Demographic trends show the Cy-Fair population becoming more ethnically and socioeconomically diverse during the past decade. Although growth has happened across all income levels, the trend has yielded toward more people looking for affordable living, area Realtors say.
Developers have picked up on the trend, looking for ways to customize the home-building process to give buyers what they want and need for a cost within their price range. A comprehensive listing of available real estate compiled by Houston Area Realtors shows the Cy-Fair ISD area has significantly more homes for sale in the $100,000–$200,000 range when compared with Katy and Conroe ISDs. Around 43 percent of homes on the market in CFISD fall in this range, while Katy and Conroe areas have around 20 percent of houses for sale that fall within this price range.
Developers will often look to an area's school district for key factors related to an area's socioeconomic makeup, said Pat Guseman, demographer and president of Population and Survey Analysts, which studies demographic trends in Texas. This information is used to make decisions on what kinds of housing to build and how much.
"The two factors they find interesting are related to the area's schools: test scores and percentage of free/reduced lunch students," she said.
PASA makes demographic projections based on analyzing every subdivision and undeveloped parcel of land that is five acres or more in size, Guseman said. Residential growth in Cy-Fair is expected to continue very rapidly, with the area only becoming more diverse.
"Looking at the Katy and Cy-Fair area, we see they still have the farmlands and parcels that master-planned communities can evolve from very rapidly," Guseman said.
Development trends
With a wider array of people across the income spectrum looking for houses in Cy-Fair, one trend on the rise is the demand for custom-built homes, Terri Lyons, a Realtor with Keller Williams said. Custom homes are built to buyer specifications, as opposed to production homes, in which case a builder will construct the same model over and over, typically as a part of a large volume project.
"A lot of the production builders are doing more custom options in their homes," Lyons said. "Builders are starting to make it so even the regular production homes now have a custom feel while also making it affordable for the average buyer. Even five years ago you wouldn't find those options unless you were in a custom buildup."
More custom homes has also yielded more affordable options where you typically would not expect to see them, Trinity Signature Homes president Clay Hudson said. New homes being built on the lakefront within the master-planned community Cypress Creek Lakes typically target higher income levels, but a series of 60-foot lots will be available for $329,000–$340,000.
"Master-planned communities give [builders] the ability to have so many different price points," Hudson said. "They're finding ways to meet that demand for lakefront properties at a more realistic price for homebuyers."
Cy-Fair's home market has about 1.7 months of inventory, meaning all homes on the market would be sold out in that time. The market's ability to provide options to people across the income spectrum will fuel diversity moving forward, especially given the lack of inventory, Lyons said.
"It's a two-way street," she said. "The diversity led builders to build a wider array of homes, and the wider inventory is what fosters the further increase in diversity. The array of available options makes [the area] more attractive."
Education trends
The increasing economic and cultural diversity has also been seen at Cy-Fair ISD. The percentage of Anglo students dropped from 70 percent in 1994 to 28 percent in the 2014-15 school year. At the same time, the Hispanic student population has become the plurality, making up 43.5 percent of enrolled students.
The percentage of economically disadvantaged students has also increased from 24 percent in 2002 to 50 percent this year, creating additional challenges. The increase is happening as the overall median income in the greater Cy-Fair area is on the rise. District officials attribute this to the fact that lower income families are more likely to use the public school system. Programs are continuing to be developed to identify stuggling at-risk students and provide them with support, said Maria Trejo, who works with immigrant students as the director of curriculum and instruction for special populations.
"This is something that everyone at our district is attentive of," she said. "The ultimate goal is making sure these students graduate."
