A few links

• Did you know what is the current average Super Bowl ticket price? Current average ticket price for this year's Super Bowl is $4,375 (last year at this time the tickets were going for $2,624).
  
• A few forecasts for Tarrant County in 2011; among them - HEB is coming to DFW:

HEB opened its northern most grocery store in Burleson in 2010 and is set to open a Granbury location in 2011. Makens said the retailer – a household name throughout central and western Texas and the same company that produced Central Market – is poised to attack the Metroplex via its 500,000-square-foot distribution center on 158 acres in Terrell, and announced last year.

“I think that distribution center will be used to service the D-FW area,” Makens said. “… I don’t see HEB entering this market with just a few stores, not when you consider they are the second largest grocer in Texas and own over a 50 percent market share in San Antonio, a 60 percent market share in Austin, and 17 percent market share in Houston.

• From yesterday - Dallas-based AT&T's profit way down.
• Hyundai to move into 45,000 square feet offices in Plano.
• [Unrelated] A baseball player walks away from a guaranteed contract worth millions because he "has enough already". Have you ever heard of something like this?http://www.bizjournals.com/dallas/blog/2011/01/super-bowl-ticket-supply-stymies-cost.html

Homelessness in Dallas County

Apparently volunteers in the city of Dallas conduct an annual 'homeless census', conducting a physical count  of the homeless in the streets of Dallas County. Here is a chart with the numbers of the homeless from the last eight years' counts.

(Click chart for larger view)

Today Dallas is conducting its count for 2011, and the data will be available in the Spring.

• I wonder what explains the low numbers in 2008. Could it have to do with a particularly bad weather on the day of the count?

Data from the Dallas Morning News article.

A few links

• This or this is not(!) how Dallas was hoping to make news for hosting SuperBowl. I would have thought that the state of Chuck Norris would have had a better security plan for the pre-Superbowl activities!

• The Dallas Regional Chamber announces their goals for 2011-2015:

   * Add more total jobs than any other U.S. region between 2010 and 2015. 

   * Be a top five U.S. region for new technology jobs created between 2010 and 2015.

   * Improve the Dallas ISD high school graduation rate from the current 67 percent to 80 percent by 2015.

   * Increase the percentage of Dallas region residents who hold advanced degrees from the current 10 percent to 15 percent. 

• [Unrelated] I wonder what Shanghai's goals were 20 years ago. Whatever they were, the change is pretty dramatic:

Image is from here, and a hat tip to Marginal Revolution

Industrial property - DFW a barometer for the US

Interesting piece from a few days ago on the DFW industrial property market.

"Currently, the DFW vacancy rate stands at 12.2 percent, down from 14.5 percent at the bottom of the downturn. In normal times, a 12-percent vacancy rate would be a trigger point for development. ...

...trends in commercial real estate—which includes industrial properties—usually lag behind residential sector trends by one to two years...

[Developer from Jones Lang LaSalle Inc. Terry Darrow] is optimistic the DFW property market has found a bottom. Due to falling vacancies and little new supply, rental rates have begun to stabilize, he says. Rents are starting to show marginal improvement, and landlords are more reluctant to offer concessions to lure or keep tenants, he adds.

Darrow says that while 2011 will be a "firming year" for DFW industrial property, he doesn't expect the pendulum to swing the sellers' way until the very end of 2011 or the start of 2012. He advises companies looking to make a deal in the market to act sooner rather than later.

"If you are ever going to consider a move, now is the time," he says. "

More about Texas job gains

Following up yesterday's post on total job creation in Texas in 2010, here is a look at which industries generated jobs in Texas in 2010.

Top gaining Texas industries by job growth in 2010:

• Mining and Logging (14.8% growth in jobs; most of this in oil and gas, I suppose?)
• Construction (5% growth)
• Manufacturing (3.4%)

The same industries also added the largest numbers of positions in the month of December:

• Construction (8,700 jobs added in December; 32,300 added in 2010)
• Manufacturing (3,100 jobs in December; 28,000 added in 2010)
• Mining and Logging (1,400 jobs in December; 29,400 added in 2010)
• Leisure and Hospitality (6,600 jobs in December; 25,000 added in 2010)
• Other Services - automotive, computer, office machine, appliance repair (3,400 jobs added in December)

And just in case you are wondering, the number of people currently working in Texas is 12.2 million (the Texas Labor Force)
(Info from Texas Business)

Texas adds 230,800 jobs in 2010

Texas added 230,800 jobs in 2010. That is more than twice as many jobs than the second biggest job-adding state - California. There are weak spots in Texas economy to be sure, but it is good to see some job gains coming back.

