Excerpts from article in Texas Realtor Magazine January 2019 

JOHN BAEN
Professor of Real Estate, University of North Texas

I’m so excited about Texas in the next 10 years. I’m so excited about real estate investments. Texas is now what California was in 1955. We are going to double the population within 15 years … all the people that are coming from California, New Jersey, New York, and Florida … be excited that they’re coming.

Corporations are making their decision to come here for so many reasons. We have no state income tax. We’re in the Central time zone. Employees can make a call at 7 a.m. to New York and at 6 p.m. to California. It splits the country in two. It costs less money to fly to the coasts.

We’re a port state. We’re a standalone oil and gas state—we’re exporting oil and gas. Our climate is great. We can build our buildings cheaper and have nearly unlimited land. Our housing is affordable.

Some will say, “Things aren’t selling well in my part of Texas.” Well that’s because people who are living in their houses realize what’s about to happen, and they’re not going to move.

More people in Texas are staying put because they realize what’s coming. The value of our houses is going to double. Even if they go up 7% a year, they double every 10 years.

We are the center of commerce in the world, not just the United States. And what a lot of consumers are missing right now is this dynamite market that we’re going to have for 20 years in Texas, and what house prices and rents are going to do.

I’m telling you that there is no better investment for retirement or for savings than to buy a median or below-median price house less than 15 years old in Texas and own it forever.