Texas still ranks as No. 1 in U.S. for inbound moves, but growth dips

by the numbers

Texas added 76,000 out-of-state residents in 2024, according to a new report. Photo via Unsplash

Texas continues to be the country’s No. 1 magnet for newcomers from other states, giving a boost to the state’s economy. However, Texas’ appeal weakened in 2024 compared with the previous year, due in large part to spiking home prices.

An analysis of U.S. Census Bureau data by self-storage platform StorageCafe shows Texas saw net interstate migration of 76,000 people in 2024. Texas’ net interstate migration dropped nearly 50 percent from 2023, according to the analysis. Net migration refers to the number of incoming residents minus the number of outgoing residents.

California remained the top source of newcomers for Texas, sending nearly 77,000 residents to the Lone Star State in 2024, the analysis says. Florida ranked second, followed by New York, Colorado and Illinois.

“These trends reveal Texas’ continued pull from both high-cost coastal markets and other large Sun Belt states, resulting in a mix of affordability-driven and job-driven relocation,” StorageCafe says.

Putting a damper on the influx of new residents: a roughly 124 percent surge in Texas home prices over the past decade, according to StorageCafe.

“While the state remains significantly more affordable than California, its top feeder state, the once-wide pricing gap has narrowed,” says StorageCafe. “For many movers, Texas is still a relative bargain, but no longer an undisputed one.”

Nonetheless, Texas keeps attracting young, highly educated people, which bodes well for the state’s long-term economic outlook, StorageCafe says. More than half of new arrivals to Texas in 2024 held at least a bachelor’s degree, and the age of newcomers averaged 32.

Where are most of these young, highly educated newcomers settling?

Lloyd Potter, former Texas state demographer, tells StorageCafe that population growth in Texas is happening most rapidly in suburban “ring counties” at the expense of slowing growth in urban cores. Ring counties are on the outskirts of major metro areas.

“Many people are moving from urban cores to suburban rings seeking lower costs, newer housing, better schools, and more space,” Potter says. “Typically, a move to a suburban county will be within commuting or hybrid‑commuting distance of major metro economies.”

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These could all be Californians for all we know. Photo via Local.AllState.com

Californians moving to Houston can save up to $646,000, study finds

money moves

Does it seem that Californians really are everywhere here in Houston? Here's why: A report by online storage finding platform StorageCafe has revealed just how much money the average Californian saves by taking on the title of transplant and relocating to the Lone Star State.

And more people from Los Angeles and Contra Costa counties are choosing Houston over any other area in Texas.

The migration report, which was released this summer by StorageCafe, states about 111,000 people moved to Texas from the Golden State in 2021, while only 33,000 Texans made the opposite move to California that same year.

The reasons why so many are flocking to Texas seem obvious: the lack of income tax, a lower cost of living, and the rise of remote work flexibility. These factors proved to be vastly important for millennials, who made up a majority of the transplants (46 percent).

Californians looking for a permanent Texas home can save hundreds of thousands of dollars by turning to Houston's booming housing market, where median home prices cost about $403,490.

With homes in San Diego ringing up for nearly $870,000, transplants can save $466,278 by buying a house in Houston. The Californians that save the most money on a new house hail from Orange County, where median prices cost over a million dollars. They can save $646,510 by purchasing a Houston home.

Renting an apartment in Houston is another financially advantageous move for California transplants, and will get them a larger space than what they can find in their home state. Rent prices in major California cities like San Diego and Los Angeles easily cost more than $2,600 a month, which is a far cry from Houston's median rent price of $1,336 per month.

Even for that amount of money, renters relocating to Houston from Orange, Los Angeles, and San Diego counties can easily find apartments that are over 500 square feet bigger.

StorageCafe's sister site Yardi Matrix's business intelligence manager Doug Ressler gave his thoughts in the report about the major factors that keep motivating Californians to make that move to Texas.

"Inflation continues to be a major concern, putting a financial strain on many people as they spend more of their income on typical expenses," he said. "As a result, moving to places that are easier on the wallet seems like the obvious solution, with many people crossing city and state lines to find a more suitable place to live."

The trend is not likely to slow down anytime soon, either.

