Everywhere you turn these days, the ecomonic forecaster gurus are touting our wonderful city, and I just want to share some of this information with you.

Austin’s population growth this century (just under seven years don’t forget) has been truly great!  As an example, Dallas is the nations ninth largest city, but from 2005 to 2006, we added more citizens than Dallas did (almost 1,600 more).  Dallas gained about 17,800 people during that time, while our fair city added about 18,600 new happy folks!

Austin was the 6th fastest growing city in the nation from 2005 to 2006 (compared to Dallas coming in at number by actual count not as a percentage (percentages favor smaller cities).

Residential Strategies, Inc (RSI) says:  “Without question, the negative national housing story has adversely affected the Ausin consumer sentiment, and changes in the mortgage qualification process will limit the number of entry level buyers that can qualify for a house.  The key to Austin’s success continues to be that of job generation, with almost 30,000 net new jobs still being created in the market.  The ratio of jobs to housing starts remains a healthy 2:1 ratio.  As long as job growth continues at its current pace, the Austin market should hold up.”

Austin metro home values continut climbing steadily - in direct contrast to many other US cities, where home values are nose - diving and predicted to continue that freefall.

So what does all this mean?  We are already feeling the effects at my office from the sbu-prime mortgage issues.  Landlords are losing their houses, tenants are being displaced, and it is getting kind of ugly.  I really do not expect it to affect many of my clients or tenants, but one is too many for my liking.  It is just not a nice thing to happen.  I can also tell you that we are seeing more and more late rent payments, more checks not being honored at the tenants banks, and more excuses.  No matter what the issue, it is always my fault when the issue is with a tenant. 

Again, this is the third soft-market I have experienced, so I know that it will not really last that long, and when it is over, we will all be better off than we are today.

I just hope we all have learned something from this…

KEEP AUSTIN PROUD!