Austin was named third on the Forbes.com list of the top 10 "Recession-Proof Cities" in the United States.
To create the list, the magazine looked at the 50 largest U.S. metros, examining key measures, such as unemployment data, non-farm related job growth, median home prices and data from a 2007 report, "U.S. Metro Economies: The Mortgage Crisis" by the U.S. Conference of Mayors.
At number three, Austin was right behind San Antonio, which grabbed the second spot thanks to solid employment figures and affordable home prices that continue to rise.
Oklahoma City took the No. 1 spot because of its strong housing market and solid growth in agriculture, energy and manufacturing.
For its part, Austin was lauded for being a hip town with one of the lowest unemployment rates in the country.
Forbes magazine's list of recession-proof cities also included: Houston, Dallas, Charlotte, N.C., Raleigh, N.C., Salt Lake City, San Jose, Calif. and Seattle.
Forbes says that Texas cities such as San Antonio, Austin, Houston and Dallas-Fort Worth have benefitted from historically lower home prices, land availability and 'little zoning'.
All four Texas cities boast falling unemployment rates, according to Forbes, with Austin dropping from 3.8 percent to 3.6 percent.
Texans are altering their driving habits to cope with record-high gas prices, a new AAA Texas report shows.
More than half of AAA Texas members surveyed said they have cut back substantially on the miles they normally drive and more than two-thirds are combining errands to reduce their overall mileage.
The survey found that those whose annual income is less than $50,000 were more likely to combine errands, reduce speed for better fuel economy or check tires regularly for proper inflation.
"There is no doubt that gas prices are having a big impact on many Texans," says Mark Bell, regional vice president and general manager for AAA Texas. "Drivers are changing how they drive and how often because of the relentless upward swing in gas prices."
The most common action taken in the past two months by AAA Texas members in response to the higher gas prices was to combine errands (70%), followed by:
Meanwhile, another report on commuting habits from Robert Half International shows more than four in 10 U.S. workers, or about 44 percent, said pain at the pump has affected their commutes.
That's up from 34 percent the same time a year ago.
For those who are making changes, close to half said they were using more carpooling or ride sharing services. A third mentioned driving a more fuel efficient vehicle, and three in ten said they were working from home more.
Using public transportation was a less popular option in the Robert Half study, with only 23 percent citing it as a change made in commuting behavior.
But some commuters said the price would have to rise much more for them to alter their plans. Those who said they were not being affected by the gas prices, most agreed that prices would have to rise an average of $1.14 a gallon more to make a difference.
Wells Fargo & Co. has raised the credit requirements for people seeking some types of home loans, the company confirmed Friday.
The San Francisco-based bank will require higher credit scores for potential home-buyers seeking loans that cover 95 percent or more of a home's value. The bank didn't give further details.
Wells Fargo (NYSE: WFC) has 10 home mortgage branches in the Houston area.
The bank has also eliminated some cash-out refinancings for clients with loans that represent over 80 percent of their home's price. A statement from the company said the measure was undertaken "in response to market and industry changes."
Wells Fargo is the No. 2 bank in the Austin area, according to the Austin Business Journal's 2007 Book of Lists.
Recognizing that tourism and convention decisions are increasingly based on online information, the Austin Convention and Visitors Bureau is upgrading its Web image.
The bureau's newly redesigned Web site, www.AustinTexas.org is designed to serve as a one-stop destination for business and leisure travelers looking for information on Texas' Capital City.
The site offers experiential videos, avatar guides and a timeline tool that allows users to build their travel days in Austin. Local musicians provide the soundtrack, and users can learn about a wide array of outdoor and cultural attractions.
"This new site raises the bar for online destination marketing," says Bob Lander, president and CEO of Austin CVB.
Aided by video and audio narratives, users can experience everything from the Austin City Limits Music Festival to a cycling trip on the Barton Creek Greenbelt. Each featured experience can be added to a virtual timeline and shared with friends.
Along with such interactive features, the site incorporates information pertinent to the different audiences that utilize CVB services, including: leisure visitors; meeting planners; tour guides and travel agents; film industry professionals; music industry contacts; members of the media and sports event producers.
According to a study by research group Global Insight released last year, about 18.9 million visitors came to the Austin area in 2006 and left $3.5 billion in spending behind.
www.AustinTexas.org
Who says bottled water is best?
