Texas Is Where the Jobs Are, Wall Street Journal Says

What two Texas cities are hot for jobs? What is the most expensive neighborhood in Texas? Who was honored locally for their work in providing summer meals to reduce childhood hunger? We have all this and more in this week’s roundup of real estate news.

Austin No. 1 Nationally for Jobs, Where Does Dallas Rank?

Austin is tops in the nation when it comes to having the hottest labor market, the Wall Street Journal’s analysis of 53 metro areas with more than one million people revealed.

Austin has an unemployment rate of 5 percent, 70.6 percent labor force participation, 4 percent wage growth, 3 percent labor force growth, and 3.5 percent job growth, according to the report.

“The area that is home to Dell Inc., Amazon’s Whole Foods and the University of Texas ranks high in all metrics, and just landed another prize employer: Apple Inc.’s $1 billion campus,” the report said.

Dallas also ranked highly, coming in with 3.5 percent unemployment and 3.3 percent wage growth. Other cities that ranked as being hotter than the rest of the country were Denver, Seattle, Nashville, Raleigh N.C., Orlando, Boston, Salt Lake City, and San Jose.

Texas was the only state with two cities on the list.

“The Journal’s ranking is based on five attributes: average unemployment rate in 2018; labor-force participation rate in 2018; the change in employment and change in labor force for the fourth quarter of 2018 from a year earlier; and the change in average weekly wage in the first half of 2018 from the first half 2017, reflecting the latest available wage data,” the report explained. “The area with the highest average ranking among the five categories was determined to be the hottest labor market.”

The Most Expensive Neighborhood in Texas Is …

We may have to forgive their lack of geographic knowledge, but Realtor.com’s analysis of all 50 states found that the 75205 zip code (which is the Park Cities, and includes parts of University Park and Highland Park, not just University Park as the report says), is the priciest zip code in the state, with a median list price of $1,623,790.

“The economy of Big D is booming, which has brought buses, cars, and planes filled with new residents searching for a roof over their heads,” the report said. “University Park has seen an increase in newly built … everything, and they’re charging premium prices for these condos, townhomes, and single-family homes.”

Curious what the swankiest listing in the priciest zip code is? That honor goes to this home on Euclid, listed by Vicki White with Briggs Freeman Sotheby’s. If it looks familiar, it’s because it’s been the site of a CandysDirt.com Staff Party.

Local School Districts Honored for Summer Meal Program

Last week, 23 local non-profits, school districts, and municipalities were honored for their programs that provide meals to children from low-income families during the summer months, Baylor University’s Texas Hunger Initiative announced.

“These organizations were rigorously evaluated as part of a groundbreaking campaign created by the Dallas Office of Baylor University’s Texas Hunger Initiative (THI) and the Food Research and Action Center (FRAC) to promote high quality child nutrition programs,” the THI said in a press release.

Dallas County Commissioner Dr. Elba Garcia, the Food Research and Action Center, and United Way of Metropolitan Dallas were also on hand to spotlight top local programs.

The programs honored utilized a federally funded summer meals program to serve free, healthy meals to local children, at sites where they also received educational or health and wellness programming.

The organizations were awarded the honors based on their work over Summer 2018 and include:

Gold Level: Azle ISD, Circle of Support, Inc., CitySquare, Dallas ISD, Dayspring Family Church, Garland ISD, Irving ISD, Kids Bring Life, Inc., Neighborhood Project Ministry, North Texas Food Bank, Plano ISD.                  

Silver Level: Carrollton Farmers Branch ISD, Custer Road United Methodist Church, Dallas County Mobile Food Pantry, Destiny Empowerment Enterprises, Inc., Equal Heart, Fort Worth ISD, Grand Prairie ISD, Mansfield ISD, Mesquite ISD, Safe Hands Family & Children Program, Inc.

Bronze Level: Full Filled Project, Village Hands & Hearts, Inc.