April 2015

In a 2014 tax court case, a taxpayer who rented out a vacation home learned a lesson about record keeping. The gist is that to deduct losses on the property, owners must keep meticulous records on exactly how they spend repair and maintenance time at the home.

Research shows that rather than competing, Texas’ largest metro areas complement each other, essentially functioning as one large economic unit.

Landowners who own surface rights but not mineral rights are sometimes unpleasantly surprised to learn how little legal protection they have when problems arise with oil companies entering their property. The accommodation of the estates doctrine offers some relief.

Texas emerged from the Great Recession in a much stronger position than the rest of the nation’s economy. The upward trend in Texas’ share of U.S. GDP is expected to continue.

Five years ago, forward-thinking Corpus Christi leaders set out to attract global industries that use natural gas and natural gas liquids as raw materials. Today, over $28 billion in new projects are under construction or in final permitting.

A Center researcher reports Texas’ housing markets did surprisingly well even when oil prices were lower than those in 2013 and the first half of 2014. That’s because so many other factors — credit availability and employment growth in nonenergy sectors, for example — are influential as well.

Last year was a good one for Texas land prices, which hit record highs. But this year is a big old question mark, as markets are expected to reflect goings-on in the oil industry.