Austin has some of the cleanest tap water in the nation, according to a new report from Forbes.com. The city's H2O actually comes in as the second best among metropolitan areas, right behind Des Moines, Iowa and just ahead of Sioux Falls, S.D.
Amid the national drive for increased sustainability and greener living, the bottled water industry is facing pushback. Recent media reports show consumers are increasingly looking to their faucet in lieu of the plastic bottle for hydration. But just how clean is the tap?
To come with this latest ranking, the list lovers at Forbes.com examined individual consumer confidence reports in the University of Cincinnati's 2006 "United States Drinking Water Quality Study Report." The rankings were based on cloudiness of water or turbidity, bacteria, haloacetic acids and lead.
According to Forbes.com, the Austin-San Marcos region showed some the lowest levels of lead, turbidity and haloacetic acid.
Making bottles to meet Americans' demand for bottled water each year requires the equivalent of more than 17 million barrels of oil -- enough fuel for more than 1 million cars for a year, according to Think Outside the Bottle, a campaign of the Corporate Accountability International. And each year, more than 4 million pounds of PET plastic bottles end up in landfills or as roadside litter.
What makes it attractive:
Austin, just like Raleigh, is a college town that doubles as a state capital. The result is a young, highly educated workforce. Twenty-nine percent of Austin's residents fit in the 18-34 age group. That's the highest concentration of young adults in any major U.S. market.
The cleanup from last week's storms is largely complete and now the cost estimates are rolling in.
The storms that rolled across the area on the evening of May 14 brought about $50 million in insurance losses to Central Texas, according to the Insurance Council of Texas.
The council says about 20,000 insurance claims may be made from storm damage that uprooted trees, knocked out windows, damaged roofs and smashed cars. Average homeowner claims are estimated to be $3,500, and auto claims about $3,000.
The storms brought wind gusts up to 65 miles per hour and large hail.
The council says the last storm to cause more insured losses than this month's came on March 24, 2005. That storm left about $100 million in damaged property across Central Texas.
Providing more evidence of Austin's economic resilience, the region added 4,100 jobs last month with big gains in sectors such as hospitality and professional and business services.
The April additions included 900 new positions each in the government and leisure/hospitality sectors. Professional/business services added 500 jobs as did retail trade, according to the latest figures from the Texas Workforce Commission.
In the last year, Austin has gained 20,100 jobs for an annual growth rate of 2.7 percent. Retail trade added 2,900 jobs since April 2007; professional/business services added 5,700 positions, leisure and hospitality grew by 2,900 and government increased by 3,700 jobs. The largest job declines came in the manufacturing sector, which saw a year-over-year drop of 2,100 positions.
The unemployment rate in the Austin-Round Rock area stood at 3.3 percent in April, down from 3.2 percent a year earlier. That remains better than the Texas unemployment rate at 3.9 percent and the national rate at 4.8 percent.
Texas employers added a total of 15,400 jobs in April for a 12-month job increase of 262,000 positions since April 2007.
Walt Disney Co. is opening an "Ad Lab" in Austin.
Disney's [NYSE: DIS] media network division says it will be launching a research lab, which will test and assess its networks' advertising strategies and programming, in Austin by the end of the year.
Disney-owned ABC Television Group and ESPN Inc. will be directly involved in the lab. Disney has tapped professor Duane Varan, executive director of the Interactive Television Research Institute, to oversee the lab.
Disney says it is planning to establish a 3,000-square-foot lab in Austin, but has not yet selected a location.
"In terms of having the right demographics, Austin was a good choice," says Karen Hobson, a spokeswoman for Disney-ABC Television Group.
The size of the staff is still to be determined.
"It's possible that we may look to do other labs in different cities," Hobson adds.
The lab will test how TV watchers respond to ads in different real-life scenarios, such as while viewing a split-screen or using a mobile device.
"In today's rapidly evolving media environment, we need to go beyond traditional forms of research to ensure an effective connection with our audience," says George Bodenheimer, president of ESPN and ABC Sports, and co-chair, Disney Media Networks, in a release. "This on-going initiative will employ advanced methods to reveal deeper insights about media and advertising engagement that will lead to innovative solutions for our advertisers and our media platforms."
