On October 21, I told you Austin placed second on the 2010 Milken Institute's list of Best Performing Cities. A month earlier Forbes blogger Francesca Levy picked us as a best bet for residential real estate housing markets in the nation. Now here we are in November, and Newsweek says we're one of America's ten best-positioned cities for economic recovery. I know New Year's is better than a month away, but I feel like breaking out the champagne.
In a November 8 article ("Greetings from Recoveryland"), author Joel Kotkin picked Texas as the number one destination for job-seeking Americans. The "Texaplex" -- Austin, Dallas, San Antonio, and Houston -- was singled out for reasons that will make the hearts of real estate investors sing:
- hearty energy sectors,
- strong entrepreneurism,
- pro-business climate,
- relativity low taxes,
- superb local infrastructure.
(Did you know that Texas has more Fortune 500 companies than any other state? 58 total. More than New York.)
The author also suggested the Lone Star State is now a magnet for disaffected Californians fed up with the high cost of living and the dysfunctional state government out there. What's not good about beating out California?!
Of course, much of the appeal here in Austin, as we all know, lies in the strength of our emerging tech sector. These are factors that have had me fired up for months, and I'm excited -- more than excited -- to see this well-deserved national recognition.
And if you want a little extra excitement, just last week, the Texas Workforce Commission released the employment numbers. Texas gained 47,900 jobs for the month of October! The figures represent the addition of 172,800 jobs in the last year! How do you like them apples?
Our local economy is strongly diversifying -- we have the multi- national presence to prove it -- Samsung, Nokia, Siemens, Fijitsu. Now and the coming years, cultural and ethnic diversification is growing as more and more people move to Austin. The potential for profitable real estate investment is so great I don't have the words to quantify it.
Click here to read the Newsweek article and you'll be just as excited as I am!
Posted by Monte Davis on
Monte,
Posted by Michael Oakley on Thursday, December 2nd, 2010 at 11:35amI agree with you that Austin is growing and fast. But my question has to deal with the government and the housing market as a whole. With the government printing money at will, completely devaluing the dollar, and with national debt out of control. One day these issues will come to head and completely blow up, that day may be soon approaching with people starting to lose faith in the dollar (ie. China, Russia). Do you see the housing market having a worse decline than it did in 2007? I think for Multi-Family properties it will not effect as much as single-Family properties. Does this give you pause as a real estate investor? How do you feel moving forward with where the economy will be going?
Thanks for everything...
Michael Oakley
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