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2011 West South Central Regional Forecast

Nov. 1, 2010
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

West South Central Regional Forecast

Arkansas • Louisiana • Oklahoma • Texas

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.

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