The Texas Draw, God Blessed Texas!

God Blessed Texas!

Says the song by the band, Little Texas.  So, let’s count our blessings.

France-Texas-Italy

Texas would be the ninth largest economy in the world, if we were a sovereign nation, with the 2023 state GDP of $2.52-trillion, which is ahead of Italy’s at $2.3-trillion and just behind France at $3.2-trillion. Texas is actually growing at a 4.5% rate, ahead of the U.S. economy’s rate of 2.5%. Perhaps in another 10 years, Texas will pass France and start gaining on the U.K

Texas – Top Business Climate in the U.S.

Texas has been named the Top Business Climate in the U.S. and the Best State for Business for 19 straight years by the nation’s C.E.O.’s  And, to back that up, Texas is home to the most headquarters of publicly traded companies of any other state, and home to nearly 100 of the Fortune 1,000 list of largest companies.  Of course, there are the largest energy companies located here, like Exxon Mobile, Chevron, Shell U.S.A, Apache Oil, and our local Valero. But Texas is much more diversified than most people think, with oil and gas companies making up 9% of the total of Texas companies. Yet, Texas produces more energy from alternative sources, such as wind and solar, than even California.

Companies that recently moved their headquarters to Texas include McKesson (medical supplies) and Charles Schwab to Dallas; Hewlett-Packard and NRG Energy to Houston; Oracle and Tesla to Austin. Where are companies coming from? California – 88, New York – 13, Illinois- 9; Florida- 6 and Washington – 6.

Great Cities in Texas

Austin is the #2 fastest growing city as of 2022 at 4.3% and Dallas is fifth place. Currently, Austin shows GDP of $222-billion in 2022, rapidly growing from $141-billion in 2017.  In comparison, San Antonio’s GDP is now $163-billion. Why does Austin, with nearly the same population as San Antonio, have so much higher GDP? Higher incomes. We all know San Antonio’s lower incomes are a drag on our growth and this GDP measure is a graphic illustration. If we combine all of the GDP from the Austin-San Antonio Corridor, comprising 13 counties total, the Gross Metropolitan Product is $385-billion. But still much smaller than Houston and Dallas, at nearly $6-billion each, and ranking #5 and #6 nationally. On the bright side, San Antonio is more affordable than Austin or Dallas.

The Texas Draw

So, Texas is a great place to get a job and start a family. We added the most number of jobs of any state in the U.S. at 369,300 in 2023, and third in percentage rate at 1.6% annual growth rate, according to the Governor’s office. Texas had the largest number of move-ins, receiving nearly 473,453 new Texans, that is, 40,000 per month, or 1,300 per day! About 100,000 came from California in 2022. What is more, Zillow reports that Texas is the most attractive state to Gen Z’ers with a net gain of 76,000.

Texas Strong

All of this shows, that despite the slowdown in commercial construction in the past two years, there will continue to be steady demand for more space, more apartments and more new homes in Texas. I believe that the slowdown due to higher interest rates and compressed values will lead to a catch up in later 2024 and 2025. So- Roar thru ’24 to Thrive in ’25!