I’ve talked about jobs before and I’ll talk about them again and again.  Jobs drive the real estate market.  Healthy job growth usually leads to a healthy real estate market.  That is exactly what is happening in the Austin area.  Defined, the Austin area I am talking about is the Austin MSA, which is made up of Travis, Williamson, Hays, Bastrop and Caldwell Counties.

 

The economic forecast for 2007 for the Austin area looks great.  According to Rakesh Shanker, a senior economist for Moody’s Economist.com., our area should see job growth in the second quarter of next year take off.  The Austin area’s job growth rate so far this year is 2.8%  Numbers from the Texas Workforce Commission November report showed our five county area to have an unemployment rate of just 3.7%. 

Some of the small towns in the Austin area have seen stunning growth from 2000 to 2005.  Hutto, northeast of Austin, grew at a whopping 492%.  Kyle, to the south, grew at a rate of 233%.  Bee Cave, west of Austin, grew 135%.  Leander, northeast of Austin, grew at a rate of 129%.  Manor, east of Austin, grew at a rate of 61%.  Overall, the Austin MSA grew over 40% from 1995 to 2005.  These figures are from the Real Estate Center at Texas A&M.   

 

According to the U.S. Census Bureau, Texas is the 5th fastest growing state, picking up an additional 579,275 people between July 1, 2005 and July 1, 2006.  According to Texas Higher Education Data.org, the central Texas area will grow to a population of over 3 million by 2015. In addition to jobs, people are coming here to retire and to have second homes.  Many are buying second homes to be near children and grand children.  The 2006 list of best cities to live in from CNNMoney.com had Austin in the number 2 spot.  The list compares things like housing, quality of life, education, leisure and culture and weather. This is all quite impressive, but how does it relate to the real estate market?

  

According to the Austin Board of REALTORS® (ABoR), we have seen 24,881 single-family homes sold through November, 2006.  That is up 10% over the same time period last year.  The dollar volume of single-family home sales so far this year is almost $6 billion.  That represents a 21% increase over the same time period last year.  Our average price for single-family homes through November is almost $236,000, an increase of 10% over last year.

 

One thing I found fascinating while researching all of this is that one of the entitles hiring this year in the area is the U.S. Census Bureau.  This summer, they were looking to hire and train 1,500 locals for the 2006 count.

 

It has been interesting watching the Austin MSA grow. I think we’re doing pretty well compared to the country as a whole and we’re doing much better than some other MSAs.