Speaking to more than 1,175 people yesterday at Austin's 2001-2002 Economic and Technology Forecast at the Austin Convention Center, Angelou evaluates what has happened in Austin in the last year and has made predictions about what is yet to come."The millennium year was a good one for Austin with the creation of 33,100 new jobs and an unemployment rate of about 2%," he says. "The Austin economy has moved less to rely on Dell and Dell has moved less to rely on Austin. However, 10% of all new jobs in 2000 were created at Dell."

Angelou predicts there will be a 3.7% growth in employment in 2001 and 4.8% in 2001. Although down from 5.2% in 2000, he emphasizes "our economy will continue to grow. There has been an anticipated slowing in growth, but the growth is still at high levels." Angelou adds that Austin's population will rise from its current population of 1.2 million to 1.28 million by 2002.

In the commercial real estate sector, Angelou sees an increase in the built-to-suit market, with 7 million sf coming on line in the next few years. The growth will continue despite a high-tech fallout, he predicts. He is banking on companies such as Advanced Micro Devices, Vignette, Tivoli, Samsung, and Sun, which announced recently it was building a major engineering center in northwest Austin.

Angelou told GlobeSt.com that it's not a major concern that Intel has decided to evaluate its downtown construction project. "The construction of their facility is under way and they are still hiring," he says.

"Office occupancy rates will decline to the low 90s, a slowdown, but I expect more high-tech will come to Austin," Angelou said. "I see growth in the northwest and northeast sections of the city." He told GlobeSt.com that he expects the market "will probably be flooded with sublease opportunities, but this isn't necessarily going to be a bad thing because it should be attractive to companies thinking about locating in Austin."

As far as residential goes, Angelou sees decline in luxury homes, but predicts 11,500 new multifamily units will be constructed in the next two years.

Angelou had been a key player in establishing Austin as "the Silicon Hills" in the 1980s and 1990s. Since 1984, he has authored annual two-year economic and employment forecasts. Yesterday's event had been sponsored by Angelou Economics, Arthur Andersen, GrayCary and Merrill Lynch.