Leveraging Home Inspection Reports in Quick Deals San Antonio, TX

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Leveraging Home Inspection Reports in Quick Deals San Antonio, TX

In the fast-paced world of real estate, time is of the essence, especially in vibrant markets like San Antonio, TX. One might not think (initially) that home inspection reports play a pivotal role in quick deals, but oh, they certainly do! Sellers might appreciate the certainty of a guaranteed closing cash buyer real estate investors Texas. Leveraging these reports can be the key to closing deals swiftly, without sacrificing due diligence or buyer confidence.




Leveraging Home Inspection Reports in Quick Deals San Antonio, TX - Investment

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Firstly, let's talk about what these reports actually are. A home inspection report provides a detailed assessment of a property's condition. They're not just about pointing out the flaws (although they certainly do that), but also about highlighting the strengths. It's not uncommon for buyers to feel overwhelmed when presented with a lengthy report filled with technical terms, but here's where the magic happens – a good real estate agent knows how to interpret these reports effectively.


In San Antonio, which is a bustling market, buyers and sellers often feel the pressure to act quickly. But hey, who doesn't want a quick deal, right? By leveraging home inspection reports properly, agents can present a clear picture to potential buyers, making it easier for them to decide without second-guessing. This doesn't mean glossing over issues, no way! Instead, it's about framing the information in a way that's honest yet optimistic.


Now, you might wonder, how does one leverage these reports? Well, for starters, agents should not shy away from discussing the negative aspects. A home with a leaky roof might sound like a deal-breaker, but when positioned correctly ("Imagine the possibilities with a brand new roof!"), it can actually be an opportunity for negotiation. On the flip side, highlighting well-maintained features can instill confidence, making the decision to buy much easier.


Moreover, transparency is crucial. Buyers are savvy, they know when they're being sold a bill of goods. By being upfront about a property's condition, including the not-so-great parts, buyers are less likely to walk away from a deal feeling duped.

Leveraging Home Inspection Reports in Quick Deals San Antonio, TX - Condominium

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This transparency builds trust, which is invaluable in any transaction.


Interestingly, the use of home inspection reports isn't just for buyers. Sellers can benefit too!

Leveraging Home Inspection Reports in Quick Deals San Antonio, TX - Investment

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By obtaining a pre-inspection report, sellers can address any potential issues beforehand, which might otherwise cause delays or even derail a deal. It's about being proactive rather than reactive.


Let's not forget the role of technology in all of this. In today's digital age, access to home inspection reports can be almost instantaneous. This immediacy allows for quicker decision-making, which is crucial in a hot market like San Antonio. Agents who embrace technology can facilitate faster deals by providing digital copies of reports, complete with annotations and highlights to draw attention to key points.


To wrap things up, leveraging home inspection reports in quick deals is all about balance. It's not about presenting a perfect picture, because let's face it, no home is without its quirks. Instead, it's about providing a comprehensive view that empowers buyers to make informed decisions quickly, without feeling rushed or pressured. In San Antonio, where the real estate scene is as dynamic as the city itself, mastering the art of the home inspection report can be what sets successful agents apart from the rest. So, if you're diving into this bustling market, remember: a well-leveraged inspection report is your best ally!

Cash House Buyer San Antonio

 

Lawn signs advertising houses for sale

Real estate agents and real estate brokers are people who represent sellers or buyers of real estate or real property. While a broker may work independently, an agent usually works under a licensed broker to represent clients.[1] Brokers and agents are licensed by the state to negotiate sales agreements and manage the documentation required for closing real estate transactions.

Categories of representation

[edit]

A real estate broker typically receives a real estate commission for successfully completing a sale. Across the U.S, this commission can generally range between 5-6% of the property's sale price for a full-service broker but this percentage varies by state and even region.[2]

Real estate licensing and education

[edit]

In most jurisdictions in the United States, a person must have a license to perform licensed activities, and these activities are defined within the statutes of each state. The main feature of the requirement for having a license to perform those activities is the work done "for compensation". Hence, hypothetically, if a person wants to help a friend out in either selling or buying a property, and no compensation of any kind is expected in return, then a license is not needed to perform all the work. However, since most people would expect to be compensated for their efforts and skills, a license would be required by law before a person may receive remuneration for services rendered as a real estate broker or agent. Unlicensed activity is illegal and the state real estate commission has the authority to fine people who are acting as real estate licensees, but buyers and sellers acting as principals in the sale or purchase of real estate are usually not required to be licensed. It is important to note that in some states, lawyers handle real estate sales for compensation without being licensed as brokers or agents. However, even lawyers can only perform real estate activities that are incidental to their original work as a lawyer. It cannot be the case that a lawyer can become a seller's selling agent if that is all the service that is being requested by the client. Lawyers would still need to be licensed as a broker if they wish to perform licensed activities. Nevertheless, lawyers do get a break in the minimum education requirements (for example, 90 hours in Illinois).[3]

Some other states have recently eliminated the salesperson's license, instead, all licensees in those states automatically earn their broker's license.

The term "agent" is not to be confused with salesperson or broker. An agent is simply a licensee that has entered into an agency relationship with a client. A broker can also be an agent for a client. It is commonly the firm that has the actual legal relationship with the client through one of their sales staff, be they salespersons or brokers.

In all states, the real estate licensee must disclose to prospective buyers and sellers the nature of their relationship [4]

Specific representation laws

[edit]

Some U.S. state real estate commissions – notably Florida's[5] after 1992 (and extended in 2003) and Colorado's[6] after 1994 (with changes in 2003) created the option of having no agency or fiduciary relationship between brokers and sellers or buyers.

As noted by the South Broward Board of Realtors, Inc. in a letter to State of Florida legislative committees:

"The Transaction Broker crafts a transaction by bringing a willing buyer and a willing seller together and provides the legal documentation of the details of the legal agreement between the same. The Transaction Broker is not a fiduciary of any party, but must abide by the law as well as professional and ethical standards." (such as NAR Code of Ethics).

The result was that, in 2003, Florida created a system where the default brokerage relationship had "all licensees ... operating as transaction brokers, unless a single agent or no brokerage relationship is established, in writing, with the customer"[7][8] and the statute required written disclosure of the transaction brokerage relationship to the buyer or seller customer only through July 1, 2008.

In the case of both Florida[8] and Colorado,[6] dual agency and sub-agency (where both listing and selling agents represent the seller) no longer exist.

Other brokers and agents may focus on representing buyers or tenants in a real estate transaction. However, licensing as a broker or salesperson authorizes the licensee to legally represent parties on either side of a transaction and providing the necessary documentation for the legal transfer of real property. This business decision is for the licensee to decide. They are fines for people acting as real estate agents when not licensed by the state.

In the United Kingdom, an estate agent is a person or business entity whose business is to market real estate on behalf of clients. There are significant differences between the actions, powers, obligations, and liabilities of brokers and estate agents in each country, as different countries take markedly different approaches to the marketing and selling of real property.

The difference between salespersons and brokers

[edit]

Before the Multiple Listing Service (MLS) was introduced in 1967, when brokers (and their licensees) only represented sellers by providing a service to provide legal documentation on the transfer real property, the term "real estate salesperson" may have been more appropriate than it is today, given the various ways that brokers and licensees now help buyers through the legal process of transferring real property. Legally, however, the term "salesperson" is still used in many states to describe a real estate licensee.[citation needed]

Real estate broker (or, in some states, qualifying broker)

[edit]

After gaining some years of experience in real estate sales, a salesperson may decide to become licensed as a real estate broker (or Principal/qualifying broker) in order to own, manage, or operate their own brokerage. In addition, some states allow college graduates to apply for a broker's license without years of experience. College graduates fall into this category once they have completed the state-required courses as well. California allows licensed attorneys to become brokers upon passing the broker exam without having to take the requisite courses required of an agent. Commonly more coursework and a broker's state exam on real estate law must be passed. Upon obtaining a broker's license, a real estate agent may continue to work for another broker in a similar capacity as before (often referred to as a broker associate or associate broker) or take charge of their own brokerage and hire other salespersons (or broker licensees). Becoming a branch office manager may or may not require a broker's license. Some states allow licensed attorneys to become real estate brokers without taking any exam. In some states, there are no "salespeople" as all licensees are brokers.[9]

Types of services that a broker can provide

[edit]

Real Estate Services are also called trading services [10]

Real estate brokers and sellers

[edit]

Flat-fee real estate agents

[edit]

Flat-fee real estate agents charge a seller of a property a flat fee, $500 for example,[11] as opposed to a traditional or full-service real estate agent who charges a percentage of the sale price. In exchange, the seller's property will appear in the multiple listing service (MLS), but the seller will represent him or herself when showing the property and negotiating a sales price.[11] The result is the seller pays less commission overall (roughly half) when the property sells.[11] This is because a seller will pay a percentage of the sales price to a buyer's agent but not have to pay a percentage to a seller's agent (because there isn't one; the seller is representing himself).

