The Texas economy historically dominates this
region. This year was no exception as the state
had the largest project breaking ground this year
with the $1.6 billion expansion of an oil refinery
in Port Arthur, and a big boost in single-family
building permits with solid growth in Houston (up 11%
to 10,590 permits) and Dallas (up 9% to 16,500 permits),
the nation’s two largest homebuilding markets. Houston’s
office market is
in better shape than
Dallas’ (25.6% vacancy)
with its 12.6%
office vacancy rate.
Outside of Texas, the
housing recovery is
pretty slow in most of this region’s major metropolitan
areas. Louisiana and Oklahoma are getting a share of the
nonresidential market in 2010, with a $214 million hospital
breaking ground earlier this year in Baton Rouge, La., and
two big-dollar wind farms under construction in Oklahoma
worth an estimated $430 million in construction contracts,
according to McGraw-Hill Construction. Unemployment
is tracking below the national average in this region.
