According to the Real Estate Center at Texas A&M University, the Texas economy gained 133,100 jobs from August 2009 to August 2010. During the same period, the U.S. economy added 278,000 jobs. Texas produced 48% of all the new jobs in the country in the past year. The state’s private sector posted an annual employment growth rate of 1.4 compared with 0.3 percent for the United States.
The population of Texas is growing faster than any other state. Political and economic conditions are preventing new housing from being created. Occupancy rates in Dallas have increased over 3% in the past year. Many economists are forecasting a housing shortage and rising rents.
The Dallas-Fort Worth area’s population has grown by nearly 1.3 million from 2000 -2009. That is more than any other metropolitan area in the United States. The Dallas-Fort Worth-Arlington MSA is the largest metropolitan area in Texas, the largest in the South, the fourth-largest in the United States (SOURCE: Wikipedia on DFW) The Dallas, TX metro is forecasted to add 4 million new people from 2010 – 2040 according to the Texas Data Center and the North Texas Water Board. That’s one new person every 4 minutes!!! In 2009, the population of Texas grew by 231,539. That is more growth than Florida, Arizona, California, Nevada and Colorado, combined. A demographer at the Brookings Institution attributes the population growth to a more diversified economy in Texas and more conservative lending practices during the real estate boom. When combined with the state’s steady growth earlier in the decade, Texas is projected to receive three new seats in Congress. SOURCE: Recession Cuts Migration to Sun Belt, New Figures Show New York Times
Part of our series of articles on investing in Dallas