As the largest state in the country, It’s not surprising that Texas is the also the largest home building market. Often surpassing the rest of the country in housing sales, The state offers many new homes from builders in a market that is relatively stable for an unstable economy. With cities as Houston, Dallas, San Antonio and Austin continuing to increase in population; new homes are being built every day.

The state can be separated into many different geographical regions: the Gulf Coast, East Texas, West Texas, North Texas, South Texas, Central Texas, and the Panhandle. Its regions are as vast and different as can be expected from a state that’s 270,000 sq miles. Every region offers its own culture and experiences ranging from the coastal life of the Gulf Coast to the rugged cowboy life of the Rocky foothills. With so much to offer, many people are finding Texas a great place to live or visit. Major attractions such as the historical Alamo or the music festival Austin City Limits bring people to Texas every year. Cities like Houston, Dallas and Austin offer great opportunities and communities that are great places to live. The state economy is also doing much better than most of the rest of the country. And with such affordable housing and opportunities for employment, it’s no surprise that the housing marketing is doing so well. Read more »

In a recent report by Hanley Wood on the healthiest housing markets in 2009, cities such as Austin, San Antonio, and Houston were rated in the top 5. Austin is rated #1 largely due to its 4.3% population increase and relatively low unemployment rate. Other cities in the state boast a similar story for population increases and low unemployment rates with San Antonio (rated #2) at a 2.8% population growth and Houston (rated #4) with a low 7.8% unemployment rate. A more detailed look at this report is available here.

Sales Trends
As the largest housing market in the country, new home sales are much higher than the rest of the country. The Houston area itself had a total of 42,627 closings for 2008. 13,793 of these closings were from top builders which included; Lennar Corp (2,736), Perry Homes (1,627), and Long Lake Ltd (1,359). Austin and Dallas areas boasted similar home sales with 14,250 closings in Austin and 26,145 closings in Dallas. No other state provided home sales similar to this in 2008.

Other Key Trends
The construction of new homes provides plenty of opportunities for employment. With the highest housing sales in the country, Texas has a large amount of new jobs developing. The success of areas like Houston and Austin is largely attributed to their low unemployment rates. Half of the new jobs created in the country last year were in actually in Texas, most of these related to the housing market.  « Close »