Exploring the Diverse Texas Landscape

Anyone who has ever driven across Texas can attest to its enormous size. The state that introduced the 10-gallon hat to American culture is the largest in area of the contiguous 48 states and second in size only to Alaska, with more than 260,000 square miles of Texas real estate. Texas measures nearly 800 miles from end to end both north-south and east-west. With about 24 million residents, the Lone Star State is also the second-largest state in population, trailing only California. Texas continues to grow by more than 500,000 people annually, supporting a constant demand for new homes.

The Four Major Regions of Texas Real Estate

Given its massive size, Texas is extrememly diverse in its geography and climate because many of the country’s major regions converge somewhere along the Texas landscape: the coastal prairies, the Mexican sub-tropics, the southeastern pinewoods, the central hardwoods, the Great Plains and the southwestern desert. These ecological regions of the state represent differences in soils, topography, geology, rainfall and plant and animal communities. The natural environment can also be classified by river basin, hydrologic sub-basins or vegetation systems.

To the non-scientist: Texas has nearly everything to offer geographically, from mountains (Guadalupe Peak in West Texas is 8,749 feet high) to long, sandy beaches (Padre Island runs some 130 miles along the Gulf Coast from Corpus Christi to South Padre Island) to wide-open spaces (the sprawling plains of central Texas and the Panhandle).

Texas is divided into 254 counties, but there are four major regions of the state:

• Coastal Plains/Gulf Plains
• Central Plains Region
• Great Plains Region
• Mountains and Basins Region

Each of these regions has distinct sub-regions — some scholars divide the state into seven regions and state environmentalists have designated 11 specific sub-regions.

But first let’s examine the four major regions of real estate in Texas and the characteristics that make each region attractive in its own way to people looking for homes for sale in Texas.

Gulf Coast (Coastal Plains/Gulf Plains)

Known as the Gulf Coast, this is the most populated region of Texas, including about one-third of the state’s real estate, running east of the Balcones Escarpment to the Gulf of Mexico. This region includes an area generally along the east Texas border to about 200 miles inland. Major cities include Austin, Houston, San Antonio, Beaumont, Corpus Christi, Brownsville, McAllen and Texarkana. Dallas is sometimes considered onthe edge of this region.

From the inland forests and rivers of the Piney Woods and Post Oak Belt sub-regions of northeast Texas east-central Texas along the Louisiana border that yield to Austin and Houston to the Blackland Prairie that stretches to San Antonio to the Gulf Coast and South Texas Plains that line the state coastline along the Gulf of Mexico from Beaumont in the north through Galveston and Corpus Christi to Brownsville at the southern tip of the state, the Texas Gulf Coast region is an extremely desirable place to live.

The moderate climate afforded by a location on or near the Gulf of Mexico has led to significant growth all along the Texas Gulf Coast and local home builders have responded with an array of new homes for sale in all the major markets in the region. Each of these cities have a distinct character — sort of their own interpretation of what it means to live in Texas.

Most people choose the Gulf Coast region for its beautiful weather. A location on the warm gulf waters assures warm to moderate weather yearround. Hot, damp and humid conditions and an occasional hurricane are generally accepted by Gulf Coast residents as the price they pay for living in such a temperate climate.

The discovery of oil in Texas turned the state’s fortunes in the early 1900s. The economic surge in the Sun Belt helped diversify and expand the state and regional economies a generation ago. In addition to the oil and gas industry, farming, ranching, ports, manufacturing, fishing and lumber and tree farms are important industries. Houston is now the fourth-largest city in the U.S., with more than 2 million residents and more than 5.5 million in its metropolitan area. The Texas Gulf Coast continues to grow and the selection of homes for sale in texas is growing with it.

Central Plains Region

Bordered by the Coastal Plains to the south and east and the Cap Rock Escarpment to the west, the wide, flat and rolling grassy Central Plains of Texas span the horizon. This is the Texas portrayed in countless Western films. Ranching, farming and mining are the principle industries across the Grand Prairie and the Lower Plains. Although the work remains hot and dirty, modern cowboys are aided by modern conveniences.

Dallas lies on the eastern edge of and serves as the gateway to the vast Central Plains region, which you have already entered by the time you travel 30 miles west to Fort Worth.  These vibrant cities are the largest in the region. Dallas is the ninth-largest city in the U.S., with more than 1.25 million people and Fort Worth is the 18th-largest city in the U.S. with about 650,000. Together they have 6 million residents in the metropolitan area.

Heading west, the population thins out, although there are three cities with more than 100,000 residents — all of them growing rapidly. Abilene is now home to more than 158,000, up from 116,000 in 2000, a 6 percent annual increase. Wichita Falls, with 145,000 residents, is up from 104,000 in 2000, a 6.5 percent increase. San Angelo has grown to more than 104,000 residents, at a 4.5 percent clip since 2000.

People work the land in these increasingly-higher elevations, where limestone is mined. Ranching and farming remain the primary industries, along with oil and gas and cedar trees.

Great Plains Region

The southernmost part of the Great Plains that encompass 10 states from Canada to Mexico east of the Rockies, the Texas Great Plains region runs generally from the top of the Texas Panhandle south while narrowing a bit on the way and widening a bit at the border.

The Great Plains include the High Plains, Edwards Plateau and Llano Basin sub-regions and are generally flat, with few trees. The air is dryer here, with rainfall less than half that of south Texas. Summers are hot, winters are cold and dust storms can occur. Deer and wild turkey roam the landscape. 

Ranching, farming and oil and gas mining are the main industries. Amarillo and Lubbock are major cities in the Panhandle, each with metropolitan areas of about 250,000 people. To the south, Midland and Odessa sit less than 30 miles apart and combined are home to about 250,000, with Odessa about 40 miles from the southeastern tip of New Mexico.

West Texas (Mountains and Basins Region)

Bordered on the east by the Pecos River, West Texas is characterized by mountains and basins, with more than 150 mountain peaks, hundreds of plateaus and basins and dinstinct desert area. The driest part of the state with an average rainfall of about eight inches (20 in the mountains), West Texas is the home of Big Bend National Park, on the border with Mexico.

Ranching and farming are major industries and oil and gas exploration and mining to a lesser degree.

El Paso, near the extreme western tip of Texas and very close to the borders of both New Mexico and Mexico, is the largest city within hundreds of miles in any direction. El Paso is home to 609,000 people, making it the 21st-largest city in the U.S. Ciudad Juarez, Mexico, just across the international border, has a population of 1.3 million.   

If you're new here, you may want to subscribe to our RSS feed.

You may also Subscribe to New Homes Real Estate Listings For Sale by Email Thanks for visiting!