With stronger reported job and income growth than any other county in the nation, Fort Bend County ranks #1 on the “Best Places to Get Ahead” list just published by Forbes.com.
Fort Bend County was the only county in Texas to be included on the list, which ranked the nation’s top 10 counties by job and income growth using the latest data from the U.S. Department of Labor and the U.S. Census Bureau.
Incomes in Fort Bend County grew 10% between 2007 and 2008, according to the research. “That's not a fluke based on a small contingent of wealthy residents,” the Forbes.com editors wrote. “The county has also added 5,913 new jobs since the second quarter of 2007, an increase of 5%.”
Describing the healthy economy of Fort Bend County, the editors continued:
“Like the rest of Texas, Fort Bend gets a healthy chunk of its revenue from the energy sector, but it also benefits from a diversity of industries – including education and hospitality – that has fueled several decades of rapid population growth. Several companies on Forbes' 400 Best Big Companies list are headquartered there, including Texas Instruments, Baker Hughes and Thermo Fisher.”
While the Forbes.com study did not consider housing in compiling its “Best Places to Get Ahead” list, residential construction has been another sector where Fort Bend County has outpaced the nation.
At Telfair, a 2,018-acre master-planned community in Fort Bend County, new-home sales increased 10% in 2009, with 449 sales last year – in a year when most of the nation’s markets saw steep declines in home sales. It was the best sales year at Telfair since the community opened in 2006, and the average new-home sales price in the community has also risen steadily, to $426,000 in 2009.
“The quality of life offered in Fort Bend’s master-planned communities, such as Telfair, works hand-in-hand with economic growth, helping companies attract and retain the best and brightest employees,” said Heather Gould, marketing director for Newland Communities, the developer of Telfair.
Gould said that Newland Communities has worked closely with the City of Sugar Land and the entire Fort Bend community to help increase the growth rate and the quality of life in the county.
“In 2009, we celebrated the opening of the Houston Museum of Natural Science at Sugar Land, culminating a public-private partnership that transformed the historic Central State Farm building at Telfair into a state-of-the-art museum benefitting the entire region,” she said.
Gould added that the annual TelfairLife Charity of Your Choice Walk raised over $100,000 for Fort Bend County non-profit groups in its first two years. The third annual walk, set for April 10, 2010, will benefit 14 county charities.