Brokerage commissions

[edit]

In consideration of the brokerage successfully finding a buyer for the property, a broker anticipates receiving a commission for the services the brokerage has provided. Usually, the payment of a commission to the brokerage is contingent upon finding a buyer for the real estate, the successful negotiation of a purchase contract between the buyer and seller, or the settlement of the transaction and the exchange of money between buyer and seller. Under common law, a real estate broker is eligible to receive their commission, regardless of whether the sale actually takes place, once they secure a buyer who is ready, willing, and able to purchase the dwelling.[12]

Economist Steven D. Levitt famously argued in his 2005 book Freakonomics that real estate brokers have an inherent conflict of interest with the sellers they represent because their commission gives them more motivation to sell quickly than to sell at a higher price. Levitt supported his argument with a study finding brokers tend to put their own houses on the market for longer and receive higher prices for them compared to when working for their clients. He concluded that broker commissions will reduce in future.[13] A 2008 study by other economists found that when comparing brokerage without listing services, brokerage significantly reduced the average sale price.[14]

RESPA

[edit]

Real estate brokers who work with lenders can not receive any compensation from the lender for referring a residential client to a specific lender. To do so would be a violation of a United States federal law known as the Real Estate Settlement Procedures Act (RESPA). RESPA ensures that buyers and sellers are given adequate notice of the Real Estate settlement process.[15]

Realtor

[edit]

In the United States, the term realtor is trademarked by the National Association of Realtors, which uses it to refer to its active members, who may be real estate agents or brokers.[16][17][18] In Canada, the trademark is used by members of the Canadian Real Estate Association.[19] Both organizations advise against the use of realtor as a generic synonym for real estate agent.[19]

Continuing education

[edit]

States issue licenses for an annual or multi-year period and require real estate agents and brokers to complete continuing education prior to renewing their licenses. For example, California licensees must complete 45 hours of continuing education every 4 years in topics such as agency, trust fund handling, consumer protection, fair housing, ethics, and risk management.[20]

Organizations

[edit]

Several notable groups exist to promote the real estate industry and to assist professionals.

  • The National Association of Realtors (NAR)
    • The Realtor Political Action Committee (RPAC) is the lobbying arm of the NAR.
  • The National Association of Real Estate Brokers (NAREB)
  • The Real Estate Institute of Canada (REIC)[21][22]
  • The Real Estate Roundtable[23]

Notable agents and brokers

[edit]
  • Alice Mason[24]

See also

[edit]
  • Buyer brokerage
  • Closing (real estate)
  • Estate (land)
  • Exclusive buyer agent
  • Flat-fee MLS
  • Home inspection
  • Index of real estate articles
  • Investment rating for real estate
  • Listing contract
  • Mortgage broker
  • Property manager
  • Real estate contract
  • Real estate development
  • Real estate investing
  • Real estate settlement company
  • Strata management

References

[edit]
  1. ^ "Real Estate Professionals Explained: Agent, Broker, REALTOR". Real Estate News and Advice | Realtor.com. 2014-03-10. Retrieved 2018-12-27.
  2. ^ "How Much Is Real Estate Agent Commission?". Bankrate. Retrieved 2018-12-20.
  3. ^ "FAQs". www.illinoisrealtors.org. Illinois Realtors. Retrieved August 16, 2018.
  4. ^ "Realtor Code of Ethics - Disclosure" (PDF). Real Estate Association Standards of Business Practice.
  5. ^ "Statutes & Constitution :View Statutes : Online Sunshine". Leg.state.fl.us. Retrieved 2014-02-10.
  6. ^ a b "Outline of types of representation available in Colorado, including Transaction Brokerage" (PDF). Dora.state.co.us. Retrieved 2014-02-10.
  7. ^ Evans, Blanche (2 July 2003). "Florida Implements Default Transactikn Brokerage Statute". realtytimes.com/. Realty Times. Retrieved 2 February 2014.
  8. ^ a b The 2007 Florida Statutes. Chapter 475 Real Estate Brokers — Part I; Real Estate Brokers, Sales Associates, and Schools (ss. 475.001-475.5018), Section 475.278 Authorized brokerage relationships; presumption of transaction brokerage; required disclosures (1) Brokerage Relationships: (a) Authorized brokerage relationships. — A real estate licensee in this state may enter into a brokerage relationship as either a transaction broker or as a single agent with potential buyers and sellers. A real estate licensee may not operate as a disclosed or non-disclosed dual agent ... (b)Presumption of transaction brokerage. — It shall be presumed that all licensees are operating as transaction brokers unless a single agent or no brokerage relationship is established, in writing, with a customer."
  9. ^ "Real Estate Broker's License: Examination and Licensing Application Requirements". New Mexico Administrative Code. State of New Mexico Commission of Public Records. 21 January 2021.
  10. ^ "Real Estate Laws Website". BC Real Estate Laws - Pat 1 Trading Services.
  11. ^ a b c Quigley, John M. (2000). "A Decent Home: Housing Policy in Perspective". Brookings-Wharton Papers on Urban Affairs. 2000 (1): 53–88. CiteSeerX 10.1.1.369.6806. doi:10.1353/urb.2000.0011. ISSN 1533-4449. S2CID 154714417.
  12. ^ "Getting a Brokerage Commission Paid | New York Law Journal".
  13. ^ Daniel Gross (20 February 2005). "Why a Real Estate Agent May Skip the Extra Mile". The New York Times. Archived from the original on 29 May 2015.
  14. ^ B. Douglas Bernheim; Jonathan Meer (13 January 2012). "Do Real Estate Brokers Add Value When Listing Services Are Unbundled?". The National Bureau of Economic Research. Working Paper Series. doi:10.3386/w13796. Retrieved 3 September 2016.
  15. ^ "CFPB consumer laws and regulations RESPA" (PDF). Consumer Financial Protection Bureau. Retrieved 13 October 2021.
  16. ^ Buch, Clarissa (20 April 2023). "What Is a Realtor? A Member of the National Association of Realtors". Realtor.com. National Association of Realtors. Retrieved 17 June 2023.
  17. ^ "Understanding the Difference Between a Realtor and a Real Estate Agent". The CE Shop. Retrieved 19 June 2023.
  18. ^ Colestock, Stephanie (August 13, 2021). "Realtor vs. real estate agent: What's the difference?". Fox Business. Retrieved 20 June 2023.
  19. ^ a b "Using the REALTOR® Trademark in Advertisements - CREA". 12 November 2020.
  20. ^ "Continuing Education Requirements". Ca.gov. California Department of Real Estate. Retrieved 26 June 2023.
  21. ^ "Professional Recognition of our Programs". Real Estate Division at Sauder, UBC. January 8, 2019.
  22. ^ "Real Estate Institute of Canada (REIC)". Thomson Reuters Canada Limited. Retrieved 8 January 2019.
  23. ^ "Lobbying Spending Database: National Assn of Realtors : 2007". Retrieved 2008-10-25.
  24. ^ Kodé, Anna (10 November 2024). "A Real Estate Queen and the Secret She Couldn't Keep Hidden". New York Times.
[edit]
  • Media related to Real estate agents at Wikimedia Commons

 

Banknotes and coins of various currencies

In economics, cash is money in the physical form of currency, such as banknotes and coins.

In bookkeeping and financial accounting, cash is current assets comprising currency or currency equivalents that can be accessed immediately or near-immediately (as in the case of money market accounts). Cash is seen either as a reserve for payments, in case of a structural or incidental negative cash flow or as a way to avoid a downturn on financial markets.

Etymology

[edit]

The English word cash originally meant 'money box', and later came to have a secondary meaning 'money'. This secondary usage became the sole meaning in the 18th century. The word cash comes from the Middle French caisse 'money box', which comes from the Old Italian cassa, and ultimately from the Latin capsa 'box'.[1][2]

History

[edit]

In Western Europe, after the fall of the Western Roman Empire, coins, silver jewelry and hacksilver (silver objects hacked into pieces) were for centuries the only form of money, until Venetian merchants started using silver bars for large transactions in the early Middle Ages. In a separate development, Venetian merchants started using paper bills, instructing their banker to make payments. Similar marked silver bars were in use in lands where the Venetian merchants had established representative offices. The Byzantine Empire and several states in the Balkan area and Kievan Rus also used marked silver bars for large payments. As the world economy developed and silver supplies increased, in particular after the colonization of South America, coins became larger and a standard coin for international payment developed from the 15th century: the Spanish and Spanish colonial coin of 8 reales. Its counterpart in gold was the Venetian ducat.

