West Texas living large with latest oil boom

Around the country, Americans are tightening their belts, scrapping vacation plans...

Around the country, Americans are tightening their belts, scrapping vacation plans, eating at home more, getting rid of their SUVs and watching "For Sale" signs linger on front lawns. But in oil-and-gas rich West Texas, folks are living large - again. Most homes sell quickly and command premium prices. Hotel rooms are in scant supply. Gas guzzlers are rolling off auto dealers’ lots. Jobs are plentiful in the oil and gas fields, and in the businesses that serve them. Drillers and energy companies are reaping a bonanza from the runup in oil that pushed the price past $140 a barrel this summer. This oil town of just more than 5,100 people about 45 miles west of Odessa is awash in prosperity, and it’s the same story across the rest of the Permian Basin, where about 20 percent of U.S. oil is produced.So far, the boom has brought in hundreds of millions dollars to the region and more than 26,000 new jobs. In Midland and Odessa, the backbone of the region, the unemployment rates are the lowest in Texas, at just more than 3.1 percent and 3.7 percent for July. That compares to 4.7 percent statewide and a U.S. average of 5.7 percent."Help Wanted" signs hang outside many restaurants, which frequently must turn away diners or close off sections when the crush of customers overwhelms the waiters and waitresses."There’s just not enough people to work in the restaurants. The pay is so much better" in the oilfields, said Roy Gillean, owner of the Barn Door Steakhouse in Odessa and the head of the Permian Basin chapter of the Texas Restaurant Association.While plummeting home prices and record-high foreclosures have hit neighborhoods across the U.S., this region is seeing the opposite. In Midland County, homes typically stay on the market for about a month, and prices are up 16.5 percent from last year.That’s not good news for many would-be homebuyers and others lured here by well-paying oilfield jobs.