Farmer1906 said:
Over the last 30 years, the state has gone from 59% white to 39% white. It's not hard to understand that suburbs will reflect that. Just because a burb isn't 90% white doesn't mean it's "going downhill".
You're right, Texas is no longer majority white, and white people will comprise smaller and smaller percentages of the population here and across the country as time passes.
However, this demographic change doesn't come without a cost. Broadly speaking, if it means more black or Hispanic households in formerly majority white neighborhoods, expect declining educational and socioeconomic outcomes. To suggest otherwise would be putting ideology over objective facts. By no means am I suggesting that every black or Hispanic individual or family moving into a neighborhood will cause decline, but it's indisputable at this point that these two groups, in large numbers, erode neighborhood quality of life indicators. It's not the PC answer of course, but it's the truth, and if you dispute it, I'd love to see evidence to the contrary.
Which is to say that generally speaking, an influx of Indian/East Asian households generally do not cause these sorts of issues.
Farmer1906 said:
To speak a little on the Woodlands since it's been brought up a few times. It was established in 1974. It's celebrating year 50. It kind of kills the OPs idea of "all" suburbs. Even if you say the Woodlands didn't really boom until the 90s, it's been 30 years and it's still extremely highly sought after. #1 city to buy a house, #2 city to raise a family, #3 city to live in, #6 city for public schools, #7 city to retire, etc per Niche. The average household income is 182k which is the top 15% in the US. Crime is still extremely low compared to the rest of Texas. Home values in the Woodlands still top other suburbs (looked at SL, Katy, Bridgeland, Seabrook, Pearland, Kingwood) by around 70-200k on avg. this past year. Seems pretty clear Woodlands has kind of been the exception to the rule unless demographics is your only indicator.
It's still too early to tell whether or not The Woodlands has long term staying power. The Woodlands High School is already 28% economically disadvantaged and about 27% of households are renters, according to Point2Homes. Median household income in The Woodlands has actually fallen in inflation adjusted terms since 2000, when it was $85k ($155k in 2024) according to Movoto, versus $130,000 today. And at 65%, The Woodlands' white population has decreased dramatically since 2000, when it was over 92% white. To me, these trends look eerily similar to Plano's trajectory 15 years ago. The continued desirability of the Woodlands hinges on whether or not residents resist more apartments and high density housing.
Sources:
https://www.movoto.com/guide/houston-tx/the-woodlands-tx-life-in-the-forest/https://www.point2homes.com/US/Neighborhood/TX/Montgomery-County/The-Woodlands-Demographics.htmlhttps://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Woodlands,_Texas#:~:text=In%202000%2C%20there%20were%2055%2C649,(346.6%2Fkm2).
