Everyone knows that two of the biggest reasons cities and towns everywhere prosper and grow are education and job growth. Well, welcome to College Station, home of Texas A&M University (also affectionately known as Aggieland) and some of the state’s top job growth. When you see the numbers, it’s no surprise why the Houston Chronicle named College Station No. 7 on its list of most prosperous cities in Texas and why Fox and Hounds (despite being out in California) ranked College Station one of America’s best college towns/mid-sized cities for growth.
According to Fox and Hounds, TAMU’s 56,000-student presence has sparked major growth in the information and business services sectors, where employment since 2008 have expanded 18.2 percent and 14.2 percent, respectively. Employment in leisure and hospitality also rose up 29.5 percent over the same period.
This has created a favorable base for the College Station real estate market, which, according to Movoto, is showing growth as spring progresses. While inventory is tight ‒‒ down 11 percent from a year ago ‒‒ the median listing price of a home in college station is up 4 percent to $196,000. Median listing prices peaked in the low $200,000s last fall before taking a winter dip (like most markets in the country, which were badly affected by unusually harsh weather). But now that spring is here, prices are back on the rise. Also, the number of houses sold per month has doubled since last fall, as inventory moves quickly.
Perhaps the most exciting development in the real estate market in Aggieland is the coming Atlas master-planned community adjacent to the TAMU’s campus at Bryan and College Station. This residential/commercial mix is an extension of the famed Traditions Club and is the state’s first master-planned community designed especially for enterprises engaged in manufacturing biologics and pharmaceuticals. But don’t let the industrial-sounding stuff fool you, this will be a community with an amenity-rich lifestyle to complement growing employment opportunities and access to world-class researchers and students.
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