Coin types would compete for markets. By conquering foreign markets, the issuing rulers would enjoy extra income from seigniorage (the difference between the value of the coin and the value of the metal the coin was made of). Successful coin types of high nobility would be copied by lower nobility for seigniorage. Imitations were usually of a lower weight, undermining the popularity of the original. As feudal states coalesced into kingdoms, imitation of silver types abated, but gold coins, in particular, the gold ducat and the gold florin were still issued as trade coins: coins without a fixed value, going by weight. Colonial powers also sought to take away market share from Spain by issuing trade coin equivalents of silver Spanish coins, without much success.

In the early part of the 17th century, English East India Company coins were minted in England and shipped to the East. In England, over time the word cash was adopted from Sanskrit कर्ष karsa,[dubious – discuss] a weight of gold or silver but akin to the Old Persian 𐎣𐎼𐏁 karsha, unit of weight (83.30 grams). East India Company coinage had both Urdu and English writing on it, to facilitate its use within the trade. In 1671, the directors of the East India Company ordered a mint to be established at Bombay, known as Bombaim. In 1677 this was sanctioned by the Crown, the coins, having received royal sanction, were struck as silver rupees; the inscription runs "The rupee of Bombaim", by the authority of Charles II.

Around that time, coins were also being produced for the East India Company at the Madras mint. The Tamil the word for money is kaasu,[3] which may have been modified into 'cash'. Both words, 'kaasu' and 'cash', have the same meaning, unlike money box. The currency at the company's Bombay and Bengal administrative regions was the rupee. At Madras, however, the company's accounts were reckoned in pagodas, fractions, fanams, faluce and cash. This system was maintained until 1818 when the rupee was adopted as the unit of currency for the company's operations.

Traditional holed Chinese coinage is also known as cash.

Paper money was first used in China during the Tang dynasty 500 years prior to it catching on in Europe.[4] During his visit to China in the 13th century, Marco Polo was amazed to find that people traded paper money for goods rather than valuable coins made of silver or gold. He wrote extensively about how the Great Kaan used a part of the Mulberry Tree to create the paper money as well as the process with which a seal was used to impress on the paper to authenticate it. Marco Polo also talks about the chance of forgery and states that someone caught forging money would be punished with death.[5] In the 17th century, European countries started to use paper money in part due to a shortage of precious metals, leading to fewer coins being produced and put into circulation.[6] At first, it was most popular in the colonies of European powers. In the 18th century, important paper issues were made in colonies such as Ceylon and the bordering colonies of Essequibo, Demerara and Berbice. John Law did pioneering work on banknotes with the Banque Royale. The relation between money supply and inflation was still imperfectly understood and the bank went under rendering its notes worthless, because they had been over-issued. The lessons learned were applied to the Bank of England, which played a crucial role in financing the Peninsular War against French troops, hamstrung by a metallic Franc de Germinal.

The ability to create paper money made nation-states responsible for the management of inflation, through control of the money supply. It also made a direct relation between the metal of the coin and its denomination superfluous. From 1816, coins generally became token money, though some large silver and gold coins remained standard coins until 1927.[citation needed] The World War I saw standard coins disappear to a very large extent. Afterward, standard gold coins, mainly British sovereigns, would still be used in colonies and less developed economies and silver Maria Theresa thalers dated 1780 would be struck as trade coins for countries in East Asia until 1946 and possibly later locally.

Cash has now become a very small part of the money supply. Its remaining role is to provide a form of currency storage and payment for those who do not wish to take part in other systems, and make small payments conveniently and promptly, though this latter role is being replaced more and more frequently by electronic payment systems. Research has found that the demand for cash decreases as debit card usage increases because merchants need to make less change for customer purchases.[7]

Cash is increasing in circulation. The amount of the United States dollar in circulation increased by 42% from 2007 to 2012.[8] The amount of pound sterling banknotes in circulation increased by 29% from 2008 to 2013.[9] The amount of euro in circulation increased by 34% from August 2008 to August 2013 (2% of the increase was due to the adoption of euro in Slovakia 2009 and in Estonia 2011).[10]

Motives of cash holding

[edit]

In economic theory (according Keynesian economics), the cash holding of cash (especially sight deposits) is roughly attributed to three motives:[11]

  • Transactions motive
  • Precautionary motive
  • Speculative motive.

The transactions motive covers the business needs of economic subjects, the precautionary motive serves to hold money for liquidity purposes and to provide for crisis situations,[12] and the speculation motive, according to John Maynard Keynes, results from the uncertainty about future interest rate developments and relates to financial investments.

In addition to this purely economic importance, there are other aspects of cash use:[13][14][15]

  • Anonymous payment without disclosing personal data
  • Trust to the central bank (control and publication of money creation)
  • Activation of a reward center in the brain (anticipation of reaching a specific goal)
  • Expenditure control (immediate physical payment)
  • Tradition (haptic experience, e.g. monetary donation; long-term reliability of value retention)
  • Inclusion (equal participation in economic life for all)
  • Identification (symbolic character, solidarity and group membership)
  • Educational tool for children (objective handling of assets and expenses)
  • Paying a tip as immediate recognition of good service.

In practice, there may be a combination of such motives, with the precautionary motive of preserving value and anonymous payment being decisive. Due to its unique characteristics, there is no perfect substitute for cash. Demonetisation or capital control can destabilize the economy if electronic means of payment are not readily available (e.g. 2016 Indian banknote demonetisation).[15]

Cash in circulation

[edit]

Cash in circulation is characterized by strong seasonal fluctuations. Wage and salary payment dates, tax payment dates or holidays lead to statistically perceptible increases in cash in circulation, for which the credit institutions are preparing. Since cash holdings at banks do not earn interest and can also lead to security problems (bank robbery), banks usually only hold very small amounts of cash. They are therefore forced to involve the central bank in times of higher cash requirements. Therefore, the cash in circulation only remains unchanged if the banks hand over cash from their own cash holdings to their bank customers or take cash deposits from their customers into their own holdings.

The ratio of the cash in circulation in relation to the gross domestic product (cash to GDP ratio) is a good indicator of cash usage and payment behavior in an economy. In countries like the United States, increased use of debit and credit cards is increasing the amount of cash in circulation at a slower rate than in countries with a high amount of cash payments. In 2018, it ranged from 1.3% (in Sweden) to more than 21% (in Japan), 10.5% in Switzerland and 10.7% in the eurozone.[16]

Since around 2018, exacerbated by the COVID-19 pandemic, cash in circulation in the eurozone has increased significantly while the share of cash payments (i.e. transactions) has decreased, known as the paradox of banknotes. Analyzes show that private households are increasingly keeping cash as a precaution against crises and that negative interest rates also play a role.[17] This effect is also observed in many other currency areas, e.g. in the United States and Japan.[18]

Banknote tracking

[edit]

In most jurisdictions, banknotes are not routinely tracked by serial number. There are the following exceptions in cash applications:

  • Registration of ransom money for blackmail (e.g. for the Oetker kidnapping[19])
  • Macroeconomic studies of cash flows through the central bank[20]
  • Statistical recording of the lifespan of banknotes by the central bank[21]
  • Tracking the (location-based) migration of individual banknotes using EuroBillTracker for euro banknotes, Where's George? for US dollars and Where's Willy? for Canadian dollars as a hobby
  • Use of individual banknotes for sharing messages with recipients using the mobile app smill.[22]

Since 2016, the People's Bank of China has requested the recording of banknotes issued and deposited at ATMs and bank counters, arguing that counterfeit money will be prosecuted.[23]

With Directive ECB/2010/14, the European Central Bank (ECB) requires banks to check the authenticity of deposited and withdrawn banknotes at bank counters and ATMs using tested devices. They are required to trace the origin of suspected counterfeit banknotes to the depositing account holder. They must also physically seize any counterfeit notes and coins.[24]

Competition of cash

[edit]

Cashless payments

[edit]
Credit cards are used for cashless payments. With a credit card, the credit card company grants a line of credit to the card holder. The card holder can make purchases from merchants, and borrow the money for these purchases from the credit card company.

