Texas was an attractive destination for people moving last year, beating Florida and Tennessee for the largest net gain of one-way U-Haul trucks as job growth, lower housing costs and no income tax drew newcomers.

The Lone Star State regained its No 1. spot, which it held from 2016 to 2018 before dropping to second in 2019 and 2020, according to U-Haul’s annual Growth Index.

The truck rental company ranks “growth states” by examining the net gain of one-way U-Haul trucks entering a state versus leaving that state in a calendar year.

Arrivals in Texas rose 19 percent and departures increased 18 percent over 2020, with inbound trucks making up 50.2 percent of all one-way U-Haul traffic in the state last year. Click to read more at www.chron.com.

When Elon Musk unveiled the Tesla Solar Roof in 2016, it was the first that many people had heard of solar shingles. But the idea of a roofing product that can both generate energy and blend in with regular asphalt shingles has been around for decades.

Companies from Dow Chemical Company to the now-defunct BP Solar have given the solar shingle a shot, but many of these products are no longer on the market. Solar shingles have been expensive to manufacture and install, and are not yet as efficient as regular solar panels. That’s kept them from breaking into the mainstream.

Now GAF Energy, the sister company to one of the largest roofing companies in the world and a division of privately held Standard Industries, is launching a new solar shingle effort. It just released a product called Timberline Solar, which the company says will be cheaper and more reliable than Tesla’s Solar Roof. It just won the Best of Innovation Award for Smart Cities at CES. Click to read more at www.cnbc.com.

Key Points
Mid-America Apartment Communities is the premier apartment operator in the Sun Belt.

Switch is preparing to become one of the newest data center REITs.
Plymouth Industrial REIT gives investors exposure to growing industrial demand.

Motley Fool Issues Rare “All In” Buy Alert

Real estate investment trusts (REITs) are often sought after for their reliable, attractive dividend returns, but REITs can also make great growth stocks.

Right now, most real estate industries are booming across the country, which has helped REITs grow to massive heights. Over the past year, REITs achieved a near 40% return year to date, outperforming the S&P 500 by over 10%.

There is some concern about the real estate market cooling in 2022, but regardless of where it goes, Mid-America Apartment Communities (NYSE:MAA), Switch (NYSE:SWCH), and Plymouth Industrial REIT (NYSE:PLYM) are all in a solid position for serious growth. Here’s a closer look at each company and why these REIT stocks are worthwhile buys for long-term investors. Click to read more at www.fool.com.

In reflecting on my 2021 retail musings, I discovered a full two-thirds of the nearly three-dozen articles touched on five main topics – Sustainability and Conscious Consumerism, Big Box Specialty Stores, Big Discounters’ Dominance, Direct-to-Consumer Brands (DTC), and Mall Fall and Overhaul. A brief recap may provide a guide for what will be on our radar in 2022.

Sustainability and Conscious Consumerism

It is undeniable that the stigma once associated with buying secondhand has more than evaporated, it is becoming a net positive driven by millennials and Gen Z consumers. Even the much-discussed supply chain woes played to the reseller’s advantage this past year with its inherent “closed-loop” sourcing.

In October I suggested that companies like Poshmark and ThredUp were going to reap big holiday benefits. I noted that GlobalData predicted that retail resale would grow eleven times faster than the broader fashion retail sector through 2025, to an estimated value of $77 billion. It is expected to eclipse fast fashion by 2028. Click to read more at www.forbes.com.

AUSTIN – Texas added 75,100 nonfarm jobs in November, reaching nearly 13 million jobs, according to the Texas Workforce Commission.

With the jobs gained last month, the Texas economy has recovered all jobs lost because of the pandemic and is now 28,200 jobs above the February 2020 employment level of nearly 13 million.

It took Texas 19 months to recover lost jobs. The state’s labor force participation rate remains below pre-pandemic levels.

The state’s job growth was 0.6 percent last month, exceeding the Texas Real Estate Research Center’s forecasted growth rate of 0.4 percent.

The state’s labor market is recovering faster than the nation’s job market, which grew 0.1 percent over the month.

Texas’ seasonally adjusted unemployment rate in November was 5.2 percent, down 0.2 percentage points from October and higher than the national unemployment rate of 4.2 percent.

Amarillo had the lowest nonseasonally adjusted unemployment rate in the state at 3.1 percent. McAllen-Edinburg-Mission had the highest at 7.7 percent.

All employment sectors had seasonally adjusted job gains since November 2020. Mining and logging saw the largest annual growth in October at 17.4 percent, followed by professional and business services (11.3 percent) and leisure and hospitality (11.1 percent). Click to read more at www.recenter.tamu.edu.com.