The Healthiest Markets in 2011

Gathering Strength: The Healthiest Markets for 2011
posted in BUILDER 2011 magazine


7. Houston-Sugar Land-Baytown, TX

Market Health Indicator: 77.3

2011 Building Permit Forecast: 34,763

Percent Change in Building Permits: 30%

Hear this--things are looking up in Houston. Home prices have stabilized. Employment will grow by a robust 2.66% this year, and cut the unemployment rate by nearly half a percent. Median incomes will rise strongly, by 3.33%. And building permit activity will increase by nearly a third.

Houstonians make good money. The median income here, $56,500, is about $10,000 above per capita income for the state. More than 3,000 energy-related firms are located in the MSA, the center of business for the U.S. oil and natural gas industries.

Houston showed 35,800 foreclosure filings last year, according to RealtyTrac, one out of 62 households. That may lead to a small decrease in median existing home prices which crept up to $153,000 last year. Even so, that's about where they were in 2007, at the height of the market.

Houston is a huge market for new homes, one of the biggest in the nation, even though last year it produced only about a third of the 71,000 permits pulled in 2006. The large volume of activity here has attracted more than one national builder during the downturn.