Cashless society can be defined as one in which all financial transactions are handled through "digital" forms (debit and credit cards) in preference to cash (physical banknotes and coins). Cashless societies have been a part of history from the very beginning of human existence. Barter and other methods of exchange were used to conduct a wide variety of trade transactions during this time period.[25]

Since the 1980s, the use of banknotes has increasingly been displaced by credit and debit cards, electronic money transfers and mobile payments, but much slower than expected. The cashless society has been predicted for more than forty years,[26] but cash remains the most widely used payment instrument in the world and on all continents.[27]: 14  In 17 out of 24 studied countries, cash represents more than 50% of all payment transactions, with Austria at 85%, Germany at 80%, France at 68%. The United Kingdom at 42%, Australia at 37%, United States at 32%, Sweden at 20%, and South Korea at 14% are among the countries with lower cash usage.[27]: 27 

By the 2010s, cash was no longer the preferred method of payment in the United States.[28] In 2016, the United States User Consumer Survey Study reported that three out of four of the participants preferred a debit or credit card payment instead of cash.[29] Some nations have contributed to this trend, by regulating what type of transactions can be conducted with cash and setting limits on the amount of cash that can be used in a single transaction.[30]

Cash is still the primary means of payment (and store of value) for unbanked people with a low income and helps avoiding debt traps due to uncontrolled spending of money. It supports anonymity and avoids tracking for economic or political reasons.[31] In addition, cash is the only means for contingency planning in order to mitigate risks in case of natural disasters or failures of the technical infrastructure like a large-scale power blackout or shutdown of the communication network.[32] Therefore, central banks and governments are increasingly driving the sufficient availability of cash. The US Federal Reserve has provided guidelines for the continuity of cash services,[33] and the Swedish government is concerned about the consequences in abandoning cash and is considering to pass a law requiring all banks to handle cash.[34]

Digital and virtual currencies

[edit]

Digital currency is a generic term for various approaches to support secure transactions of the public or using a distributed ledger, like blockchain, as a new technology for decentralized asset management. The blockchain 1.0 era has enabled the application of virtual digital currencies in the marketplace, such as money transfer and payment systems.[35] It considers establishing an electronic version of the national currency which is backed by the central bank as the issuer. Virtual currency is a digital representation of value that is neither issued by a central bank or a public authority, such as Bitcoin.[36] Facebook's concept for the diem is based on a token to be backed by financial assets such as a basket of national currencies.

In 2012, Bank of Canada was considering introducing digital currency.[37][38] Meanwhile, it rates digital currency a fairly complicated decision and is analyzing the pros and cons and working to determine under which conditions it may make sense to, one day, issue a digital currency. As a threat, a central bank digital currency could increase the risk of a run on the banking system.[39]

Also in 2012, Sveriges Riksbank, the central bank of Sweden, was reported to analyze technological advances with regard to electronic money and payment methods for digital currency as an alternative to cash.[40] In 2019, it is investigating whether Swedish krona need to be made available in electronic form, the so-called e-krona, and if so, how it would affect Swedish legislation and the Riksbank's task. It has started procuring a technical supplier to develop and test solutions for a potential future e-krona. No decisions have yet been taken on issuing an e-krona.[41]

Costs of payment

[edit]

An analysis by the Deutsche Bundesbank in 2017 found that a cash payment in retail costs an average of 24 euro cents, while payments with a girocard cost 30 cents (or often 0.3 to 0.4% of sales plus a transaction fee) and with a credit card charge one euro which is included in the sales price.[42] This is why retailers often refuse to accept card payments below a minimum amount. Depending on the account model, there are also booking costs for the account holder with an average of 35 euro cents charged for each(!) account posting. Because of this convenient source of income, commercial banks and credit card companies favor cashless payments.

In the case of cashless payment transactions, in addition to the documentation of the payment itself, the personal details of the payer are usually linked to the data of the payee according to the Know Your Customer (KYC) principle. This enables the payment process to be precisely traced for the payer and the payee. The constant increase in digitization leads to a more detailed recording of cashless payment transactions and their evaluation for advertising and marketing campaigns. Since this digital documentation is usually more centralized than before, the potential for abuse increases. On the other hand, the cash transactions are anonymous, unless purchasing profiles are recorded with the help of loyalty programs based on customer cards, and keep the payment landscape competitive.[43]

Cash in constitutions

[edit]

Austria

[edit]

In August 2023, Chancellor of Austria Karl Nehammer came out in support for enshrining cash in the Austrian constitution. This came after the Freedom Party of Austria campaigned on the idea.[44]

Switzerland

[edit]

In 2023, The Swiss government supported moves to have a constitutional protection for cash. This came after a popular initiative asked for it.[45]

Slovakia

[edit]

In June 2023, the Slovakian parliament voted with the support of 111 of 150 MPs to put the right to use cash in the Constitution of Slovakia. The amendment was proposed by the Sme Rodina party.[46]

See also

[edit]
  • Automated teller machine – Electronic telecommunications device to perform financial transactions
  • Banknote counter – Machine that counts money
  • Banknote processing – Automated process to check banknotes
  • Banknote seal (China) – Historical anti-counterfeiting measure
  • Cash and cash equivalents – Highly liquid, short-term assets
  • Cashback (disambiguation)
  • Cash management – Measures of managing short-term cash in the company
    • Cashflow – Movement of money into or out of a business, project, or financial product
  • Cash register – Device to register and calculate retail sales
  • Cash transfers – Direct transfer payment of money to an eligible person
  • Currency symbol – Symbol used to represent a monetary currency's name
  • Inflation – Devaluation of currency over a period of time
  • Inflation hedge – Investment intended to protect an investor against inflation or hedge
  • Money creation – Process by which the money supply of an economic region is increased
  • Petty cash – Funds in the form of cash
  • Rebate (marketing) – Buying discount scheme

