Everything in Texas is bigger, including the demand for housing. People are moving in droves to Texan cities, from Dallas to Austin and more. Like any large phenomenon, there’s more than one reason to explain what’s going on.
Let’s take a closer look at why Texas real estate is booming right now.
Tech Jobs
From the gold rush to the dot com bust, people usually go to where the money is, and that means living where the jobs are. Austin’s Silicon Hills neighbourhood is an answer to California’s famous Silicon Valley.
The Texas city has major companies with offices or headquarters there, such as Apple, Facebook, IBM, Google, PayPal, Cisco, and more. With such a list of high-profile tech conglomerates all in the same place, no wonder Austin is such a destination for job seekers and the people they already employ.
Culture
Money isn’t the only draw in Texas. People fly in from far away to get a taste of Texas BBQ and Texas blues! Festivals like South by Southwest regularly draw in over a quarter of a million people, and with the festival being in-person for the first time in three years, next year’s is sure to be an even bigger hit.
Visitors can come for the high-profile festivals with famous and low-key musical acts, but just dropping into a bar on Austin’s strip nearly guarantees you’ll see some killer music with great food and atmosphere.
Texas has had a proud blues music tradition dating back to Blind Lemon Jefferson and T-Bone Walker, and more recently with Stevie Ray Vaughan, whose killer Jimi Hendrix-inspired electric soloes went on to influence modern guitarists like John Mayer. If you enter a beer hall with a stage on any given night, you’re liable to see a local shredder you won’t soon forget!
Affordability
There are some considerably affordable cities in Texas, though, like anywhere, it changes from neighbourhood to neighbourhood. Some of the more affordable cities include El Paso, Brownsville, Galveston, and more.
The major cities like Dallas and Austin are more affordable than some cities like Toronto. However, these two Texas cities are more expensive than the average in the US, with Dallas at more than 17% and Austin at over 30%.
Brownsville has a median rent of $644. The average rent in El Paso is $769. In Galveston, it’s $865. In contrast, rent in Dallas and Austin are about $1,500 and $1,800, respectively. With the higher costs of living, people can usually enjoy a popular and vibrant scene, but there are always local charms in smaller, less internationally celebrated cities, too.
As the digital innovator Regan McGee said in an interview, Texas is the second most popular state to relocate to in the US, with more than 500,000 people moving to the Lone Star State every year. McGee’s platform Nobul helps homebuyers connect with the right agent for them on a secure platform that saves them money.
Whether you come to Texas as a visitor, job hunter, real estate investor, or something else, you’re sure to love the booming Lone Star State.
