Construction to drive job growth in Texas, U.S.

TEXAS – Construction will continue to be the main driver of job growth in Texas and across the country.

“Construction is only getting started,” IHS Global Insight economist Steven Frable said about the employment and housing market rebound. “As the housing rebound continues and housing starts increase this year and in all of 2014, we expect the construction sector to start posting double-digit gains in most states.”

Nine states, including Texas, already are at or above their pre-recession peak employment. IHS ranked Texas No. 3 for its annual job growth rate of 3 percent as of May.

“Texas is so large with highly diversified industries — combined with the relatively low cost of land and low taxes, it only makes sense that it is doing well,” Frable said.

Most states will recover recessionary job losses by 2014 or 2015. Only two states — Michigan and Rhode Island — will not regain those jobs until 2018 or later.

Texas and four other states — Colorado, North Dakota, Oklahoma and South Dakota — have exceeded their pre-recession home price peaks. In the first quarter of this year, Texas prices were up 5 percent from their pre-recession peak.

A separate report issued by CoreLogic Inc. said Texas home prices were 2 percent off from their pre-recession peak. The average U.S. home price was 14.2 percent below where it was before the recession, CoreLogic said.

CoreLogic and IHS use different data sources and methodology.

In Dallas-Fort Worth, median home prices have risen to a record $185,820.