Mays Business Online

A think tank comprised of faculty members from Mays Business School recently addressed a gathering of 160 Houston-area business people on the current economic crisis. “This is the first of what I hope will be many venues we will use to bring our faculty and their expertise to touch our former students,” said Dean Jerry Strawser. The panel featured eight speakers with different areas of financial expertise addressing the causes of the crisis, its scope, and potential solutions.

National headlines like these have got Americans concerned, but the researchers at the Texas Real Estate Center say not to worry: the Texas real estate market is doing just fine.

“Some of the crazy things happening other places in the country, like California, just aren’t happening here,” says James Gaines, research economist for the center. In fact, after reviewing statistical models and projections, Gaines says Texas should be preparing for an economic explosion, not a recession.

With the economy in recession, and the sub-prime mortgage crisis threatening the real estate industry, many are wondering: is the Texas real estate economy tied to the slide in the market across the U.S. or is it insulated from it? For the hot real estate markets in Texas, what can be done to keep them that way? These are some of the timely topics to be discussed at the annual Texas Development Summit, a conference hosted by the Real Estate Center on February 4, 2008 in Houston.