In today's crowded media environment, networks are facing more competition for advertising dollars from a number of platforms, including the Internet.
Texas is weathering housing troubles very well
The city of Austin will launch its red light camera program, aimed at catching red light transgressors, during Memorial Day weekend.
On Friday, May 23, automated camera systems will be installed at the intersections of the I-35 northbound service road and 11th Street.
The Austin City Council approved the program in November 2007 to "combat the serious problem of red light running in Austin," according to a city statement. Eight other intersections will get red light cameras over the next several weeks. They include:
The red light camera intersections will be identified for drivers with a sign that reads "Photo Enforced."
According to the Austin Police Department, red light running contributed to 1,336 accidents in 2007. There have been at least three fatalities attributed to red light running during each of the last three years in Austin.
A $75 penalty will be issued for each violation, with a $25 late fee assessed for violations not paid within 30 days of the date the notice of violation is received. Half of the net revenue generated by the red light program will be sent to a state trauma care fund. The city's half of the revenue will be used exclusively for traffic safety programs, intersection improvements and traffic enforcement.
According to the city, red light camera programs across the country have been effective at reducing red light violations and crashes at intersections.
Gracy Title Company Inc. and Stewart Title of Austin Inc. are merging to form one company that executives hope will become an even bigger force in the local title game.
Stewart has owned Gracy for years, but the two have operated as independent title companies. This latest move merges the two groups under one name, Gracy Title -- A Stewart Company. Including Prosperity Title Co. and Advantage Title Co., which Stewart has a majority stake in, the new company will have a total of about 170 employees. That includes 45 title closers across 19 branch locations in three counties.
"The former structure made sense in a booming market," says David Tandy, Chairman and CEO of the company. "But the time came when we had to look at how to strengthen both companies in a more challenging marketplace."
The combination means the two groups will have a unified sales and marketing team and will not be competing for market share. It also means a reduction in administrative and other costs.
In April, the four companies closed 738 transactions and generated 1,412 orders, making it one of the largest title companies by closings and orders in Austin.
In addition to Tandy who will maintain his role as chairman and CEO, other top managers include Larry Molinare as vice chairman, Wanda Frederick as president, and Gay Pierce as chief operating officer.
Tandy says the combined company will maintain all of its existing offices and branch locations.
An Oklahoma man has sued the nonprofit foundation created by Lance Armstrong for patent infringement over black and yellow dog collars showing the "LiveStrong" logo.
The Lance Armstrong Foundation's collars violate a December 2007 patent filed by Chris Ohman for a "pet collar with an embossed slogan for encouraging charitable contributions," according to court papers filed April 30 in an Oklahoma federal district court.
In September 2007, the Lance Armstrong Foundation sued the Animal Charity Collar Group alleging trademark infringement for the group's selling of Ohman's yellow pet collars imprinted with slogans such as "BarkStrong" and "PurrStrong." The collars are sold on the group's Web site (www.barkstrong.net) and on retail sites like eBay and Amazon.com. After the foundation filed suit, Ohman filed for the patent that he now alleges is being violated.
That litigation is still pending.
Armstrong is not named in the countersuit. His foundation sells pet collars in addition to yellow rubber bracelets, T-shirts and other products with the slogan "LiveStrong" to raise funds for cancer research. They are sold on the foundation's Web site and through Amazon.com and Nike Inc.
Katherine McLane, a spokeswoman for the foundation, could not immediately be reached for comment.
City leaders are talking with Australian infrastructure powerhouse Macquarie Group Ltd. about potentially leasing all or part of Austin-Bergstrom International Airport.
Macquarie representatives approached some council members and business leaders individually in recent months, says a source familiar with the conversations. While there is no formal proposal yet, sources say Macquarie representatives would like council members to post an agenda item so it can engage the city's Aviation Department in discussions about the possibility of a private company managing the airport.
City leaders discussed the possibility of eventually privatizing the airport in 2007, but this is the first time that a private company has been linked with ABIA.
Proponents of a leasing deal say that leasing ABIA could add up to $500 million to the city's general fund annually, but acknowledge that the road to privatization is fraught with hurdles and public wariness of putting public infrastructure into private hands.
The Macquarie Group owns and operates five airports in cities worldwide, including Sydney Airport, Bristol International Airport and Japan Airport Terminal. In the United States, the company is also involved in private toll road development. Worldwide, Macquarie Group has about $200 billion invested in infrastructure, from electric utilities to roads and airports.
