Data compares November 2020 to November 2021. Visit abor.com/marketstatistics for more information and for charts on additional counties in Austin's MSA.
Visit us at Floyd Real Estate, LLC, if you are thinking about buying or selling property (residential, commercial, or land) in the Central Texas area. We would be happy to advise you on your real estate related needs.
In June Southwest Airlines will be adding non-stop flights from Austin to Cozumel (subject to government approval) and will also be resuming non-stop flights to Puerto Vallarta. Southwest will also be resuming non-stop service to Cabo San Lucas. You can read more about this on Culture Map or in the latest press release from SWA.
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| Maroma Point in Mexico, Between Cancun and Cozumel |
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| Lobby of the Hotel Monte Vista |
So you want to backpack in the Grand Canyon? That's a great idea and I highly recommend that you do it. Now you ask, what's the best way to get there if you are planning to enter the canyon from the south rim? Here's what we did and what I recommend: fly to Las Vegas and drive to Flagstaff. I've been to the Grand Canyon twice before, both times after driving up from Phoenix. It's a nice drive (and coming back off the Mogollon Rim offers some great views) which can afford a detour in Sedona (recommended). However, for our trip Vegas had better flight options (Southwest from Austin to LAS was cheaper than to PHX) with the bonus of a fly-by of the canyon (sit on the starboard side of the plane on the flight to LAS). We rented an Outback which provided ample room for 4 people and their backpacking gear. We then drove from Vegas to Kingman whereupon we hit I-40 and headed to Flagstaff. It was an easy drive.
We decided to spend the night in Flagstaff before making the hour and half drive to Grand Canyon National Park. As for Flagstaff:
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| On the South Kaibab Trail |
A couple of weeks ago I alluded to training for a backpacking trip. Well, said allusion was to backpacking in the Grand Canyon National Park for 4 days/3 nights. It was a fantastic experience which I highly recommend if you are an outdoor enthusiast. The backpacking part was bookended with stays in Flagstaff and Las Vegas, both of which were fun.
I have a fair amount of material to cover regarding the trip, thus I'm going to spread out the information over a few posts. Stay tuned...
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Data compares October 2020 to October 2021. Visit abor.com/marketstatistics for more information and for charts on additional counties in Austin's MSA. Visit us at Floyd Real Estate, LLC, if you are thinking about buying or selling property (residential, commercial, or land) in the Central Texas area. We would be happy to advise you on your real estate related needs. Floyd Real Estate is a Texas real estate brokerage, TREC Lic. #9003790 |
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| On the Tejas Trail in the Guadalupe Mountains |
Have you wondered where the highest point in Texas is located? It's Guadalupe Peak, way out in the Trans-Pecos region of West Texas. You can see the backside of it in the above photo which I took while hiking in Guadalupe Mountains National Park (GUMO). The park is located about 50 miles north of Van Horn (which is about 120 miles from El Paso on I-10) and is relatively close to Carlsbad (home of the eponymous caverns). Why am I posting about this? I'm going in 2022 (relatively early, before it's too hot).
I've hiked in the park twice. The first time was to the top of Guadalupe Peak. The second time, I did the Bowl Loop (short version) which included going to the top of Hunter Peak and this (pictured above) sunset hike down the Tejas Trail. On the second trip I also hiked Devil's Hall and visited the sand dunes (on the other side of the park, near Dell City). Not only do I recommend visiting GUMO, but I also recommend any of the above excursions.
Here are a few thoughts, compressed into bullet points instead of flowing prose:
These are my preliminary thoughts as I'm planning for the upcoming trip. I'll post an update about the trip (should it reveal itself to be a post-worthy experience).
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| Looking East, From Top of Hunter Peak |
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| Backside of Guadalupe Peak, Seen From Tejas Trail |
Floyd Real Estate was a Championship Sponsor of the Austin Young Lawyer's Association ("AYLA") tailgate last Saturday. Here's what I posted on our Floyd Real Estate Facebook page:
On Saturday Floyd Real Estate was proud to have been a championship level sponsor of the Austin Young Lawyers Association (AYLA) Tailgate for a Cause benefitting the YMCA Holiday Toy Drive. It was a fun event, and we appreciate AYLA's fundraising efforts for the Austin community.
It's great being back out and sponsoring events again. In September we had the real estate brokerage sponsor an AYLA Docket Call happy hour at Star Bar. My wife and I enjoy working with AYLA as we were once active members and were both on the board (you can scroll through the archives for more on some of our past activities).
