The nation’s fastest-growing cities are nearly all in the South.
For the second year in a row, Georgetown, TX, a suburb about 30 miles north of Austin, experienced the most growth. Its population ballooned by about 14.4%, according to a recent U.S. Census Bureau report. The bureau looked at population growth between July 1, 2021, and July 1, 2022, in cities with at least 50,000 residents to come up with its list.
The median home list price in Georgetown was $525,000 in April, according to Realtor.com® data. That’s about $175,000 less than the $700,000 price tag in Austin. Plus, there are homes available in Georgetown. More than half of the homes in the suburb listed on Realtor.com are new construction.
The city is known as the “Red Poppy” capital of Texas for the flowers planted all over the city and hosts a red poppy festival every April to celebrate its nickname. It is also home to Southwestern University.
“Austin got so much more expensive that people flocked to the suburbs because they were somewhat less expensive,” says Gary Maler, executive director of the Texas Real Estate Research Center at Texas A&M University in College Station, TX. “There is just a lot of construction. … We haven’t been able to build it fast enough.”
Eight of the 10 fastest-growing cities were in the South: four in Texas (three suburbs of Austin and one outside of Dallas), three cities in Florida, and one in Arizona about 45 minutes east of Phoenix. All of the cities, except Santa Cruz, CA, boast significant numbers of newly constructed homes. That additional housing is likely to have helped many of these places attract new residents.
“Jobs in Texas outpace many other states. There’s a pro-business attitude in Texas. There’s a variety of cultures and sceneries in Texas. We have relatively lower costs than other states, although we’re starting to lose that,” says Maler.
However, the fastest-growing cities weren’t the largest. New York City with its 8.3 million residents, Los Angeles with nearly 4 million residents, and Chicago with about 2.7 million residents were the largest cities in the nation,
The 10 fastest-growing cities
- Georgetown, TX
Median home list price: $525,000 - Santa Cruz, CA
Median home list price: $1,924,000 - Kyle, TX
Median home list price: $400,000 - Leander, TX
Median home list price: $550,000 - Little Elm, TX
Median home list price: $505,000 - Westfield, IN
Median home list price: $570,000 - Queen Creek, AZ
Median home list price: $682,500 - North Port, FL
Median home list price: $399,000 - Cape Coral, FL
Median home list price: $515,000 - Port St. Lucie, FL
Median home list price: $450,000
Source: realtor.com