The vapor barrier keeps water vapor from rising up and also helps with radon.

CIM Group has plans to transform it into a 246,774 square-foot building with a parking garage, according to a Nov. 6 filing with the Texas Department of Licensing and Regulation.The redevelopment is tentatively scheduled to start in February 2021 and be completed a little more than a year later.The CIM Group project joins a flood of development on Austin's east side.A couple of blocks to the west, Endeavor Real Estate Group and the owners of the Fair Market events venue are proposing to turn that old East Austin warehouse into a 180,000-square-foot, mid-rise office building.Also nearby is a planned 280-room hotel from Tampa-based F10 Hotels and Florida-based Floridays Development Co., at the southwest corner of East Fifth and Robert T.

The Austin Zoning and Platting Commission on Nov. 17 approved an amendment to a planned development agreement to allow more buildings to rise on nearly 129 acres at 7700 Parmer, a business park less than one mile away from Apple’s future $1 billion campus.The plan is to redevelop surface parking into 1,800 multifamily units, a 340-room hotel and 80,000 square feet of retail and restaurant space.

I did not consider that the tax would rise post rehab.

Overall, then, the Austin-Round Rock MSA is poised for 2021 to continue it’s near decade-long pattern of high demand, low inventory, and rising home prices.Laura Huffman, with the Austin Chamber of Commerce, shares the same outlook for 2021 while also flagging some threats to the area’s housing market:“Austin’s rank as one of the best places to live, work, and thrive in the country is evident by not only the growth of our housing market, but also by the growth of our local economy.

But in general, I think these are the dynamics in play that are creating rising prices and short supply in an otherwise horrible economy.

“Experienced investors play a key role in the housing recovery”, it said.This is a truth.Real estate investors buy foreclosed homes, multi-unit properties, and vacant condos as a means to build wealth long-term.And now, with rents out-gaining the rise in home prices in U.S. cities such as San Francisco, California; Fort Worth, Texas; and Seattle, Washington, investor types are clamoring for good homes — especially with financing so cheap.15-year mortgage rates with points are below 3 percent.Despite market options, though, investors can find it hard to find banks which offer financing for people with more than 4 properties already financed.Even seven years later, Fannie Mae’s 5-10 Properties Financed program remains a niche product.Maybe you’ve been turned away by your bank, too.Why most banks won’t do a 5-to-10 properties mortgageSo, why don’t all banks participate in the 5-10 Properties Financed program?

Material and labor costs will continue to rise.

The indirect impact will take years (substantially increased inflation, unstable stock market, rising taxes to pay for all this).One thing is certain, housing will be in demand.  

Would you wait for the renovations loans to be back up at risk of mortgage rates rising after COVID?