"Over the first two decades of the 21st century, the movement of people leaving California for Texas has been well established," Ressler said. "No other state has sent more migrants to Texas than California during this time. The continual soaring housing prices and cost of living in California and much greater affordability in Texas is likely to sustain the significant flows of Californians toward Texas in the coming decades."

The study's findings were determined using census data between 2017 and 2021 from the Integrated Public Use Microdata Series (IPUMS) Survey Documentation and Analysis (SDA) tool. Home pricing information was found using data from real estate platform Point2.

The full study can be found on storagecafe.com.

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This article originally ran on CultureMap.

Here's how Houston and Texas fared on a new electric vehicle report. Photo via Getty Images

Texas ranks high on new EV study, but Houston was outpaced by other metros

driving toward progress

A new study shows that Texas is among the top of the pack for states with the most electric vehicle registrations. But Houston falls behind other large metros in the state for EV friendliness.

The March report from StorageCafe, which compiled data from the Federal Transit Administration, the Federal Highway Administration, the Department of Energy and other sources, showed that Texas had the third-most EV registrations in the county in 2021 at 112,000 vehicles.

California outpaced the rest of the country by a longshot with 878,000 registrations, claiming the number one spot. Florida had the second-most registrations at 128,000.

The report also looked at EV friendliness, which factored in EV registrations as well as the number of charging stations per household, EV exemptions, incentives and various other factors.

Houston was ranked 32nd on the friendliness list. The report found that Bayou City drivers registered 27,251 EVs in 2021. Charging stations are available in about 3.8 percent of rental buildings and there are 0.2 charging stations for every 1,000 households in the city.

Dallas claimed the top spot for the state at No. 15 with more than 29,000 EV registrations in 2021. Though Dallas has the same ratio of EV charging stations per household, there are more charging stations in rental buildings in the city.

Austin, at No. 22, also outranked Houston. Though the capital city only registered 8,730 EVs in 2021 there are much more charging stations per household (0.7 for every 1,000) and in rental buildings (5.5 percent).

San Antonio came in at No. 36, the McAllen area at No. 75, and El Paso at No. 83.

Seattle was named the friendliest place to own an EV. The drivers in the city registered more than 47,000 EVs in 2021.

Doug Ressler, a business intelligence manager at Yardi Matrix, which contributed to the report, weighed in on the findings.

“The electric car movement is gaining momentum, but it isn’t without its challenges. The high price of an EV–although brought down by incentives now – range and charging stations still pose some problems," he said in a statement. "However, with the expansion of the charging network–including in apartment buildings–and the gradual lowering of the EV price, buying and using an EV can become mainstream in the foreseeable future."

He also estimated that EVs will "dominate the car market" by 2045. By 2050, he said EVs could make up about 90 percent of the market.

Earlier this month Hertz announced that it would triple Houston's electric rental fleet, as well as add a fast-charging hub to Hobby Airport that's designed to serve ride-hail, taxi fleets and the general public.

So many Newstonians are coming in from California. Photo courtesy of TxDOT

Houston leads Texas in most Californians relocating from this county, says new study

GOLDEN STATE TO LONE STAR STATE

The Hollywood-to-Houston population pipeline is overflowing, a new study suggests.

Harris County ranks as the No. 1 destination for people relocating to Texas from California, according to a StorageCafé data analysis. The No. 1 place of origin? Los Angeles County, home to Hollywood.

Among California counties, Harris County attracted the most new arrivals from Los Angeles County in 2019 (3,263), followed by San Diego County (840), and Riverside County (698).

Why are Californians swapping the West Coast for the Gulf Coast? A prime reason appears to be housing costs. The analysis shows the median price difference in 2020 between a home in Los Angeles County and a home in Harris County was $482,010. And even though they're paying less for a home in Harris County, L.A. transplants are gaining a median 577 square feet in additional space.

"When housing prices in California go up, so does migration to Texas. When housing prices in California go down, migration to Texas goes down as well," William Fulton, director of Rice University's Kinder Institute for Urban Research, tells StorageCafé, a self-storage platform.

