Texas City Property Management

The rich history of Texas City starts with an unlikely trio of three duck hunters. In 1891, three brothers from Duluth, Minnesota – Jacob, Henry, and Benjamin Myers – noticed that Shoal Point in Galveston Bay had the potential to be a major port city. And while Shoal Point had been around for more than 50 years, it wasn’t until after the Myers brothers returned to Duluth and convinced investors to purchase the 10,000 acres on Galveston Bay – including Shoal Point – that the area became known as Texas City.

In 1893, the investors started plotting land and filed an official town site plan. A post office was opened in the area and roughly 250 people moved to Texas City from Minnesota and Michigan. The Texas City Improvement Company – which was formed by the investors – also received permission from the Federal Government to dredge an eight-foot channel in the bay. This channel became the first commercially used channel in Texas City.

Soon after, a grid of streets, houses, and business buildings began to appear on the mainland. Texas City officially incorporated in 1911 and chose its first mayor, William P. Tarpey, later that year.

From a national perspective, Texas City played a strategic role as a military deployment site during the Mexican Revolution. While nothing ever came of it, nearly half of the country’s entire land military personnel were stationed there at some point while tensions threatened to spill over across the border.

In the 1920s, Texas City underwent a lot of growth and expansion. A sugar refinery, gasoline cracking plant, grain elevator, and fig processing plant, among other warehouses, farms, and refineries were attracted to the area.

One of the defining moments in Texas City history involved a great explosion that nearly destroyed the entire city on April 16, 1947. The explosion, which occurred when a ship loaded with ammonium nitrate fertilizer blew up, caused a chain reaction of fires and killed 576 people, while injuring more than 4,000 more. Over the last 60 years, Texas City has worked hard to recover from the disaster and is once again a thriving port city with a bright future.

Texas City is very much a blue-collar town with lots of money pouring out in the form of petroleum and chemicals. The Texas City Industrial Complex is the center of the petrochemical industry and contains the Galveston Bay Refinery, operated by Marathon. This is the second largest petroleum refinery in all of Texas, and the third largest in the United States.

The Port of Texas City is the third leading port in the state and ninth in the nation (by tonnage). And while city planners have tried to make Texas City area more balanced with focuses on tourism and economic diversification, it will always be a port city.

Naturally, the most common occupations for Texas City residents include construction and extraction jobs, production occupations, and sales positions. The five biggest employers in the Galveston and Bay-Area are The University of Texas Medical Branch Health System, NASA Johnson Space Center, Clear Lake Regional Medical Center, Marathon Petroleum Corporation, and Fertitta Entertainment.

One of the first things people want to know when moving to or visiting a new area is, what’s there to do? Well, you don’t have to look very hard to find something exciting to do in Texas City area. Here’s just a small sampling of attractions in the area:

• Texas City Prairie Preserve. This 2,300-acre nature preserve is located on the beautiful shores of Moses Lake. It contains a number of prairie and wetland habitats and offers many public access areas, campsites, and guided tours.
• Texas City Dike. One of Texas City’s landmarks is the Dike, which sticks out some 5.3 miles into the bay and offers world-class fishing, camping, and beach access.
• Texas City Museum. If you want to get an even better picture of what the history of Texas City looks like, check out the museum on 6th North. It’s open Tuesday through Saturday and has exhibits for the entire family to enjoy.

According to Neighborhood Scout, the median home value in Texas City is $118,728, while the average market rent is $1,021. Right around 57 percent of properties are owner occupied, while 42 percent are rented out. Most properties are single-family homes (68.8 percent), while 23.2 percent are classified as apartments.

According to the more than 300 homes listed on Realtor.com as of May 2017, the median listing price for homes in Texas City is $212,000. That equates to roughly $98 per square foot.