Austin, TX
Cities to watch in 2024: This Texas hub is attracting more homebuyers than Austin and Dallas with its affordability and jobs
Anna Lagos, 38, moved to Texas from California in 2014 with her husband and two children, joining her parents and most of her siblings who had already relocated to the state.
Lagos, a realtor, believed that Texas would offer her family a better chance at realizing the homeownership component of the often expensive American dream.
“The opportunities were much greater for us in Texas than they were in California,” Lagos told Business Insider. “We always wanted to own a home. It was pretty evident that we’d have to work for many years before we’d be able to purchase one in California.”
During the early years after their move, Lagos and her husband lived in San Antonio and Austin. However, in 2021, driven by a desire for greater affordability and to be even closer to her parents, who had already established themselves in New Braunfels, the couple moved to the small city in Central Texas.
Courtesy of Anna Lagos
Lagos, who bought a 2,700-square-foot home for $325,000 in New Braunfels, said she fell in love with its “small-town” charm.
“I wouldn’t say that it is a small town anymore, but somehow it still manages to retain the feeling of a small town,” she said, adding it’s one of those places ” you won’t find anywhere else.”
Over the past few years, hundreds of thousands of people have moved to the Lone Star state, drawn by its affordable housing, political environment, and abundant job opportunities. According to Census Bureau data, Texas welcomed 670,000 new residents between 2021 and 2022, ranking second to Florida.
While big cities like Austin, Dallas, and San Antonio have traditionally been real estate hotspots, recent Census estimates from 2020 to mid-2022 show that smaller places, such as New Braunfels and Katy, have experienced significant population growth, while their larger counterparts have seen minimal growth — or in some cases, population declines. It’s a trend that may persist as Americans continue to reassess notions of affordability and community.
BI interviewed homebuyers and real estate agents to explore the factors contributing to New Braunfels’ rising popularity. Residents said its rich German heritage, tight-knit community, rapidly expanding business sector, and affordable real estate market have made it an ideal place to raise a family and settle down.
One of the fastest-growing cities in America
New Braunfels has emerged as one of the fastest-growing cities in the US. Census data shows that its population has surged by over 15% since 2020. As of July 2022, the city’s population has reached 104,707.
Its growth is as remarkable as its origin story: Evolving from a humble settlement founded by a German prince to a thriving and rapidly expanding city.
In 1844, Prince Carl of Soms–Braunfels, a German prince and military officer, was appointed the commissioner of the Adelsverein, a group of aristocrats united with the singular aim of creating a “new Germany” on Texan soil.
Although New Germany was never realized, the colony succeeded, and to this day, New Braunfels retains much of its German heritage.
Erich Schlegel/Getty Images
The city, which is home to the famous Schlitterbahn Waterpark, hosts the annual Wurstfest celebration — a 10-day German cultural festival dedicated to sausages and Oktoberfest. Drawing hundreds of thousands of attendees from around the world, it has become an internationally famous event.
The city’s economy and job sector are booming
New Braunfels’ economy is growing rapidly alongside its population. A 2023 report from the New Braunfels Economic Development Foundation shows that the city’s gross regional product — a measure of an area’s economy — reached $2.8 billion in 2021, nearly double the amount from a decade earlier.
The EDC also reports that since 2003 the city has created 16,434 new jobs. In 2022, New Braunfels welcomed a $110 million automotive manufacturing plant by Continental, a tech company serving major car manufacturers like Volkswagen, Ford, Toyota, Porsche, which will create more than 500 new jobs. Additionally, business outsourcing company TaskUs increased its operations in the city, adding 750 new positions.
“When I was growing up here, you worked at the mill, or you worked for local government, and there were ancillary jobs to those, but there weren’t many opportunities for employment,” Mayor Neal Linnartz, told the San Antonio Express News in July. “Nowadays, there are so many opportunities that when kids get out of school, they don’t have to leave New Braunfels to find good employment. We have good jobs here.”
According to the Texas Economic Development Corporation, key industries in New Braunfels encompass financial services, information technology, aerospace, and aviation, as well as military and tourism.
The homes are attractive to homebuyers
According to software data company Payscale, the cost of living in New Braunfels is 15% below the national average. [is this for 2022?]
Easton Smith, the founder of the Emerald Haus Group with Keller Williams, moved from Oxnard, California, to New Braunfels in 2016. He told BI that the area’s affordability is really what’s winning people over.
