2005 SALES FORECAST +8.9% WEST SOUTH CENTRAL
Everything really does seem to be bigger in Texas when you look at the size of the Lone Star state's housing market. Through August of this year, Austin, Dallas, Houston and Fort Worth-Arlington — three of the largest markets for new homes in the country — had logged over 70,000 housing permits. The Austin housing market is up a whopping 81 percent through August 2004, with more than 12,000 total housing starts. That's more than the total number of housing starts in many smaller states. On the flip-side, the office market in Houston and Dallas continued to be a Texas-sized disappointment, with well over 20 percent of offices vacant. The oil patch is doing well. Louisiana's rig count was up to 167 in July, compared to 158 a year ago, and the Texas rig count hit 532 for this month, up 60 rigs since November 2003. Louisiana is also looking forward to the construction of a $100 million tank railcar manufacturing facility that will create 700 manufacturing jobs by 2006.
(in millions of dollars)