Everything's bigger here in Texas — including the spending. Photo via Getty Images

It's not too late to rein in that holiday spending, Texas. A new financial report has revealed Texas is the No. 9 state with the highest debt levels in the country.

The report by personal finance website CreditDonkey examined each state's average mortgage debt, student debt, automobile debt, and credit card debt. Rankings were determined based on which state had the highest amount of debt.

Texas was ranked so highly due to its rampant amount of auto loan debt, the most out of all 50 states. Over 100 million Texans have loans on their cars, which has racked up more than $1.5 trillion in auto loan debt. The average Texan's auto loan debt stands at $27,739.

Texans' higher-than-average credit card debt was also a major factor, according to the report. The average credit card debt amount adds up to $6,542.

Speaking of debt, it's worth noting that this report comes after a recent survey that found The Woodlands ranks No. 10 in the U.S. for holiday spending budgets. (No word as to how much of that holiday spending ends up as revolving credit balances.)

The average mortgage debt in the Lone Star State is $217,461, while the average student debt amounts to $33,354. In Houston, first time buyers need to earn 13.9 percent more than 2022 to afford that first home, per a recent report.

While Texas' level of debt is no laughing matter, residents can find some relief they're not living in California. Californians have the most debt in America, with the average mortgage debt at nearly $423,000 per household, and an average student loan debt of $37,384.

CreditDonkey Director of Research Anna Ge explained the "multifaceted story" of why debt in Texas (and overall in the United States) has skyrocketed over the years.

"The causes for the surge in debt are rooted in a confluence of factors – from the pursuit of higher education to home-ownership aspirations and the challenges of rising costs across the board," she said. "The ease of access to credit, while providing immediate relief, has contributed to a culture where spending can outpace income."

Population growth and consumerism are two other driving factors, according to Ge.

"There are also more deep-rooted issues that are causing such drastic increases in debt, from rising costs of essentials such as gas and groceries, to healthcare and living expenses (rent and bills), as costs continue to rise many Americans are being pushed to the edge and require relief that inevitably results in the building up of debt," Ge continued.

The top 10 states struggling with the most debt are:

  • No. 1 – California
  • No. 2 – Hawaii
  • No. 3 – Maryland
  • No. 4 – Alaska
  • No. 5 – Colorado
  • No. 6 – Washington
  • No. 7 – Virginia
  • No. 8 – Georgia
  • No. 9 – Texas
  • No. 10 – Nevada
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This article originally ran on CultureMap. Steven Devadanam contributed to this article.

Startups have more cash flow options now than ever before. Getty Images

From credit to crowdfunding, experts discuss how startup lending has evolved

Houston Voices

For companies trying to get off the ground, one of the biggest hurdles normally revolves around acquiring funding. Whether it's a friends and family round, early seed stage or a full blown series round, finding funding is a difficult process. This augments the importance of entrepreneurs understanding the full arsenal of tools at their disposal.

Late last month, Cannon Ventures and Texas Citizens Bank teamed up to host a Lunch and Learn at The Cannon's Main Campus to help describe some of the different options for fundraising and explain the evolution of fundraising over the past few years.

This Cannon Lunch and Learn consisted of a panel of industry experts from varying backgrounds answering questions from the crowd about fundraising. The session was moderated by Cannon Ventures' investment analyst, Kristen Philips, where she was joined by the below panelists:

Each of the below strategies were highlighted by our panel of experts, offering a number of potential options for entrepreneurs in search of the best fundraising strategy for their company:

Factoring

Factoring is a form of financing in which a business will sell its accounts receivable (invoices) to a third-party at a discount. This option gives businesses access to immediate funds that can be used to pay for business expenses. This can be an effective option when working with a client who has outstanding invoices and may not be able to pay you back in a timely manner.

Credit insurance

Credit Insurance protects the policyholder in the event that a customer becomes insolvent. Insolvency in business can be a more common scenario than many realize, so credit insurance can serve as a solution if a customer isn't able to pay its debts. Industry standards for credit insurance will often cover around 90 percent of your accounts receivable.

SBA loans

Contrary to popular belief, SBA loans are not direct loans made by The Small Business Administration to entrepreneurs to grow a small business. Instead, an SBA loan provides a guarantee to banks and authorized SBA lenders for the money they lend to small businesses. If a business owner defaults on a loan, the SBA will promise to pay a portion of the loan back. This can alleviate the risk associated with lending money to small business owners and startups that may not qualify for traditional loans. SBA loans open up lending opportunities to thousands of entrepreneurs. In 2017 alone, SBA approved over 68,000 loans and provided over $30 billion to small businesses.