Looking at the California-to-Texas connection, Los Angeles County holds the top seven spots in the ranking of counties that send the most new residents to our state. Here are the top seven:

  1. Los Angeles County to Harris County (3,263 new residents in 2019).
  2. Los Angeles County to Dallas County (2,492 new residents in 2019).
  3. Los Angeles County to Travis County (2,060 new residents in 2019).
  4. Los Angeles County to Collin County (1,609 new residents in 2019).
  5. Los Angeles County to Tarrant County (1,374 new residents in 2019).
  6. Los Angeles County to Bexar County (1,366 new residents in 2019).
  7. Los Angeles County to Denton County (1,290 new residents in 2019).

"Elon Musk is well on his way to being the first human on Mars, but he's far from being a pioneer when it comes to moving to Texas. His recent move to the state is just one among the almost 190 daily moves from California to Texas that occurred from 2010 to 2019," StorageCafé says.

Here are the top 10 counties for new arrivals from all California counties in 2019:

  1. Harris County — 8,408.
  2. Dallas County — 7,923.
  3. Travis County — 6,725.
  4. Tarrant County — 6,623.
  5. Bexar County — 5,340.
  6. Collin County — 5,294.
  7. Denton County — 4,028.
  8. Williamson County — 2,877.
  9. El Paso County — 2,521.
  10. Bell County — 1,727.
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This article originally ran on CultureMap.

Houston's top Google searches include toilet paper, freezing milk, and bottled water. . Pexels

Here's what Houstonians asked the internet amid coronavirus outbreak

search me

No doubt, Houstonians and other Texans are tremendously curious about toilet paper these days. If you've seen any news coverage or been to a grocery store lately, you know how coveted a roll of toilet paper is.

But you might be surprised by which other things we're searching for online during the coronavirus pandemic. One of the more eye-opening queries? "Freeze milk."

A study published March 20 by self-storage marketplace StorageCafé tracked about 50 of the most popular Google searches for items or queries pertaining to three coronavirus-related categories: food and beverages, cleaning, and health.

Google Trends measures interest about a certain term on a scale from zero to 100 points. Zero means that few people are searching for that particular term, while 100 signifies peak interest.

In the Houston area, according to StorageCafé, the peak-interest terms as of March 15 focused on toilet paper and "freeze milk" as well as:

  • Bottled water
  • Vitamin C
  • Thermometers
  • Diapers

All of those scored 100 on the Google Trends scale, StorageCafé says.

Dallas-Fort Worth, Austin, and San Antonio also registered scores of 100 for searches regarding toilet paper, freezing milk, vitamin C, and diapers.

DFW and Austin shared the highest level of curiosity about thermometers. Meanwhile, residents of the Austin and San Antonio areas were clamoring for information related to "food supply." People in the San Antonio area also were furiously searching for information about canned food and hand sanitizer.

Getting back to that milk query: Yes, you can freeze most types of milk, and the nutritional benefits will remain.

Milk expands when it's frozen, so leave room in the storage container to prevent it from bursting, the Dairy Council of California advises. Just make sure the milk hasn't passed its sell-by date.

"After you have frozen your milk, it can be thawed in the refrigerator or in cold water and is safe for consumption," the council says. "However, be aware that the flavor and texture of the milk may be affected."

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This article originally ran on CultureMap.

Harris County welcomed more new out-of-state arrivals than any other county in Texas. Getty Images

Houston area tops Texas with biggest population of out-of-state residents

New to Hou

In the late 1800s through the mid-1950s, New York City's Ellis Island — sitting in the Statue of Liberty's shadow — served as the entry point for millions of new arrivals to the U.S.

Houston doesn't have its own version of Ellis Island, but perhaps it deserves a symbolic one to commemorate the flood of new arrivals from other states.

In 2017, Harris County welcomed more new out-of-state arrivals (81,781) than any other county in Texas, according to a data analysis released December 9 by StorageCafé, a self-storage marketplace.

That influx stands to reason, since Harris County is the state's largest county as measured by population (more than 4 million and counting). Still, it's astounding that Harris County attracted almost as many new arrivals as the entire population of Conroe (87,654 in 2018).