References

[edit]
  1. ^ "Cash". Merriam-Webster. Retrieved 2017-08-20.
  2. ^ "Cash". Online Etymology Dictionary. Retrieved 2017-08-20.
  3. ^ "kācu". Retrieved 2023-05-08.
  4. ^ "Top 10 Things You Didn't Know About Money". Time. 2009-08-05. ISSN 0040-781X. Retrieved 2019-10-06.
  5. ^ "The Cantos Project – Marco Polo: Kublai's paper money". thecantosproject.ed.ac.uk. Retrieved 2019-12-07.
  6. ^ "A history of the Franc: the key moments". napoleon.org. Retrieved 2019-10-06.
  7. ^ "Federal Reserve Bank of Chicago, Debit Card and Cash Usage: A Cross-Country Analysis, March 2007" (PDF). Retrieved 15 November 2013.
  8. ^ Williams, John. "Cash Is Dead! Long Live Cash!". Federal Reserve Bank of San Francisco.
  9. ^ "Banknote Statistics". Bank of England. Archived from the original on 2017-11-16. Retrieved 2013-10-17.
  10. ^ "Banknotes and coins circulation". European Central Bank. 29 January 2021.
  11. ^ Keynes, John Maynard (1936). The General Theory of Employment, Interest and Money. Palgrave Macmillan. ISBN 978-0-230-00476-4.
  12. ^ Rösl, Gerhard; Seitz, Franz (2022-04-08). "Cash demand in times of crisis. In: Journal of Payments Strategy & Systems" (PDF). Journal of Payments Strategy & Systems. 16 (2): 107–119. Retrieved 2024-01-19.
  13. ^ Pitters, Julia (2022). Beermann, Johannes (ed.). In dubio pro Euroschein: Über den psychologischen Wert des Bargelds [In dubio pro euro bill: On the psychological value of cash.]. 20 Jahre Euro. Zur Zukunft unseres Geldes (in German). Munich: Siedler. pp. 498–510. ISBN 978-3-8275-0165-3.
  14. ^ Lea, Stephen; Webley, Paul (2006). "Money as tool, money as drug: The biological psychology of a strong incentive". Behavioral and Brain Sciences. 29 (2). Cambridge University Press: 161–176. doi:10.1017/S0140525X06009046. hdl:10036/34794. PMID 16606498. S2CID 2353982.
  15. ^ a b Rösl, Gerhard; Seitz, Franz (2022-06-01). "On the Stabilizing Role of Cash for Societies" (PDF). econstor. Retrieved 2024-01-19.
  16. ^ "Anteil des sich im Umlauf befindlichen Bargeldes ausgewählter Währungen am Bruttoinlandsprodukts (BIP) des jeweiligen Währungsgebiets im Jahr 2018" [Cash-to-GDP ratio of selected currencies in 2018] (in German). 2022-01-20. Retrieved 2022-12-12.
  17. ^ Zamora-Pérez, Alejandro (2021-04-01). "The paradox of banknotes: understanding the demand for cash beyond transactional use". European Central Bank. Retrieved 2022-12-12.
  18. ^ Yoshizawa, Kento (2021-12-01). "Developments in Banknotes in Circulation since the Start of the Pandemic" (PDF). Bank of Japan. Retrieved 2022-12-12. Reasons for the paradox observed globally before the pandemic were that while transaction demand for banknotes has been negatively affected by the increase in cashless payments, non-transaction demand for banknotes has increased reflecting low interest rates and precautionary demand.
  19. ^ Götz, Hans-Dieter (2017-07-03). "Lösegeld: Versteck gefunden" [Ransom money: Hiding place identified]. FOCUS (in German).
  20. ^ Deinhammer, Reinhard; Ladi, Anna (2017-12-01). "Modelling euro banknote quality in circulation" (PDF). European Central Bank. Retrieved 2023-01-13.
  21. ^ Leszczyszyn, Antin; Grindley, Rebecca (2018-05-14). "White Paper: What can be gained with Serial Number Reading?". Retrieved 2023-01-13.
  22. ^ "Share digital messages on your banknote". Koenig & Bauer. Retrieved 2023-01-13.
  23. ^ "Yinfa No. 29 [2016], Notice of the People's Bank of China on Issuing the Guidelines on the Anti-Counterfeit Currency Work of Banking Financial Institutions". 2016-02-08. Retrieved 2023-01-13.
  24. ^ "Decision of The European Central Bank of 16 September 2010 on the authenticity and fitness checking and recirculation of euro banknotes". European Central Bank. 2010-09-16. Retrieved 2023-01-13.
  25. ^ "Cost of Cash in the United States". MasterCard Social Newsroom. Archived from the original on 2021-08-06. Retrieved 2019-12-05.
  26. ^ "Myth: The Cashless Society is Just Around the Corner". Currency Research. Archived from the original on 2019-07-11. Retrieved 2019-07-11.
  27. ^ a b "World Cash Report 2018" (PDF). G4S Cash Solutions, Payments Advisory Group. 2018-07-01. Retrieved 2019-07-11.
  28. ^ Tompor, Susan. "A cashless society? Some retailers turn noses up at currency". USA TODAY. Retrieved 2019-12-05.
  29. ^ Count-Money (2016). "2016 U.S. Consumer Payment Study". count-money.com.
  30. ^ "cashappguide". 2017-12-14. Archived from the original on 2020-10-27. Retrieved 2019-12-05.
  31. ^ O'Sullivan, Andrea (2019-07-02). "Hong Kong Protests Show Dangers of a Cashless Society". Retrieved 2019-07-11. Many digital payments can be tracked, potentially assisting an authoritarian crackdown.
  32. ^ "Swish crashes during popular football event in Skövde, Sweden". Cash Matters.
  33. ^ "FedCash Services Business Continuity Guide". The Federal Reserve. Retrieved 2019-07-11.
  34. ^ "Swedish government expected to pass law requiring all banks to handle cash". Cash Matters. 2019-04-18. Retrieved 2019-07-11. If the power supply is cut it is no longer possible to make electronic payments. For reasons based purely in preparedness, we need notes and coins that work without electricity.
  35. ^ Pan, Xiongfeng; Pan, Xianyou; Song, Malin; Ai, Bowei; Ming, Yang (2020-06-01). "Blockchain technology and enterprise operational capabilities: An empirical test". International Journal of Information Management. 52: 101946. doi:10.1016/j.ijinfomgt.2019.05.002. ISSN 0268-4012. S2CID 182010891.
  36. ^ "EBA Opinion on 'virtual currencies'" (PDF). European Banking Authority. 4 July 2014. Retrieved 11 July 2019.
  37. ^ Strange, Adario (13 April 2012). "Canada Asks Developers to Create Digital Currency". PC Magazine.
  38. ^ Randy Boswell (6 April 2012). "Canada unveils digital currency". The Gazette. Archived from the original on 10 April 2012.
  39. ^ "The Road to Digital Money. From beaver pelts to paper money to digital currencies". Bank of Canada. 1 April 2019. Retrieved 11 July 2019.
  40. ^ Malin Rising (17 March 2012). "In Sweden, cash is king no more – Yahoo! News". News.yahoo.com. Retrieved 15 August 2012.
  41. ^ "E-krona". Sveriges Riksbank. 19 June 2019. Retrieved 11 July 2019.
  42. ^ Beermann, Johannes (2022). Der Weg des Geldes: Grundlagen, Entwicklungen und Perspektiven des Bargeldes in Deutschland [The path of money: Basics, developments and perspectives of cash in Germany]. 20 Jahre Euro. Zur Zukunft unseres Geldes (in German). Munich: Siedler. pp. 179–206. ISBN 978-3-8275-0165-3.
  43. ^ "Why Cash Matters". 2022-02-09. Retrieved 2022-12-12.
  44. ^ "Austrian chancellor: Right to use cash should be in constitution". 4 August 2023.
  45. ^ "Swiss government proposes constitutional protection for cash". 30 August 2023.
  46. ^ Zmušková, Barbara (June 19, 2023). "Slovakia adds right to cash payments in constitution over digital euro fears". EURACTIV.sk.

Further reading

[edit]
  • Davies, G. (1994). A History of Money From Ancient Times to the Present Day. Cardiff: University of Wales Press. ISBN 9780708313510.
  • Spufford, P. (2008). How Rarely Did Medieval Merchants Use Coin?. Utrecht: Stichting Nederlandse Penningkabinetten. ISBN 9789073882218.

 

Buildings of shops, hotels, and residences are prevalent forms of property

Property is a system of rights that gives people legal control of valuable things,[1] and also refers to the valuable things themselves. Depending on the nature of the property, an owner of property may have the right to consume, alter, share, rent, sell, exchange, transfer, give away, or destroy it, or to exclude others from doing these things,[2] as well as to perhaps abandon it; whereas regardless of the nature of the property, the owner thereof has the right to properly use it under the granted property rights.

In economics and political economy, there are three broad forms of property: private property, public property, and collective property (or cooperative property).[3] Property may be jointly owned by more than one party equally or unequally, or according to simple or complex agreements; to distinguish ownership and easement from rent, there is an expectation that each party's will with regard to the property be clearly defined and unconditional.[citation needed]. The parties may expect their wills to be unanimous, or alternatively each may expect their own will to be sufficient when no opportunity for dispute exists. The first Restatement defines property as anything, tangible or intangible, whereby a legal relationship between persons and the State enforces a possessory interest or legal title in that thing. This mediating relationship between individual, property, and State is called a property regime.[4]

In sociology and anthropology, property is often defined as a relationship between two or more individuals and an object, in which at least one of these individuals holds a bundle of rights over the object. The distinction between collective and private property is regarded as confusion, since different individuals often hold differing rights over a single object.[5][6]

Types of property include real property (the combination of land and any improvements to or on the ground), personal property (physical possessions belonging to a person), private property (property owned by legal persons, business entities or individual natural persons), public property (State-owned or publicly owned and available possessions) and intellectual property—including exclusive rights over artistic creations and inventions. However, the latter is not always widely recognized or enforced. An article of property may have physical and incorporeal parts. A title, or a right of ownership, establishes the relation between the property and other persons, assuring the owner the right to dispose of the property as the owner sees fit.[citation needed] The unqualified term "property" is often used to refer specifically to real property.

Overview

[edit]

Property is often defined by the code of the local sovereignty and protected wholly or - more usually, partially - by such entity, the owner being responsible for any remainder of protection. The standards of the proof concerning proofs of ownerships are also addressed by the code of the local sovereignty, and such entity plays a role accordingly, typically somewhat managerial. Some philosophers[who?] assert that property rights arise from social convention, while others find justifications for them in morality or in natural law.[citation needed]

Various scholarly disciplines (such as law, economics, anthropology or sociology) may treat the concept more systematically, but definitions vary, most particularly when involving contracts. Positive law defines such rights, and the judiciary can adjudicate and enforce property rights.

According to Adam Smith (1723–1790), the expectation of profit from "improving one's stock of capital" rests on private-property rights.[7] Capitalism has as a central assumption that property rights encourage their holders to develop the property, generate wealth, and efficiently allocate resources based on the operation of markets. From this has evolved the modern conception of property as a right enforced by positive law, in the expectation that this will produce more wealth and better standards of living. However, Smith also expressed a very critical view of the effects of property laws on inequality:[8]

Wherever there is a great property, there is great inequality … Civil government, so far as it is instituted for the security of property, is in reality instituted for the defense of the rich against the poor, or of those who have some property against those who have none at all.

In his 1881 text "The Common Law", Oliver Wendell Holmes describes property as having two fundamental aspects.[citation needed] The first, possession, can be defined as control over a resource based on the practical inability to contradict the ends of the possessor. The second title is the expectation that others will recognize rights to control resources, even when not in possession. He elaborates on the differences between these two concepts and proposes a history of how they came to be attached to persons, as opposed to families or entities such as the church.