Macquarie executives couldn't be reached for comment.
Federal law prohibits the city from spending airport revenue on anything but the airport, says Council Member Betty Dunkerley, so ABIA currently contributes nothing to the city's general fund -- which in many years, including this one, falls short of revenue expectations. Other city departments, such as the convention center and Austin Energy, do funnel profits into the city's general fund.
ABIA's total operating revenue for the 2007 fiscal year was $81.9 million, and $17 million of that revenue went back into the airport's capital fund, says ABIA spokesman Jim Halbrook.
"We are entirely at a very, very conceptual level about how this might work," says a source familiar with Macquarie's conversations in Austin. "Plus, while the big banana might be to go for an FAA exemption ... there are many other steps short of that that Macquarie may be willing to talk to the city about. [Possibilities] run all the way from a management contract to turn over airport operations through a contractual arrangement ... to having them come in and manage one piece of the airport. There's all kinds of ways the city could unload some of the headaches of operating the airport, short of privatization."
Under a 1996 federal pilot program, U.S. airports can apply for an exemption from the Federal Aviation Administration. Under that program, up to five U.S. airports can be leased to a private company if the FAA and 65 percent of airlines using the airport give their approval.
If you think living in Austin feels like a permanent vacation, you're not alone.
According to a recent U.S. News and World Report study, the nation's retirees agree: Austin topped a list of the 10 "greenest" retirement destinations.
With its plentiful urban parks and wilderness preserves, Austin was cited as an ideal city to help raise grandchildren. Zilker Park, in particular, was cited for its mix of recreation and natural settings, including the hike-and-bike trails, hillside theater, swimming holes and botanical and sculpture gardens.
Other cities on the list included Albuquerque, N.M.; Chicago; Virginia Beach, Va.; Raleigh, N.C.; San Diego, Calif.; Phoenix, Jacksonville, Fla.; Colorado Springs, Colo.; and Portland, Oregon.
Apple Inc. eliminated 174 sales jobs at its Elk Grove, Calif. campus, and is planning to move those jobs to Austin.
All affected employees were offered the option to relocate to a work site in Austin, or apply for another position at Apple in Elk Grove.
The job that were cut are Mac telephone-sales positions, said Kristin Huguet, a spokeswoman for the company. She said some telephone-sales jobs will remain in Elk Grove, though she declined to say how many.
"Apple's headcount continues to grow in Elk Grove with more than 1,100 employees working there today, up more than 50 percent in the past three years," Huguet said, reading a statement Apple issued Thursday.
Huguet declined to disclose the salary range of the affected employees.
The company has warehousing and distribution operations in Elk Grove, as well as a customer support call center.
Shares of Cupertino-based Apple (NASDAQ: AAPL) closed Thursday at $180.00 per share, up $6.05, or 3.5 percent.
Starbucks Corp. said second-quarter earnings fell to $108.7 million, or 15 cents per share, down from $150.8 million, or 19 cents per share, a year earlier.
The Seattle coffee giant (NASDAQ: SBUX) had warned analysts of the impending dismal results last week, when it said it had been hit hard in its two biggest U.S. markets, California and Florida.
Second-quarter revenues rose to $2.5 billion from $2.3 billion a year earlier.
Starbucks plans to open "significantly fewer" stores in the U.S. from 2009 to 2011, opening less than 400 net new stores per year. But it said revenue growth will be greater in the next few years outside of the U.S., and it plans to accelerate its international store openings, opening 1,050 stores in 2009, 1,150 in 2010, and 1,300 in 2011. By the end of fiscal 2011, the company said, its total store count will be about 21,500.
Starbucks also estimated its earnings per share will be in the range of 90 cents to $1 in 2009, $1.10 to $1.20 in 2010, and between $1.35 to $1.50 in 2011. For fiscal 2008, the company said earnings will fall below last year's 87 cents per share, but didn't get more precise, citing "the lack of visibility into near-term economic conditions." But revenues should grow 13 to 14 percent over 2007's levels, the company said.
"Fiscal 2008 is a transitional year for Starbucks and ... our financial results are clearly being impacted by reduced frequency to our U.S. stores," said CEO Howard Schultz, in a statement.