If you have ever seen the movie Face/Off, you should listen to the podcast How Did This Get Made? review it. I saw Face/Off in the theater and maybe once while procrastinating reading cases during law school. I had forgotten how delightfully over-the-top nuts said movie is. Thanks to the panel of comedians commenting and the source material the podcast is hilarious. I was listened to it while training for a backpacking trip and kept stopping to laugh.
If you're looking for good movies with Nicolas Cage, I highly recommend Raising Arizona. It is a bona fide classic and should be viewed by anyone who likes comedy.
My favorite John Travolta movie is Pulp Fiction, with Get Shorty in second place (you've probably seen the former, but if you haven't seen the latter it is worth watching). If you want to watch a period drama about 1980's Houston (and that is a big "if"), then rent Urban Cowboy.
Like Denis Villeneuve's Blade Runner 2049, this movie needs to be seen on a big screen. I'm not going to get into detail about the film itself (the internet is already full of reviews and commentary on it), but I will say the visuals are amazing and it paces the source material well. I thoroughly enjoyed it and am probably going to see it again at an IMAX.
If you are unfamiliar with the Dune source material, Screen Rant has some good background articles (though I disagree with their review calling the movie "emotionless"). Also, this version of Dune is explicitly part 1 of a larger story, so don't be surprised when it ends abruptly (about halfway through the book). Part 2 of Dune is slated to come out in October 2023.
As you may know, we had to cancel our live and in-person August trivia night. We are currently aiming for a return to live trivia in mid-late January. I'll announce the date/location here, but you can also follow the Floyd Real Estate Trivia Series on Facebook*.
*We have no plans to move trivia to the metaverse.
I saw this on Saturday while walking to breakfast at Maudie's (tacos make great fuel for an early trip out to COTA for F1 United States Grand Prix related events). Tiny Pies is coming to Lamar Union, to work out of the space formerly occupied by a purveyor of fancy juice drinks (not smoothies, as a friend told me he was once castigated for using the wrong beverage terminology). I don't have any additional details; now that you have seen a photo of the sign you have as much information as I do. What I can tell you is that in the event you have not tried Tiny Pies, they make some delicious products.
[11/11/21 Update: They are open.]
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| The Tavern in Austin |
Halloween is coming up, so in the spirit of said holiday I'm again recommending a great podcast on reputedly haunted places in Austin: The Night Owl Podcast. Whether you are a paranormal enthusiast or a skeptic, many of these episodes feature interesting bits of local history. Of course, if you're a believer in ghosts then all the better for enjoying the episodes.
My favorite episodes are about The Tavern and The Clay Pit. I go into more detail in the post in which I initially recommended The Night Owl Podcast.
Data compares September 2020 to September 2021. Visit abor.com/marketstatistics for more information and for charts on additional counties in Austin's MSA.
Visit us at Floyd Real Estate, LLC, if you are thinking about buying or selling property (residential, commercial, or land) in the Central Texas area. We would be happy to advise you on your real estate related needs.
I've seen on a few neighborhood sites that coyotes have recently been seen in the Zilker neighborhood. People have even reported daytime sightings, which I recall as hitherto extremely rare. So, if you live in the area (or any neighborhood near a creek, greenbelt, etc):
In case don't read the news plus your staff or private banking family office makes all of your purchases, you may missed that many things are more expensive now than they were in 2019. Cars are one of these things; not enough supply being chased by increased amounts of money. Many things are said to be at fault on the supply side, including COVID inspired supply chain problems and chip shortages (blame COVID, a fire in a major chip plant, and our very own snowpocalypse among others for causing the chip issues).
Where am I going with this? We bought a car this week and it was already 10% more expensive than if we'd bought the same car at the start of the summer. I don't see them getting cheaper any time soon. Furthermore, to get what we wanted we checked the dealer website frequently and were in contact with one of their sales associates for a couple of months (she had the parameters of what we were looking for). So, if you are looking for something new to drive it may take extra effort. Silver lining, though, is that trade-in values are quite high. I was pleasantly surprised at the amount they gave us for a 2015 BMW 335i with 80K miles. My brother had a similar experience earlier in the summer when he sold a Ford F-150 Raptor for almost as much as he'd paid for it 2 years prior.
Other thoughts:
Get ready for some juice! #TheExpanse season 6 is coming. pic.twitter.com/XDYGZ9VEpH
— The Expanse (@ExpanseOnPrime) October 8, 2021
Go to Speak Up Austin for more information on how to give input into the proposed new district maps.
