Forbes Names The Woodlands TX - Top 25 Places to Move in the USA

Forbes Names The Woodlands One of the Top 25 Places to Move in the US
July 13, 2009

Forbes, in its July 7, 2009 online edition, named The Woodlands, Texas #14 in its list of the Top 25 Best Places to Move in the country. The Woodlands was the only Houston-area community to make the list, although seven other Texas communities – six in the Dallas-Fort Worth area, and one in the Austin area – were also included.

Forbes looked at “Relovilles”, defined as young, mid- and upscale suburbs near major corporate plants and offices with populations of 25,000 and over to locate America’s best places to move. Using data from 2000 to 2007 Census records, they looked at the number of people in each town who were born out of state or abroad, who had moved to town from a considerable distance within one and five years, and who had moved for a job.

Other factors considered included population growth, family incomes, people in executive and professional jobs, and the price, size and age of homes, along with reports of moving van companies, changes in school enrollments, the proximity of multinational companies, and the observations of local builders, government officials and residents.

According to the article by Peter T. Kilborn, author of “Next Stop Reloville, Life Inside America’s New Rootless Professional Class”, these Relovilles sprout up where “cheap land, exits off Interstate highways and an international airport provide quick access to the global economy. Hundreds of towns have bloomed, predominantly in the Sun Belt, where aspiring multinational corporations began gravitating in the 1970s,” Kilborn states.

“The Woodlands is ideally situated in one of the most stable markets in the country, and we have always made job creation a top priority,” said Tim Welbes and Alex Sutton, co-presidents of The Woodlands Development Company. “This is why companies like Anadarko Petroleum, CB&I, Chevron Phillips Chemical, Huntsman, Lexicon Pharmaceuticals, Tetra Technologies, US Oncology and Woodforest National Bank have brought their corporate headquarters here. Everything is in place to attract major employers, including easy access to downtown Houston and a major airport, a wide selection of homes, top-ranked public and private schools, outdoor recreation, shopping, dining, entertainment and medical care.”

“Recognition by a media outlet such as Forbes clearly illustrates that The Woodlands has become known as a very desirable place to live, work and visit,” said Nelda Blair, chairman of The Woodlands Township. “The Woodlands has long been a premier place for quality of life. With this kind of exposure, the rest of the world is learning just how special The Woodlands has become.”

The Woodlands is a 28,000-acre master-planned community located 27 miles north of downtown Houston with a current population of more than 90,000. There are 1,587 companies employing more than 44,000 people in The Woodlands. It is a project of The Woodlands Development Company, a limited partnership of Morgan Stanley and General Growth Properties, Inc.