The top four metropolitan areas for job gains in July stayed the same (with Dallas ranking No. 3) for the third consecutive month. Houston returned to the top five job-gain metros, jumping from No. 8 in June. Houston has increased its annual total each of the past two months, says Axiometrics’ Ron Johnsey. Dallas (up 13 bps with more than 94,000 jobs) was essentially unchanged. Meanwhile, Houston (down 124 bps with almost 65,000 jobs) had lower annual job growth than the previous year, he tells us.

Axiometrics real estate economist Chuck Ehmann (ready for some football) says that Big D's strong job gains over the past few years have spurred commercial real estate activity in all property sectors, but the apartment and office sectors have benefited most. There don't appear to be any immediate threats to the population migration and job gains in Dallas, at least in the short-term, Chuck tells us. Houston's job gains have slowed due to the sudden drop in oil prices last summer, but are still solid and may be returning to more sustainable levels, he says. The losses incurred in the energy sector appear to be subsiding, but he anticipates some lingering weakness through the end of '15 as the oil price shock ripples throughout the Houston economy. Other key employment industries such as tech, healthcare and bioscience are continuing to generate jobs, reflecting Houston's economic diversity.