Wow, I was very surprised to read this. Kind of ominous, to say the least. Reminds me of the late '80s, and that was a baaaad time for Houston.
For your perusal:

link: 50 Million Square Feet Vacant in Houston: Worst Vacancy Rate in 30 Years, NAI Reports

Quote:HOUSTON – (By Ralph Bivins, Realty News Report) – The office vacancy rate in Houston hasn’t been this ugly in 30 years.

And there is no miracle cure, no magic bullet that can bring a timely healing. Energy companies – the backbone of Houston office tenancy for almost a century – are not expanding. Many are shrinking.

There will be no bailout from Amazon HQ2 and its 8 million SF office requirement. And it’s been so long since Houston scored a major league win in the corporate relocation game, it’s hard to hold hope that economic development can do anything substantive about Houston’s vacancy problem.

Fifty million square feet of office space lies vacant in Houston, according to NAI Partners’ second quarter report.

“We are seeing historically high vacancy, continued negative absorption including ongoing large-scale lease dispositions and an occupancy rate at its lowest level in 30-plus years,” NAI said....

And my guess is that the glut of vacancies still has not resulted in a drop in rent prices. When my office looked at moving less than a year ago, there was still a very high vacancy rate, but we were basically told that the majority of it was held by large firms that would rather eat the cost of holding an empty office for a few years, then negotiate lower rent to a tenant for a longer period of time. But hey, maybe things have changed in a year.

Interesting. As a general indicator of the Houston economy, I don't know that this is a cause for alarm. My sense is that our regional economy is doing well even if its needs for office space are not growing. The number of square foot needed per employee is not what it used to be.

(08-06-2018 09:47 AM)georgewebb Wrote:  Interesting. As a general indicator of the Houston economy, I don't know that this is a cause for alarm. My sense is that our regional economy is doing well even if its needs for office space are not growing. The number of square foot needed per employee is not what it used to be.

You don't need much office space for robots, unless you are in the business of making and selling robots.

(08-06-2018 10:11 AM)OptimisticOwl Wrote:  

(08-06-2018 09:47 AM)georgewebb Wrote:  Interesting. As a general indicator of the Houston economy, I don't know that this is a cause for alarm. My sense is that our regional economy is doing well even if its needs for office space are not growing. The number of square foot needed per employee is not what it used to be.

You don't need much office space for robots, unless you are in the business of making and selling robots.

I dunno, the robots I know are Space Invaders

(08-06-2018 10:21 AM)ranfin Wrote:  

(08-06-2018 10:11 AM)OptimisticOwl Wrote:  

(08-06-2018 09:47 AM)georgewebb Wrote:  Interesting. As a general indicator of the Houston economy, I don't know that this is a cause for alarm. My sense is that our regional economy is doing well even if its needs for office space are not growing. The number of square foot needed per employee is not what it used to be.

You don't need much office space for robots, unless you are in the business of making and selling robots.

I dunno, the robots I know are Space Invaders

You know robot termites?

(08-06-2018 09:47 AM)georgewebb Wrote:  Interesting. As a general indicator of the Houston economy, I don't know that this is a cause for alarm. My sense is that our regional economy is doing well even if its needs for office space are not growing. The number of square foot needed per employee is not what it used to be.

This is true. Plus several major companies have relocated from Houston to the burbs, opening up space in downtown.

That and the number of employees aren't what they used to be either. Houston does have a higher unemployment rate than Texas as a whole. (nothing alarm causing, but it is higher)

My experience in the Oil industry is that companies had absurd amounts of overhead and several employees who did very little (at a number far greater that retail, commercial and tech). The last oil slump caused a headcount revision and job rationalization. As prices rise, purses get looser and some bloat returns, but this time it seems to be at a much more controlled and planned rate. The above coupled with reduced hiring (to some degree) means the overall space requirement has shrunk a decent amount.