  • Classical liberalism subscribes to the labor theory of property. Its proponents hold that individuals each own their own life; it follows that one must acknowledge the products of that life and that those products can be traded in free exchange with others.
"Every man has a property in his person. This nobody has a right to, but himself." (John Locke, "Second Treatise on Civil Government", 1689)
"The reason why men enter into society is the preservation of their property." (John Locke, "Second Treatise on Civil Government", 1689)
"Life, liberty, and property do not exist because men have made laws. On the contrary, it was the fact that life, liberty, and property existed beforehand that caused men to make laws in the first place." (Frédéric Bastiat, The Law, 1850)
  • Conservatism subscribes to the concept that freedom and property are closely linked - building on traditions of thought that property guarantees freedom[9] or causes freedom.[10] The more widespread the possession of the private property, conservatism propounds, the more stable and productive a state or nation is. Conservatives maintain that the economic leveling of property, especially of the forced kind, is not economic progress.
"Separate property from private possession and Leviathan becomes master of all... Upon the foundation of private property, great civilizations are built. The conservative acknowledges that the possession of property fixes certain duties upon the possessor; he accepts those moral and legal obligations cheerfully." (Russell Kirk, The Politics of Prudence, 1993)
  • Socialism's fundamental principles center on a critique of this concept, stating (among other things) that the cost of defending property exceeds the returns from private property ownership and that, even when property rights encourage their holders to develop their property or generate wealth, they do so only for their benefit, which may not coincide with advantage to other people or society at large.
  • Libertarian Socialism generally accepts property rights with a short abandonment period. In other words, a person must make (more-or-less) continuous use of the item or else lose ownership rights. This is usually referred to as "possession property" or "usufruct." Thus, in this usufruct system, absentee ownership is illegitimate, and workers own the machines or other equipment they work with.
  • Communism argues that only common ownership of the means of production will assure the minimization of unequal or unjust outcomes and the maximization of benefits and that; therefore humans should abolish private ownership of capital (as opposed to property).

Both communism and some forms of socialism have also upheld the notion that private ownership of capital is inherently illegitimate. This argument centers on the idea that private ownership of capital always benefits one class over another, giving rise to domination through this privately owned capital. Communists do not oppose personal property that is "hard-won, self-acquired, self-earned" (as "The Communist Manifesto" puts it) by members of the proletariat. Both socialism and communism distinguish carefully between private ownership of capital (land, factories, resources, etc.) and private property (homes, material objects, and so forth).

Types of property

[edit]

Most legal systems distinguish between different types of property, especially between land (immovable property, estate in land, real estate, real property) and all other forms of property—goods and chattels, movable property or personal property, including the value of legal tender if not the legal tender itself, as the manufacturer rather than the possessor might be the owner. They often distinguish tangible and intangible property. One categorization scheme specifies three species of property: land, improvements (immovable man-made things), and personal property (movable man-made things).[11]

In common law, real property (immovable property) is the combination of interests in land and improvements thereto, and personal property is interest in movable property. Real property rights are rights relating to the land. These rights include ownership and usage. Owners can grant rights to persons and entities in the form of leases, licenses, and easements.

Throughout the last centuries of the second millennium, with the development of more complex theories of property, the concept of personal property had become divided[by whom?] into tangible property (such as cars and clothing) and intangible property (such as financial assets and related rights, including stocks and bonds; intellectual property, including patents, copyrights and trademarks; digital files; communication channels; and certain forms of identifier, including Internet domain names, some forms of network address, some forms of handle and again trademarks).

Treatment of intangible property is such that an article of property is, by law or otherwise by traditional conceptualization, subject to expiration even when inheritable, which is a key distinction from tangible property. Upon expiration, the property, if of the intellectual category, becomes a part of public domain, to be used by but not owned by anybody, and possibly used by more than one party simultaneously due to the inapplicability of scarcity to intellectual property. Whereas things such as communications channels and pairs of electromagnetic spectrum bands and signal transmission power can only be used by a single party at a time, or a single party in a divisible context, if owned or used. Thus far or usually, those are not considered property, or at least not private property, even though the party bearing right of exclusive use may transfer that right to another.

In many societies the human body is considered property of some kind or other. The question of the ownership and rights to one's body arise in general in the discussion of human rights, including the specific issues of slavery, conscription, rights of children under the age of majority, marriage, abortion, prostitution, drugs, euthanasia and organ donation.

[edit]

Of the following, only sale and at-will sharing involve no encumbrance.

  General meaning or description   Actor Complementary notion Complementary actor
Sale Giving of property or ownership, but in exchange for money (units of some form of currency).   Seller Buying Buyer
Sharing Sharing Allowing use of property, whether exclusive or as a joint operation.   Host Accommodation Guest
  Tenancy Tenant
Rent Allowing limited and temporary but potentially renewable, exclusive use of property, but in exchange for compensation.   Renter
  Lease Lessee
Licensure   Licensor
Incorporeal division Incorporeal division Better known as nonpossessory interest or variation of the same notion, of which an instance may be given to another party, which is itself an incorporeal form of property. The particular interest may easily be destroyed once it and the property are owned by the same party.  
Share Aspect of property whereby ownership or equity of a particular portion of all property (stock) ever to be produced from it may be given to another party, which is itself an incorporeal form of property. The share may easily be destroyed once it and the property are owned by the same party.  
Easement Aspect of property whereby the right of a particular use of it may be given to another party, which is itself an incorporeal form of property. The easement or use-right may easily be destroyed once it and the property are owned by the same party.  
Lien Lien Condition whereby unencumbered ownership of property is contingent upon completion of obligation; the property being collateral and associated with security interest in such an arrangement.   Lienor Lieneeship Lienee
Mortgage Condition whereby while possession of property is achieved or retained, possession of it is contingent upon performance of obligation to somebody indebted to, and unencumbered ownership of it is contingent upon completion of obligation. The performance of obligation usually implies division of the principal into installments.   Mortgagor Mortgage-brokering Mortgage-broker
Pawn Condition whereby while encumbered ownership of property is achieved or retained, encumbered ownership of it is contingent upon the performance of the obligation to somebody indebted to, and possession and unencumbered ownership of it is contingent upon completion of obligation.   Pledge Pawnbrokering Pawnbroker
Collision
(Conflict)
Inability for property to be properly used or occupied due to scarcity or contradiction, the effective impossibility of sharing; possibly leading to eviction or the contrary, if the resolution is achieved rather than a stagnant condition; not necessarily involving or implying conscious dispute.  
Security
(Ward)
Degree of resistance to or protection from harm, use, or taking; the property and any mechanisms of protection of it being ward. (Alternately, in finance, the word as a countable noun refers to proof of ownership of investment instruments or as an uncountable noun to collateral.) There may be an involvement of obscurities, camouflage, barriers, armor, locks, alarms, booby traps, homing beacons, automated recorders, decoys, weaponry, or sentinels.
  • With land, moats, trenches, or entire buildings may be involved.
  • With buildings or certain forms of transport, turrets may be involved.
  • With information, encryption, steganography, or self-destruct capability may be involved.
  • With communications reliability, channel-hopping may be involved, like immunity or attempt thereat from jamming.
  • With devices of proprietary design, the respective compositions may be more mangled, more convoluted, and more complex than functionality warrants, hence confusing or obscure for protective purposes (though possibly to conceal unapproved copying instead).
  • With contractual rights, retentions of collateral and risks of jeopardy of collateral may be involved.
  Securer Protecteeship Protectee
  Warden Ward

Violation

[edit]
  General meaning or description, the activities occurring in a way not beholden to the wishes of the owner Committer
Trespassing Use of physical and usually but not necessarily only immovable property or occupation of it. Trespasser
Vandalism Alteration, damage, or destruction of physical property or to the appearance of it. Vandal
Infringement (Incorporeal analogy to trespassing.) Alteration or duplication of an instance of intellectual property, and publication of the respectively alternate or duplicate; the sample being the information in a medium or a device for which a design plan predates and is the basis of fabrication. Infringer
Violation Violator
Theft Taking of property in a way that excludes the owner from it, or functional alteration of the property ownership. Thief
Piracy The cognisant or incognisant reproduction and distribution of intellectual property and the possession of intellectual property that saw publication of its duplicates in the previous process. Pirate
Infringement with the effect of lost profits for the owner or infringement involving profit or personal gain.
Plagiarism Publication of a work, whether it is intellectual property (perhaps copyrighted) or not, whether it is in public domain or not, without credit being afforded to the creator, as though the work is original in publication. Plagiarist

Miscellaneous action

[edit]
  General meaning or description Committer
Squatting Occupation of property that is either unused and unkept or was abandoned, whether the property still has an owner. (If the property is owned and not left, then the squatting is trespassing if any usage not beholden to the wishes of the owner is done in the process.) Squatter
Reverse engineering Discovery of how a device works, whether it is an instance of intellectual property (perhaps patented) or not, whether it is in the public domain, and how to alter or duplicate it without access to or knowledge of the corresponding design plan. Reverse engineer
Ghostwriting Creation of a textual work, whereby another party is explicitly allowed to be credited as a creator in publication. Ghostwriter

Issues in property theory

[edit]

Principle

[edit]

The two major justifications are given for the original property, or the homestead principle, are effort and scarcity. John Locke emphasized effort, "mixing your labor"[12] with an object, or clearing and cultivating virgin land. Benjamin Tucker preferred to look at the telos of property, i.e., what is the purpose of property? His answer: to solve the scarcity problem. Only when items are relatively scarce concerning people's desires, do they become property.[13] For example, hunter-gatherers did not consider land to be property, since there was no shortage of land. Agrarian societies later made arable land property, as it was scarce. For something to be economically scarce, it must necessarily have the "exclusivity property"—that use by one person excludes others from using it. These two justifications lead to different conclusions on what can be property. Intellectual property—incorporeal things like ideas, plans, orderings and arrangements (musical compositions, novels, computer programs)—are generally considered valid property to those who support an effort justification, but invalid to those who support a scarcity justification, since the things don't have the exclusivity property (however, those who support a scarcity justification may still support other "intellectual property" laws such as Copyright, as long as these are a subject of contract instead of government arbitration). Thus even ardent propertarians may disagree about IP.[14] By either standard, one's body is one's property.

