"What’s The GOOD News?” May 2019

1.* Ten percent of the United States workforce, 15.3 million people, work for themselves, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics. A recent study sought out the best cities for starting a business, and Fort Worth came in at No. 11. WalletHub, a personal finance website, used 19 key metrics, such as five-year business-survival rate and office-space affordability, to compare 100 cities in the U.S. Fort Worth ranked highest in the business environment category, at No. 3. This ranking considered startups per capita, the average growth of business revenue, length of an average workweek, and more. The other two rankings were access to resources and business costs. For those, Fort Worth ranked No. 24 and No. 74, respectively.

2.* DFW ranks high among U.S. cities with most $100K-plus jobs available. Dallas-Fort Worth has 8,432 job openings available for the month of May for positions that pay more than $100,000. As Dallas-Fort Worth's tech sector continues to surge, an onslaught of six-figure salary jobs has come available. According to data analyzed by Ladders Inc., a career website focused on high-paying jobs, Dallas-Fort Worth has 8,432 of those high-paying job openings available for the month of May. Using ADP and Moody’s Analytics, Ladders identified that the number of private payrolls nationwide increased by 275,000 in April. Ladders focused on look at mid- to senior level jobs in its analysis. Dallas-Fort Worth took the number No. 8 spot on the list of the top 15 American cities with the most available six-figure salary positions.

3.* The Dallas-Fort Worth area ranks as the hottest market for new home construction in the nation, even as home building is cooling in many other areas, raising a seemingly obvious question: Are we overbuilding? Not a chance, according to Brian Cramer, senior vice president and division manager of Newland Communities. “With the population growth as a result of the job growth (in North Texas), we’re undersupplying the housing market,” he told the Dallas Business Journal. “We just can’t keep up. It’s so difficult for the single family (builders and developers) to keep pace. We’re seeing this across the Metroplex. In North Texas, (it’s the) diversification of the economy, the business-friendly environment, lack of state income taxes, as well as DFW Airport. It’s a big driver. The ability to get anywhere and everywhere out of DFW is a big advantage.”

4.* Two Dallas-Fort Worth towns top America's best places for young families. When starting a family, there's a lot to consider, and a new study might help answer one of the biggest questions: Where should we live? Apartment List analyzed more than 500 U.S. cities to find the best places for young families in 2019. The site considered safety, rent affordability, education quality (high school graduation rates among public schools), and child-friendliness, ultimately naming two Dallas-Fort Worth towns at the top of the list: Flower Mound (No. 4) and Mansfield (No. 9). Flower Mound shines with an A-plus rating (a weighted score of 92.76), performing best in high school graduation rate (97.4) and safety (97.3), and faring well in rent affordability (87.5) and child-friendliness (81.3). Flower Mound is on a roll, as another study just named it the safest city in Texas. Mansfield stands out with an A rating (a weighted score of 89.54), earning its highest marks for safety (95) and child-friendliness (90.7), while having good standing for its high school graduation rate (88.2) and rent affordability (83.9).

5.* Texas' population boom continues, and our neighbors in the northern part of the state are leading the nation when it comes to growth. The Associated Press reports that the Dallas-Fort Worth area led the country in new residents from 2017 to 2018. The U.S. Census Bureau showed that Dallas, Fort Worth, and Arlington grew by 131,700 residents from 2017 to 2018. Even more fascinating, the entire DFW area since 2010 has gained over a million residents in that time frame. The Dallas areas rank as the fourth most populous areas in the country. Overall as a whole state, Texas has grown their population by 3.5% due to births and migrations since 2010. So now you know why traffic seems to get worse every year! Still, it's cool to see Texas leading the nation in yet another field. Ours is a prosperous state in which to live, and as our success continues, you can count on more people moving here and starting families.

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“What’s The GOOD News?” March 2019

1.* CNN Money Magazine named Frisco #1 and Flower Mound #16 on the publication’s annual “Best Places to Live List,” which chooses 50 cities from the country to make the prestigious list. Frisco and Flower Mound are the only two Texas cities to make the list. They said Frisco has, “outstanding public schools – with more than 70 campuses, the Frisco Independent School District has the highest graduation rate of all the cities and towns MONEY evaluated this year.” They said Flower Mound, “has ultra-high school graduation rates, and modest home prices” in addition to plenty of indoor and outdoor activities, including water-skiing, camping, biking, The River Walk, Bottle and Bottega, the newly opened Play Street Museum, and many more.