StorageCafé based its analysis on data published last year by the U.S. Census Bureau. The analysis excludes new arrivals from other Texas counties and new arrivals from outside the U.S.

No other county in the Houston metro area appeared in StorageCafé's ranking of the top 10 Texas counties for new arrivals from out of state. That hardly discounts the fact that the entire metro area is witnessing substantial population growth, though.

The Houston area added nearly 1.08 million residents between 2010 and 2018, growing at a rate of 18.2 percent, according to Census Bureau figures cited by the Greater Houston Partnership. From 2017 to 2018 alone, the region's population jumped by 91,689 — the third largest increase in the country — to just shy of 7 million.

To be clear, more than 1 million people didn't pack up and move to the Houston area from 2010 to 2018. Rather, the region's population growth rate comprises arrivals and births stacked up against departures and deaths.

Although the StorageCafé analysis indicates a Texas-leading population spike, Bill Fulton, director of Rice University's Kinder Institute for Urban Research, notes that Harris County has experienced an overall decline in population growth since 2015.

"This is not surprising given the drop in oil prices, which led to economic stagnation in Houston," Fulton tells CultureMap.

Fulton points out that Harris County's population gains don't match the combined growth of the Dallas-Fort Worth area's two biggest counties — Dallas and Tarrant. Dallas County has about 2.6 million residents, while Tarrant County (Fort Worth) has a little over 2 million. That's a total of about 4.6 million, compared with Harris County's nearly 4.7 million residents.

"Don't be deceived into thinking that because Harris County has a much greater population increase than any other county, that, therefore, metro Houston is growing a lot faster than DFW," Fulton says. "If you add the Dallas and Tarrant numbers together, it clearly shows that DFW is still attracting more [newcomers] than Houston."

"The bottom line is: For the past several years, DFW has been growing faster than Houston, and that growth has been driven by [more newcomers] from other states," Fulton adds.

Indeed, grabbing second place in the StorageCafé ranking was Dallas County, with 47,336 new out-of-state arrivals in 2017. And in the No. 3 spot, next-door Tarrant County picked up 44,181 new arrivals. That means Dallas and Tarrant counties drew more than 91,500 new out-of-state residents in 2017, beating the total for Harris County.

Two other DFW counties, Collin and Denton, ranked sixth and seventh, respectively, in StorageCafé's list of the top 10 Texas counties. Collin County saw 24,918 new out-of-state arrivals in 2017, with Denton County at 22,190.

All told, the four DFW counties in Texas' top 10 absorbed 138,625 new out-of-state residents in 2017. By comparison, 138,541 people lived in Denton in 2018, the Census Bureau says.

From 2010 to 2018, Dallas-Fort Worth added more residents — over 1.11 million, or a growth rate of 17.3 percent — than any other major metro area in the country, according to the Census Bureau. In terms of the sheer number of new residents, DFW eclipsed Houston during that period, but Houston held a slight edge for percentage growth.

Bexar County, which anchors the San Antonio metro area, claimed the No. 4 spot in the StorageCafé ranking, attracting 41,062 out-of-state newcomers in 2017.

Just behind it, at No. 5, was Travis County, which anchors the Austin metro area. The StorageCafé data shows 33,939 people relocated to Travis County from out of state in 2017. Rounding out the top 10 was Williamson County (suburban Austin), with 15,712 out-of-state newcomers.

Combined, Travis and Williamson counties gained close to 50,000 out-of-staters in 2017. By comparison, Pflugerville was home to 59,245 residents in 2018, according to the Census Bureau.

Others in the top 10 were El Paso County at No. 8 and Bell County (home of Killeen and Temple) at No. 9.

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This article originally ran on CultureMap.

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UH scores $18M NIH grant for chronic disease research

research funding

The University of Houston has received a coveted $18.8 million grant from the National Institutes of Health to launch a program to address the root causes of chronic disease.

Only 22 institutions nationwide receive this NIH award, and the 5-year process aligns with the newly established UH Health’s mission to expand healthcare innovations in Texas and beyond. The initiative will be housed in the UH Population Health department.

