Austin construction scene (Fredericksburg, Center, Post: apartment, condominium, home builders)

[Trad Carpenter]

Hey,

I'm a Californian born and bred but have travelled extensively. My trade is as a carpenter and joiner for which I have a diploma, having completed a three year course in traditional site carpentry and bench joinery. I'm thinking of relocating to the Austin area or maybe even Fredericksburg. Can anyone tell me what the current job market is like in these areas? Thanks.

[CptnRn]

//www.city-data.com/forum/austi...ing-going.html

Business, Personal Finance, Technology, Employment news for Austin and Central Texas | Statesman.com

McGraw-Hill Construction

Residential building in April grew 4% to $123.5 billion (annual rate). Multifamily housing in April climbed 43%, continuing the up-and-down pattern around a rising trend that has been present since late 2010 and into early 2011. The largest multifamily project reported as an April start was the $180 million apartment/condominium portion of the $420 million City Center mixed use project in Washington DC. Additional support in April came from numerous projects of more moderate scale, including 15 multifamily projects with a construction start cost in the range of $25 million to $65 million. Single family housing in April continued to languish, slipping an additional 4%. While single family housing seemed to show improvement towards the end of 2010, activity so far in 2011 has generally trended downward. By region, April revealed this performance for single family housing – the South Central, down 9%; the Northeast, down 7%; the West, down 2%; the South Atlantic, down 1%; and the Midwest, up 3%. Murray noted, “Single family housing has been negatively affected by continued uncertainty about the near-term prospects for the economy, as well as by falling home prices which have further diminished the investment component of homebuyer demand.”


The 9% decline for total construction on an unadjusted basis for the first four months of 2011 compared to last year was the result of weaker activity for all three main sectors. Nonresidential building dropped 7% year-to-date, due to this behavior – commercial building, up 19%; manufacturing building, up 209%; and institutional building, down 23%. Nonbuilding construction was down 5% year-to-date, with the public works categories sliding 25% while electric utility work climbed 154%. Residential building showed the largest year-to-date decline of the three main sectors, falling 15%, with the comparison to the early months of 2010 when housing activity was recovering prior to its midyear stall. By geography, total construction in the first four months of 2011 registered this pattern – the South Atlantic, down 19%; the Northeast, down 13%; the Midwest, down 11%; the South Central, down 2%, and the West, no change.


Additional perspective comes from looking at twelve-month moving totals, in this case the twelve months ending April 2011 versus the twelve months ending April 2010. On this basis, total construction is down 5%, as the result of this performance by sector – nonresidential building, down 5%; residential building, down 7%; and nonbuilding construction, down 2%. By region, the twelve months ending April 2011 showed the following for total construction compared to the previous twelve months – the South Atlantic, down 16%; the Northeast, down 6%; the South Central, down 4%; the Midwest, no change; and the West, up 2%.

[Trad Carpenter]

Thanks CptnRn for the comprehensive info. I can only agree that the construction industry as a whole is suffering. That said, according to the usual sources like Forbes, Money, etc and even some of your other postings, the Austin economy is showing signs of a recovery. So with that, would it be safe to assume that with the burgeoning tech industry and the university that there is money about? More to the point, that the Austin market although not showing a buoyant residential "new build" market, people would be spending on home improvements? Thanks again for your input!

[G Grasshopper]

CptnRn has given you much more information that I could, but I will just tell you that my brother in law is a joiner, having worked in the Austin area for 20 years, and he is struggling. Most of his jobs now are remodeling, not building.

[CptnRn]

Originally Posted by Trad Carpenter

Thanks CptnRn for the comprehensive info. I can only agree that the construction industry as a whole is suffering. That said, according to the usual sources like Forbes, Money, etc and even some of your other postings, the Austin economy is showing signs of a recovery. So with that, would it be safe to assume that with the burgeoning tech industry and the university that there is money about? More to the point, that the Austin market although not showing a buoyant residential "new build" market, people would be spending on home improvements? Thanks again for your input!

I wish I could say things were different, but the construction market has been hit pretty hard in Austin. Many of the construction workers who used to do commercial and institutional work, as well as the home builders are doing home improvements now just to keep food on the table. The areas where the local economy is improving are not construction related. I'm an architect, architects and engineers will typically see more work coming into them before it gets into the construction phase, and we are not seeing any signs of improvement yet in those areas.

I just did a job search for Construction Carpenters, here at the Work in Texas jobsite and came up with zero job's available: https://wit.twc.state.tx.us/WORKINTE..._BROWSE_SEARCH

As you can see in the quote above, the Residential Construction market in the South Central US is down more then any other part of the US.

[Trad Carpenter]

Well thanks to you CptnRn and G Grasshopper for all your info. I certainly hope things improve there for you. It appears I need to do a little more looking around before I find a place to settle.

[NavyDad]

Check out the Home Builders Association of Greater Austin for superintendent jobs at area builders. Largest locally owned builder is Buffington Homes. Good luck on your job hunt.

[Trad Carpenter]

Originally Posted by NavyDad

Check out the Home Builders Association of Greater Austin for superintendent jobs at area builders. Largest locally owned builder is Buffington Homes. Good luck on your job hunt.

Thanks NavyDad, I'm going to follow that up! Ideally, I think the best action is for me to come to Austin and try to arrange some interviews.

[Trad Carpenter]

I'm not too concerned with new builds be they commercial or residential although that is the "bread and butter" as they say. I quite comfortable working in those areas but my strength is in renovation of older, period properties, post & beam construction and the like. But as I've said, I'm prepared to turn my hand to anything carpentry. Thanks again to you all.

[CptnRn]

There was an article in the Statesman this morning about Austin's Economy. With biggest number of jobs, public sector remains anchor for Austin area's economy

In regard to Construction I want to highlight what it reported. http://www.statesman.com/multimedia/dynamic/01162/WEB101611austineco_1162053c.jpg (broken link) in item number 8 - Mining, Logging and Construction (which is pretty much all construction).

Currently there are about 40,000 jobs in this area, down 0.5% from 2010. Three years ago, employment was much larger with 51,700 jobs, which means that jobs in this area have declined more then 22 percent since the start of the recession.