Flooding from Hurricane Harvey cost the region thousands of jobs but also led to growth in retail sales from replacement vehicles, furniture, and construction supplies for damaged homes.
Researcher Patrick Jankowski with the Greater Houston Partnership says “We’re seeing a lot of activity now that’ll surge by the middle of the year. But this time next year, most of those homes will be repaired — at least, hopefully they’ll be repaired — and that will even start winding down.”
Jankowski says Harvey definitely had an economic impact.
“You can see in the the building permits,” he said. “But it’s not had as big an impact on employment as we thought it might.”
Jankowski told Houston Matters that, overall, construction is actually slowing because most home repairs take just a few weeks or months, compared to the years it takes to construct an office building. And he says recovery for the energy industry won’t occur until crude prices approach $60 a barrel.
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