The evolution of lending

The panelists also remarked on how the industry of traditional lending has grown over the years and suggested to be wary of new predatory lending entities. When lending entities do not use depository funds, they are not subject to the same level of regulation that more traditional establishments like banks do. Because of this, predatory lenders can offer large amounts of capital quickly but lock founders into unsustainable interest rates and mechanisms that can trap clients into long-term agreements.

It is important for founders to do their homework and understand the terms whenever you are accepting a loan regardless of how established they may seem, or your need for capital.

Crowdfunding

Crowdfunding is a relatively new phenomenon that has started to become more mainstream after a change of regulation in 2016 by the SEC to allow non-accredited investment in private companies. Crowdfunding is typically done to supplement efforts to an offline fundraise and a way to both market your opportunity to a wider base as well as directly raise funds. These platforms offer the flexibility of either a straight equity raise or a convertible note.


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This is content from our partner, which originally ran on The Cannon.


via thecannonhouston.com

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Rice University MBA programs rank among top 5 in prestigious annual report

top of class

Rice University’s Jones Graduate School of Business MBA programs have been ranked among the top five in the country again in The Princeton Review’s 2025 Best Business Schools rankings.

The university's MBA program in finance earned a No. 3 ranking, climbing up two spots from its 2024 ranking. Finance MBA programs at the University of Virginia's Darden Graduate School of Business and New York University's Leonard N. Stern School of Business were the only ones to outrank Rice, claiming No. 2 and No. 1 spots, respectively.

Rice's online MBA program was ranked No. 5, compared to No. 4 last year. Indiana University's Bloomington Kelley School of Business' online program claimed the top spot.

“These rankings reflect the commitment of our faculty and staff, the drive and talent of our students and the strong support of our alumni and partners,” Peter Rodriguez, dean of Rice Business, said in a news release. “They are exceptional honors but also reminders — not just of our top-tier programs and world-class faculty and students but of our broader impact on the future of business education.”

Rice also ranked at No. 6 for “greatest resources for minority students."

The Princeton Review’s 2025 business school rankings are based on data from surveys of administrators at 244 business schools as well as surveys of 22,800 students enrolled in the schools’ MBA programs during the previous three academic years.

"The schools that made our lists for 2025 share four characteristics that inform our criteria for designating them as 'best': excellent academics, robust experiential learning components, outstanding career services, and positive feedback about them from enrolled students we surveyed," Rob Franek, The Princeton Review's editor-in-chief, said in a press release. "No b-school is best overall or best for all students, but to all students considering earning an MBA, we highly recommend these b-schools and salute them for their impressive programs."

Rice's finance program has ranked in the top 10 for eight consecutive years, and its online MBA has ranked in the top five for four years.

Rice and the University of Houston also claimed top marks on the Princeton Review's entrepreneurship rankings. Rice ranks as No. 1 on the Top 50 Entrepreneurship: Grad list, and the University of Houston ranked No. 1 on Top 50 Entrepreneurship: Ugrad. Read more here.

Houston named ‘star’ metro for artificial intelligence in new report

eyes on AI

A new report declares Houston one of the country’s 28 “star” hubs for artificial intelligence.

The Houston metro area appears at No. 16 in the Brookings Institution’s ranking of metros that are AI “stars.” The metro areas earned star status based on data from three AI buckets: talent, innovation and adoption. Only two places, the San Francisco Bay Area and Silicon Valley, made Brookings’ “superstar” list.

According to Brookings, the Houston area had 11,369 job postings in 2024 that sought candidates with AI skills, 210 AI startups (based on Crunchbase data from 2014 to 2024), and 113 venture capital deals for AI startups (based on PitchBook data from 2023 to 2024).

A number of developments are boosting Houston’s AI profile, such as:

Brookings also named Texas’s three other major metros as AI stars:

  • No. 11 Austin
  • No. 13 Dallas-Fort Worth
  • No. 40 San Antonio

Brookings said star metros like Houston “are bridging the gap” between the two superstar regions and the rest of the country. In 2025, the 28 star metros made up 46 percent of the country’s metro-area employment but 54 percent of AI job postings. Across the 28 metros, the number of AI job postings soared 139 percent between 2018 and 2025, according to Brookings.

Around the country, dozens of metros fell into three other categories on Brookings’ AI list: “emerging centers” (14 metros), “focused movers” (29 metros) and “nascent adopters” (79 metros).