Texas retail center valuations boom

Houston — Exceptional job growth, population gains and improved retail fundamentals have significantly elevated the sales prices for shopping centers in Texas over the last year, according to Deal Sikes & Associates, a Houston-based real estate valuation and counseling firm.



Some retail properties have increased in value more than 20 percent in 2013, compared to last year, added Matthew Deal, principal at Deal Sikes & Associates.



“The residential market has improved significantly in recent years and that has increased the demand for shopping center space to serve the growing population,” Deal said. “Construction of new retail space has been very modest over the last three or four years. This imbalance in supply and demand has been pushing up the values of existing retail-oriented real estate.”