Dive Brief:
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Homebuilders in Houston are still busy, even though the oil companies around them are laying off employees as oil prices hover near six-year lows, the CEO of the Greater Houston Builders Association, Toy Wood, told the Houston Business Journal this week.
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Builders there continue to try to meet a backlog of demand fueled by the influx of residents since the oil boom began, Wood said. “Builders are still working on catching up,” she told the newspaper. “There will still be more housing built because there isn’t enough right now.”
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As work on the oil fields continues to wane, the pace of job creation in Houston will slow. Still, the city has estimated that local businesses will create 62,900 jobs in 2015.
Dive Insight:
While job creation spurs demand for housing, “builders are probably going to be a little more cautious this year” as Houston’s oil-dependent economy finds its footing, Wood predicts. Still, Texas A&M University economists at the school’s Real Estate Center have predicted that Houston builders will start more than 30,000 homes this year, about 8,000 fewer than last year.
Wood called that “a good, solid number.”