[SA Metro] Helotes Ranked Among Top ‘Boom Towns’ of 2008

[sirkingwilliam]

Helotes ranked among top ‘boom towns’ of 2008

San Antonio Business Journal

Helotes has been ranked among the most notable high-growth areas in the country by The Gadberry Group, a Little Rock, Ark.-based consulting firm specializing in location-based services and data products.

The Gadberry Group has released its list of the eight most prominent “boom towns” for 2008. Helotes, considered a suburb of San Antonio, came in third behind Queen Creek, Ariz., a suburb of Phoenix, and Enterprise, Nev., a suburb of Las Vegas.

Household growth in Helotes increased from 3,080 in 2000 to 13,919 households in 2008, or 352 percent, according to The Gadberry Group.

The median age for Helotes decreased from 39.2 in 2000 to 34 in 2008. Average household income declined from $86,699 to $83,358 while median income rose from $70,976 in 2000 to $83,294.

Gadberry employed a statistical ranking system in its evaluation of the 17,000 Census places, using its own data products. The selection criteria and ranking methodology included variables such as percent change, absolute change and the presence of emerging Census blocks (blocks with less than 10 households in Census 2000 and more than 100 households in 2008).

The analysis considered the total growth from 2000 to 2008 as well as the amount of the total growth that occurred from 2007 to 2008. Gadberry also weighted the analysis using key demographic variables such as ethnicity, household income, net worth, economic stability, length of residence and age.

Other communities ranking in the top eight included Wesley Chapel, Fla., a suburb of Tampa; Indian Trail, N.C., a suburb of Charlotte; Castle Rock, Colo., a suburb of Denver; Elk Grove, Calif., a suburb of Sacramento; and New Orleans.

http://sanantonio.bizjournals.com/sa...5/daily37.html

[Mopacs]

Interesting. Helotes is definitely in the path of growth in the San Antonio metro area. What's the current estimated population?

[oldmanshirt]

Helotes' population is at 6,681 as of last year, up from 4,285 in 2000. I'm wondering if they didn't take those statistics such as number of households and median income from the entire 78023 zip code, which includes Helotes and Grey Forest, along with a portion of Medina County.

Acutally, I'm surprised they didn't just look at Cibolo instead, as its grown faster (from 3,035 to 12,385) and is along the I-35 corridor. The folks in Helotes shudder at the thought of a 3-story building (multi-family or office) ruining their view of the hills; Cibolo is much less NIMBY and more pro-growth.

[sirkingwilliam]

Nope OMS, they didn't use the 78023 zip code, I think they used the Helotes ETJ as their boundary.

As for the population, it was 8,813 in 2000 and 39,267 in 2008.

The amazing thing is the boundary didn't include Alamo Ranch.

That's a surprising amount of growth for that area, considering Helote's legendary stance on "growth."

I think now with new leadership that welcomes growth and understands that Helotes is growing and won't remain a sleepy small town for much longer they are doing things to implement the best type of growth.

[sirkingwilliam]

Originally Posted by oldmanshirt

Acutally, I'm surprised they didn't just look at Cibolo instead, as its grown faster (from 3,035 to 12,385) and is along the I-35 corridor. The folks in Helotes shudder at the thought of a 3-story building (multi-family or office) ruining their view of the hills; Cibolo is much less NIMBY and more pro-growth.

What all the towns this study/list have in common is they have high household incomes, I mean high (between $80,000 and $120,000) so that may have excluded a place like Cibolo that isn't as high.

However, yes the growth of Cibolo and Schertz has been tremendous and the population is actually in the 20,000's according to Cibolo officials.

[oldmanshirt]

Originally Posted by sirkingwilliam

Nope OMS, they didn't use the 78023 zip code, I think they used the Helotes ETJ as their boundary.

As for the population, it was 8,813 in 2000 and 39,267 in 2008.

Gotcha, I knew it couldn't be Helotes city limits, as there aren't even 10,000 people in the city, let alone 12,000 households.

Originally Posted by sirkingwilliam

The amazing thing is the boundary didn't include Alamo Ranch.

Alamo Ranch is in the SA ETJ

Originally Posted by sirkingwilliam

That's a surprising amount of growth for that area, considering Helote's legendary stance on "growth."

I think now with new leadership that welcomes growth and understands that Helotes is growing and won't remain a sleepy small town for much longer they are doing things to implement the best type of growth.

Hopefully so, they need to be more Boerne, less Leon Valley.

[sirkingwilliam]

Originally Posted by oldmanshirt

Alamo Ranch is in the SA ETJ

You're right.

[Schertz1]

Most cities on the list have median household incomes less than 80k. In fact I believe Helotes has the highest income on the list. With MHIs of 63k and 65K, Cibolo and Schertz would be third or fourth from the bottom had they made this list.

I'm amazed Helotes is that well off; to put it in perspective, their MHI is higher than that of Alamo Heights and very close to Terrell Hills.

[sirkingwilliam]

Schertz, again I'm not sure what exactly they were basing the boundaries on for their study (I assume ETJ) but the following eight listed had average household incomes of:

2008:

Castle Rock, Colorado
$ 90,120

Elk Grove, California
$ 100,242

Enterprise, Nevada
$ 81,021

Helotes, Texas
$ 83,358

Indian Trail, North Carolina
$ 87,707

New Orleans, Louisiana
$ 51,218

Queen Creek, Arizona
$ 69,102

Wesley Chapel, Florida
$ 102,450

Keep in mind this is average household income as the data I saw didn't contain the median income but in the article I posted it was listed as $83,294.

Also, I was wrong in that the number varied from 80,000 to 120,000. I must have forgot NO and Queen Creek and I don't know where I got the 120,000 number as the highest number is 102,000. My eyes must have been playing tricks on me.

[Schertz1]

Originally Posted by sirkingwilliam

Schertz, again I'm not sure what exactly they were basing the boundaries on for their study (I assume ETJ) but the following eight listed had average household incomes of:

2008:

Castle Rock, Colorado
$ 90,120

Elk Grove, California
$ 100,242

Enterprise, Nevada
$ 81,021

Helotes, Texas
$ 83,358

Indian Trail, North Carolina
$ 87,707

New Orleans, Louisiana
$ 51,218

Queen Creek, Arizona
$ 69,102

Wesley Chapel, Florida
$ 102,450

Keep in mind this is average household income as the data I saw didn't contain the median income but in the article I posted it was listed as $83,294.

Also, I was wrong in that the number varied from 80,000 to 120,000. I must have forgot NO and Queen Creek and I don't know where I got the 120,000 number as the highest number is 102,000. My eyes must have been playing tricks on me.

Where are you getting the 2008 data? I am only finding 2007; I used the city-data community detail pages. If I can post the source? Also, what is the AHI for cibolo and Schertz?

[oldmanshirt]

Originally Posted by Schertz1

what is the AHI for cibolo and Schertz?

Cibolo's is $52,207
http://www.zipskinny.com/index.php?zip=78108

Schertz is $54,269
http://www.zipskinny.com/index.php?zip=78154

That's from 2000 census data. However, Wikipedia has them at $53,780 and $55,156, respectively.