Lately, there are only positive things to hear about when it comes to Houston and Austin, TX. Boyce Thompson of BuilderOnline.com just published an article outlining the top fifteen home markets for 2009, and Houston and Austin took number one and number two, respectively. Together with Hanley Wood Market Intelligence, Builder Magazine displayed their metric for determining the markets with the best and least potential.
Here is the news for Houston homes:
2008 Total Building Permits: 42,697
They like to do things big in Houston. Now the metro area, home to nearly 5.8 million people, can lay claim to being the largest home building market in the country, with 42,697 building permits. The market is still benefiting from an influx of population and jobs and rebuilding in the wake of Hurricane Ike. Employment rose 2.2 percent last year, representing the addition of an incredible 57,000 jobs. Home building activity in Houston has only fallen 31 percent since 2005. Also, existing home prices actually rose in Houston last year, 2.8 percent, to $160,200, still a very affordable level. Roughly one third of the home building action is in Harris County, followed by Houston proper and Fort Bend County. Here is the news for Austin homes:
2008 Total Building Permits: 14,250
Nine years ago, during the tech bust, some builders felt that Austin was too crowded and left. The bloom is back on Austin&rsquorsquo;s yellow rose now; it moved up the leader board to become the sixth largest home building market last year. Job creation explains the move. While other markets lost employment, Austin added 17,400 jobs last year, 2.31 percent growth rate. It helps that Austin is home to both a major university, The University of Texas, and the state capital. Existing homes cost a little bit more in Austin than other Texas markets, roughly $190,900, but that’s still below the national average. Also, Austin is one of the few metro areas in the country where median prices actually rose in 2008--1.4 percent through the first three quarters of the year. Amazingly, Austin now generates more home building activity than Chicago, which has six times more people.
To read the entire article and view the rest of the cities, read here. Texas was the absolute star of the show, with San Antonio, Fort Worth, and Dallas taking the next highest spots!