Houston, Energy Sector’s Peak Nowhere in Sight via NREIonline.com

Recent strides taken in the United States toward independence from using foreign energy sources are also benefiting the nation’s office market, boosting occupancy at a time of caution for most of the professional business sectors.

More than half of the top performing office markets in the country today are primarily technology- or energy-driven, with Houston leading the latter. Unemployment is at less than 6 percent in Houston. Also, though the city’s 195 million sq. ft. of office space makes up just 4 percent of the U.S. total, the city accounted for almost 13 percent of the country’s total office absorption in the past year, according to a Jones Lang LaSalle fourth quarter report.

Jobs are a big part of the answer for the Houston office market’s growth. Of the top 12 largest metropolitan areas, Houston had the only rate of job growth to surpass 3 percent from October 2011 to September 2012. In contrast to Silicon Valley, the other current office powerhouse, there’s no lack of employees for the energy sector, says Rudy Hubbard, a managing director with JLL’s Houston market. “Anyone with a petroleum degree coming out of college today doesn’t have any problem getting a job in Houston,” he says.

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