Why Texas is doing so much better economically than the rest of the nation

Just celebrated my 1-year anniversary here in Austin, Texas. Took 8 years to convince wife to make the move. Been fantastic so far. Article is right-on in many regards:<p>Business/startup/tech climate is strong. (btw: norm is mucho less of the douche than SXSW crowd)<p>Housing: we moved from Seattle. Home prices roughly half (in 'burbs, near exceptional schools). Taxes are roughly double -- a big reason for low home prices, besides all the cheap land.<p>Lifestyle: Austin's very similar in people-climate to Seattle. Active, outdoor-loving, low-key, friendly folks.<p>Climate: summer unbelievably hot, rest of the year, pretty fantastic (for a Seattle boy).<p>While I've seen a bit of the Red-State stereotype, personal freedom and a live and let live attitude (personally, in government, and business) is much more the norm -- and perhaps much of the reason for riding the recession a bit smoother.

See <a href="http://www.nytimes.com/2010/04/12/opinion/12krugman.html" rel="nofollow">http://www.nytimes.com/2010/04/12/opinion/12krugman.html</a> where Krugman compares Georgia and Texas.<p>The two states have a lot in common, but Texas has strong consumer-protection regulation, Georgia lacked these government regulations.<p>Krugman points out that the absence of these regulations landed Georgia in their current disastrous situation.<p>For many people, comparing Georgia and Texas and highlighting the strong consumer-protection regulations in Texas may not be as much fun as bashing California, but this is worth a read

What the article doesn't explain is why Texas is able to sustain 700,000 jobs geared toward export manufacturing, or why Texas continues to attract engineering talent.<p>At least part of it is Texas' business-friendly and employee-friendly tax climate.

Texas really did behave entirely differently during the recession (employment-wise) than the rest of the country. Not only did the state start adding jobs in the middle of last year, there are now more jobs today than before the recession:<p><a href="http://www.deptofnumbers.com/unemployment/texas/#employment" rel="nofollow">http://www.deptofnumbers.com/unemployment/texas/#employment</a><p>(Note: link is to a site I maintain)

If independence and economic autonomy work well at the state level, I wonder what it could do at the local level in resilient communities.

<i>Unlike many of its neighbors, Texas has state laws that prohibited consumers from using home-equity lines of credit to increase borrowing to more than 80 percent of the value of their homes</i><p>This certainly would fight inflationary/bubbly pressures. Forced financial responsibility. Nice. I wonder how many other states follow this model.

Another point that could have been mentioned: the Texas legislature is part-time, and only meets every other year(!). They're not the professional busybodies of California's legislature, thinking up new "juice bills" year-round.

One reason Texas avoided the housing bubble is the property taxes are very high here. The tax rate is 4.5-5% of value. In California its 1%. Also, interest rates are lower in California, a foreclosure can happen in as little as 120 days which reduces the lenders risk and your interest rate. The result is a lot of carrying costs for investing in residential real estate.

Summary:<p>Energy is driving Texas economy. Suprisingly not from oil, but from natural gas and wind power. Texas has has its own electricity grid which has allowed it to embrace alternative energy technology with minimal hurdles. In addition, exports are rising - almost 25% in Q1 vs 2009.

Are undocumented workers even counted in the unemployment rate? What percentage of Texas' workers are undocumented?

Just moved my web development business to Texas from Los Angeles, no regrets.

Oil at $80+ a barrel?

tl;dr: oil is trading at $80 a barrel.