A hustle from bustle
As pandemic rages, Houstonians flee city for small-town safety
The College Station area is known for Aggie pride and the feel of a small-town — but not that small. There are both ranches and retail, farmland and museums.
You’ll also find, in increasing numbers, expat Houstonians.
Since the pandemic began, one 1 of 3 calls inquiring about homes in Mission Ranch, a master-planned community on the city’s southern edge, is from Houston, according to the subdivision’s developer, Caldwell Communities.
“We’ve definitely seen more interest,” said Marci Raley, the subdivision’s welcome center coordinator.
The pandemic — which recently thrust Houston into the national spotlight for its surge in COVID-19 cases and strained hospital systems — is only the latest in a confluence of trends pulling people from Houston’s hustle and bustle to smaller towns an hour or two away. Terrible commutes, repeated flooding and a disconnect from nature are also driving people from the city.
Many have headed to Brazos County, home of College
Station. An estimated 3,800 people moved to Brazos County from Harris County in 2017, the most recent year for which the Census Bureau data is available, making it the most popular destination for people moving out of Houston after Travis County, where Austin is located.
“We have seen quite a bit of pickup in buyers from Houston,” said Deborah Stepanek, a College Station real estate agent with the Houston-based brokerage CB&A. “They’re wanting to get out of the rat race of Houston.”
Some families treat College Station as a sort of Houston suburb. Zac Henderson, for example, used to commute 45 minutes north from the Energy Corridor to his office off Texas 249 outside of Beltway 8. Now, he commutes an hour south from the edge of College Station closest to Houston.
“There are a lot of people who drive 15 miles, and it takes them an hour. I just drive 60,” Henderson said.
That commuting time could become even shorter once a tollway, nicknamed the Aggie Expressway, is completed in 2023 to connect College Station to Houston.
“With the improved roadways,” said College Station Mayor Karl Mooney, “it’s not a bad commute to come from College Station to the greater Houston area.”
While Henderson, a graduate of Texas A&M University, had long dreamed about moving back to College Station, it was Houston’s flooding that forced his hand. His first experience came during the Tax Day flood of 2016, which filled his home with a half-foot of water. The next year, when Hurricane Harvey flooded the home with nearly 2 feet of water while his wife was 9 months pregnant, that was it.
“Three and a half months later, we were in College Station,” Henderson said.
Jen Zweiacker, a real estate agent in College Station, said she receives an influx of calls after every flood in Houston.
After Tropical Storm Imelda last year, she recalled, “I actually had someone from the west side of Houston saying, ‘I’m standing in Houston, watching water come into my house. Get me out of it.’ ”
While many are choosing to leave, Houston remains the nation’s fourth largest city and is expected to continue grow — and possibly surpass Chicago and become number three after the 2020 census. Shad Bogany, a real estate agent with Better Homes and Gardens, said people move to the city to be closer to their jobs, and he expects the dynamic will return as the economy recovers.
“You have to keep in mind that the pandemic is a temporary situation.” Bogany said. “Eventually a lot of those people are going back to the offices.”
The pandemic is the latest disaster to set phones abuzz in real estate offices in smaller cities and rural communities on the outskirts of the Houston metro area and beyond. Closed home sales in College Station rose 17 percent in June from a year earlier, according to the Bryan-College Station Regional Association of Realtors. The median home price climbed 4.5 percent to $243,000, compared with $262,000 in Houston.
But this disaster has spurred a wider buying spree in Houston’s surrounding towns. Some of it comes from people buying second homes from where they can work remotely and enjoy natural surroundings when they want to escape the city.
Linda Plant, a real estate agent who specializes in small farms and ranches near Round Top, about an hour and a half west of the city, said so many Houstonians are buying second homes as rural retreats that her sales since March have jumped 35 percent from the same period last year. Glenn Phillips, chief executive of Lake Homes Realty, a website specializing in lakefront properties, said sales of lakefront homes have more than doubled, increasing 140 percent year over year in June.
Mike Goins, a real estate agent who specializes in property on or near Lake Conroe, called the market “a feeding frenzy.” He’s hired an assistant and brought on a buyer’s agent to help him handle the increased workload.
“There are enough people who are OK financially who can’t take a cruise, can’t take a vacation, can’t go anywhere,” Goins said. “So Lake Conroe becomes more attractive.” The median listing price of lakefront property on Lake Conroe is $520,000.
Another incentive for would-be urban refugees: historically low mortgage rates. The rate for the 30-year mortgage last week fell to a record low for the eighth time this year, averaging 2.88 percent, according to the governmentsponsored mortgage company Freddie Mac.
Mike and Linda Baker decided in 2019 to retire to College Station. They made the move this summer, renting until the construction of their new home is completed, as the pandemic drove home the benefits of living in a smaller city.
“It just validates that we made the right decision in choosing College Station as the place where we wanted to land,” Linda Baker said.
She and her husband both grew up in small towns where it was easy to get to know neighbors and spend time in nature. They hoped to rediscover that feeling in College Station, which has the added perk of an easier commute to their sons and grandchildren in Austin and Fort Worth.
Last month, Linda Baker recalled, she saw a roadrunner cross the street. She still remembers breathing a sigh of relief when they made the move.
“It’s like you’re exhaling when you get out of Houston,” she said. “Because there’s green pastures and green fields.”