Austin and D-FW are the darlings for real estate investment

Austin and Dallas-Fort Worth are now high on real estate investor shopping lists.

The two Texas markets received the best marks in the annual Investors Intentions Survey by the commercial real estate company CBRE.

The Texan markets outperformed the larger coastal cities, which previously dominated the greatest real estate activity for investors.

“The Sun Belt markets attracted more interest than the Gateway markets because they had strong prospects for employment and population growth and, in most cases, higher returns,” the CBRE report concludes. “Austin ousted Greater Los Angeles as the most preferred market in 2021, driven by the proven resilience of the labor market during the pandemic and steady growth prospects.

“Dallas-Fort Worth finished second,” said the researchers. “The Sun Belt stores in Austin, Dallas, Phoenix and Atlanta were among the top performing metropolises in which the fewest jobs were lost in 2020.”

Boston, Nashville and Charlotte, NC dropped out of the top 10 list.

70 percent of investors surveyed by CBRE said they plan to buy more properties by 2021.

“As the economy improves in the face of widespread vaccine delivery, CBRE predicts American investment will increase 25% year over year in 2021,” the researchers said.

Austin-based investor Ari Rastegar, who owns real estate in the D-FW area and Austin, isn’t surprised the cities were selected.

“Austin has consistently attracted top companies like Amazon, Apple and Facebook, and when the pandemic hit, that trend only worsened,” Rastegar said. “Second place in Dallas-Fort Worth is no surprise to me either.

“Austin is fast becoming a global technology hub, but that’s where Dallas has been the financial hub of the Sun Belt region for some time, thanks to major universities and other educational institutions across the city,” he said. “People will always want to be in an emerging city like Dallas.”