“What I can speak of, on behalf of our clients and ourselves, is that the affordability here is greater,” he said. “What you’ll find is people want to come here and spend less and have more freedom.”
Regan Bender/Shutterstock
Take Janelle Crossan, a 44-year-old single mother who moved to New Braunfels in 2020 for a fresh start with her son.
Having faced financial challenges as a divorcée in Mesa, California, she sought an affordable place to buy a home and a stable environment for her family. After moving to the city, she purchased her first home for $240,000.
“I paid $1,750 for rent in a crappy little apartment in California,” Crossan told BI’sErin Snodgrass earlier this year. “Now, three years later, my whole payment, including mortgage and property taxes, is $1,800 a month for my three-bedroom house.”
The city is experiencing growing pains
Crossan told BI she’s been amazed by New Braunfels’ growth since moving there in 2020 but believes that the expansion has strained the local infrastructure.
“We have construction everywhere,” she said. “I really can’t complain because I’m one of the people who are helping the area grow bigger, but there’s so much traffic.”
Doney Cowey, a realtor with Keller Williams who moved to New Braunfels 32 years ago, told BI that the city’s growth is pushing some locals out.
“At the time I moved here, the town had a population of 19,000,” Cowey said. “The dynamics have changed now that we have at least 100,000 people in the surrounding area. We get people that are moving here because it’s a small town and we also have people moving away because it’s gotten too big.”
Lagos, who now runs a Facebook group for newcomers moving to New Braunfels said there has been some tension between locals and transplants.
“A lot of people, especially those that grew up here, feel like all the people coming in have ruined the small town that they were used to and have driven up prices,” she said. “A lot of them are priced out of their homes right now, unfortunately.”
Courtesy of Janelle Crossan
Despite the tension, Crossan remains optimistic about New Braunfels, emphasizing its safe and ideal place to live.
“It still has, I hate to say, but the American dream, in a timeframe when people feel like they can’t afford to buy houses and don’t have the same privileges of older generations,” she said. “This is an affordable, fun, cute, nice place to raise kids. I didn’t think that still existed anymore.”
AUSTIN, Texas – A Texas court has ordered that the domain name of a porn website be locked down after failing to comply with the state’s age-verification law.
What we know:
According to the Texas Attorney General’s Office, the state sued Kick Online Entertainment, the parent company of the site, in 2024 after it didn’t follow a law enacted in 2023. It requires that porn sites displayed in Texas institute age-verification measures to restrict minors’ access to sexually explicit material.
The company ignored the lawsuit and subsequent default judgment, according to officials.
A Travis County district court judge has since ordered the company that owns the domain registry for the site to lock it down until a $9.14 million bond and age-verification is implemented by Kick Online Entertainment.
What they’re saying:
“This court order establishes a huge precedent that websites can be stripped of their domain if they ignore the law and harm children with pornographic content,” said Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton. “This affirms that protecting children from pornographic content is not only about collecting a penalty but also shutting down websites that refuse to obey the law. My office will continue to take action against any website that harms kids by allowing them access to pornographic content.”
The backstory:
Texas’ age-verification law was challenged on free-speech grounds. It was upheld in June 2025 by the U.S. Supreme Court.
Some sites have opted to block access to computers in Texas rather than comply with the law.
The Source: Information in this story came from the Texas Attorney General’s Office and previous FOX Local reporting.
US-based robotics company Apptronik has opened a newly expanded robot training centre in Austin, Texas, and launched Apollo 2, its latest humanoid robot, as part of efforts to advance real-world robot deployment.
Developed in collaboration with Google DeepMind, the Austin facility provides space for large-scale data collection and training of humanoid robots. This development is part of Apptronik’s strategy to move robots beyond pilot projects and into commercial production.
Apollo 2, made public at the opening of the facility, is available in both bipedal and wheeled-base designs.
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According to Apptronik, this modularity enables data collection and training of robots in a range of environments, including logistics, manufacturing, and retail.
By deploying operational fleets of Apollo 2 robots at the Austin site and at customer and partner locations globally, the company is increasing the diversity and volume of data used to train robotics models.
The data collected is intended to support the advancement of Gemini Robotics, the foundational AI models for robotics being developed by Google DeepMind.
Through a mixture of teleoperation and autonomous operation, Apollo 2 robots gather data across customer sites, including at Apptronik’s research partner Google DeepMind, and at customers such as Mercedes-Benz and GXO.
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Apptronik CEO and co-founder Jeff Cardenas said: “What we’re building is a continuous learning loop with the Google DeepMind Robotics team: robots working, collecting data, and improving with every cycle, in real environments, on real tasks.
