San Antonio Ranked Eleventh Top Metros in Nation

In Case You Missed It... Texas Metros Top Best Performing Cities According to Milken Institute

Austin ranked number one.

November 11, 2009

AUSTIN – Several Texas metro areas have been ranked in the top spots of the 2009 Milken Institute/Greenstreet Real Estate Partners Best Performing Cities Index. The Lone Star State claimed four of the top five spots, including number one, and nine of the top 16 spots.

“When people across the nation look at Texas, they’re discovering that we’ve fostered an environment that encourages people to pursue their dreams, build businesses and create jobs,” Gov. Perry said. “Our low taxes, predictable regulations and diverse and educated workforce have propelled us to the forefront of the global economy, and Texas continues to be an example for the rest of the nation.”

The Austin-Round Rock area was named the number one Best Performing City, with Killeen-Fort Hood-Temple, Mc Allen-Edinburg-Mission and Houston-Sugar Land-Baytown claiming the second, fourth and fifth spots, respectively. Additionally, Houston-Sugar Land-Baytown was named one of the top five largest cities, and Midland was named the number one small metro.

The index ranks U.S. metro areas based on their ability to create and sustain jobs, and includes long-term (five years) and short-term (one year) measurements of employment and salary growth, and four measurements of technology output growth. The report credits Texas’ favorable business climate and ability to attract jobs and corporations away from higher-cost states with propelling metropolitan areas to the top of the index.

“Texas’ strong position in our ‘Best Performing Cities’ study demonstrates that a favorable business climate, combined with a low cost/low tax environment, is highly supportive of job creation,” Ross DeVol, senior economist at the Milken Institute and lead author of the report, said. “The state has diversified its economy by fostering several key high-tech clusters and the passage of Proposition 4, allocating $500 million in funding for research universities, will make Texas an even more formidable competitor in the future.”

To view a copy of the full report or get more information about the metros indexed, please visit http://www.milkeninstitute.org/publications/publications.taf?function=detail&ID=38801218&cat=resrep or http://bestcities.milkeninstitute.org/bestcities2009.taf.

Texas May Owe You Some Money

You might just be owed $17 or maybe millions of dollars and just not know that your money is being held in the Texas State Treasury. Texas has $2 billion dollars of unclaimed money held by the Texas Comptroller's office.

"Many folks could use some extra cash right now, and we want to give Texans back their property, whether it is personal property or money," says Texas Comptroller Susan Combs.

Dallas resident Winston D. Johnson claimed and received nearly $4.3 million in 1996. Many claims by individuals average about $1000. Unfortunately, I only was able to claim about $535 for myself. About $135 was from a savings account that went dormant for non-activity. The other $400 was from the sale of some San Antonio real estate a few years ago. (Never have figured out exactly why I was owed that money, though.)

Unclaimed property is any financial asset that has been abandoned for 1 year or more. Examples of abandoned property are:

• Dividend, payroll or cashier's checks
• Stocks, mutual fund accounts, bonds
• Utility deposits and other refunds
• Bank accounts and safe deposit box contents
• Insurance proceeds
• Mineral interest or royalty payments
• Court deposits, trust funds, escrow accounts

The unclaimed property law requires financial institutions, businesses, and government entities to report to the state, personal property they are holding that is considered abandoned or unclaimed. Unclaimed property must be turn over to the Texas Comptroller office for safe keeping until the rightful owner claims the abandoned property. It's not just individuals that have money being held at the Texas Comptrollers office, corporations and even county and local governments are owed money by the State, too.

How can you find out if the State of Texas is holding abandoned property on your behalf? Just check the Official State of Texas website at: https://txcpa.cpa.state.tx.us/up/Search.jsp

It's kind of fun to find out if the State of Texas owes you any money. I also checked for my friends and family. I found about $100 for my sister and even $270 for my insurance broker.

A Walk in an Old Neighborhood

Whenever my daughter and I have a need to go downtown in the morning, we like to go for lunch at the Guenther House - an old San Antonio mansion converted to a restaurant, museum and retail outlet, in the middle of a pleasant green garden a little way south of downtown San Antonio.  The Guenther House was originally built by a C.H. Guenther, a German immigrant who relocated from the Hill Country, and established a mill on the San Antonio River. Cannily, he figured that there were several mills grinding corn and wheat in the Hill Country, but none in San Antonio.

He built the house for his family right next to his mill - and there it still is, the Pioneer Flour Mill, with a crenellated tower that can be seen for miles. The little store sells all sorts of cooking implements and products from the Mills; mixes and flavorings and things, and Pioneer Flour Mills products are also served in the restaurant. The food is good, and served either outdoors in a garden pavilion, or inside. One of the dining rooms is in what was garden room, on a half-basement floor, with windows on three sides looking out into the garden, a lovely little room in green and white, with a floor in mosaic tile, and stained glass in the transoms, hanging plants,  and Chinese-style lanterns in metal and alabaster-finished glass.

Cibolo Canyons: A Troubled Project Finally Gets Underway

UPDATE: Marriott Resort/PGA Village to open in January 22, 2010

The Marriott Resort: www.tpcsanantonio.com/ resort plans to fill 500-600 jobs and is staging a job fair that continues from 8 a.m. until 5 p.m. Friday and Saturday on site. (December 11 - 12, 2009; 8-5)

Visit KSAT12 website for more information

San Antonio and the Texas Hill Country is a top destination for a variety of sporting activities, and a huge project is underway to assure that the area remains that way in the future. This enormous development project underway in Cibolo Canyons includes two PGA quality golf courses, a planned housing community, and a giant JW Marriott resort, spa, and convention center. Although construction on the project has recently gotten underway, not everyone is thrilled with the plans.

The road has been a long and difficult one for developers, and the project has been eight years in getting off the ground. But as long as it took to begin building, the plan, agreed upon with the city, is to have construction finished in eighteen months.

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NOW'S THE TIME TO BUY, IF . . .

COLLEGE STATION- "It appears we are at the bottom of the housing market in most Texas cities," said Real Estate Center Director Mark Dotzour after reviewing the state's latest home sale numbers.

Dotzour mentioned two years ago that new home construction needed to fall dramatically to avoid the level of overbuilding that could damage Texas housing markets. He even picked summer 2009 as the bottom of the housing cycle because bankers would constrain credit to homebuilders and developers.

Apparently he was right on all counts. The Texas inventory of unsold new and existing homes is in good shape.

"I feel now is the time to buy a house in most Texas cities," he said. "Housing affordability has never been higher, and I never thought I would see 5 percent mortgages in my lifetime. If you plan to live in the house for at least two or three years, now is the time to buy.