Greater Houston Partnership: 12 to 18 More Months Before Recovery

Houston will likely end 2015 with 9,200 job losses, according to Greater Houston Partnership VP Patrick Jankowski. (Patrick keynoted Transwestern's Trendlines event Thursday; we snapped him with Transwestern CEO Larry Heard.) We're coming off five years of unprecedented growth, in which Houston added $110B to our economy. (Austin's whole economy is $115B.) We created 490,000 jobs in that time, or one job every five minutes for the last five years. This year will be negative, and Patrick predicts that won't let up for another 12 to 18 months at least. (Even when oil prices pick up, there will be a lag before hiring resumes.)

Manufacturing is suffering the most so far, with 14,500 jobs lost since December. Despite that, Patrick predicts industrial vacancy will remain below 6%. On the other hand, office vacancy could reach 20%, and he thinks multifamily occupancy will dip below 90% next year. Don't just write off 2016, though, he says—we'll still see population growth, we haven't broadly overbuilt, and this will not be a repeat of the '80s, or even '09.

Continue reading this story with a free account

Log in or register
Sign up for more articles like this
Subscribe to Bisnow's Houston Newsletters
Related Stories

The Wideman Co. Buys Downtown Tower From Brookfield: The Houston Deal Sheet

Forget Buildings, Retailers Are Leasing Environments

Private Equity Firm Buys Former Texas Instruments Campus For New Headquarters

Willy Walker: Data Shows Economic Resilience, Multifamily Rebound

Down On The Corner: How Long-Term Thinking Can Help Developers Make The Most Of Every Square Foot

Williams Tower Acquired For $300M In Largest Single-Property Office Sale Since 2019

Law Firm Ups Downtown Footprint To 139K SF: The Houston Deal Sheet

Artis Montrose, Disco Kroger Site Multifamily Redevelopment, Tops Out

Houston's Competitive Retail Market Brings Quick Backfills, In Most Cases

AI Infrastructure Manufacturer Building 400K SF Projects In Pearland

New H-E-B To Anchor Signorelli Co. Development In New Caney

Pharmaceutical Manufacturing Project Coming To Sugar Land: The Houston Deal Sheet