Click here for a sortable database of states by job gains.

A few links

• A dozen new restaurants opening in Dallas - that has got to be a good sign for the local economy. 

• The Houston Chronicle explains why banks like Texas. 

"All along, we have believed this is a market to be in," said Manolo Sanchez, an executive of BBVA Compass, a Spanish banking giant that started acquiring banks in Texas in 2005 and now controls about 6 percent of the state's deposits. "We could have bought assets in other states. We chose this state. There are so many great things about Texas. It underscores what we've been saying all along: This is the right place to grow. ...

"We're pretty bullish on the state," Houston [Chase] region chairman Mike Ballases said. Stressing that a bank "can't outperform the economy it's in," Ballases said Texas benefits from a strongly pro-business political and economic environment, as well as increasing globalization. The latter, he said, helps places like the Port of Houston by boosting international trade. Demographics are another Texas strength. The latest census figures show the state grew 20.6 percent over the last decade, more than double the rate of the U.S. overall." (more here)

• Australian Qantas Airlines cutting flights to San Francisco and connecting Sydney to DFW instead, starting May 16, 2011. At 8578 this will be the longest Boeing 747 route in the world. Welcome, Qantas! 

Home prices in 20 metro areas

Calculated Risk reports that DFW home prices are down 8.9% from their peak. This is not as bad as any of the other 19 metro areas included in the Case-Shiller index, but still - an 8.9% drop is to be taken seriously.

Did you know Texas is 'bigger' than Russia?

Ok, so Texas may not be bigger than Russsia geographically, but it does produce more GDP than Russia. See Economist's map of country GDPs compared to the US states' "GDP", where the US states are compared to the GDPs of various nations for some interesting comparisons:

"GDP" of Texas - $1,145 billion
GDP of Russia - $1, 232 biollion

Texas Instruments upbeat

Texas Instruments narrowly beats market estimates, and the CEO believes that "shallow downturn" in its business (October 2010-December 2010) is "mostly complete":

Then, in October, the company warned that the market was weakening, and that its outlook for this year was cautious. Demand for chips for laptop computers, hard disk drives and televisions started to look poor, while chips for video games and smart phones stayed in strong demand.

But on Monday, CEO Rich Templeton said the fall's downturn now looks "mostly complete." The company used it to replenish its inventories and return product lead-times to normal, he said.

Texas instruments market capitalization is 41 Billion and the company has almost 12,000 employees in Texas.

A few links

1. Automobile sales to small businesses increase in Ft. Worth and in the nation - a sign of durable goods orders picking up. Reported by the Fort Worth Star Telegram.

"General Motors reported Friday that its Chevrolet division saw a 36 percent increase in sales to small businesses in the fourth quarter, three times the rate of growth of auto sales overall."

2. Another sign of stronger durable goods sales - firms are upgrading their computer systems and buying more iPads for their business.

"Corporate spending on technology helped IBM Corp. beat analyst expectations last week. On Tuesday, IBM said that its 7 percent jump in revenue came in part from companies in the U.S. upgrading their computer systems. Its stock jumped almost 4 percent last week. ...

Corporations “are adding iPads to their approved device list at an amazing rate,” Peter Oppenheimer, Apple Inc.’s chief financial officer, told analysts Tuesday. Apple’s products, more known for their consumer appeal, are now used in by employees of Wells Fargo, Archer Daniels Midland, DuPont and others."

3. More good news for Texas (as compared to worse-faring parts of the country): significantly less 'distressed property sales' in Texas than in the nation as a whole or than in California, Nevada, Arizona. While 66% of all property sales in California are 'distressed sales', only 29% in Texas match that description.

"Distressed property sales were not distributed evenly around the country. In California, a state hit hard by the foreclosure crisis, an enormous 66% of all transactions tracked in December involved distressed properties. The combined area of Arizona and Nevada similarly suffered, with 62% of transactions being distressed. However, in the oil-producing states of Texas, Oklahoma, and Louisiana, only 29% of transactions were distressed."

DFW among the 20 best performing US metro areas

This from Brookings Institute's ranking of metro areas by overall economic performance. The rankings are done based on employment change from peak, unemployment rate change from 3 years ago, metro 'gdp' change from peak, and housing price index from peak.

DFW is bouncing back from the recession stronger than most US metro areas. Dots in blue indicate strongest performance.

Hat tip to Forbes. They have a nice slide-show and an article regarding the strongest areas. They write that metros that are strongest "tend to be hubs for government activity, energy, logistics and, in some cases, technology growth."

