Develop Austin Texas

The 2010 Texas Construction Outlook, released last week my McGraw-Hill, expects a 30% increase in Austin’s construction starts, and a 16% increase statewide, for a $52.5 billion industry. Austin is leading the other metropolitan areas, with Houston expecting a 17% boost, Dallas 16%, El Paso 8% and San Antonio 6%.

The biggest category for growth is expected to be in residential housing. Single family housing starts will increase by 31%, and multifamily by 34%. Nonresidential housing construction is expected to slip 1%, but public works and utilities should increase by 21%, boosted by federal stimulus funding.

For more than 100 years, McGraw-Hill “has compiled project and product information, plans and specifications and industry news and forecasts” to make their predictions.

Now is a great time to invest in development land in Austin and central Texas.

Pictured: The Falls – 315 Acres on Lake Travis

Sandy Ranch

CNN Money’s article “What Housing Bust?” covers what areas of the nation have done well in the housing market, and why. According to writer Les Christie, areas with plenty of available developable land have smaller swings between home price highs and lows. This is because, when the demand for housing spikes, home builders are able to build more homes and keep the housing prices in check. Speed is also of the essence here, home builders need to be able to build quickly, thus, the need for available land.

“Elasticity of supply,” this is called, according to Mark Fleming, chief economist for First American CoreLogic. And Christie says, it is the definition of Texas real estate, and similar throughout all the metro areas.

“Texas is the poster child for these ‘steady Eddie’ states. House prices during the past three years rose in all 26 metro areas with gains ranging from 2.8% for Dallas, the second largest metro area, to 9.7% in Houston, the largest, to a whopping 32.5% in Odessa.”

This is part of what is causing the metro areas in Texas, including Austin, to grow so rapidly. Landowners in the Austin area should continue to see their investments in high demand for buyers and developers.