Rapid growth in Texas' suburbs has sparked a population boom, adding millions more homes, according to data released Thursday by the U.S. Census Bureau.
As Texas' population rapidly grew, the Lone Star State's housing stock exploded, driven by significant increases in Collin and Rockwall counties.
Celina, in North Texas, topped the list of America's fastest-growing cities with a population of 20,000 or more. The town's population increased by 26.6%, more than 53 times the country's growth rate of 0.5%.
“It's the builders that are driving demand,” said Jamie Resendiz, a real estate agent with more than seven years of experience in North Texas.
“reason [is] There are a lot of big builders,” he said. “There's an island home. There's Renner. [and] Bloomfield. These cities have large builders building master-planned communities. ”
The Census released the city's demographic details after updating the county's population estimates in March. According to this information, eight of the 15 fastest growing cities (population 20,000 or more) in 2023 will be in Texas. Five of those locations are in Collin County.
Dallas remained the ninth largest city with a population of approximately 1.3 million, while Fort Worth, with a population of 978,000, surpassed San Jose, California, to become the 12th most populous city in the United States.
“The south side of the Dallas-Fort Worth metropolitan area is growing, but the north side is just blowing it away,” Resendiz said.
Meanwhile, San Antonio regained its No. 1 spot on the population growth list by adding more people than any other city in 2023 (about 22,000 people), approaching 1.5 million residents.
The South leads the country's growth
According to the census, cities in the South grew the fastest in every category measured. Cities with a population of 50,000 or more grew by 1%. Small cities with 10,000 to 49,000 residents grew by about 1.5% year over year.
“Population growth across the South in 2023 was driven by significant numerical and percentage increases between cities,” said Crystal Derbe, a statistician in the Census Bureau's Population Division.
While the South grew, other rapidly growing cities experienced slower rates of population change.
For example, population growth in Georgetown, a suburb of Austin, slowed from 14.6% in 2022 to 10.6% in 2023. Kyle's population growth rate in south Austin decreased by nearly 2 percentage points to 9.0% in 2023.
As of July 2023, New York City remains the largest city in the United States with a population of approximately 8.2 million, followed by Los Angeles with a population of approximately 4 million. Chicago ranks third in the country with a population of 2.6 million, followed by Houston with a population of 2.3 million.
residential growth
According to the data, the country's housing stock (totaling about 145.3 million units) increased by 1.1%, or 1.6 million units, between July 2022 and July 2023.
Texas' 12.4 million housing units followed California's 14.8 million, making Harris, Travis, and Collin counties three of the top five fastest growing counties in the country.
From July 2022 to 2023, Harris County added 36,000 homes, Travis County added 24,000 homes, and Collin County added 18,000 homes.
Meanwhile, Tarrant County increased by 17,000 homes, ranking eighth in the nation.
Unlike the most developed land in Dallas County, Collin County communities such as Celina, Princeton, Prosper, and Anna have more undeveloped and possibly cheaper land that could be developed more quickly. said Ashley Brundage, CEO of Dallas Habitat for Humanity.
“It's great to see so much supply being added to Collin County,” Brundage said. “But the supply that is being added is much further north, in large family housing, and the level of affordability that is needed to make sure what's happening in the inner city to keep the workforce here. has not necessarily been achieved.”
Brundage said adding different types of for-sale and rental housing for households of all incomes in Dallas is a necessary part of developing the growing area.
“Costs are rising faster than we've ever seen, and people's salaries and incomes aren't increasing at the same rate, so families are now having to make difficult decisions about whether they're going to pay the rent or they're going to pay the rent. “It's food,'' Brundage said.
Brundage said North Texas is grappling with an increase in families visiting local food pantries to supplement household expenses in order to make rent.
After decades of rapid population growth, Texas now has the highest number of food insecure residents at 4.9 million, according to a Feeding America study released Wednesday. It is said that it has surpassed California for the first time. One in three food insecure Texans is a child.
