Al Harvey lives in Dayton, 37 miles east of Houston. It’s a city with an exploding population. “Dayton is growing extremely rapidly,” he says, “probably faster than most long time residents would like.” When he moved to Dayton 20 years ago it was a city of 5,000 people. “When the latest subdivision on the south side of Dayton is complete, predictions are the population will reach 133,000 people.”
That subdivision, called RIVER RANCH, is quite large. “It’s projected to have 14 to 15 thousand single family homes in it. Dayton is no longer a small town. The long time residents of Dayton who value small town amenities are losing out because that small town charm is rapidly going by the wayside. Dayton is going to be a city. When you think about it, even if the population grows to 120,000 that’s larger than the population of Beaumont.”
RIVER RANCH is not the only subdivision being built. There are others. New shopping centers, grocery stores and all types of businesses needed in a medium sized city are going up.
Al says the growth is due to the latest loop around Houston: Highway 99, The Grand Parkway.
“It was like they took the vehicle that was full of fuel and put a super charger on it. The loop is getting us closer to Houston, but it’s also bringing Houston closer to us.”
Property values have increased in and around Dayton. So has traffic.
“Try driving down Highway 90 between Dayton and Houston from 4:30 to 6:30 in the afternoon. It’s non-stop traffic.”
Al bought 4 and half acres of land 15 years ago.
“We’re about 15 miles northeast of the city of Dayton, so we’re really out in the country. We just had our property appraised and in 15 years the equity has increased by nearly a quarter of a million dollars. We have a nice wooded lot and we can watch the wild rabbits play, the squirrels jump from tree to tree and we have an occasional deer come up to our property. It’s very quiet.”
Several years ago the city of Dayton made sure it had room to expand.
“All the major roads going out of Dayton have already been annexed. So has 500 feet of land on either side of them. So there’s a lot of geography that they can expand into. When you look at the city of Dayton on a map it looks like the legs of an octopus. If you want country living anywhere near the city of Dayton you won’t find it any more. Dayton is a bedroom community for Houston.”