Texas market news, February 2012
Feb. 29, 2012
Bank deal yields $287M to Texas homeowners, $141M to stateTexas Attorney General Greg Abbott said recently the $26 billion settlement between the state and federal governments and five large U.S. banks yielded $428 million for Texas with $287 million targeting homeowners. Read more at the Austin Business Journal.
Feb. 29, 2012
Overall vital signs of San Antonio’s housing market remain healthy, analysis findsA total of 991 home sales were reported in San Antonio for January 2012 marking a 5% increase from the 948 home sales recorded the previous January, according to the latest analysis by the San Antonio Board of REALTORS®. Read more at the San Antonio Business Journal.
Feb. 28, 2012
Texas economy keeps momentum going, report saysTexas stayed on the right path to economic recovery in December and January, according to a report issued by the SigmaBleyzer Investment Group. The report contributes Texas’s job growth, and the fact that the state’s jobless rate fell to its lowest level in December since July 2009, to high energy prices and strong private industries that remained relatively unaffected by the recession. Read more at the Houston Business Journal.
Feb. 24, 2012
Houston second to Midland in percentage of Texas’s high-end householdsRanking No. 33 on a list of U.S. metropolitan areas, 5.62% of Houston’s households have income and benefits of $200,000 or more, according to the U.S. Census Bureau. Claiming the No. 17 position, Midland was the only Texas city to have a higher percentage of households with larger incomes than Houston at 6.64%. Read more at the Houston Business Journal.
Feb. 24, 2012
State's improving economy might change budget pictureThe state's rebounding economy should help Texas avoid another draconian budget session and could help state lawmakers to begin investing in education, transportation, and a water plan, state officials told a group of manufacturers recently. Read more at the Austin American-Statesman.
Feb. 23, 2012
Smaller Texas cities rely heavily on food stampsHouston and Dallas are creating jobs more rapidly than anyplace else in America, yet all is not well in Texas. Five of the state’s smaller communities are among the 10 U.S. communities that rely most heavily on food stamps. Read more at The Business Journals.
Feb. 23, 2012
Texas foreclosure rates down, study findsAccording to the latest analysis by RealtyTrac, foreclosure postings in Texas fell 39% between January 2010 and January 2011. There was also good news on the national front as the company reported a 19% decline nationwide during the same period. Read more at the San Antonio Business Journal.
Feb. 22, 2012
Texas ranks 9th for business tax climateTexas has once again proved is tax friendliness to businesses, ranking 9th in the United States in terms of the burden its taxes place on the state’s businesses, according to a recent report which ranked states from more favorable to least favorable. Read more at the Austin Business Journal.
Feb. 22, 2012
Texas again is nation's top state for exportsFor the 10th straight year, Texas has been ranked the top exporting state, according to data released by the U.S. Department of Commerce. The value of state exports in 2011 totaled more than $249.8 billion, an increase of 20.7% from $206.9 billion in 2010. Read more at the Austin Business Journal.
Feb. 21, 2012
Lubbock economy sees gains in 2011The trend, at year’s end, is up, and the Lubbock Economic Index closed out 2011 just short of where it started – month-over-month increases for the whole fourth quarter and in five of the last seven months of the year. In addition, job growth in 2011 went from gains of only a half-percent from 2010 levels early in the year to well over 3% above the previous year, with 4,400 jobs added to the economy by the end of 2011. Read more at the Lubbock Avalanche-Journal.
Feb. 21, 2012
El Paso's construction-job gain ranked 96th in nationThe El Paso construction industry's 3% gain in new jobs last year ranked 96th among 337 metro areas in the nation, according to data compiled by the Associated General Contractors of America. El Paso added an estimated 400 jobs from December 2010 to December 2011, and El Paso had an estimated 15,700 people employed in the construction industry at the end of last year. Read more at the El Paso Times.
Feb. 20, 2012
Longview makes national list of improving home marketsThe Longview area has been added to a national monthly index of improving housing markets for the first time since the list began in January 2011. The city was one of 29 U.S. metropolitan areas added this month to the National Association of Home Builders/First American Improving Markets Index. Read more at the Longview News-Journal.
Feb. 20, 2012
North Texas home sales jump up in JanuaryHome sales in North Texas are off to a good start this year, as they are up 14% in January from a year ago, according to the latest figures from Texas A&M University's Real Estate Center. Indicating more good news may be ahead, pending sales were up 16% from a year ago. Read more at the Fort Worth Star-Telegram.
Feb. 17, 2012
Dallas-area foreclosures decline in 2011The Dallas area had one of the lowest percentages of foreclosure inventory in 2011, compared with the national average, according to CoreLogic. The Dallas-Plano-Irving market had 1.4% of its housing inventory in foreclosure, matching the Texas statewide rate. The percentage of housing inventory in foreclosure in the Dallas area and Texas is significantly less than the national average rate of 3.4%. Read more at the Dallas Business Journal.
