Moneybox

Three of the Five Fastest-Growing Cities in America are in Texas

New Census Bureau numbers are out today and they show that three of the five fastest-growing cities and eight of the fifteen fastest-growing cities in America are located in the state of Texas.

It’s notable, though, that New York City also added an awful lot of people. Of course working from NYC’s enormous population base it’s not a huge percentwagewise increase. But New York is already very dense and is also very heavily regulated in terms of new housing units, so it’s relatively difficult to add population. But big picture Texas dominates in terms of population growth. There’s something of a chicken-and-egg issue here where many people (especially policymakers in Texas) say the population is growing fast because the economy is relatively strong. There’s something to that (and certainly that’s the case in the Midland-Odessa are) but I think it’s primarily the other way around. Texas’ combination of relatively stringent mortgage regulation, relatively lax house-building regulation, and relatively warm weather have made it a place with abundant and growing supply of affordable housing. That in-migration of people makes Texas a good place to invest in building houses and restaurants and hospitals and shopping malls and all the rest.