Forbes Ranks Austin #8 for Biz & Careers!

Forbes.com ranks Austin the 8th best place for business and careers in its latest list.
Texas' Capital City rose significantly from 47th on last year's list. Austin was behind cities such as No. 1 Raleigh, N.C. and No. 4 Fayetteville, Ark. The list was ranked according to factors such as cost of doing business and projected employment growth.


Forbes.com cited Austin's projected annual job growth rate of 2.3 percent--the fifth fastest in the country, and its relatively low subprime mortgage exposure.
For its reporting on Austin, Forbes.com spoke with the Charles Schwab Corp., which expanded its Austin presence in 2007 when it purchased the 401(k) Co. "The city of Austin is extremely business-friendly. They have bent over backwards to accommodate us," Glenn Cooper, head of real estate at Schwab, told the news site.


The top 10 cities on the list were as follows:
1) Raleigh, N.C.
2) Fort Collins, Colo.
3) Durham, N.C.
4) Fayetteville, Ark.
5) Lincoln, Neb.
6) Asheville, N.C.
7) Des Moines, Iowa
8) Austin, Texas
9) Boise, Idaho
10) Colorado Springs, Colo.

From Austin Business Journal 4/3/09

Austin Housing Demand Still Higher than Average

By OLGA CAMPOS KVUE News

Nationally, home sales in January fell to the lowest level in nearly a decade while the median price for a home continues to decline. But in Austin, it's the opposite. While sales are down from year to year, 2007 is still on record as the second best ever for home sales with an increase in the median price.

In Austin sales are up 4 percent, the median price is up by 7 percent with houses staying on the market for about four months. While nationally home sales dropped by 13 percent with the median price down by 6 percent. Houses are staying on the market for more than nine months before selling.

The Austin Board of Realtors says homes sales in January 2008 are down 10 percent from January of the previous year, but even with that month-to-month decline, Gay Puckett, of J.B. Goodwin Realtors, says Austin is a hot housing market. "It was the second best year in the history of Austin real estate," says Puckett.

She says new homes are selling, others are being remodeled and local businesses are booming in neighborhoods like Crestview.
"It makes me thrilled because we just bought our house a year ago," said Jaime Brydson. Brydson is tracking the value of her new home in her North Central Austin neighborhood.
"I read the paper and I'll see how percentage wise our property has already gone up in the past year. I feel like not only did we get a great house, but we made a fantastic investment," she said.
Experts predict 41,000 new jobs will be created over the next two years making increasing population and new employment the key reasons why the local housing market stays in better shape than the national average.

Here are more housing stats: 1,321 single family homes sold last month and the Median price of a home was $183,000.

05:47 PM CST on Monday, February 25, 2008

Google signs lease in Austin at Scarbrough Building

Google is headed to downtown Austin.
The Internet search leader has leased the second floor of the historical Scarbrough Building for an engineering center, said Office Leasing Advisors Inc., the Austin firm that represented Google Inc. in the deal.

Google will occupy 25,000 square feet of the art-deco-style building at Sixth Street and Congress Avenue, Office Leasing said.
Mountain View, Calif.-based Google did not respond to inquiries about the Austin office.
In recent months, Google has posted Internet job listings for an engineering director in Austin to head up a group of 100 or more engineers. It also has posted listings seeking software engineers in Austin. The Scarbrough office could hold 125 to 150 people, according to real estate brokers.
The entrance of a high-profile, national tech player like Google is a coup for Austin's technology industry, tech recruiters and executives said.
"Google is another marquee name in the technology world that we can say we have in Central Texas, and in addition to getting the Google name, we'll probably get some good-paying jobs with it," said David Porter, senior vice president of development for the Greater Austin Chamber of Commerce.
The Google news follows announcements by other California-based firms to relocate or expand in Austin, including PayPal Inc., an eBay-owned online payment system that is locating a data services center in Austin that could have up to 300 workers by next year. Also, Borland Software Corp., a personal computer software company, is moving its headquarters to Austin from Cupertino, Calif., and expects to have 150 to 200 employees in Austin this year.
High-tech recruiters said Austin is a natural fit for Google, which has nearly doubled its work force every year for the past four years and now has about 12,200 employees worldwide.
In addition to the specific technical skills that match Google's personnel needs, Austin's youthful, freewheeling attitude that encourages risk-taking makes it a good cultural fit, said Kim Butler of Greywolf Consulting Services Inc.
Google, which has become a high-powered recruiter on college campuses and has opened a number of research and development centers near university communities, stresses that it looks for ability more than experience when it hires.
"It's a tremendous match for the city," Butler said. "They're looking for innovation, and that's what Austin brings to the table."
In turn, Google will accelerate growth in Austin, he added, saying, "It's like if you're trying to start a fire, you can twirl the stick in the pit and wait for friction or you can get one of those Duraflame logs and light it up with a match. That's the kind of impact that a Google can have on a city like Austin."
Google's choice of ZIP code is also a boost for downtown, which is undergoing major changes, from the new shops and restaurants in the Second Street retail district to a residential building boom that is adding hundreds of apartments and condominiums. Tech companies expanding downtown include Silicon Laboratories Inc., the chip design company that has 430 employees at its headquarters on West Cesar Chavez Street and is negotiating to buy a neighboring six-story building.
"Downtown has always been home to state government and accountants and attorneys, and now we're becoming a destination for tech companies," said Molly Alexander, associate director of the Downtown Austin Alliance, which represents downtown business and property owners. "They're looking for unique and unusual spaces that are reflective of their culture."
When a player like Google lands downtown, Alexander said, "it raises the profile for others to say, 'If we want to go to Austin, we need to go downtown.' "
lhawkins@statesman.com; 912-5955
Scarbrough Building history
• The Scarbrough Building was Austin's first skyscraper and marked the beginning of Austin's downtown business district.
• It was built for Emerson Monroe Scarbrough, a successful merchant.
• It was designed in the Chicago style by Fort Worth architects Sanguinet and Staats and opened in 1910.
• Bets were taken on whether it, the city's first steel and concrete structure, would stand or fall.
• Art deco elements were added in 1930.
• The second story, which will be home to Google, housed the Scarbroughs department store for years until its closing in 1983.
Sources: Austin History Center, American-Statesman archives

By Lori Hawkins and Shonda NovakAMERICAN-STATESMAN STAFFThurs., January 24, 2008

Austin No. 1 in a ranking of 381cities based on their Economic Vitality by Moody's Economy.com

The clouds are gathering over the national economy, but the forecast is better for the Austin area. For the second time this year, the metropolitan area has come out No. 1 in a rating of 381 cities based on their economic vitality. Moody’s Economy.com rates the cities based not only on what’s happening now but also the near-term outlook and potential risk factors. Austin came out ahead on factors including the high quality of its work force, its strong base of innovation and population growth.
Austin American Statesman, Friday, December 14, 2007
Business & Personal Finance Section (Austin, Inc.)