A recent article from Barron’s revealed that the millionaire population in Austin, TX more than doubled in the last 10 years. It’s not just people from Hollywood moving to Austin that has made it the fastest-growing wealthy city in the country. The number of people living in Austin who have investable assets of at least $1 million grew by 102% during the last decade, ending 2022. Globally, Hangzhou in China had the fastest-growing millionaire population, with an increase of 105% since 2012. Both tech giant Netease and conglomerate Alibaba are headquartered in Austin. New York comes in as the overall wealthiest city in the world with 340,000 millionaires. Tokyo ranks second with 290,300 people with at least $1 million to invest. While not mentioned in the article, Houston ranked eighth in the country for the growth in the number of millionaires among the population and Dallas-Fort Worth came in at 18th.
「米国で 11 番目に大きな技術労働力 (約 250,000 人) がおり、その人材はヘルスケア、製造、エネルギー、宇宙などの主要産業を支えています」と、Houston First に記載されています。 「さらに良いのは、テクノロジーの機会と手頃な価格の生活というヒューストンのユニークな組み合わせです。」
ヒューストン ファーストの CEO であるマイケル・ヘックマンは、次のように述べています。 「私たちは、私たちの多様性、ホスピタリティ、そしてここでやるべきことがどれだけあるかについて話す必要があります。世界のどの目的地にもあるように、ここでもやるべきことがたくさんあります。 その話を世の中に広める必要があるだけです。」
A recent article in the Houston Business Journal talked about what outsiders think of Houston. Here is a summary…
When you think of Houston, what is the first thing that comes to mind?
Houston First’s research discovered that when people who do not know Houston well are asked what they think of it, the most frequent responses are the heat, humidity, oil, and the Astros.
While 57% of respondents said they strongly agree that Houston is a place that supports business, just 38% said it is a city that cares about the environment and natural resources — an issue that is increasingly important in business recruiting.
The diversity of the city has been a big selling point recently.
Houston Population: 2.3 Million Hispanic 44.5% White 24.1% Black 22.1% Asian 6.7%
Even with the Texas Medical Center, NASA, performing arts, museums, and restaurants as big draws, Houston still retains an image of a city of cowboy hat-wearing oil tycoons, even though our companies are also far more diverse than they used to be.
Late last year, Resonance Consultancy ranked Houston No. 42 on its list of the 100 best cities in the world.
That was higher than Austin (43rd) and Dallas (47th), but it is still far behind other world-class cities, like New York (3rd), Los Angeles (12th), and Chicago (13th).
“We have the 11th biggest tech workforce in the U.S. — nearly 250,000 people — and that talent is powering key industries like health care, manufacturing, energy, and aerospace,” Houston First notes in one of its messaging documents. “Even better, though, is Houston’s unique combination of tech opportunity and living affordability.”
“At the end of the day, if we want to win, we need to ensure we are telling our story the right way,” Houston First CEO Michael Heckman said. “We need to talk about our diversity, our hospitality, and just how many things there are to do here — there is as much to do here as there is in any destination in the world. We just need to get that story out there.”
私ごとですが少し嬉しいニュースがあります！スーザンは全米不動産協会（National Association of Realtors）から国際不動産スペシャリスト（CIPS）の講師として承認されました! CIPSは、国際的なクライアントを専門に扱う不動産業者のための特別な資格です。この講座を受けるには、合計5つ、各クラス8時間が必要です。
In somewhat exciting news, Susan was approved to be a Certified International Property Specialist instructor by the National Association of Realtors! The CIPS designation is a special add on designation for realtors who specialize in working with international clients. There are five 8-hour classes that are required to get the designation:
Global Real Estate: Local Markets
Global Real Estate: Transaction Tools
Europe & International Real Estate
The Americas & International Real Estate
Asia/Pacific & International Real Estate
The CIPS designation is offered to all realtors all over the world and when we refer clients to realtors in different countries, we always look for one who has this CIPS designation. In Texas, there has only been two approved instructors. Susan applied with her two best friends Pius Dawson (NAR Global Ambassador to Austria and Germany) and Ed Eakin (NAR Global Ambassador to Barbados, Belize, Trinidad & Tobago), and all three of us were recently accepted! We can team teach these classes here in Houston but also anywhere in the world!
On a side note, Annoura Realty is proud of our agent, Mariko Fujita, for getting the CIPS designation last year!
The United State Postal Service is raising prices again on stamps. In fact, sorry to say this, but they are planning on raising it TWICE a year! Effective last week, the price of a first-class stamp went from 60 cents to 63 cents. The Postal Regulatory Commission said the 4.2% increase was to offset the rise in inflation. International letters and postcards went from $1.40 to $1.45, and the price to send a domestic postcard increased from 45 to 48 cents. The Postal Service says to expect increases twice a year going forward, in January and in July. As of 2021, USPS is expected to be $160 billion in debt for the next 10 years…Arara. People holding Forever Stamps can still use them, but people buying new Forever Stamps will see prices go up to 63 cents.
January is the most popular month for economic forecasts. Economists analyze the data from the previous year, crunch data, and create trends to guess the future of the economy. So far in the first two weeks of January, I have heard several different forecasts from various different people. All of them have very interesting perspectives and reasonings and I will share some of what I heard.
First of all, COVID stimulus package after package after package (there were 3) injected too much money into the economy. In addition, the extremely low interest rates (under 3% for mortgage rates at one point) encouraged heavy spending for everything including home buying. In all, the government injected $5.4 trillion of stimulus money into the economy, effectively over-stimulating the economy. This resulted in inflation. But overstimulating the economy was not the only thing that caused inflation. Labor shortages also caused prices to go up. Why did we have labor shortages? Because COVID made some people decide to retire early or to quit their salary jobs. The labor shortage also caused prices to go up. Other causes that affected our economy last year included: the war in Ukraine which disrupted supply chains, the spike in COVID cases in China, an extraordinary cold Europe using more than expected natural resources. So here we are with high inflation.
In an attempt to control inflation, last year, the government raised the interest rate 7 times in a row with sometimes quite aggressive increases (June 2022 they hiked it 0.75%!). The logic is that increased interest rates makes it more painful to borrow money, hopefully resulting in less spending, hopefully resulting in lower prices. The housing market has definitely seen a difference. Home sales are down 9 months in a row here in Houston.
What we need to be careful of is to not confuse this situation with a full blown recession. Once the general public believes we are in a recession, it affects their behavior and they become conservative and stop spending. Their thoughts and behaviors can create a kind of recession that actually is not there yet. The economist for the Greater Houston Partnership believes that even if we do have a recession, it will be short and shallow in Houston. He cites purchasing managers still ordering supplies, no significant uptick in claims for unemployment, no uptick in layoffs, and car sales are actually up. This means that companies are not slowing down, and people are not losing their jobs, and that people are optimistic about keeping their jobs. Hopefully interest rates will stabilize and that will stabilize inflation. Once inflation is under control, affordability will come back, not only for homes but also for simple things like a bag of potato chips (now as much as $6!). To see the extremely interesting Economic Forecast by Patrick Jankowski, Chief Economist for the Greater Houston Partnership, click here.
