Featured Municipal Bond in the Market, Week of 05/01/2017: Houston Independent School District – Limited Tax Bonds (Schoolhouse and Refunding Bonds) – $838 Million
This week’s featured bond comes from the State of Texas. The Houston Independent School District is issuing schoolhouse and refunding bonds in the amount of $838 million the week of May 01, 2017. The bonds consist of a single series of limited tax bonds. The bonds are to be used for the construction, acquisition, and equipment of school buildings in the District, the purchase of necessary sites for school buildings, and to refund a portion of the District’s debt, in order to lower its overall debt service requirements. The previously issued bonds to be refunded were limited tax refunding bonds, Series 2005B and Series 2007. They are payable from a continuing direct ad valorem tax levied by the District, on all taxable property in the District, save limitations set by law. Further details on the purposes, security, and other matters pertaining to these limited tax bonds can the found in the preliminary official statement, provided by MuniOS.
The City of Houston is central to the Houston-The Woodlands-Sugar Land, TX Metropolitan Statistical Area. The Houston MSA has an unemployment rate of 5.9% as of February 2017, which is 1.2% higher than the national rate for February, and 1.2% higher than at the same time in 2016. The chart below shows the changes in the Houston MSA, State of Texas, and U.S. unemployment rates for the past ten years. MuniNet provides this data and more, easily accessible, for all 50 states and each Metropolitan Statistical Area in the country, in our Employment Database.
Provided at left is a quick snapshot of financial characteristics of the Houston Independent School District, as of 06/30/2016, along with the medians for other U.S. Water & Sewer Utilities, courtesy of Merritt Research Services, LLC. Merritt has many of the sector medians publicly available and regularly updated on their Benchmark Central page. (Merritt believes the data to be reliable but does not make any representations as to its accuracy or completeness). In addition to the Merritt information related to the featured bond, more information can be found on our municipal bond calendar, city, state, and county pages, and our employment database.
These facts and numbers are for informational purposes, and should not be considered an official disclosure for potential investors. Investors should consult the official statement. None of the information provided should be construed as a recommendation by MuniNet Guide, MuniNet LLC, Merritt Research Services LLC, or any of their employees. Information and analysis is for informational purposes only.