NATIONAL ECONOMY The overall outlook in early 2024 is notably more positive in comparison to forecasts made entering last year, as economic indicators continually defied recessionary predictions, despite additional headwinds emerging. The Federal Reserve's goal of an economic soft landing appears achievable, with most economists anticipating a year of soft, but steady, growth. This cautious...

AUSTIN Corporate Investments Boost Young Renter Population Economic Trends Long-term employment growth in Austin is aided by companies like Tesla, Apple and Oracle relocating or expanding here. Other projects like Samsung's semiconductor factory underway in Taylor will deliver this year, drawing new residents to staff the facility and support local self-storage demand while employees settle....

Economic Trends Hiring tempered in June and July of 2023 as San Antonio's year-to-date employment growth rate ebbed to 1.2 percent. Net losses in the leisure and hospitality, as well as manufacturing, industries were offset by notable gains within the education and health services sector. While the overall pace of hiring remains moderate during the...

Economic Trends During the first half of this year, health care and social assistance organizations expanded staff counts by 17,000 positions, the largest increase among local industries. This helped Houston's unemployment rate hold below the 4.7 percent mark for the 19th consecutive month in July, a feat that has only been achieved immediately before the...

Economic Trends Roughly 110,000 new employees will be added to the Metroplex's workforce in 2023, the largest improvement among major U.S. markets. This increase, however, will be less than half the gain made last year as companies continue to feel the effects of elevated lending costs and persistent inflation. Slowed hiring efforts, paired with resuming...

Economic Trends Employment growth in the Austin metro continued to exceed its 3.8 percent historical average over the year ended in June, expanding 4.4 percent. This was bolstered by a net gain of more than 17,000 personnel in business and professional services jobs. Hiring is set to slow over the remaining six months of 2023,...

Economic Soft Landing Helps Bolster Self-Storage Outlook   Economic forces normalizing demand The self-storage sector is transitioning from the powerful tailwinds created by the pandemic and pent-up household formation to a more normal, seasonal demand climate. Elevated residential mortgage rates, which doubled in less than 20 months, together with reduced consumer sentiment, moderated household formation...

Austin Market: Continual Inflow of New Residents Drives Demand   Economic Overview Austin's job count will continue to climb this year, albeit at a reduced pace. Several large companies are currently expanding in the market, which will support construction-related hiring over the near term and higher-paying job creation beyond 2023. Apple is one such firm,...

The capital markets are the biggest wild card of the group. A few weeks ago, it looks like we finally had a clear path towards stability. But then we received a better than expected jobs report, the Fed chair signaled further aggressive rate hikes, and the 16th largest bank in the United States collapsed. On...

And finally, investment sales. What's going on with buyers, sellers and pricing? Now the volatility of the capital markets really slowed down transaction volume in Q4 of last year, but we're starting to pick up steam now and we really expect that momentum to continue over the next 6 to 12 months. Currently, we've got...