Contractor's prospect for work? (Austin, Port Arthur: new home, neighborhood, construction)

[Oregontileman]

We are looking to possibly move to Austin this summer when the kids finish the school year. We now live in Portland, Oregon and the housing market has slowed down quite a bit. I was wondering if anybody could give me a feel of how the building of new homes is going and will it grow? I'm a licensed tile and granite contractor with 15 years of experience with good references, is there much work for me there? What do people pay there for installation? Any help would be appreciated.

[ericbramlett]

Our market is speeding up consistently - but they're going to slow down new home construction this year (which is good, IMO, esp. for property values.) More than likely, you're going to see a drop in pay for the actual work - but you can find plenty of inexpensive subs. I'd have to dig for my last quote, but I think I pay ~$2/sf for the actual tile install. I use a GC, but he's priced very well. I'm not sure what he pays his subs, but I know it's much less.
Bottom line - market's going to be better, cost of labor is less. If you're really hungry for work - have you looked into any of the Gulf areas where the hurricane rebuilding is going on? If you like TX, the Port Arthur needs a lot of help.

[Oregontileman]

Austin seems to stand out for us. It is a lot like the Portland area with the culture and the high tech. I know I would take a pay cut, but from what I've read and researched my cost of living will be much less. The area I go to is important to me for my children and Austin seems the best fit. I'm originally from Florida where the wages are also low, I would, or could not go back there because the cost of homes there are even higher than here in Oregon. That is one of the reason's we are moving to the Austin area.

[ericbramlett]

It sounds like you have a good handle on it!

[austin-steve]

I'm a licensed tile and granite contractor with 15 years of experience with good references

The problem you'll have here in Austin is being able to bid comptetitively against a pretty skilled immigrant work force. Also, in Texas, no license is required for trades such as tile setting, masonry, etc. The are no unions, so pricing is true free market pricing. There is starting to be a shortage of labor though as the housing boom in Austin continues.

If you're exceptionally good, you might create a niche working in the higher end homes where "adequate" tile and granite work is not good enough, and the builders have high enough margins to pay for the kind of quality desired in those homes.

Good luck.

Steve

[BJB817]

Finally-another tile guy on this forum! We should just hook up and go into business lol! My wife and I have been kicking around the idea of moving to Austin as well. From the research I've done, it looks as though I'd realistically make about 2/3 of what I do here. I'm guessing MN and OR pay about the same for tile work-well!

My understanding is that high end new homes and remodeling work are the way to go in Texas in general. The non-english speaking folks have the market cornered on low and moderate end new construction, so you'll starve yourself to death trying to compete with them. I've heard such crews will install 12 x 12 over a slab for as little as $1-$2 a foot. Now I'm sure the quality is nothing to write home about, but for alot of people if the price is right and the tile's stuck to the floor that's good enough.

While Austin proper is getting pretty spendy, you can get a new/newer home in a nice neighborhood for under $200k in the outlying areas. I guess that helps offset the "sunshine tax" we'd be paying by moving to that market.

Good luck!