When we hear the phrase, “Don’t California my Texas,” culture and politics are some of the first things that come to mind. But one of the more tangible things that could be imported is the housing market.
“I think there’s a rational factor and then maybe a not-so-rational factor,” said Dr. Cullum Clark, the director of the Bush Institute-SMU Economic Growth Initiative. “I think the perfectly rational factor is about the housing market. It is about the fact that housing prices are generally about supply and demand for housing. And the huge influx of people from California and elsewhere in the United States has increased demand for housing a lot in our Texas cities.
“The not-so-rational argument is that when when you talk about people saying, ‘Don’t California, my Texas,’ is that people coming will dramatically change the, you know, the culture of Texas or change the political patterns of the state. And the evidence just isn’t there yet.”
The population of Texas eclipsed 30 million people late last year, according to data released by the U.S. Census Bureau, joining the Golden State as the only state with at least 30 million residents.
According to a study a 2021 study by the Texas Real Estate Research Center at Texas A&M, one in every 10 new Texas residents comes from California. One of them cited a number of reasons for her move.
“It’s frustrating to just have to be in a place to watch people vote for the same — just to continue on with the same problems to make things worse. You know, you can live through it,” Alia Lysiuk said. “If you’re there and you’re single and you’re on your own, you really have to grind to make things work. And I appreciate the push that I got from that. But the issues — and they are political issues — the safety, the homeless, the ever-increasing taxes. It’s definitely hurting a lot of people.”
And it’s not just people, but businesses, that are also making the move. Some of the big-name moves include Oracle and Hewlett Packard Enterprise moving to the Austin area and Charles Schwab to the Fort Worth suburb of Westlake. In this episode of Texas Wants to Know, we also hear from Boingo CEO Mike Finley — another company that recently announced a Texas move.
Listen to this episode of “Texas Wants to Know” here, in the Audacy app, or wherever you listen to podcasts.
