HOUSTON—Transwestern held its 15th annual TrendLines conference last Thursday, Nov. 12 at River Oaks Country Club in Houston, featuring the Greater Houston Partnership's senior vice president Patrick Jankowski and keynote speaker Fox News/Fox Business personality Charles Payne.

Jankowski gave the event's first presentation, focusing on Houston's future in its current downturn, amid uncertain oil prices.

"Unfortunately, the boom has come to an end," he said, after making the point that you could "drop Austin's entire economy" inside the last five years of growth in Houston.

West Texas Intermediate is down 57.3 percent since the second quarter of 2014, exports are down 15.9 percent since the fourth quarter of 2014 and employment too, by -0.5 percent.

"Things will get worse before they get better," he said.

Over Jankowski's career, he has seen five downturns in Houston's market: 9/11-Enron, the mid-80s, early 90s, great recession and the current cycle.

"The only similarity to the 80s," he said, "is the oil prices. In the 80s, there were other factors [at play]."

Those included significant real estate overbuilding and bank failures.

Jankowski further predicted that the area will "continue to see layoffs into the next year."

Office vacancy is increasing and rents are slipping, while in the industrial sector, "there'll be lots of empty, vacant buildings for awhile."

The crux of the talk—how long this will all last—was finally broached, with Jankowski offering that the average is around 27 months: "It will be 2017 before people get comfortable with hiring again."

Keynoter Payne is the CEO and principal analyst of Wall Street Strategies Inc. (WSSI), which he founded in 1991 with less than $10,000 in start-up capital and working from his apartment. He is a regular contributor to the Fox Business and Fox News networks and can be seen daily on "Varney & Co." and Saturdays on "Cavuto on Business."

Payne's humorous and entertaining talk focused on the future of the country, and had a thesis that current presidential candidates need to "unlock" the entrepreneurial spirit of America.