Texas Leads Nation in Population Growth

While bubbles of economic recession bust, and millions go bankrupt, Texas is growing.

Texas booms. We saw a posting on the internet, from the Houston Chronicle, and quoted it to suppliment information we have been working on. Our thanks to them for this information, and it is encouraging, but we must note at 8% unemployment, there are a lot of people unemployed, even in Texas!

U.S. Census estimates released Wednesday show that Texas added more residents than any other state in the year ending July 1.

The Lone Star State has 478,000 more people than it did a year ago — roughly the equivalent of packing up all of Fresno, Calif., and moving it here.

Why the growth? Try looking for work in Fresno, where the unemployment rate is nearly 16 percent.

The economic downturn did not dodge Texas, of course, but relative to other states, Texas has it good, demographers say — lower unemployment and a more stable housing market.

In that context, finishing first in the year's population race is more survival than victory, experts say.

“In certain respects, Texas was the only state left standing during the last recession, so the competitors for migration kind of all went away,” said Texas state demographer Karl Eschbach of the University of Texas at San Antonio.

The Texas unemployment rate last month was 8 percent, compared with 10 percent nationally. Home sales and prices in the Houston area haven't fallen nearly as much as they have in other markets that saw prices soar during the boom and later crash.

Darlene Cunneen is a 49-year-old manager of tax compliance who reminded us of then Congressman Davy Crocket when he said: "To hell with Tennessee, I'm going to Texas!" He became a beloved hero in Texas, owned property in Texas, and eventually fought and died at the Alamo. Darlene is a modern immigrant to Texas, because this is where business is.

 She moved to northwest Houston early this month when BP relocated her from Chicago.

“If BP hadn't said, ‘Your job is moving,' I don't think I'd be clamoring to say I want to move to Houston,” Cunneen said, but she enjoys the warmer weather, the mix of languages she hears on her jogs in Memorial Park and gainful employment.

“It does seem like Houston is not in as bad shape as other areas of the U.S,” she said. A visit to Houston evidences full freeways, resturants booming, and people spending money. There are even new building projects in Houston.

Though the overall populations of California, Nevada and Florida increased because of lower salary immigration at the lowest levels of society, all had more people leave than move in from other states.