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Longhorns-Trojans: The Real Estate Showdown

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Texas Rose Bowl Victory

What if this Saturday's matchup between the Longhorns and the Trojans was measured by square feet added rather than yards gained?

No fan could forget the University of Texas’ sweet, sweet victory over the No. 1-ranked USC Trojans at the Rose Bowl in 2006, in front of a crowd of 93,000 screaming fans.

That matchup between two unbeaten rivals is considered to be the finest national championship of all time, pitting quarterback Vince Young and Texas safety Michael Hull against Heisman trophy winners quarterback Matt Leinart and running back Reggie Bush. The 41-38 victory, won in the last 19 seconds of the game, was Texas’ first national championship since 1970.

Saturday will be the first meeting between the Trojans and Longhorns since that 2006 showdown, and fans want it to live up to its hype. The Los Angeles Times is running a four-part series on the game and its players.

Meanwhile, NAI Partners has put together a few figures that pit Austin against Los Angeles on the real estate front, which some of us in the Live Music Capital of the World would consider akin to pitting David against Goliath.

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Courtesy of NAI Partners

And yet actually is not. According to the numbers, Austin has delivered and absorbed more square feet of office space than Los Angeles, year-to-date. Austin has absorbed 1.2M SF and delivered 1.8M SF, while Los Angeles ended up putting 600K SF back on the market and delivering only 1.4M SF.

Austin’s price and vacancy rate also are lower, which makes Austin look rather good, as long as you do not consider that Los Angeles market has four times the total available office space.

Los Angeles’ industrial market is tighter, putting up a positive 1.1M SF in net absorption and delivering a staggering 2.7M SF in industrial space, year-to-date. Asking rates are similar in the two markets, but the vacancy rate for industrial in Los Angeles is just over 2%.

Industrial also is a far bigger driver in the commercial real estate market, with the City of Angels closing in on 1B SF of industrial space, compared to Austin’s 100M SF.

Current odds are the Longhorns will lose by 17 points. But Austin's office market is winning in this comparison.