Job creation, the booming energy sector, plentiful capital, and affordable land have played a major role in Houstons economic success. While much of the country is seeing a correction and slow down, Houston continues to grow. Many of Houstons real estate professionals are holding their breath to see what impact the sub-prime meltdown will have on the balance of the Houston Market. Houston is poised to keep trucking and is still a very attractive from an investment perspective due to sound fundamentals.

 Real Estate Developers are facing many more challenges than in recent years including: 

•  Restrictive Land Use Ordinances -This is relatively new to Houston but is a hot topic with long-lasting ramifications. With 19 newly proposed land use restrictions, Houston could be transformed from an affordable city that is growing to a city where development takes longer and is more expensive. A projects feasibility could be decided by a bureaucracy rather than economic viability and market conditions. 
•  Drainage -Wetland issues and detention requirements are sometimes as complex as a calculus and can dramatically change the true cost of developable land. Growth needs to be responsible and impacts mitigated, but regulations should be simplified and made more consistent.  
• Uncertainty - If developers, lenders, investors, and brokers lose confidence in the marketplace and believe that Houston might be heading for a market correction, we will see the worse kind of market, a stagnant one.

 It has been Houstons time to shine over the past few years and the fundamentals of our market remain very solid for more growth in 2008 and 2009. Some transactions which seem to be based on very aggressive and optimistic assumptions might slow down and homebuilders are definitely feeling a pinch outside of the beltway, but Houston Commercial Real Estate should continue to outperform other major market in the U.S.