Texas is getting even bigger in terms of population and recent data from Census Bureau revealed the city has the biggest population gain in 2015 among other cities in the country.
According to HousingWire, Census data showed that Texas saw an additional 490,000 people added to its population from July 1, 2014 to July 1, 2015. Of this, 419,000 are from the four metro areas - Houston, Dallas-Fort Worth, Austin and San Antonio.
Houston ranked as the fastest growing metro area, adding as many as 158,083 residents during the said period. Dallas-Fort Worth held the second spot with 144,704 population gain. Completing the top five metro areas are Altanta (95,431), Pheonix (87,988) and New York (87,186).
Meanwhile, Los Angeles, California remains the most populous county with a population of 10.2 million on July 2015, followed by Cook, Illinois which has 5.2 million people.
The strong population growth translates to a strong demand for new housing development in Texas, considering a low housing inventory in the state. According to an earlier report from PR Newswire, data from Texas Association of Realtors' annual Homebuyers and Sellers Report showed a high housing demand from July 2014 to June 2015. Sales of newly built units rose by 2 percent to 30 percent of the total homes purchased for the period.
"Strong population growth and relocation activity combined with low housing inventory levels continue to generate strong demand for new home development. In many markets, new homes are selling as quickly as they can be built," said Leslie Rouda Smith, chairman of the Texas Association of Realtors.
On one hand, home prices have continuously risen over the past years, but household income could not keep with the pace. According to the report, there was a 0.4 percent fall year-on-year on average household income in Texas to $97,100.
