Today we're sharing the most important takeaways from the recent Houston Market Report - December Volume - prepared by the Greater Houston Partnership.

In their words, "The external factors that drive Houston’s growth―energy prices, the ongoing U.S. expansion, and global growth―still align in Houston’s favor. The internal factors―net migration, construction, consumer confidence―fall into place as well. Houston should enjoy healthy economic growth in ’19, and barring a U.S. or global downturn, or a collapse in oil prices, that growth should continue into ’20."

Simply put: the Houston market is growing and it's growing fast. The Greater Houston Partnership forecasts the metro Houston area will create "71,000 jobs in ’19." The reality of this growth has already hit close to home--as two siblings plan a move down to Houston in the spring for new employment.

Here's a compilation of the most relevant highlights from the two reports:

Houston Q4 Highlights

• Projected 3.2 million payroll jobs by end of 2018 (net increase exceeds 600k over past 10 yrs)
• Biggest growing sectors: construction, healthcare, and administrative services
• Estimated 71,000 jobs will be created in 2019 with at least 120,000 new residents
• Oil prices fell by 75% but didn't drastically effect commercial real estate
• Developers have delivered 53 million sq ft over the past five years. 75% of retail under construction is pre-leased
• Houston reached 2nd in Nation in single-family housing starts (behind Dallas-Fort Worth)
• $8.7 billion approved in city, county and school district construction
• Both the leasing of office space as well as home sales and consumer rentals have grown with the population
• With increased sales tax, Houston’s charter limits growth in property tax revenues to the combined rates of inflation and population growth, or 4.5% (whichever is lower).
• Local realtors sold 90,868 homes through November, up 4.8% from the 86,738 sold over the same period in ’17.

All information above is credited to the following reports:

• The Economy at a Glance: Houston [December 2018]
• 2019 Houston Employment Forecast