A recent Forbes article has ranked Austin as the number two city for Big City Job Growth. In fairness Dallas was ranked number one, but then of course one would have to live in Dallas! The Austin job was cited as having a 3.4 % job growth in 2017 and reportedly grew jobs at 39% since 2006. What is interesting is that the article stated that the tech industry wasn’t the biggest sector of the job growth; it was in fact professional and business services which grew 37.1% since 2006. The article went on to state that Austin’s expansion is fueled by population growth (now which comes first, the chicken or the egg?) which showed the strongest increase in cities with populations of 1 million or more. This influx of new Austinites created jobs in retail, construction trades, and financial services. So the old adage of “success breeds success” holds true. And of course these jobs bring diversity to the job market.

The flip of the coin is what is happening on the west coast and especially in Silicon Valley. Silicon Valley is in fourth place and the article stated that the San Francisco-Redwood City area dropped from being number two and has landed at number eight. Seattle always a contender, is in ninth place. The article went on to state that what is hurting the west coast is the high cost of living and that Seattle may be pricing out potential new residents.

Speaking of prices, the Austin area, has seen an approximate 7% home price increase in 2017 and this is of course discouraging some folks from buying a house. But our prices are well below those of Seattle and the Bay Area, so those migrants to our fair area can, in most cases buy a house if they are being transferred to the Austin area if they want to do so. However many are millennials and would rather rent then buy at least in the near future.

All of this sets up a perfect reason for owning Austin area residential real estate.

Rick Ebert / Austin, Texas / 8 May 18