Four predominantly Black neighborhoods in Houston have been experiencing gentrification in recent years. Data captured by U.S. Census surveys shows these communities are becoming proportionally more Hispanic and more educated, housing prices are accelerating, and residents there are more likely to rent and face cost burdens than others in Harris County.
Who owns the single-family rentals and what do we know about them?
A lot of the rent houses owned by real estate investment trusts — or REITs — are located in unincorporated parts of Harris County and municipal utility districts (MUDs) that have been hit hardest by foreclosures and flooding. Many of them are connected to local and national homebuilders.
Move-outs in 2020 may have cost Houston thousands of residents
By the end of 2020, Houston had potentially tens of thousands of fewer residents, data from the U.S. Postal Service suggests. Like other cities, it experienced a surge in migration as people began leaving urban areas amid the pandemic lockdowns. That shift is also continuing to take place well into 2021.
Trees battle Houston’s brutal heat, but many poorer areas are left unshaded
Trees provide significant benefits that can be felt both now and in the future, from lowering temperatures, fighting flooding and slowing climate change. But not all Houstonians enjoy the valuable shade and other advantages trees offer in equal measures. A new interactive mapping tool makes it easier to see which neighborhoods are most in need of more trees.
Houston and Harris County’s long reign of growth may have come to an end
Houston has always had a reputation as a fast-growing, go-go, get-it-done kind of place. But that’s changing.
A road trip to find the next big Texan metropolis
Texas’ “Big 4” metro areas—Dallas, Houston, Austin and San Antonio—have all exploded with growth. Will a fifth emerge?
Black neighborhoods have led the Houston area’s surge in start-ups during the pandemic
Economists studying the dramatic growth of new business activity found that the proportion of Black residents in a ZIP code had the greatest impact on the rate of increase and that business formation coincided with the stimulus payments.
Where are we going? Remote workers, RVs and the new calculus of where we live and why
After COVID-19 lockdowns and stay-at-home mandates, anywhere with fast broadband became a viable place to call home. But for Houston natives Alex Jimenez and Hayley McSwain, the choice was to move—and keep moving.
Surveying Houston’s progressive shift through 40 years of data
Houston, a quintessentially free-enterprise, anti-government city, is increasingly recognizing the critical role of government in strengthening the safety net, expanding opportunity and building resiliency, according to the Kinder Houston Area Surveys.
Triumph of the Triangle: How Texas can hold onto its urban economic powerhouse
In 1966, a lawyer named Herb Kelleher met one of his clients, a pilot and investment banker named Rollin King, for a drink in a San Antonio hotel bar. Both were entrepreneurs looking for new opportunities, and they discussed starting an airline to serve an in-state. The legend is that King drew a triangle on a cocktail napkin, showing how the new airline would connect the major markets in Texas.
The Texas Triangle: A rising megaregion unlike all others
The Texas Triangle—the urban megaregion consisting of the Dallas-Fort Worth, Houston, San Antonio, and Austin metropolitan areas—stands out as a distinctive model among America’s large urban megaregions.
The killing of George Floyd altered views of racial discrimination in Houston
The 2021 Kinder Houston Area Survey shows a striking uptick among white and Hispanic residents in their acknowledgment of racial injustice and the discrimination that Black Americans face.
As the devastating COVID-19 pandemic slowly dissipates, the 2021 Kinder Houston Area Survey results reflect the disproportionate impact it had on Hispanics and African Americans in the Houston area. This year’s survey also shows positive ratings for the economy and changes in attitudes about racial injustice and discrimination against Black residents.
Kinder Houston Area Survey: 2021 Results
For the past four decades, Rice University’s Kinder Houston Area Survey (KHAS) has been tracking the changing attitudes and beliefs of Harris County residents. The 2021 survey summarizes the most consequential changes and their implications for public policy initiatives going forward.
‘Detached townhomes,’ gentrifying the gentrifiers and housing regulation that is uniquely Houston
The Kinder Institute’s “Re-Taking Stock” report reveals the good, the bad and the best about the city’s housing growth patterns. When it comes to urban infill, there is a lot going right in city, but that doesn’t mean everything is perfect.
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