2.* Recently, we toured some Dallas neighborhoods packed with seven-figure dwellings. Our tour guide was Steve Habgood, managing partner at Hewitt and Habgood Realty Group with Dave Perry Miller Real Estate. Habgood put into words what we were seeing on one luxury lot after another: "There is a lot of wealth in the North Texas region." Habgood showed us one home in Kessler Park. “That is going to be at $1,190,000," Habgood said. It’s not as big of an ask as it looks at first glance. More homes priced a million dollars or more have been selling in DFW in recent years than any other place in the state. “Every home around me has sold for 30 or 40 percent they were originally valued at," said Yogi Patel, who is about to upgrade and can’t wait to price his current residence in University Park between $1.7 million and $1.9 million. He is eager to sell his home because higher dollar homes are spending fewer days on the market, Habgood said. Patel says he is seeing evidence of that all around him. In the last two years combined, 3,716 homes costing a million or more have sold here. That’s a staggering 27.6 percent rise. “The million-plus market has been doing as good or better than all of the other segments in the marketplace," Habgood said.

3.* After living in Flower Mound’s Lakeside DFW area for a couple of weeks, Talitha Ledet noticed something was missing from the development: a grocery store. “I was sitting on my balcony one day and thought, ‘I just need a place here that I can walk to and get coffee, milk, eggs or something simple,’” she said. “I started walking around and talking to my neighbors and learned they felt the same way, too.” Ledet and her husband, Billy, launched The Market at Lakeside to meet those needs. “We carry a lot of the staple products,” she said. “We sell a lot of vegan and plant-based products as well,” Ledet said the specialty market not only attracts the Lakeside DFW residents but also those outside of the Dallas city limits who are looking for local brands. “We are able to bring big-city conveniences to a suburban, smaller storefront and make it easier for our customers so that they don’t have to drive to Dallas to enjoy some of their favorite local brands,” she said.

4.* If you’re a fan of shopping or sleeping, check this out: Dallas-Fort Worth ranks as one of the top metro areas in the U.S. for construction of retail and hotel properties. In the newly released 2019 Construction Outlook from commercial real estate services company JLL, Dallas-Fort Worth appears at No. 3 among U.S. metro areas for the number of hotel rooms set to open this year and at No. 4 for the amount of retail space under construction. According to JLL, 7,454 new hotel rooms — representing 5 percent of the entire national pipeline of lodging — are supposed to be ready this year in DFW. To put that into perspective, that’s equivalent to adding four Sheraton Dallas hotels. As measured by guest rooms, the Sheraton Dallas Hotel is the region’s biggest hotel (1,840 rooms). On the retail front, 3.3 million square feet of space is under construction in DFW, according to JLL. That’s equivalent to adding roughly 18 typical Walmart supercenters.

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“What’s The GOOD News?” February 2019

“What’s The GOOD News?”

February 2019

1.*   Sixth terminal in sights as DFW earns Airport of the Year title. Efficient operations, the addition of multiple international flights and strong partnerships with its airlines proved to be a winning combination for Dallas Fort Worth International Airport, which was named 2019 Airport of the Year by Air Transport World, a leading industry publication. Sean Donohue, CEO of DFW Airport, said the honor is the aviation industry equivalent of receiving an Academy Award. “In the next year we’ll see even more (growth),” Donohue said, so a sixth terminal is also in the airport’s near-term growth plan, Donohue said. “When we look at the next 10 years, we’re probably going to get close to 100 million customers, and we’re going to need more facilities,” he said. Airport officials have determined DFW will need 20 to 30 new gates over that period.

2.*   Plano's $3 billion Legacy West development has landed another major Japanese company. The hugely successful real estate project at the southwest corner of the Dallas North Tollway and State Highway 121 is home to Toyota's North American headquarters. NTT Data, a unit of Japan's Nippon Telegraph and Telephone, has its U.S. headquarters there, too. Now another big Japan-based firm, international insurance giant Tokio Marine Holdings, is putting a big office there. The financial firm, which has more than 35,000 employees in 38 countries, has rented more than 22,000 square feet of offices in the One Legacy West tower at Legacy Drive and State Highway 121. Tokio Marine has its U.S. main office in New York and is the largest property and casualty insurance firm in Japan. In 2017, the firm had assets valued at over $200 billion.