"This generous funding allows us to directly confront the root causes of chronic illness that place a heavy burden on so many families," Dr. Jonathan McCullers, vice president for health affairs at UH, said in a news release. "With the recent launch of UH Health, we have an unprecedented opportunity to translate scientific discovery into healthier outcomes for our communities by bringing together experts from across the university to improve health where it matters most.”

Through the program, UH researchers from different areas of expertise will work together to address the challenges of chronic illness by looking at biological, social and behavioral factors.

According to the university, chronic diseases like heart disease, diabetes, strokes and others are the leading cause of illness, disability and death in the U.S. They account for 90 percent of the nation’s $5.3 trillion in annual healthcare spending.

Bettina Beech, chief of population health and translational science at UH, serves as principal investigator for the program.

“Chronic disease management largely happens during the 8,700 hours each year that people are not visiting their healthcare provider,” Beech added in the news release. “While healthcare is indispensable, it only accounts for 20 percent of how health is created — genetics accounts for another 10 percent, and the other 70 percent is determined by behavior, social conditions and environment.”

With the funds from the grant, UH will also be able to expand research infrastructure, add to community partnerships, support complementary research, and invest in early-career investigators, according to the news release. UH also aims to develop solutions that could help ease the economic burden of chronic disease.

Report: Where Texas ranks among best and worst states to live in 2026

Texas Talk

After earning its worst-ever ranking last year, Texas has improved slightly on an evaluation of the best states to live, but it's still at the bottom of the pack.

Each year, WalletHub's analysts compare all 50 states using 51 livability metrics to measure their affordability, economy, education and health, quality of life, and safety. Factors that were weighed include the cost of living, homeownership rates, population and income growth rates, wealth gaps, public school system quality, road quality, crime rates, and many others.

The Lone Star State landed at No. 36 in 2026, making it the 15th worth state to live right now. That's on par with its 2024 ranking, and it's a two-spot improvement over its 2025 performance.

While Texas residents can brag about living in a state with the No. 1 highest number of restaurants per capita and the 7th best quality of life in the country, that's about it. Texas earned middling-to-poor scores among the four remaining livability rankings: safety (No. 33), affordability (No. 35), economy (No. 37), and education and health (No. 40).

Here's how Texas fared in other nationwide rankings in the study:

  • No. 27 – Income Growth
  • No. 30 – Housing Costs
  • No. 39 – Percentage of Population in Poverty
  • No. 42 – Percentage of Adults in Fair or Poor Health
  • No. 46 – Homeownership Rate
  • No. 49 – Percentage of Population Aged 25 and Older with a High School Diploma or Higher
  • No. 48 – Average Weekly Work Hours
  • No. 50 – Percentage of Insured Population

Texas has a lot of work to do to improve its livability for all of its residents, but especially for women, according to several other 2026 WalletHub studies. Texas is the fourth-worst state for women, the ninth-worst state for working mothers, and the seventh-worst place to have a baby based on limited access to maternal and pediatric healthcare.

At the very bottom of the report is New Mexico, ranking 50th overall, with Louisiana (No. 49), Mississippi (No. 48), Alaska (No. 47), and Arkansas (No. 46) rounding out the bottom five.

After holding on as the No. 1 best state to live for a few years in a row, Massachusetts now ranks No. 4 and was overtaken by Idaho (No. 1), New Jersey (No. 2), and Wisconsin (No. 3). New Hampshire rounds out the top five best states to live.

WalletHub's top 10 best states to live in 2026 are:

  • No. 1 – Idaho
  • No. 2 – New Jersey
  • No. 3 – Wisconsin
  • No. 4 – Massachusetts
  • No. 5 – New Hampshire
  • No. 6 – Wyoming
  • No. 7 – Utah
  • No. 8 – Minnesota
  • No. 9 – Pennsylvania
  • No. 10 – Florida
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This article originally appeared on CultureMap.com.

6 exciting Houston startup raises to know from July 2026

fresh funding

Houston startups carried the fundraising momentum of Q1 and Q2 into July with several significant seed funding, Series A and Series B rounds.

From geothermal leaders to medtech innovators, these six Houston companies raised more than a quarter billion dollars last month alone, according to reporting by InnovationMap and our sister site, EnergyCapitalHTX.com.

