Pearland Progress
Houston suburb earns a place among nation's most prosperous cities
Residents of one Houston suburb are moving on up. According to a new study from rental website RentCafe, Pearland ranks among the 10 most prosperous cities in the nation.
The site measured more than 300 U.S. cities using Census data from 2000-2016 to "single out the ones that have made the most progress overall." Six key metrics were reviewed: percent change in population, median income, home values, share of people holding a higher-education degree, poverty rate, and unemployment rate. An overall prosperity ranking was determined by combining the values of the individual rankings.
Pearland ranks No. 7 on the overall list. From 2000-2016, the area's population grew a whopping 183 percent. Additionally, home values changed by 21 percent, the share of locals with a higher-education degree increased by 57 percent, and income grew by 8 percent.
While the poverty rate decreased by 4 percent, Pearland's unemployment rate increased by 14 percent. (The study notes that only 11 cities registered improvements across all prosperity metrics; four of them are in Texas.)
In all, the Lone Star State boasts more prosperous cities than the entire West Coast, notes RentCafe. The report points to the huge upswing in crude oil production for Texas' prosperity.
Smaller Texas cities make a big impression on the overall list, with Odessa taking the No. 1 spot as the most prosperous in America. Brownsville (9), Midland (10), Fort Worth (14), and El Paso (16) also rank among the top 20. Austin, meanwhile, appears at No. 15 on the large cities list.