The Real Estate Center at Texas A&M University’s monthly Texas Border Economy report for August 2017 offered up some good news. First of all, a stronger peso and tighter labor market meant stronger economic growth on the Texas-Mexico border.

The not-so-good news? A great deal of uncertainty continues to exist about issues ranging from NAFTA renegotiations to immigration reform uncertainty. These “present the largest headwinds to the border economies,” the REC’s analysts said.

On the positive front, the service industry meant that cities in West and South Texas and the Rio Grande Valley had positive economic growth. However, the construction industry slumped, due to declines in non-residential construction, while aggregate border employment lost 1,900 jobs, the first decline since July 2015. Housing inventory spiked, due to extra supply and lack of inventory for houses priced between $100,000-$200,000.

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