The company’s staff — 120 people at its peak — has dwindled to just four or five. The high-end builder is now trying to finish the 36 homes it has in various stages of construction. “We’re trying to work our way through it,” said David Powers. “We’re just alive, awake and pressing forward every day.” Over his 20-year-plus career, Powers has built more than 3,000 homes worth a total of more than $1 billion.

Several years ago, the company was selling between 300 and 400 houses a year. Last year, it closed on an estimated 138.

Americans have lost more than $10 trillion in home equity and in the stock market, and 3.6 million people have lost their jobs.

Last year was a relatively good one for Houston businesses, so many people felt that we were going to continue to weather the storm, said Barton Smith, director of the University of Houston’s Institute for Regional Forecasting.

“Houston is no longer going to be immune from this crisis,” he said.

Smith and Robert Gilmer, senior economist of the Houston branch of the Federal Reserve Bank of Dallas, presented facts and figures about Houston and the nation’s economic health to a group of real estate professionals at the InterContinental Hotel near the Galleria.

In 2008, the energy industry made up 70 percent of Houston’s economic growth. That’s what helped keep the local economy afloat while other markets were shrinking.

But what was once a good thing is now turning bad.

As world demand for oil declines, Houston-area jobs are expected to move into negative territory.

Smith forecasts 55,000 jobs will be lost over the next two years.

That doesn’t bode well for the housing market.

Home sales and construction have already weakened considerably.

And though the Houston area avoided huge run-ups in home prices, values have started to slip in some areas as homes sit on the market for months and builders slash asking prices on what’s left in their inventories.

They’re certainly not starting many new projects.

Single-family home permits are off 80 percent from their peak a few years ago.

“If you don’t think things are bad, you can just ask a home builder,” Gilmer said.

Source: Houston Chronicle

The state was, fortunately, late to the party: The national recession started in December 2007. It took another six months before Texas’ economy began to slow down, the report said.

Key indicators, including job growth, exports, and various manufacturing indexes all fell in the second half of the year, the report said.

Among the state’s biggest cities, Austin and Dallas have slowed the most in recent months, while Houston continued to grow.

Source