From some anarchist points of view, the validity of property depends on whether the "property right" requires enforcement by the State. Different forms of "property" require different amounts of enforcement: intellectual property requires a great deal of state intervention to enforce, ownership of distant physical property requires quite a lot, ownership of carried objects requires very little. In contrast, requesting one's own body requires absolutely no state intervention. So some anarchists don't believe in property at all.

Many things have existed that did not have an owner, sometimes called the commons. The term "commons," however, is also often used to mean something entirely different: "general collective ownership"—i.e. common ownership. Also, the same term is sometimes used by statists to mean government-owned property that the general public is allowed to access (public property). Law in all societies has tended to reduce the number of things not having clear owners. Supporters of property rights argue that this enables better protection of scarce resources due to the tragedy of the commons. At the same time, critics say that it leads to the 'exploitation' of those resources for personal gain and that it hinders taking advantage of potential network effects. These arguments have differing validity for different types of "property"—things that are not scarce are, for instance, not subject to the tragedy of the commons. Some apparent critics advocate general collective ownership rather than ownerlessness.

Things that do not have owners include: ideas (except for intellectual property), seawater (which is, however, protected by anti-pollution laws), parts of the seafloor (see the United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea for restrictions), gases in Earth's atmosphere, animals in the wild (although in most nations, animals are tied to the land. In the United States and Canada, wildlife is generally defined in statute as property of the State. This public ownership of wildlife is referred to as the North American Model of Wildlife Conservation and is based on The Public Trust Doctrine.[15]), celestial bodies and outer space, and land in Antarctica.

The nature of children under the age of majority is another contested issue here. In ancient societies, children were generally considered the property of their parents. However, children in most modern communities theoretically own their bodies but are not regarded as competent to exercise their rights. Their parents or guardians are given most of the fundamental rights of control over them.

Questions regarding the nature of ownership of the body also come up in the issue of abortion, drugs, and euthanasia.

In many ancient legal systems (e.g., early Roman law), religious sites (e.g. temples) were considered property of the God or gods they were devoted to. However, religious pluralism makes it more convenient to have sacred sites owned by the spiritual body that runs them.

Intellectual property and air (airspace, no-fly zone, pollution laws, which can include tradable emissions rights) can be property in some senses of the word.

Ownership of land can be held separately from the ownership of rights over that land, including sporting rights,[16] mineral rights, development rights, air rights, and such other rights as may be worth segregating from simple land ownership.

Ownership

[edit]

Ownership laws may vary widely among countries depending on the nature of the property of interest (e.g., firearms, real property, personal property, animals). Persons can own property directly. In most societies legal entities, such as corporations, trusts and nations (or governments) own property.

In many countries women have limited access to property following restrictive inheritance and family laws, under which only men have actual or formal rights to own property.

In the Inca empire, the dead emperors, considered gods, still controlled property after death.[17]

Government interference

[edit]

In 17th-century England, the legal directive that nobody may enter a home (which in the 17th century would typically have been male-owned) unless by the owner's invitation or consent, was established as common law in Sir Edward Coke 's "Institutes of the Lawes of England". "For a man's house is his castle, et domus sua cuique est tutissimum refugium [and each man's home is his safest refuge]." It is the origin of the famous dictum, "an Englishman's home is his castle".[18] The ruling enshrined into law what several English writers had espoused in the 16th century.[18] Unlike the rest of Europe the British had a proclivity towards owning their own homes.[18] British Prime Minister William Pitt, 1st Earl of Chatham defined the meaning of castle in 1763, "The poorest man may in his cottage bid defiance to all the forces of the crown. It may be frail – its roof may shake – the wind may blow through it – the storm may enter – the rain may enter – but the King of England cannot enter."[18]

That principle was carried to the United States. Under U.S. law, the principal limitations on whether and the extent to which the State may interfere with property rights are set by the Constitution. The Takings clause requires that the government (whether State or federal—for the 14th Amendment's due process clause imposes the 5th Amendment's takings clause on state governments) may take private property only for a public purpose after exercising due process of law, and upon making "just compensation." If an interest is not deemed a "property" right or the conduct is merely an intentional tort, these limitations do not apply, and the doctrine of sovereign immunity precludes relief.[19] Moreover, if the interference does not almost completely make the property valueless, the interference will not be deemed a taking but instead a mere regulation of use.[20] On the other hand, some governmental regulations of property use have been deemed so severe that they have been considered "regulatory takings."[21] Moreover, conduct is sometimes deemed only a nuisance, or another tort has been held a taking of property where the conduct was sufficiently persistent and severe.[22]

Theories

[edit]

There exist many theories of property. One is the relatively rare first possession theory of property, where ownership of something is seen as justified simply by someone seizing something before someone else does.[23] Perhaps one of the most popular is the natural rights definition of property rights as advanced by John Locke. Locke advanced the theory that God granted dominion over nature to man through Adam in the book of Genesis. Therefore, he theorized that when one mixes one's labor with nature, one gains a relationship with that part of nature with which the labor is mixed, subject to the limitation that there should be "enough, and as good, left in common for others." (see Lockean proviso)[24]

In his encyclical letter Rerum novarum (1891), Pope Leo XIII wrote, "It is surely undeniable that, when a man engages in remunerative labor, the impelling reason and motive of his work is to obtain property, and after that to hold it as his very own."[25]

Anthropology studies the diverse ownership systems, rights of use and transfer, and possession[26] under the term "theories of property". As mentioned, western legal theory is based on the owner of property being a legal person. However, not all property systems are founded on this basis.

In every culture studied, ownership and possession are the subjects of custom and regulation, and "law" is where the term can meaningfully be applied. Many tribal cultures balance individual rights with the laws of collective groups: tribes, families, associations, and nations. For example, the 1839 Cherokee Constitution frames the issue in these terms:

Sec. 2. The lands of the Cherokee Nation shall remain common property. Still, the improvements made thereon, and in possession of the citizens respectively who made, or may rightfully own them: Provided, that the citizens of the Nation possessing the exclusive and indefeasible right to their improvements, as expressed in this article, shall possess no right or power to dispose of their improvements, in any manner whatever, to the United States, individual States, or individual citizens thereof; and that, whenever any citizen shall remove with his effects out of the limits of this Nation, and become a citizen of any other government, all his rights and privileges as a citizen of this Nation shall cease: Provided, nevertheless, That the National Council shall have power to re-admit, by law, to all the rights of citizenship, any such person or persons who may, at any time, desire to return to the Nation, on memorializing the National Council for such readmission.

Communal property systems describe ownership as belonging to the entire social and political unit. Common ownership in a hypothetical communist society is distinguished from primitive forms of common property that have existed throughout history, such as Communalism and primitive communism, in that communist common ownership is the outcome of social and technological developments leading to the elimination of material scarcity in society.[27]

Corporate systems describe ownership as being attached to an identifiable group with an identifiable responsible individual. The Roman property law was based on such a corporate system. In a well-known paper that contributed to the creation of the field of law and economics in the late 1960s, the American scholar Harold Demsetz described how the concept of property rights makes social interactions easier:

In the world of Robinson Crusoe, property rights play no role. Property rights are an instrument of society and derive their significance from the fact that they help a man form those expectations which he can reasonably hold in his dealings with others. These expectations find expression in society's laws, customs, and more. An owner of property rights possesses the consent of fellowmen to allow him to act in particular ways. An owner expects the community to prevent others from interfering with his actions, provided that these actions are not prohibited in the specifications of his rights.

