of Sixth and Congress Streets–the heart of downtown–the average annual household income is $100,000.” This would include the close-in neighborhoods east of IH-35.

The biggest display ads in this section are paid for by urbanspace, Waterstone on Lake Travis, and residences at the Four Seasons. Smaller ads include ones for the Austonian, Bridges on the Park, and various individual properties, mostly waterside. It’s quite a while until the next legislative session. Has the pool of potential local, or even regional, buyers become exhausted?