Getting away from high price housing? Texas population surges!

​TEXAS - Texas added more people between July 2014 and July 2015 than any other state.

Nearly two-thirds of the almost 500,000 new Texas residents migrated from other states as Dallas, Houston, Austin, and other metro areas lured companies such as Toyota and State Farm to Kubota to JP Morgan Chase. 

Most have taken advantage of generous relocation incentive packages offered by Texas while fleeing high housing, taxes and business cost areas.

Texas’s success in luring people and companies has created a more diversified economy that has helped shield the Lone Star State from the worst effects of the oil crash, though office and multifamily markets in Houston have suffered blows from layoffs.

Despite those recent pains, Houston and Dallas-Fort Worth placed first and second in population gains among the largest U.S. metropolitan areas from mid-2014 to mid-2015.

Austin and San Antonio were not far behind, ranking among the top 20 in population gain. Eight of the 20 U.S. counties that gained the most population during the period are in Texas.

Texas, Florida, Arizona and the Carolinas dominated U.S. metro areas in terms of the largest percentage population gains. 

Among the 20 largest net population gainers, Austin and Orlando added 3 percent and 2.6 percent, respectively. 

Houston, Dallas, San Antonio, Phoenix, Denver, Tampa/St. Petersburg and Las Vegas all grew their population bases by 2 percent or greater from mid-2014 to mid-2015.

Only Houston, Austin and Orlando were among both the 20 with the largest absolute population gains and the 20 fastest-growing metros by percentage.