Dr. Mark Dotzour, chief economist at TX A&M Real Estate Center in College Station.  Real estate construction is growing again finally, more people are at work and 5 years of pent-up demand for housing & commercial properties + Americans now have credit capacity again.  For years, people have been talking about how the housing market is aheadwind against economic recovery.  Now turning into a tailwind.  Dotzour said some of the starts will still be constrained by labor shortage, mortgage loan underwriting and a further increase in construction costs.

The U. S. Supreme Court is about to dive into a water rights dispute that could affect 1.7 million North Texas residents, according to the Wall Street Journal.  The dispute is between Texas’ Tarrant Regional Water District & Oklahoma.  Texas wants to capture water in Oklahoma that flows into the Red River, the border between the 2 states.  So far, lower courts have ruled for Oklahoma.  In addition, Texas has asked the Supreme Court to consider a separate lawsuit alleging that New Mexico isn’t giving Texas its allotted share of water from the Rio Grande.  No court has ruled on this.  Texas is one of the fastest-growing states and will need 8.3 million acre-feet of water by 2060 where population is expected to surpass  46 million, up from 25 million now.

Tyler, Longview, Midland and Texarkana were on the list of small metros on RCLCO list out of Santa Monica, CA. for economic growth.  Austin & area, Dallas & FW, Houston and area are the big cities.  Also 1/2 of the cities on the list of metros where employment is back to peak levels are in TX:  DFW, Houston, San Antonio, Austin, El Paso & Corpus Christi.  The managing director of RCLCO said diversified employment bases, including energy & technology sectors, are benefiting the TX economy as are the low cost of doing business, warm climate and proximity to trade routes.