3.*   Multiple home builders in North Texas are responding to a growing demand in the national housing market: multi generational housing. One of those builders, Lennar Homes, expects to sell around 125 of its Next Gen houses this year in the Dallas-Fort Worth area. The Next Gen homes feature a fully-equipped suite built into them, designed to provide a private living space for an adult family member within the confines of the larger, family home. "It's a fully functional home within a home," said David Grove, the Division President for Lennar Homes in DFW. The new houses have a living room, a full kitchen, an accessible bathroom and ample closet space on the ground floor. There's a separate entrance and a door that leads into the main house.

4.*   A development group has bought property in Frisco for a 250-acre mixed-use project. The project is planned for Legacy Drive in Frisco, next door to the site where PGA of America is building its headquarters and golf courses. The property will be within walking distance of the Omni Frisco Resort Hotel and Conference Center planned for the PGA site as well. Stillwater Capital, DSF Capital and investor Stephen Summers formed the partnership to acquire the property. The new owners say they will seek zoning to develop the site for retail, residential, office, medical and hospitality buildings.

5.*   DFW is home to 4 of the top 20 trending suburbs, but which are the most popular rental markets? RentCafe.com’s latest study used data from Yardi Matrix and the US Census Bureau to look into renter population changes between 2011 and 2016 and the change in rent prices. As a result, the study found Flower Mound was the third most popular market in the nation. The renter population in Flower Mound went up by a staggering 115%, while the average rent increased by 22% between 2011 and 2016. In 2018, the average monthly rent in Flower Mound was $1,546 (up 22% since 2014), one of the highest in the top 20. Allen was the eighth most popular suburb in the country.

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“What’s The GOOD News?” January 2019

“What’s The GOOD News?”

January 2019

1.*   Louisiana-based exercise chain Regymen Fitness will start expanding its reach into North Texas this year. The chain hopes to open up to 22 franchises within the next three to six years. Nick Bennings, the director for franchise development, said the company has identified the Metroplex as the next place for growth based on the demographics and the pace at which the area is growing, both in population and income. Regymen is negotiating with two franchise owners. and the first studios could open as soon as September in Alliance. Bennings said they’re also looking in Lewisville, Coppell and Southlake.

2.*   A new study ranks Plano as one of the best locations in the U.S. to hunt for work. The study, conducted by personal finance website WalletHub, places Plano at No. 7 among the best cities for finding a job. Plano was the only DFW city in the top 20. To determine the strongest local job markets in the U.S., WalletHub compared more than 180 cities across 30 key metrics, including availability of jobs, employment growth, and monthly average starting salary. A major reason for Plano’s attractiveness to job seekers stems from the sheer number of major corporate employers located there. Here are the WalletHub job rankings for other DFW cities in Texas: Irving, No. 21; Dallas, No. 26; Grand Prairie, No. 36; Garland, No. 46; Arlington, No. 57; Fort Worth, No. 58

3.*   In just one year, Texas gained more residents than any other state, according to a new report from the U.S. Census Bureau. The estimates, released December 19, show Texas added 379,128 residents from July 1, 2017, to July 1, 2018 - the largest numeric gain among the 50 states. Texas picked up nearly 380,000 residents. New arrivals to Texas versus people leaving the state account for the bulk of the state’s population growth, according to Lloyd Potter, the state demographer. “The most likely reasons people relocate to Texas are its resilient economy and relatively affordable housing,” Potter said. “Oil-and-gas production continues to be a major component in the state’s economy, but other sectors such as information technology, manufacturing, and biomedicine are important sources of job growth.” Overall, the bureau says, Texas saw its population climb from 28,322,717 in July 2017 to 28,701,845 in July 2018, a 1.3 percent hike. Percentage-wise, Texas was the eighth fastest growing state during the one-year period.

