Incomes Are Rising In the Big Cities
When it comes to personal-income levels in Texas, the gap between the rich cities and the poor cities is continuing to widen.</br></br>Houston, Dallas, Austin and San Antonio registered the biggest gains in per capita income, while the border towns slowed sluggish increases. Per capita income growth is a key economic indicator. When incomes rise briskly, people have more money to spend on everything from restaurant food to housing.</br></br>In Houston, personal income soared 5.8% in the first quarter over a year earlier as the city's economy rebounded from the low oil prices of 1999. Dallas, which wasn't particularly affected by low oil prices, still saw a strong 5.2% rise during the same period. And in Austin, the hottest economy of all in Texas, incomes gained 4.6% over a year earlier. San Antonio, long a bastion of stable growth, posted a 4% improvement.</br></br>"The strength in the state remains in those large cities," says economist Toni Horst of Economy.com (formerly RFA Dismal Sciences Inc., West Chester, Pa.), which compiles the data. "That's where the growth is taking place. And that's where you're going to see the income growth."</br></br>The bigger border cities didn't fare nearly as well. Even though most of them are growing rapidly, they aren't adding high-paying jobs like the big four Texas cities.