A few links for today

1. Fonality, a small to midsize company phone system maker, is moving from LA to Plano.

“Dallas/Fort Worth is an exceptional market for a rapidly growing technology company like Fonality,” said CEO, Dean Mansfield. “... North Texas has a rich technology community, an outstanding workforce and a business-friendly atmosphere to help us drive effective change in how companies communicate.”
“It is simply terrific that Fonality is moving its headquarters to Plano,” said Matt Shaheen, Collin County Commissioner, Precinct No.1. “We’re seeing many companies expressing an interest in this area, given the friendly business environment and highly educated workforce.”
“We have been a Fonality customer for three years,” said Eugene Grayfer, Veritas Home Health. “Their technology is changing the face of business communications and it is a great testament to Dallas/Fort Worth to have them move to our community.” (from Fonality Press Release)

2. Texas adds 20,000 jobs in December. Main gains in goods-producing, manufacturing and mining, as well as in leisure and hospitality. This brings the Texas unemployment rate to 8.3 percent, and the DFW rate to 7.9 percent.

3. Ross Perot Jr. expressed optimism for DFW and Texas economy for 2011. Mr. Perot said upcoming Superbowl, green shoots in the DFW residential real estate market, and also gridlocked US Congress and efforts to control spending would all help the local economy.

Proposed $31 bil. Texas Budget Cuts

The Star Telegram has an article on the proposed Texas budget cuts in the 2012-2013 biennium.
Among notes of interest:

• With 646,815 employees, Texas public school system would be the fifth largest employer in the world
• Texas has a labor force of 12.2 workers
• DFW (with a population of 6.8 million and a Texas average of 122 government workers per 10,000 population), has around 557,000 state and government workers

The complete article is here.

People drive less in Recessions

Texas A&M Texas Transportation Institute publishes an interesting account of the miles driven in the US each year. I pulled out the miles driven in DFW and charted the data against recessions. People in DFW clearly drove less during the 07-09 recession. It is interesting that the highway miles were not impacted as much as the "byways miles" (arterials).

(Click image for a larger view)

Dallas data from the study can be found here.

Did you notice a drop and a subsequent rise in road congestion?

The economic impact of the Superbowl

A nicely paced promotional video from the city of Dallas.

A few links

• Container Store once again makes it on the list of Fortune's best company's to work for. Other local businesses on the list are Ernst&Young, Four Seasons, Balfour Beatty Construction, and a few others. List here.
• Dallas Federal Reserve Bank's Fisher argues that "Congress and the Obama administration need to do more to make fiscal and regulatory policy more amenable to job creation".  More in an interview here.
• Superbowl's impact on the DFW area may be as much as $611 million (DFW's economy is about $350 billion in size, so the Superbowl would add about $0.2% in output).
• Dallas Streetcar project (North Oak Cliff to Union Station) to bring $23 million in transportation funds to Dallas.
• UNRELATED: a 6 foot monument to an octopus? 

Dallas Home sales

Dallas Morning News reports Dallas area home sales for 2010 Q4. A nice interactive map lists sales by

• %change in quantity of homes sold over previous year
• Median price and price % change change over previous year
• Median number of days on the market
• Median price per square foot

Median price has stayed flat or increased in almost all areas, but the numbers of homes sold went up only in North Dallas, Grapevine, Southlake, Westlake, and Colleyville.

Click map (change in numbers sold) for an interactive view.

http://www.dallasnews.com/business/area-home-sales/index.jsp

Texas Economy

January Report from the Dallas Fed shows that the economic outlook for Texas is improving slightly.
Employment growth is small but positive:

Home sales are flat to slightly up in all major metro areas in Texas. Note the comparative size of the four metro area housing markets!

(both charts from the Fed report).

NFL and NASCAR are 'substitutable'

DFW is home to multiple sports facilities, and fans, apparently, view at least some of them as good substitutes.

Recently, discussing the impact of the new Dallas Cowboys stadium on the other sports facilities in DFW, the Texas Motor Speedway president Eddie Gossage admitted that fans who used to frequent the speedway are perhaps now going to watch football instead.

Gossage has seen a drop-off of casual fans that catapulted NASCAR to a major boon not too long ago. Selling tickets to the massive superspeedway has become more difficult and in no small part to the sports competition in the area. 

Gossage didn't hold back when he said, "That giant sucking sound you hear fans is Cowboys Stadium. The Cowboys are sucking up all the money and making things more difficult."

(from ESPN Dallas/Fort Worth)