Sunday, December 31, 2006

Vacancy Downtown Houston Office Market

The CDB leasing activity led to a 90 basis points (bps) vacancy drop to 17.2% from 18.3% one year ago. The brisk leasing activity is being fueled by the stronge robust growth in the energy industry, which represents 50% of the Houston economic base and causing the current expansion also of insular industries in Law, Accounting and Job Staffing companies. Current market searching tenants should have their tenant rep. brokers lock into favorable rates on quality class 'A" space while the market bare and allow. Among property types, class "A" space continues to lead in occupancy gains. Third quarter CDB class "A" vacancy rates droped 470 bps to 16.3% from 21.0% a year ago. Suburban class 'A" rates also dropped from 14.1% to 11.9% in the third quarter.
EXPECTED ALL CLASS RATE TO CLIMB IN 2007!!!!! LOCK IN NOW CURRENT FAVORABLE RATES BEFORE HOUSTON RATES CATCH UP WITH THE REAT OF THE MAJOR U.S. MARKETS.

For more information and help see: www.hostonrealtyadvisors.net

Saturday, December 30, 2006

Year to date Absorption

Year to date Net Absorption is up 3.9 million sq ft represents healthy market activity bolstered by strong job growth for the whole Houston SMSA. Estimated gains in new jobs should be around 66,900 +/- pushing employment down to4.7% from 5.8% at this time last year. The city's job growth rate of 2.8% is stronger than the nations 1.35% and the State Texas at 2.2%. Look for a much stonger "Landlord's" market in 2007. For more information visit our web site at: www.houstonrealtyadvisors.net

Friday, December 29, 2006

Houston Leasing Activity

Activity in the Houston, Tx. market reached 14.5 million, an increase of 11.6 million for the third quarter of 2006. Class "A" space accounted for 50% of this activity, compared to 42% for class "B". 2006 is expected to surpass 2005's 16.5 million absorption. Rental rate hikes are in store for 2007. This will shift to a "LANDLORD'S MARKET", now is the time to start looking . For more information see our web site : www.houstonrealtyadvisors.net