Did we miss a funding round? Let us know by emailing innoeditor@innovationmap.com.

Altillion

Houston-based startup Altillion has secured $5 million in seed funding to accelerate the commercialization of its proprietary IRIS and ALIX technologies, which convert oilfield-produced water into valuable minerals, the company reported earlier this month.

San Francisco-based EIC Rose Rock and Houston-based Flathead Forge led the round. Altillion says the funding will go toward pilot facilities and commercial deployments as the company looks to scale in the U.S. Continue reading.

Buildforce

The U.S. is grappling with a current shortage of 50,000 electricians, according to the National Electrical Contractors Association. Photo via Unsplash

Houston-based Buildforce, which provides a tech-enabled staff platform geared toward electricians and electrical contractors, closed a $10 million Series A round led by Houston’s Saepio Capital last month.

Other investors in the round include Blue Heron Capital, Revolution’s Rise of the Rest Seed Fund, S3 Ventures and Chicago Ventures.

Buildforce says the funding will help fuel its national expansion and further development of its technology.

The startup, founded in 2019, connects electricians with electrical contractors for commercial and industrial construction projects. Continue reading.

Hephae Energy Technology Corp.

The company develops ultra-high-temperature tools to withstand the heat of geothermal reservoirs. Photo via hephaeet.com

Houston-area startup Hephae Energy Technology Corp. closed a $17.8 million Series A financing round last month to commercialize its geothermal technology.

The round was co-led by Pennsylvania-based Susquehanna Sustainable Investments, which invests in early-stage climatech companies, and Copenhagen-based Underground Ventures, which focuses on geothermal energy startups. Alfa8, Baruch Future Ventures, Centaurus Capital LP, Elemental Impact, Exa Ventures, Future Ventures, Grantham Foundation for the Protection of the Environment, New System Ventures and True North Institute joined the round, along with existing Houston-based investor Nabors Industries. Hephae reports in a news release that the Series A round brings the company's total capital raised to $24.7 million. Continue reading.

TYBR Health

The company's B3 GEL System is designed to protect tendons, ligaments and muscles while they heal from orthopedic surgery. Photo via Unsplash

Houston-based healthtech startup TYBR Health has raised a $30 million Series A round to scale its B3 GEL System, which helps protect tendons from scarring after surgery, the company announced last month.

The round was led by Minneapolis-based Vensana Capital and Cleveland-based Mutual Capital Partners, with participation from Denver-based Neovate Capital Partners and existing investors, according to a news release from the company.

TYBR Health said it plans to use the funding to broaden the B3 GEL System's clinical applications, expand commercialization and conduct studies to evaluate its ability to protect tissue and improve healing outcomes. Continue reading.

Venus Aerospace 

Venus Aerospace has secured funding from Mercury Fund, Lockheed Martin Ventures and others. Photo courtesy Venus Aerospace

Houston-based Venus Aerospace closed a $91 million Series B round last month and plans to scale the production of its hypersonic engine.

The round was led by Houston-based Mercury Fund with participation from Lockheed Martin Ventures, MESH, PEAK6, Draper Associates, Starboard Star Venture Capital, Green Sands Equity and other investors, according to a news release.

The investment comes about a year after Venus completed the first U.S. flight test of its high-thrust rotating detonation rocket engine (RDRE). The engine is expected to enable vehicles to travel four to six times the speed of sound from a conventional runway and is about 15 percent more efficient than traditional alternatives, according to the company. Continue reading.

Quaise Energy

A rendering of a Quaise Energy geothermal plant. Rendering via quaise.com

Houston-based Quaise Energy, a producer of utility-scale geothermal power, closed $134 million in a Series B round last month to advance its “superhot” geothermal power plant.

Climate-focused San Francisco-based investment firm Prelude Ventures led the round, with participation from JERA Co., Japan’s largest power generation company, and Idemitsu Kosan, one of Japan’s largest energy companies. Nearly all existing investors, including cleantech-focused investment firm Safar Partners, participated in the round.

The startup expects more equity and debt deals to close “imminently.” Quaise has raised $230 million since its founding in 2018. Continue reading.

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