Feb. 17, 2012
Texas officials estimate higher property valuesTexas property values increased 1.3% statewide last year, the state comptroller's office says, in another sign the economy is getting stronger. The assessed value of all residential and commercial property across the state increased to $1.69 trillion in 2011, compared to the previous year's $1.67 trillion. Read more at CBS Money Watch.
Feb. 16, 2012
Many Texans earn low pay, hold few assetsThere is little doubt Texas has survived the Great Recession better than other states, but a study by the Corporation for Enterprise Development has found that 27.7% of Texas households have no financial cushion in case of an emergency. Read more at Houston Chronicle.
Feb. 16, 2012
Energy spurs a recovery in HoustonPowered by a rise in oil prices and a shale exploration boom, Houston is the first major metropolitan region to regain all the jobs it lost in the recession. The region added about 76,000 jobs last year, according to the Texas Workforce Commission, and is on pace to pick up tens of thousands more this year. Read more at The New York Times.
Feb. 15, 2012
Texas dominates U.S. job gainTexas dominated the top labor markets that regained lost recession jobs, taking four of the top five spots. Houston gained the most jobs since the recession with 109,700. Following New Orleans in second with 39,400, Austin, Dallas-Fort Worth, and San Antonio round out the top five markets, adding , 37,900, 36,000, and 25,200 private-sector jobs between 2006 and 2011, respectively. Read more at Austin Business Journal.
Feb. 14, 2012
Austin's economic outlook good for 2012Economists are predicting a great 2012 for Austin's economy. The top industries in Austin that are predicted to see growth in 2012 are housing, real estate, video games, and clean tech. Read more at KVUE.
Feb. 13, 2012
Houston posts largest 10-year job gain in U.S.Houston increased its number of private-sector jobs by more than 230,000 between 2001 and 2011 – 75,000 more jobs than any other U.S. city’s increase. The Bayou City had 2.21 million jobs in 2011 compared to 1.98 million jobs in 2001, according to the Business Journals’ On Numbers. Read more at the Houston Business Journal.
Feb. 13, 2012
Home prices in Odessa to riseAccording to the Fiserv Case-Shiller Index report, home prices are expected to grow in Odessa by 1.4% from the third quarter of 2011 (July 1 – Sept. 30) to the same time in 2012. They’re expected to rise an additional 1.1% by that period in 2013. Read more at the Odessa American.
Feb. 10, 2012
Dallas’s forecasted budget shows the city short up to $87 millionThe Dallas City Council is struggling to balance the budget because they must restore the $26 million in pay cuts police officers and firefighters agreed to two years ago. Mayor Mike Rawlings does not plan on raising taxes. Read more at WWFA.com.
Feb. 9, 2012
Texas needs more skilled manufacturing workersThe Texas Workforce Commission chairman and several other witnesses recently told lawmakers that manufacturing is vital to Texas’s economy, and it is difficult to find people qualified for skilled trade professions. Through 2009, Texas was strong in job creation and new business formation, according to Harvard Professor Michael Porter, but lacked in productivity. Read more at the Austin American-Statesman.
Feb. 8, 2012
Amarillo real estate makes Inman News’s ‘Top 10 Markets to Watch in 2012’Inman News predicts Amarillo’s real estate market will grow in 2012 because of demographic, real estate, and economic data. Amarillo had an average of one house sale for every 53 people from October 2010 to November 2011 while the national average was one house sale for every 83 people. Amarillo’s unemployment rate was 4.9% in December, the second lowest in the state. Read more at the Amarillo Globe-News.
Feb. 7, 2012
Texas announced more job cuts for January than any other stateIn Texas, 11,606 jobs were eliminated in January. Nationwide 53,486 jobs were cut, 39% more than in January of last year. The retail sector led the nation in job cuts, followed by the financial services sector, and the aerospace/defense sector. Read more at the Houston Business Journal.
Feb. 6, 2012
Texas ranked in the top 10 states for income growth during the recessionAccording to U.S. Census data, Texas’s median income grew from 2005 to 2010 because of agriculture and energy industries. The national median income fell 3.5% during the same time period. Read more at the Dallas Business Journal.
Feb. 2, 2012
Houston dominates master-planned community home sales listThe Woodlands and Cinco Ranch were two of the top-five-selling master-planned communities in the U.S. in 2011, according to data released by John Burns Real Estate Consulting LLC. The Woodlands ranked No. 2 based on 945 home sales, up from 786 sales in 2010. Cinco Ranch came in third with 862 home sales, up from 823 sales in 2010. Read more at the Houston Business Journal.
Feb. 1, 2012
Texas tax climate ranks as ninth bestTexas ranks as having the ninth-best tax climate in the U.S. for businesses, according to a new report by the Tax Foundation. Despite ranking relatively low on the corporate and tax components, the state ranked high in other components, partially because it does not levy an individual income tax. Read more at the Austin Business Journal.
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