This Week in Real Estate: Austin in Scam, Texas Seeks $1.1B

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Austin

South Austin Targeted in Suspicious Real Estate Offer

Residents in South Austin are receiving suspicious letters in the mail, featuring personalized envelopes. The letters sometimes offer great opportunities, and others warn that the letter is a final notice.

Officials warn that the letters are from investors or realtors that are trying to purchase a home for cheaper before it hits the market.

Homes in Austin are selling a week faster than they did just a year ago. Homes sell within a month of less on average in the city. The letters are an attempt to push a lower-priced sale in a market that is booming.

The letters often feature pictures of families in need and try to persuade a homeowner to sell.

“But the greatest glimmer of hope for the housing market may be that the Federal Reserve announced recently that it does not plan to raise interest rates for the remainder of 2019,” explains Stelk Law.

Texas Employees Retirement System Seeks Approval of $1.1B Plan

The Texas Employees Retirement System is seeking $1.1 billion for two alternative investment portfolios. A board meeting this week resulted in trustees approving $650 million in private real estate. Another $550 million has been earmarked for non-core funds.

The target commitment sought by the retirement system for private real estate is $550 million by the end of August 31, the fiscal year.

The system already has 7.3% in plan assets invested in private real estate, or $2.064 billion of the system’s $28.3 billion in assets. Its infrastructure portfolio totals $683 million or 2.4% of plan assets. Officers target $400 million in commitments to infrastructure by the end of the fiscal year.

China Drives Asia’s Real Estate Market

China is helping the Asia-Pacific real estate market to hit a record-breaking pace in the first-quarter of the year. The region is seeing a boom in manufacturing and logistics real estate. Trade wars are impacting a lot of sectors, but the amount of investment that has gone into China has not been impacted.

Transaction volumes in the first-quarter of the year hit $45 billion, a 14% increase from a year prior.

The report shows that the region’s real estate market is growing faster than the United States, Europe and the Middle East.

China’s investment soared, with all-time highs of $17 billion on the quarter. Alibaba and JD.com are two main purchasers in the logistics real estate sector. Investment volumes fell in Australia, Japan and Hong Kong.

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