Houston’s Growth by the Numbers

If there’s one word that’s most used when describing Houston, it’s definitely “sprawl.” In Houstonia’s Summer 2024 cover package, “Welcome to Boomtown,” we examined the many ways the city is growing, from far-flung suburbs to green spaces funded by deep pockets. Here’s a look at Houston’s growth by the numbers.

237,000+ | Houstonians who work in the energy industry.

$77M | Average annual budget of the Houston Parks and Recreation Department (HPARD) between 2021 and 2023.

3,000 | Acres covered by the bayou greenways project.

26 | Fortune 500 companies headquartered in the Houston metro area.

$97M | Private funding of Houston parks and green spaces in 2023.

75% | Gallery space increase at MFAH with the Kinder Building addition.

23 | Miles covered by Houston’s METRORail. DART in Dallas has 93 miles.

666 | Public parks in Houston, 377 of which HPARD is responsible for.

$338,000 | Median home price in Houston in March 2024.

40% | Share of people moving to the Houston metro area from out of the country.

3,966 | People who moved to Houston from Los Angeles, San Francisco, and New York between February and April 2024.

23,000 | New houses built in Houston in 2023, the most of any city nationwide.

$469,400 | Average cost of a home in Bridgeland in March 2024.

235 | Acres in Indigo, a new “agri-hood” in Fort Bend County with car-free zones and a community farm.

12 | Master-planned communities in the Houston area that made RCLCO’s top 50 best-selling list in 2023.

75 | Number of stories in the JPMorgan Chase tower, the tallest in Texas.

17 | Years neighbors fought the so-called Ashby high-rise, now finally being built as The Langley.

204,000 | Homes damaged by Hurricane Harvey, most outside the 100-year floodplain.

1% | Acreage remaining of Texas’s rain-absorbent coastal prairie.

60,404 | Katy Prairie acres that were paved over by development between 2001 and 2019.

$763 | Average annual cost, in Harris County, for flood insurance.

199,761 | National Flood Insurance Program policies in force in Harris County.

1,235 | Homes, as well as 331 businesses and 5 places of worship, TxDOT plans to take to expand I-45.

Published in the Welcome to Boomtown! issue of Houstonia Mag.