Boom!

Fort Bend ranked one of the fastest-growing and affordable U.S. counties

Fort Bend is is tops for livability and economic success.

Photo courtesy of Sugar Land Town Square

In terms of population growth, Fort Bend County isn’t just bending. It’s contorting like a Cirque du Soleil performer.

From 2012 to 2017, Fort Bend County ranked among the top 10 counties in the U.S. for the number of new arrivals, according to a new study from rental website RentCafé. With a net gain of 92,000 residents, Fort Bend County appeared at No. 4 on the list.

“To figure out which counties saw the largest net changes in population due to moving in or out of the county, we subtracted the total outbound domestic migration from the total inbound domestic migration over a five-year period between 2012 and 2017,” RentCafé explained.

The low price to put a roof over your head almost certainly contributed a lot to the population spike. Fort Bend County was one of the top counties on the RentCafé list in terms of housing affordability, boasting an attractive home-price-to-income ratio and attractive rent-as-a-percentage-of-income ratio.

In Fort Bend County, the ratio for home prices was 3.1, meaning home prices are 3.1 times the median income, according to RentCafé. By comparison, the same ratio for Los Angeles County was 9.5. For apartment dwellers in Fort Bend County, the rent-to-income ratio was 14 percent; in Los Angeles County, it was 38 percent.

In Fort Bend, the median income exceeded $93,000, according to the RentCafé study, and the median home price was $293,000.

If one forecast is correct, even more newcomers might be drawn to Fort Bend County because of its affordable housing and other attributes.

A report from the University of Houston’s Hobby School of Public Affairs predicted that Fort Bend County will wind up being the state’s third-fastest growing county from 2010 to 2050.

The report’s highest-growth scenario envisions Fort Bend County’s population skyrocketing by 367.8 percent during the 40-year span, representing a surge of more than 2.1 million people. Under the report’s highest-growth scenario, the county’s population would be nearly 2.74 million in 2050, up from an estimated 764,828 in 2017.

As a point of reference, the population of the entire city of Chicago stood at 2.7 million in 2017.

“Fort Bend County has continued to top lists for livability and economic success — and there is no sign of slowing down,” according to the Fort Bend Economic Development Council. “Residents and businesses agree that there’s no place better to live or work.”

lists rankings

H-Town rising

Houston leaps back into top 50 'World's Best Cities' list for 2025

Photo by Adrian Newell on Unsplash

Houston made a big leap back into the top 50, ranking No. 40, after previously plummeting into No. 72 last year.

Lively Houston has regained its rightful place among the top 50 best cities in the world, according to a prestigious new report by Resonance Consultancy.

The Canada-based real estate and tourism marketing advisors ranked Houston the 40th best city worldwide for 2025 in its annual "World's Best Cities" list.

The report quantifies the relative qualities of livability, "lovability," and prosperity for the world's top 100 cities with metropolitan populations of 1 million or more. New to the 10th anniversary edition, Resonance partnered with global market researchers Ipsos to include perception-based data into the rankings, surveying over 22,000 people in 30 countries worldwide to determine "the most desirable places to visit, live or work."

Houston made a major rebound after plummeting to No. 73 in last year's report. In 2022, Houston ranked No. 42.

Resonance refers to its previous "World's Best Cities" reports and its 2024 "America's Best Cities" list – which ranked Houston in the top 10 – when explaining the Bayou City's successes. The report praised Houston's vast cultural diversity and placed a great focus on its economic prosperity, even going so far as to suggest Houston residents make more money "and can sock more away."

"...[W]here America’s fourth-largest city truly takes off is in its economic heft and wealth, ranking No. 9 globally for GDP per Capita and No. 14 for Fortune 500 companies in town," the report said. "All that rolls up into an overall Prosperity index ranking of No. 36, which is even more impressive given the No. 14-ranked Price-to Income Ratio [of the city]."

Elsewhere in Texas, Austin and Dallas also earned spots on the World's Best Cities list for 2025, but only one made a similar rebound from the previous year's rankings. Dallas moved up from No. 66 in last year's report to its current rank as No. 55. Meanwhile, Austin took its first tumble out of the 43rd spot (which it had occupied for two years straight) and now ranks No. 53.

London held onto its crown as the No. 1 best city in the world for 2025, followed by New York (No. 2), Paris (No. 3), Tokyo (No. 4), and Singapore (No. 5).