I recently had the pleasure of attending a HAR event in which Dr. Ted C. Jones delivered a presentation on the Outlook of Real Estate and the Economy for 2016. Dr. Jones is the Chief Economist and Senior Vice President at Stewart Title Guaranty Company. He previously served as chief economist at Texas A&M University’s Real Estate Center. It’s always good to hear from a bright mind and simply take in all the knowledge and expertise they have to give. I’m excited to pass along to you a little of what I learned in this series of posts on his talk.

One of the biggest takeaways from Dr. Jones’ talk is that jobs are up, despite what seems to be the common assumption to the contrary. And not just up, but they are actually now the highest ever!

In the United States as a whole, based on statistics from the twelve months prior to the end of November 2015, the number of jobs were up 1.88 percent. With that increase, U.S. jobs grew to their largest number in history. And, maybe to your surprise, jobs were up in Houston as well. Increasing 0.88 percent in Houston over that same period, Houston jobs also reached their highest ever total.

Now this may not seem like a big deal to some of you as it only amounts to 23,600 net new jobs in the fourth largest city in America. But, while the number of jobs in Houston did not jump a remarkable amount over the last twelve months, they were still up over 2014, when it seemed like the city’s job growth was all you would hear about. In 2015, much of what we heard about in Houston is how oil prices were causing massive job losses. This naturally led many people to assume that jobs must have been down in our city over the past year. But Houston’s diverse economy still managed to deliver a rise in the number of jobs despite the struggling oil sector.

The layoffs in the oil industry have hit hard, and we cannot understate the impact as numerous Houstonians have lost their jobs. Dr. Jones cited 35,000 lost jobs in 2015, with most of those coming from the oil/drilling business. But some of those who lost their oil jobs were lucky enough to find new ones in the petrochemical industry. In fact, the surging petrochemical industry was one of the leading reasons why Houston jobs increased in 2015, as petrochemical job gains were able to largely offset the losses from the oil sector. It’s reassuring to know that, even in a year when much of the news was focused on lost jobs, Houston found a way to increase its overall number of jobs.

Looking to buy or sell a home, or just have questions about the market? Always feel free to contact me at 713.829.3052 or cynthia@cynthiamullins.com.

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