Houston exploding with opportunity for MMIO

After announcing more than $200,000 worth of purchase orders in just the past four business days, Marmion Industries Corporation (OTCBB: MMIO) got us to wondering about the massive opportunity that seems to be present in the company’s home region of Houston, Texas.

As we have alluded to in the past , Houston’s economic growth is having a major impact on the company’s expansion.

Since 2000 Houston has seen a 9.77% population increase. A high influx of people coming from New Orleans after Hurricane Katrina swept the area brought Houston’s population to 2,144,491 residents as of 2007. With more people comes the need for more housing.

And Houston has a very attractive housing market, with a modest .15% increase in home appreciation since 2006. This helped Houston rank ninth overall amongst all major metropolitan areas for housing growth (11.5%) in 2007. As prices skyrocket seemingly everywhere else around the country, this market seems to be holding up nicely for the most part.

In addition to the attractive housing market, Houston’s oil & gas industry is going strong and creating new jobs.

Furthermore, with an increase in population brings the need for more schools, hospitals, and large discount shopping warehouses like Costco, Wal-Mart and Home Depot. Although as of now, MMIO commercial jobs only represents 25% of total annual income and the majority of projects have been focused on schools, there is a lot of growth potential elsewhere if and when they decide to branch out even further.

Another thing that makes Houston so attractive to families and new businesses is the relatively low cost of living. The fact that Houston has a 14.25% lower cost of living then the rest of the country has played a huge role in the recent population explosion and made the region quite attractive to young families. And more young families equal more students in schools. With the average number of students per teacher (18) already above the national average, overcrowding is becoming a big issue within the public school system. Hence the up tick in construction of new academic facilities and Marmion’s increased involvement in the space as of late.

If this is not enough for you to see that Houston is the place to be for MMIO then let me add this last part for good measure: the job growth rate for Houston as of the end of 2007 was 2.26% with future job growth over the next ten years forecasted at 26.62%. Once again making Houston a hot spot for young adults and families to migrate to. Also according to Sperling’s web site (http://www.bestplaces.net/) Houston’s housing market should stay fairly stable through 2008 with a modest forecasted appreciation of 2.1% for the upcoming year.

With MMIO stock price teetering at a penny per share, a solid business plan in place, a new facility in the works that should lead to increased sales, and all industry signs pointing to “go”, we see tremendous upside in the company at current levels.