Here are the upcoming public forums:
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| The Current Austin City Council District Map (click to enlarge) |
On a trip to Las Vegas earlier this year, one of the members of our party spoke wistfully of wagering on horse races at Manor Downs back in the 1990's. I had forgotten about Manor Downs, and for good reason: it stopped holding horse races in 2010 and closed shortly thereafter (though inexplicably it still has a functioning website).
We know people with rental property in the area, thus I keep an eye on the current events in the Manor area. I recently read that Dalfen Industrial will convert the 146 acre Manor Downs site into an industrial park with six buildings (totally about 1 million square feet in aggregate). Construction is expected to begin in the second quarter of 2022 and the estimated time of completion is in the fourth quarter of 2023.
Manor Downs hosted Farm Aid II in 1986. While the new project is not as cool as that, it is a positive improvement to the area and indicative of the regional growth the Central Texas area is experiencing.
If you live in Texas and really want to see live horse racing, you can still find tracks open near San Antonio, Dallas, and Houston.
Genie Car Wash on South Lamar along with the adjacent Jiffy Lube and auto repair ship have closed. Apartments and offices will be built on the site.
If you need your car washed south of the river, here are a few options:
It is now streaming on Netflix. After you watch a few episodes, check out the Seinfeld Law blog.
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| Because Everything Tastes Better in a Ceramic Parrot |
If you prefer to eat/drink outside these days, Wu Chow does have a patio.
[Note: Wu Chow's mai tai is great, though the best tasting mai tai I've had all year was obtained at the Ritz-Carlton in Ft. Lauderdale. They also have patio dining; however, their patio looks across A1A (the very route Vanilla Ice loves) to the Atlantic as opposed to overlooking W. 5th. Said mai tai was not served in a ceramic parrot, so Wu Chow wins on presentation.]
As you may know, a remake of Dune is coming out next month. From what I've read online, it's going to be good. What you may not know is that David Lynch (yes, the director of Blue Velvet, Wild at Heart, and Twin Peaks) directed a movie version of Dune in 1984. It can be a strange, often hard to follow movie plot for those who haven't read the book. It also wastes the talents of an impressive list of actors and the director. However.... it's also visually interesting and full of enough Lynch-esque touches that if you are a Lynch fan (or a fan of odd sci-fi) it's worth seeing. Furthermore, it has Sting reveling in villainy and a soundtrack by Toto.
Should you watch this movie before seeing the new Dune? If you like David Lynch and/or classic cult sci-fi movies then yes. As a bonus, if you live in Austin you can catch it the 1984 Dune on the big screen at the Alamo Drafthouse Village and Slaughter locations through September 29th.
Film Trivia: David Lynch turned down directing Return of the Jedi before agreeing to make Dune. Ewoks by David Lynch? Probably much cooler and/or more terrifying than the Ewoks we were given; definitely better dancers.
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Data compares August 2020 to August 2021. Visit abor.com/marketstatistics for more information and for charts on additional counties in Austin's MSA.
Visit us at Floyd Real Estate, LLC, if you are thinking about buying or selling property (residential, commercial, or land) in the Central Texas area. We would be happy to advise you on your real estate related needs.
Sadly, I read this morning that the much anticipated Top Gun: Maverick release date has been postponed until May 2022 (owing, of course, to COVID concerns).
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Data compares July 2020 to July 2021. Visit abor.com/marketstatistics for more information and for charts on additional counties in Austin's MSA.
Visit us at Floyd Real Estate, LLC, if you are thinking about buying or selling property (residential, commercial, or land) in the Central Texas area. We would be happy to advise you on your real estate related needs.
Data compares June 2020 to June 2021. Visit abor.com/marketstatistics for more information and for charts on additional counties in Austin's MSA.
Visit us at Floyd Real Estate, LLC, if you are thinking about buying or selling property (residential, commercial, or land) in the Central Texas area. We would be happy to advise you on your real estate related needs.
