Reported by Attila Horvath
President Bill Davies called the meeting to order, Joseph Hang led the pledge to the United States flag and Michele Heyman gave our invocation of the day. President Elect Nominee Harold Benkoski greeted each member and guest as they arrived, and Carl Noble introduced our guests and visitors.
President Bill traded Andres Bustamante (sponsored by Vlad Bahrencu) a Blue Badge for his Red one! Then he presented Dr. Pat Beckham with a Paul Harris Fellowship Award (PHF +3). Congratulations Andres and Dr. Beckham!
We heard the following announcements:
- Tom Anderson provided the Global Awareness Update and announced that Marta Herrera had been selected by the District as this year’s Global Grant Scholarship recipient, which makes this our Club’s fourth year to sponsor a winning candidate.
- Mary Reynolds reminded us to let Jennifer know if we were going to bring guests to our weekly lunches. She then told us about several service opportunities, including still needing volunteers at this Thursday’s Science Fair at Pecan Springs.
- Caroline Valentine announced an upcoming Global Perspectives Dinner on February 28th. Please RSVP with her.
- Past President Ronney Reynolds reminded us of the importance to give to both The Rotary Foundation (Rotary International) and our Austin Rotary Club Foundation; and then he told us that Bill Baker hasn’t been well, so he hasn’t been able to attend our lunches like he used to. Please reach out to Bill to let him know we miss him!
- Charles Doty reminded us about tomorrow’s Downtown Breakfast Cluster Meeting then asked for volunteers to host the March and May wine parties.
After some Fellowship Michael Portman introduced our speaker, Eldon Rude, from 360 Analytics (Real Estate and Demographics).
Eldon has spent more than 35 years tracking trends involving real estate economies, housing developments and home building; and he shared many statistics from the past 10 years comparing Austin development and national trends. These statistics included: Austin’s unemployment was 7.8% in 2010 and is now at 2.8%; the local population has increased from 500,000 in 2010 to 2.2 million in 2019; Downtown growth is skyrocketing (26 projects are currently underway totaling 7.0 million sq. ft. of available space with another 32 projects planned with an additional 9.5 million sq. ft.); and there has been a gradual shift of business activity and home sales from Downtown to East Austin.
Our Speaker for 2/18 is Erica Blue–CEO of Austin Sunshine Camps (YMBL); and we recognized Andy Swanson (Centric Commercial) and Corey Wilson (Kidd Roofing) for their support of our newsletter. The Four Way Test was led by Dayo Awosika-Olumo and the meeting was adjourned by President Bill.
More About Our Speaker:
ELDON RUDE
360 Real Estate Analytics (Real Estate & Demographics)
A mainstay of Central Texas’ real estate community, Eldon Rude is principal of 360° Real Estate Analytics.
His more than 30 years of experience in the market have made him one of the region’s most respected real estate advisors to professionals in housing, development, banking, commercial real estate and the government sector.
Eldon has lived in Austin since 1979 and is active in numerous organizations including the Home Builders Association of Greater Austin where he serves on the Board of Directors and is part of the Finance and Membership Committees. He is also involved with the Real Estate Council of Austin and the Urban Land Institute where he is currently chair of the Membership Committee, serves as a member of the Advisory Board and previously served two terms as Programs Chair.
Before founding 360° Real Estate Analytics, Eldon was Director for Metrostudy’s Central Texas region for nearly 17 years. Prior to that, he was a partner in the Aegis Group where he practiced commercial real estate appraisal for 12 years, obtaining his MAI designation in 1990.
A frequent media resource and highly regarded keynote speaker, Eldon has earned a reputation for keen analysis and candid insight. He is a finance graduate of the University of Texas at Austin.