HOUSTON (AP) _ An economist predicts Houston will have a tough 2009 as effects of the global recession and falling oil prices are finally felt in the nation’s energy capital.
University of Houston economics professor Barton Smith today offered the update at his annual real estate forecast symposium.
Smith expects about 60,000 job losses in Houston in the next two years. But Smith added it won’t be as bad as the 1980s, when about 225,000 jobs were lost due to that oil bust.
Smith says Houston often lags behind the rest of the nation in falling into a recession — and that’s why he thinks the area will be slower to begin its recovery.
But Smith says the housing market is still fairly strong in Houston and the foreclosure rate is well below the oil bust of the 1980s.