4.*   The Dallas-Fort Worth housing market topped $510 billion in value in 2018, a record high, thanks to several years of big price gains. DFW's home market added $14.6 billion in value last year alone, according to new estimates from Zillow. Since the worst of the Great Recession, Zillow says area home values have grown by $157.6 billion. Nationwide, the cumulative value of the U.S. housing market grew $1.9 trillion in 2018 to a total of $33.3 trillion, according to the firm. "Seen from the rearview mirror, 2018 was a year of unusually strong, stable home value growth across the country," Zillow senior economist Aaron Terrazas said in the report. Median single-family home sales prices rose about only about 5 percent for the first 11 months of the year, but overall Dallas-Fort Worth housing values have increased more than 40% in the last five years to a record high.

5.*   Now that 2019 is here, numbers from 2018 are being released, and probably no surprise, Dallas, TX is ranked the hottest real estate market by homes.com. Dallas’s real estate market was as hot as the city in the summertime. Strengthened by an excess of new jobs, a higher-than-average annual income, and rising housing values, Dallas enjoyed plenty of activity with newcomers arriving in droves.  According to homes.com, in 2018 the real estate market saw some serious progress in many local markets around the country. Home values rose and interest rates, while climbing, were still historically low. As for next year, experts predict housing values in Dallas to climb by another 4.7%, so if you want to get in at a good price, better to start planning your move earlier in 2019 than later.


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“What’s The GOOD News?” December 2018

1.*   The PGA of America is moving its headquarters from Palm Beach County, Florida to Frisco, Texas, the ‘2018 Best Place to Live in America,’ where it will anchor a 600-acre, mixed-use development with an initial investment worth more than half a billion dollars. The PGA of America will initially employ at least 100 people at the Frisco-based headquarters. Under this agreement, two PGA Championships, two KPMG Women’s PGA Championships and potentially a Ryder Cup will be held in Frisco. This groundbreaking agreement is estimated to have an economic impact of more than $2.5 billion over the next 20 years.

2.*   Lyft revealed its most popular destinations of 2018. Seven destinations in North Texas made the fourth annual Lyftie Awards, a program that recognizes the most popular destinations requested by Lyft riders across the country in 45 markets. Here are the winners in DFW: Most Visited Bar - Backyard Dallas, Most Popular Concert Venue – American Airlines Center, Most Visited Restaurant for Brunch – Pecan Lodge, Most Visited Restaurant for Late Night – Whataburger, Most Visited Fitness Studio/Gym – LA Fitness, Most Visited Late Night Neighborhood – Uptown, and Only in DFW – The Statler. The Lyfties are a way for Lyft to recognize the places that truly make Dallas-Fort Worth unique and to say thank you for sharing a ride.

3.*   Amazon is building a new regional air hub at Fort Worth’s Alliance Airport, bolstering its shipping business in a move that’s expected to create hundreds of jobs for the region. Amazon announced Tuesday that construction is underway on the facility located on the west side of the airport, with operations expected to begin next year. The new hub will support multiple daily flights, Amazon said. Amazon’s arrival is the latest win for Alliance Airport, an industrial and cargo-focused airport that's entering a new phase of growth after nearly 30 years of operations.

4.*   Health care giant and Fortune 500 company McKesson Corp. announced Friday plans to move its global headquarters from San Francisco to Las Colinas. The company, which ranks sixth on the Fortune 500 and is the Bay Area's second-largest public company in terms of annual revenue, now says it will move its headquarters to the Irving area, effective April 1. “We are excited to strengthen our presence in Texas and make Las Colinas our official global headquarters,” John H. Hammergren, McKesson’s chairman and CEO, said in a prepared statement. “Governor Abbott and the Irving/Las Colinas community have provided tremendous support since we opened our Las Colinas campus last April. Making this move will improve efficiency, collaboration and cost-competitiveness, while providing an exceptional work environment for our employees.

5.*   With a new U.S. headquarters in the Dallas area, Danish robotics company OnRobot wants to sell more robots to small and mid-sized companies — not just ones with giant factory floors. The company opened its first U.S. headquarters in Irving earlier this month. It will use the office to host sales and training events where it can show off its end-of-arm tooling — robot parts that mimic the grip of a human. OnRobot chose the Dallas area because of its affordable cost of living, convenient location in the middle of the country and talent pool, said Kristian Hulgard, general manager of OnRobot's division in the U.S. He said it will grow to 25 to 35 full-time employees by the end of 2019.

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