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| My 2007 VW Passat in New Mexico |
I was somewhat disappointed to read that Volkswagen will be ending Passat sedan sales in the U.S. after the 2022 model year (the car will continue to be sold in Europe). I probably would not have been surprised had I known sales had dropped to about 23,000 last year (down from 78,000 in 2015). Why do I care about this mid-sized sedan I once called "the German Ford Taurus"? I had a 2007 demo model I bought at a discount and proceeded to drive for the next 10 years. It road tripped from Taos to Savannah to Asheville, and I put thousands of miles on it for business trips in Texas and Oklahoma. It even drove down the long unpaved road from Hwy 550 to Chaco Canyon (though we thought it might become a permanent fixture) and survived a snowy mountain crossing driving it through the Carson National Forest. It was great on the highway and deceptively large in cargo space. To sum things up: it was a great car for 9 of the 10 years I owned it and the best value for my automotive dollar so far. Had I sold it in 2017 I'd probably have even fonder memories.
I've also driven the Passat's more exciting cousin, the Audi A4. My brother used to have an A4 R-line which was quite fun to drive. Assuming Audi doesn't kill the A4 to make way for more SUVs in the line-up, that's a car worth checking out.
Save the date: The Floyd Real Estate Trivia Series will return live and in-person on August 25th at Lavaca Street Bar (downtown). Stay tuned for more information.
Data compares May 2020 to May 2021. Visit abor.com/marketstatistics for more information and for charts on additional counties in Austin's MSA.
Visit us at Floyd Real Estate, LLC, if you are thinking about buying or selling property (residential, commercial, or land) in the Central Texas area. We would be happy to advise you on your real estate related needs.
I've been enjoying watching Seinfeld on Hulu for a while. Apparently, Seinfeld will be leaving Hulu on the 23rd. It will start streaming on Netflix, but that will be sometime in the Fall.
[Update: If you have Sling, you can watch some episodes through the On Demand feature. Also, Seinfeld will be on Netflix starting 10/1/21.]
Maybe you have driven on the I-40 De Soto Bridge (aka M Bridge) over the Mississippi into Memphis and reveled in the glory of the giant pyramid that is a Bass Pro Shops (better or worse that the giant pyramid that is a casino? You be the judge.). Unfortunately, you won't be able to do this until at least July (but probably for a while after that). Why? Because on May 11th a contractor found a large crack in the bridge which resulted in it being closed down. Now the 40,000+ cars and trucks per day which usually cross the bridge are routed through West Memphis to the older I-55 bridge. Why did I take the time to write about this? Because on a recent road trip I was stuck in West Memphis for a few hours whilst on the detour to the I-55 bridge. It was not pleasant. I have another road trip (to Nashville) in the works and if the bridge isn't fixed I'll take an alternate route to avoid Memphis altogether. If you have road trip plans through Memphis, I recommend you take the possible 1-3 hour wait into consideration when planning your route.
You can visit the Wall Street Journal for more information about the bridge closure and its economic effects. Like many things in the past year, it hasn't been good for supply chains.
There are a couple of trivia nights in the works.
We're going to do one for The Creative Fund (which I co-host) in the next couple of months. Details are being worked out at this time.
Also, there is a Floyd Real Estate sponsored trivia night (which I host) in the works. Not many details yet, but it will be live and in person.
Stay tuned for more information.
Check out this recent post from The Points Guy about new routes American Airlines will be opening to Austin later in the year.
Data compares April 2020 to April 2021. Visit abor.com/marketstatistics for more information and for charts on additional counties in Austin's MSA.
Visit us at Floyd Real Estate, LLC, if you are thinking about buying or selling property (residential, commercial, or land) in the Central Texas area. We would be happy to advise you on your real estate related needs.
The Wall Street Journal has written up a nice guide for a summer road trip in Colorado. I've been to Denver many times, as well as Salida (it's where I've stayed while skiing at Monarch). The road in between makes for a nice drive. Telluride and the surrounding areas also make for a good drive. One I'd suggest adding on to the list from the article is the "Million Dollar Highway" (aka US 550) from Silverton to Ouray. That one packs in some amazing views and goes by a few trailheads worth checking out (with the caveat that it should not be done towing a large trailer or in an RV).
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| New Travis Co. Courthouse, Under Construction |
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| UT Tower and Dobie Tower |
Check out our friend and financial advisor Adam Flagg being interviewed by KVUE vis a vis inflation concerns:
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| One Way to Spend Your $5 |
If you use Lyft, you may be interested in a couple of its current promotions:
This weekend there is a sales tax holiday on disaster supplies in Texas. Follow the link for more information.
Data compares March 2020 to March 2021. Visit abor.com/marketstatistics for more information and for charts on additional counties in Austin's MSA.
Visit us at Floyd Real Estate, LLC, if you are thinking about buying or selling property (residential, commercial, or land) in the Central Texas area. We would be happy to advise you on your real estate related needs.
