Austin rent is down

Austin rent is down by more than 5% as compared to this time last year. Apartment List’s Rob Warnock says Austin is leading Texas major cities in terms of dropping rental rates. He places the blame squarely on the pandemic.

“During the summer months, each of the past several years nationally, we usually see rents go up anywhere from 2-5%. As I mentioned earlier, rents are going down a percentage point in the half across the country right now,” Warnock says.

If it’s not workers living on a tighter budget, it’s also more people working from home looking for a bigger, better deal further away from town. 

Drop off points for mail-in ballots

The on again, off again issue of having more than one drop off point for mail-in ballots in the county is off again. On Friday, a federal judge ruled that more than one location could be used, but that order was stayed by the Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals. That means, at least for now, each county is still limited to one drop off location. In Travis County, the original plan was to have three locations. But right now, the only location to drop off mail-in ballots in-person remains the main Elections Office at 5501 Airport Blvd. Meantime, in-person early voting begins tomorrow across Texas. 

No decision from Travis County about bar openings yet

Wednesday is the day Governor Abbott said bars in the state could reopen if approved by county governments. So far, no decision has been announced by Travis County as to whether that will happen here. It is possible such a decision will be made at tomorrow’s commissioners court meeting. If bars are allowed to reopen in Travis County, they would be limited to 50% capacity and would have to stop serving at 11 p.m. rather than the normal 2 a.m.

COVID-19 update

While there were some new COVID-19 cases reported over the weekend, there were no deaths reported. In Travis County, on Sunday, there were 66 new cases reported, along with 13 new hospitalizations. As of Sunday, there were a total of 86 people hospitalized with COVID-19 in Travis County. 30 of those are in intensive care and 20 of those are on ventilators. 

Williamson County saw a bit of a decline in its active cases of coronavirus over the weekend. As of today, 188 cases are active out of the 8,917 cases confirmed over the past seven months. Hospital bed space has continued to look good, and today is no different. Only 14 active cases involved hospitalizations and 8,585 people have recovered so far. 

Halloween COVID-19 recommendations 

Austin health leaders say trick or treating should be off the table this year. Area health official Dr. Mark Escott says folks should just stay home. 

“Our celebrations right now should involve members of our household, and that’s it,” says Escott.

But for those who need to give away candy, APH has a few suggestions to keep it socially distant. Those include creating individual candy packets and lining them up outside on the lawn for kids to just pick up.

This news and more on News Radio KLBJ:

https://omny.fm/shows/klbjam-flash-briefing-1/am-newscast-10-12-20