Hot Market: Lone Texas City Beats Odds in Economic Growth

A Brookings Institute report pointed out McAllen, Texas as “the only major city in the country that saw growth in employment and output during the first quarter of 2009,” as reported in The Monitor, the Rio Grande Valley’s main newspaper and online news service.

“The MetroMonitor study found that housing prices rose by 2.3 percent from the first quarter of 2008 to the first quarter of 2009. Prices overall are still below their peak prices, according to data from the Real Estate Center at Texas A&M University,” according to the paper.

The paper quoted local Realtor Charles Marina, of First American Realty, "We didn't have those big peaks ... or those big downward spirals. We were the last area of the country to feel the downward pull and we'll be one of the first to recover. We've pretty much (already) started the recovery."

As with any economic growth, the next item to recover is real estate as job growth with begin outstripping the current low inventory of homes. Moody.com’s forecast for McAllen and the region has job growth increasing 1.8 percent between first quarter 2009 and 2010, while charts demonstrate a continual increase in job growth rates from now through the end of 2012 (as long as the charts measured).

Business Facilities magazine reports in its June 2009 issue that investors look at McAllen and its neighboring city of Mission, TX as a “modern day gold rush.” The magazine reports, “The McAllen/Mission MSA population is exploding to keep up with the job market, adding more than 150,000 new residents since the 2000 census and keeping the real estate market strong. Population is projected to double by 2025.”

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