Texas shows 2009 leading growth

Houston Chronicle:

Texas cities saw some of the fastest population gains in the U.S. last year, according to data released Tuesday by the Census Bureau, a statistic that experts chalk up to a stable economy amid a national recession.

Among cities with more than 100,000 residents, four of the top 10 that experienced the greatest percentage increase in population were in Texas: Frisco, McKinney, Round Rock and Lewisville.

The population growth was tabulated from July 1, 2008, to July 1, 2009.

Frisco, a wealthy suburb of Dallas, saw a 6.2 percent population spike, making it the fastest-growing big city in the U.S....

...

Daniel Hamermesh, a University of Texas professor who specializes in demographic changes, called the population spike a "good thing for Texas," echoing Murdock's sentiments that the state's growth is due to its relatively stable economy while the rest of the U.S. slowly emerges from the worst economic slump since the Great Depression of 1930s.

"People want to move here," Hamermesh said. "The economy is doing better than anybody else's, and there is a long-term trend to move toward the South and South west."

...

Three of these communities are in the Dallas-Fort worth area and Round Rock is outside of Austin and is home to Dell Computers. All suggest the kind of growth that adds to the tax base of the communities making it easier to pay for the added services needed to deal with the growth. I think this is probably good news for Gov. Rick Perry's campaign. It should also be good news for added Texas representation in Congress after 2010.