Where do you think Texas' population will ultimately reach? (Houston: RV parks, live in)

[brock2010]

Originally Posted by atadytic19

I really don't know about those west of 35 cities growing much without major water issues.

As I said before, McAllen has replaced El Paso as #5, and together with Brownsville the RGV has about 1.5M people.

That's a sizeable area that's not often talked about. It's the lowest income metro area in the state so we are not going to see a flood of domestic migrants there, but natural increase and international migrants are fueling growth.

Also, people cross between Texas and the Mexican State of Tamaulipas every day. The trans-border metropolitan areas in the lower RGV make up an area over 4M people.
In 2020 Reynosa- McAllen had a population about 1.8M
Matamoros - Brownsville about 1.4M
Nuevo Laredo- Laredo about 800k

So technically that area has about the same number of people as central Texas.

It would definitely be nice if Texas had another major metro (1M+) on the coast. From a logistics point of view, Corpus is halfway between Houston and the Valley and about the same distance away from central Texas. It's amazing how empty that triangle made by those three 4M plus population centers is. Being equidistant from those 3 Corpus should be able to exploit that.

College Station is right outside Houston MSA and a stone's throw from Killeen, Austin and Waco, with SA just down the road. I used to wonder why it isn't bigger, but I'm mainly familiar with the college area and the people I interacted with made me leave with the impression that the place is filled with weirdos.

Lufkin, Nacogdoches, Tyler, Marshal, basically Jefferson down to Lake Livingston is highly underrated. I am more attracted to East Texas scenery than the Hill Country.

Very true about some of the East Texas cities especially Tyler. It's pretty much the financial, medical and transportation hub for east Texas.

[brock2010]

Originally Posted by LocalPlanner

San Angelo is growing. Amarillo has had steady incremental growth for a long time.

No one has mentioned Laredo, but it has grown a fair bit and should continue doing so.

I don't know why I missed Laredo especially seeing how important it is to trade and movement of goods from Mexico and Central America.

[NigerianNightmare]

Laredo is a good shout but including it with the RGV shouldn’t happen as it’s far too distant physically to benefit to any major changes that are region specific. It’s 3 hours away from the core of the RGV, and 2 hours and 40 minutes from the edge. For context, Central Austin’s only 2 hours away from Katy.

Even because of sprawl alone, Reynosa and Matamoros are a good 1 hour away with not much in between. While Weslaco and Harlingen are 25 minutes away from each other with space.

If something major fills that space between Weslaco and Harlingen, and Brownsville and Harlingen as well as South Padre and Brownsville like an airport due to increased Tourism and the Spaceport location, the area will get a lot more cohesive. Also if Integration combined with increased safety happens in Northern Mexico the Mexican side of the border could see a boost. More border crossings like in Boca Chica would probably help as well.

While I haven’t been to El Paso, from what I’ve heard of the remaining Texas Cities outside of the big 4 and what I’ve seen Corpus Christi arguably has the biggest, big city feel. Now El Paso is likely bigger than that, but McAllen-Brownsville seems to be squarely smaller in scope.

In terms of GDP btw…
Odessa- 36 billion
El Paso- 34 Billion
Beaumont- 28 billion
McAllen- 22 billion
Corpus- 22 billion
Seems to be the next 5 metros
Midland-Odessa- 46 billion
RGV- 33 billion

[Gaylord_Focker]

Originally Posted by malcorub16

For context, Texas population went from 25 million in 2010 to 29.5 million today. CA population is currently 39 million.

I wonder if they've figured out how close we are to passing them?

[supfromthesite]

I could see the valley growing if the housing stays cheaper than other parts of the country. People will move there even if it is the poorest metro in Texas. People want affordable housing and you can live like a king out there compare to the east and west coast*. The area is also getting nicer and honestly doesn't always seem that poor depending on where you are. Lots of mansions and flashy cars.

Same with Laredo to an extent, although it is further from the beach and not as built up so RGV will get most of the love.

*I know prices have gone up last couple years and this is all assuming prices go back down. I think they will, they already are starting to fall it seems.

[LocalPlanner]

Originally Posted by NigerianNightmare

Laredo is a good shout but including it with the RGV shouldn’t happen as it’s far too distant physically to benefit to any major changes that are region specific. It’s 3 hours away from the core of the RGV, and 2 hours and 40 minutes from the edge. For context, Central Austin’s only 2 hours away from Katy.

Even because of sprawl alone, Reynosa and Matamoros are a good 1 hour away with not much in between. While Weslaco and Harlingen are 25 minutes away from each other with space.

If something major fills that space between Weslaco and Harlingen, and Brownsville and Harlingen as well as South Padre and Brownsville like an airport due to increased Tourism and the Spaceport location, the area will get a lot more cohesive. Also if Integration combined with increased safety happens in Northern Mexico the Mexican side of the border could see a boost. More border crossings like in Boca Chica would probably help as well.

While I haven’t been to El Paso, from what I’ve heard of the remaining Texas Cities outside of the big 4 and what I’ve seen Corpus Christi arguably has the biggest, big city feel. Now El Paso is likely bigger than that, but McAllen-Brownsville seems to be squarely smaller in scope.

In terms of GDP btw…
Odessa- 36 billion
El Paso- 34 Billion
Beaumont- 28 billion
McAllen- 22 billion
Corpus- 22 billion
Seems to be the next 5 metros
Midland-Odessa- 46 billion
RGV- 33 billion

No, I would never lump Laredo in with the RGV. Laredo / NL are very much by themselves.

[malcorub16]

Originally Posted by Gaylord_Focker

I wonder if they've figured out how close we are to passing them?

Probably will, there just isn't alot of room for growth in CA. Meanwhile in Texas, there is still quite a bit of open private land ripe for development.

[malcorub16]

As long as those airports down there only go to Dallas and Houston and IH69 doesn't hurry up and get finished, I don't lots of outsiders moving into RGV. I would venture to say that North and Central Texans would probably rather live in Oklahoma before they move within the state to RGV.

[supfromthesite]

If RGV grows it will probably be because of out of state people moving there. The RGV gets a bad rep in texas - undeserving or deserving - you can decide for yourself I guess.

[XChucoresident]

Originally Posted by malcorub16

For context, Texas population went from 25 million in 2010 to 29.5 million today. CA population is currently 39 million.

and alot of those Californios...came to my native state......grrr