By Andy Sevilla.
A national consumer advocacy group ranked Kyle as the second best city in Texas for homeownership, largely due to the city’s growth and ownership rate, according to a study by NerdWallet.
The San Francisco-based advocacy group said the study based its rankings of the best Texas cities for homeownership on the rate of homeownership, selected monthly homeowner costs, monthly household income and population growth.
A NerdWallet statement said the Kyle-area has a home ownership rate of 80.7 percent, and median monthly homeowner costs are $1,440. Kyle, which has experienced tremendous population growth in the past decade and state demographers see no slowing in the immediate future, grew by 15.9 percent between 2010 and 2012, according to U.S. Census data.
Maggie Clark, an analyst with NerdWallet, said the group’s main focus is on consumer education and helping people with personal finances. She said the study enables potential homebuyers to best gauge where to set up roots.
Clark said Kyle’s growth was an important benchmark for its high ranking.
“If a community is growing, it means there’s something bringing people there – jobs, opportunity or something – that’s encouraging people to move to the area,” she said. “It also shows that the economy can support people moving to the area… It’s a bad sign when people are leaving.”
In an exclusive accounting of Hays County home sales for the Hays Free Press, the Austin Board of Realtors illustrated data showing Kyle led all other Hays County cities in single-family home sales in 2013. There were 739 homes sold in Kyle last year, almost 200 more than in Buda, which came in second place in highest number of home sales in Hays County for 2013.
Five-year home sales figures show Kyle beat out Buda, San Marcos, Dripping Springs and Wimberley in single-family homes sales every year between 2009 and 2013, the Austin Board of Realtors’ data showed.
The median single-family home sale price in Kyle was $156,606 in 2013, according to R. Victoria Peterson of Team Aston with ERA Colonial Real Estate in Buda. She said the median home sale price in Buda was $214,072 and $205,968 in San Marcos in 2013.
NerdWallet reported that Kyle boasts an 81 percent homeownership rate and monthly homeownership costs take up 23 percent of median household income, according to its study. The group reported that the Capital Area Housing Finance Corporation offers down payment assistance for first-time homebuyers and helps new homeowners learn about tax credits available to them.
Clark said the group looked at cities with populations larger than 25,000, and evaluated 115 cities in Texas, including Kyle and San Marcos.
Leander, Schertz, Cedar Park and Pflugerville also were in the top ten cities for homeownership in Texas, though only Little Elm beat out Kyle for the top spot.