Thursday, December 28, 2006

History and Time Line of Houston, Texas

1836--On Apr. 21, General Sam Houston's Texas army wins independence from Mexico in the Battle of San Jacinto.
1836--Houston founded on Aug. 30 by brothers Augustus C. and John K. Allen, who pay just over $1.40 per acre for 6,642 acres of land near the headwaters of Buffalo Bayou.
1836--Allen Brothers call on Gail Borden (publisher, surveyor, and originator of condensed milk) and Thomas H. Borden to survey and map the site. Gail Borden laid out the town's streets 80' wide, with the principal east-west thoroughfare (Texas Avenue) 100' wide.
1837--General Sam Houston, first president of the Republic of Texas, signs an act authorizing Houston to incorporate. Houston was capital of the Republic from 1837 to 1840.
1837--The Laura is the first steamship to visit Houston.
1840--On Apr. 4, seven Houston businessmen form the Houston Chamber of Commerce.
1842--Texas' oldest newspaper, The Galveston Daily News, starts publication.
1846--Texas becomes 28th state.
1850--First census after Texas joins the Union counts 2,397 Houstonians. Galveston is the state's largest city.
1853--Houston's first railroad--the Buffalo Bayou, Brazos & Colorado Railroad--begins operations.
1853--Texas Legislature appropriates $4,000 for Buffalo Bayou improvements.
1858--City pays $2,500 for land and "good buildings" for a municipal hospital.
1861--Houston and Harris County vote to secede from the Union. During the war, the closest fighting was at Galveston.
1866--First National Bank founded.
1868--First trolley cars (mule-drawn) appear; first gaslights installed.
1870--Texas readmitted to the Union. 1870 census shows Houston's population up to 9,332. Harris County's has reached 17,375, ranking it second in the state.
1870--Congress designates Houston a port; first survey of Houston's proposed ship channel conducted.
1872--Congress makes its first appropriation--$10,000--for ship channel improvements.
1874--Houston Board of Trade and Cotton Exchange organized.
1875--First grain elevator built on Houston Ship Channel.
1877--Houston's first free public schools established.
1880--First telephone exchange created.
1880--Houston gets its first arc light.
1882--Houston Electric Light Co. organized. Houston and New York were the first cities to build electric power plants.
1897--Automobile first appears in Houston as an advertising gimmick.
1899--First city park opens. (This site--now Sam Houston Park--contains several of Houston's earliest buildings.)
1900--A devastating hurricane and tidal wave strikes Galveston, costing some 8,000 lives and untold property damage.
1901--Houston Left Hand Fishing Club purchases the city's first automobile.
1901--Oil discovered at Spindletop. Spindletop, and later discoveries of oil at Humble in 1905 and Goose Creek in 1906, put Houston in the center of new oil and oilfield equipment development.
1902--Congress appropriates $1 million for work on the Houston Ship Channel.
1905--Houston has 80 automobiles.
1910--A group of Houston businessmen headed by the Houston Chamber of Commerce proposes to Congress--and Congress accepts--a novel plan to split ship channel development costs between Houston and the federal government.
1912--Rice Institute (now Rice University, one of the nation's premier universities) begins classes.
1913--Houston Symphony established.
1914--25' deep Houston Ship Channel completed and formally dedicated.
1915--First deep water vessel, the S.S. Satilla, calls at Houston.
1920s-1930s--Oil refineries proliferate along Ship Channel, taking advantage of inexpensive waterborne shipping.
1921--Houston adopts ordinance dedicating tax monies to its library system.
1923--Second National Bank becomes Houston's first air-conditioned building.
1924--The Museum of Fine Arts of Houston, the first in Texas, opens.
1926--Natural gas first piped into Houston.
1927--Houston Junior College (now the University of Houston) established.
1928--National Democratic Convention held in Houston.
1929--City Planning Commission recommends that Houston adopt a zoning ordinance, but finds scant support.
1930--Census ranks Harris County as state's most populous at 292,352.
1932--First Houston Fat Stock Show & Rodeo (now Houston Livestock Show & Rodeo) held.
1934--Intracoastal Canal links Houston to Mississippi River navigation system.
1935--Braniff International inaugurates air service to Houston.
1940s--Petrochemical complex develops, taking feedstock's from nearby refineries.
1941--New master plan for Houston thoroughfares emphasizes a loop system.
1943--Texas Medical Center founded.
1947--Legislature establishes Texas State University for Negroes (now Texas Southern University).
1947--Alley Theatre established.
1947--Engineering begins on Gulf Freeway, Texas' first freeway.
1948--Houston voters reject proposed zoning ordinance.
1948--Dec. 31 annexation expands Houston's area from 74.4 to 216 sq.mi.
1948--Port of Houston ranks second nationally in total tonnage.
1949--KLEE-TV broadcasts first Houston commercial TV program.
1953--KUHT-TV, the nation's first public broadcast TV station, goes on the air.
1955--Houston Grand Opera Association and Houston Ballet founded.
1955--Houston metro area population reaches 1,000,000.
1962--NASA's Manned Spacecraft Center moves to Houston.
1962--Houston voters reject proposed zoning ordinance.
1965--First event held in Astrodome.
1969--Houston Intercontinental Airport begins operations.
1969--"Houston" is the first word spoken from the lunar surface.
1971--Shell Oil Co. relocates corporate headquarters to Houston. More than 200 major firms moved headquarters, subsidiaries, and divisions here in the 1970s.
1973--Arab oil embargo quadruples oil prices in 90 days, fueling Houston's 1973-1981 economic boom.
1978--Voters approve and fund MTA.
1982--Employment peaks at 1,583,400 in Mar. before onset of recession.
1983--155 office buildings completed.
1987--Trough of recession in Jan., with net recession loss of 221,900 jobs.
1990--Houston recovery complete, with May job count above Mar. 1982 level.
1990--Houston hosts 16th annual Economic Summit of Industrialized Nations.
1991--Houston City Council mandates development of first zoning regulations.
1992--Republican National Convention held in Houston.