“Robot Park enables the data collection that is fuel for that, and Apollo 2 is the machine that makes it possible. That’s how you move from early prototypes to real, deployable humanoid robots.”
Apptronik’s approach combines teleoperation, autonomous execution, and high-fidelity physics simulations. This allows its robots to learn from varied experiences and adapt as advances are made in the field of embodied AI.
Apptronik chief commercial officer Barry Phillips said: “By developing Apollo as a modular platform, we’re able to deploy the same core humanoid technology across different configurations, including wheeled robots that align with current industrial safety standards, and bipedal robots for maximum adaptability.
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“This approach helps us build better robots for customers today while laying the groundwork for broad adoption of humanoid systems in the future.”
The company has stated that data and experience from Apollo 2 will inform the development of its next-generation humanoid robot, Apollo 3.
The Austin facility anchors a growing network of Apptronik Robot Parks at partner and customer sites worldwide, with plans for expansion into additional cities.
Earlier this year, Apptronik raised $520m in a Series A–X round, backed by existing investors such as B Capital, Google, Mercedes-Benz and PEAK6, alongside new participants including AT&T Ventures, John Deere and the Qatar Investment Authority (QIA). Prior to this, in March 2025, Apptronik completed its Series A funding round, securing $403m.
“Apptronik opens robot training hub in Austin, Texas and debuts Apollo 2” was originally created and published by Verdict, a GlobalData owned brand.
AUSTIN, Texas – Three fugitives who were on the Texas Department of Public Safety’s 10 Most Wanted Sex Offenders list were arrested in three separate operations throughout the state.
The arrests involve local agencies from Hidalgo, Plano and Houston, as well as state and federal law enforcement agencies, according to DPS officials.
3 Texas Most Wanted Sex Offenders Captured
Local perspective:
53-year-old Leroy Lewis Jr. was arrested June 22 at a residence in south Houston.
Leroy Lewis Jr. (Texas DPS)
DPS special agents assigned to the Texas Anti-Gang Center worked with the Harris County Sheriff’s Office, Houston Police Department and the Texas attorney general’s Fugitive Apprehension Unit to locate and arrest him.
Lewis had been wanted since March on a Harris County warrant charging him with failure to comply with sex offender registration requirements.
According to DPS, Lewis was convicted in the 1990s of murder, aggravated robbery and aggravated kidnapping. Authorities said the kidnapping involved a 20-year-old woman whom Lewis intended to sexually abuse. He was sentenced to 35 years in prison, paroled in 2012 and required to register as a sex offender.
Tip leads to capture of Plano fugitive
Dig deeper:
64-year-old Kenneth Wayne Patterson was arrested on June 24 at a Plano apartment complex after investigators followed up on a tip.
Kenneth Wayne Patterson (Texas DPS)
DPS special agents, Plano police officers and members of the U.S. Marshals North Texas Fugitive Task Force made the arrest. Patterson had been wanted since December 2025 on a Dallas County warrant alleging failure to comply with sex offender registration requirements.
Patterson was convicted in Dallas County in 1989 of sexually assaulting an 8-year-old girl and sentenced to eight years in prison, according to DPS. Authorities said he has a history of failing to comply with sex offender registration requirements.
Hidalgo border arrest
What’s next:
32-year-old Eduardo Quinones Fuentes was arrested on June 22 at the McAllen-Hidalgo International Bridge, after U.S. authorities took him into custody upon his return from Mexico.
Eduardo Quinones Fuentes (Texas DPS)
DPS identified Fuentes as a documented Tango Valluco gang member who had absconded to Mexico. Fuentes had been wanted since October 2025 on parole violation and obstruction warrants. A Hidalgo County warrant charging him with failure to comply with sex offender registration requirements was issued in November 2025.
Since 2016, Fuentes has been convicted of aggravated assault with a deadly weapon, sexual assault, assault, unlawful possession of a firearm by a felon and human smuggling, according to DPS.
Rewards and 2026 Arrest Stats
What they’re saying:
DPS said 44 fugitives on its 10 Most Wanted lists have been arrested so far this year, including 32 sex offenders and eight documented gang members. The agency said $61,500 in Crime Stoppers rewards has been paid in connection with those arrests.
Texas Crime Stoppers offers rewards for information leading to the arrest of fugitives on the state’s 10 Most Wanted lists.
The Source: Information in this article was provided by the Texas Department of Public Safety.
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