— Harold Demsetz (1967), "Toward a Theory of property Rights", The American Economic Review 57(2), p. 347.[28]

Different societies may have other theories of property for differing types of ownership. For example, Pauline Peters argued that property systems are not isolable from the social fabric, and notions of property may not be stated as such but instead may be framed in negative terms: for example, the taboo system among Polynesian peoples.

Property in philosophy

[edit]

In medieval and Renaissance Europe the term "property" essentially referred to land. After much rethinking, land has come to be regarded as only a special case of the property genus. This rethinking was inspired by at least three broad features of early modern Europe: the surge of commerce, the breakdown of efforts to prohibit interest (then called "usury"), and the development of centralized national monarchies.

Ancient philosophy

[edit]

Urukagina, the king of the Sumerian city-state Lagash, established the first laws that forbade compelling the sale of property.[29]

The Bible in Leviticus 19:11 and ibid. 19:13 states that the Israelites are not to steal.

Aristotle, in Politics, advocates "private property."[30] He argues that self-interest leads to neglect of the commons. "[T]hat which is common to the greatest number has the least care bestowed upon it. Everyone thinks chiefly of his own, hardly at all of the common interest, and only when he is himself concerned as an individual."[31]

In addition, he says that when property is common, there are natural problems that arise due to differences in labor: "If they do not share equally enjoyments and toils, those who labor much and get little will necessarily complain of those who labor little and receive or consume much. But indeed, there is always a difficulty in men living together and having all human relations in common, but especially in their having common property." (Politics, 1261b34)

Cicero held that there is no private property under natural law but only under human law.[32] Seneca viewed property as only becoming necessary when men become avaricious.[33] St. Ambrose later adopted this view and St. Augustine even derided heretics for complaining the Emperor could not confiscate property they had labored for.[34]

Medieval philosophy

[edit]

Thomas Aquinas (13th century)

[edit]

The canon law Decretum Gratiani maintained that mere human law creates property, repeating the phrases used by St. Augustine.[35] St. Thomas Aquinas agreed with regard to the private consumption of property but modified patristic theory in finding that the private possession of property is necessary.[36] Thomas Aquinas concludes that, given certain detailed provisions,[37]

  • it is natural for man to possess external things
  • it is lawful for a man to possess a thing as his own
  • The essence of theft consists in taking another's thing secretly
  • Theft and robbery are sins of different species, and robbery is a more grievous sin than theft
  • theft is a sin; it is also a mortal sin
  • it is, however, lawful to steal through stress of need:" in cases of need, all things are common property."

Modern philosophy

[edit]

Thomas Hobbes (17th century)

[edit]

The principal writings of Thomas Hobbes appeared between 1640 and 1651—during and immediately following the war between forces loyal to King Charles I and those loyal to Parliament. In his own words, Hobbes' reflection began with the idea of "giving to every man his own," a phrase he drew from the writings of Cicero. But he wondered: How can anybody call anything his own?

James Harrington (17th century)

[edit]

A contemporary of Hobbes, James Harrington, reacted to the same tumult differently: he considered property natural but not inevitable. The author of "Oceana," he may have been the first political theorist to postulate that political power is a consequence, not the cause, of the distribution of property. He said that the worst possible situation is when the commoners have half a nation's property, with the crown and nobility holding the other half—a circumstance fraught with instability and violence. He suggested a much better situation (a stable republic) would exist once the commoners own most property.

In later years, the ranks of Harrington's admirers included American revolutionary and founder John Adams.

Robert Filmer (17th century)

[edit]

Another member of the Hobbes/Harrington generation, Sir Robert Filmer, reached conclusions much like Hobbes', but through Biblical exegesis. Filmer said that the institution of kingship is analogous to that of fatherhood, that subjects are still, children, whether obedient or unruly and that property rights are akin to the household goods that a father may dole out among his children—his to take back and dispose of according to his pleasure.

John Locke (17th century)

[edit]

In the following generation, John Locke sought to answer Filmer, creating a rationale for a balanced constitution in which the monarch had a part to play, but not an overwhelming part. Since Filmer's views essentially require that the Stuart family be uniquely descended from the patriarchs of the Bible, and even in the late 17th century, that was a difficult view to uphold, Locke attacked Filmer's views in his First Treatise on Government, freeing him to set out his own views in the Second Treatise on Civil Government. Therein, Locke imagined a pre-social world each of the unhappy residents which are willing to create a social contract because otherwise, "the enjoyment of the property he has in this state is very unsafe, very insecure," and therefore, the "great and chief end, therefore, of men's uniting into commonwealths, and putting themselves under government, is the preservation of their property."[38] They would, he allowed, create a monarchy, but its task would be to execute the will of an elected legislature. "To this end" (to achieve the previously specified goal), he wrote, "it is that men give up all their natural power to the society they enter into, and the community put the Legislative power into such hands as they think fit, with this trust, that they shall be governed by declared laws, or else their peace, quiet, and property will still be at the same uncertainty as it was in the state of nature."[39]

Even when it keeps to proper legislative form, Locke held that there are limits to what a government established by such a contract might rightly do.

"It cannot be supposed that [the hypothetical contractors] they should intend, had they a power so to do, to give anyone or more an absolute arbitrary power over their persons and estates, and put a force into the magistrate's hand to execute his unlimited will arbitrarily upon them; this were to put themselves into a worse condition than the State of nature, wherein they had a liberty to defend their right against the injuries of others, and were upon equal terms of force to maintain it, whether invaded by a single man or many in combination. Whereas by supposing they have given themselves up to the absolute arbitrary power and will of a legislator, they have disarmed themselves, and armed him to make a prey of them when he pleases..."[40]

Both "persons" and "estates" are to be protected from the arbitrary power of any magistrate, including legislative power and will." In Lockean terms, depredations against an estate are just as plausible a justification for resistance and revolution as are those against persons. In neither case are subjects required to allow themselves to become prey.

To explain the ownership of property, Locke advanced a labor theory of property.

David Hume (18th century)

[edit]

In contrast to the figures discussed in this section thus far David Hume lived a relatively quiet life that had settled down to a relatively stable social and political structure. He lived the life of a solitary writer until 1763 when, at 52 years of age, he went off to Paris to work at the British embassy.

In contrast, one might think to his polemical works on religion and his empiricism-driven skeptical epistemology, Hume's views on law and property were quite conservative.

He did not believe in hypothetical contracts or the love of humanity in general and sought to ground politics upon actual human beings as one knows them. "In general," he wrote, "it may be affirmed that there is no such passion in the human mind, as the love of mankind, merely as such, independent of personal qualities, or services, or of relation to ourselves." Existing customs should not lightly be disregarded because they have come to be what they are due to human nature. With this endorsement of custom comes an endorsement of existing governments because he conceived of the two as complementary: "A regard for liberty, though a laudable passion, ought commonly to be subordinate to a reverence for established government."

Therefore, Hume's view was that there are property rights because of and to the extent that the existing law, supported by social customs, secure them.[41] He offered some practical home-spun advice on the general subject, though, as when he referred to avarice as "the spur of industry," and expressed concern about excessive levels of taxation, which "destroy industry, by engendering despair."

Adam Smith

[edit]

"Civil government, so far as it is instituted for the security of property, is, in reality, instituted for the defense of the rich against the poor, or of those who have property against those who have none at all."

— Adam Smith, The Wealth of Nations, 1776[42]

"The property that every man has in his labour is the original foundation of all other property, so it is the most sacred and inviolable. The inheritance of a poor man lies in the strength and dexterity of his hands, and to hinder him from employing this strength and dexterity in what manner he thinks proper without injury to his neighbor, is a plain violation of this most sacred property. It is a manifest encroachment upon the just liberty of the workman and those who might be disposed to employ him. It hinders the one from working at what he thinks proper, so it hinders the others from employing whom they think proper. To judge whether he is fit to be employed may surely be trusted to the discretion of the employers whose interest it so much concerns. The affected anxiety of the law-giver lest they should employ an improper person is as impertinent as it is oppressive." — (Source: Adam Smith, The Wealth of Nations, 1776, Book I, Chapter X, Part II.)

By the mid 19th century, the industrial revolution had transformed England and the United States and had begun in France. As a result, the conventional conception of what constitutes property expanded beyond land to encompass scarce goods. In France, the revolution of the 1790s had led to large-scale confiscation of land formerly owned by the church and king. The restoration of the monarchy led to claims by those dispossessed to have their former lands returned.

Karl Marx

[edit]

Section VIII, "Primitive Accumulation" of Capital involves a critique of Liberal Theories of property rights. Marx notes that under Feudal Law, peasants were legally entitled to their land as the aristocracy was to its manors. Marx cites several historical events in which large numbers of the peasantry were removed from their lands, then seized by the nobility. This seized land was then used for commercial ventures (sheep herding). Marx sees this "Primitive Accumulation" as integral to the creation of English Capitalism. This event created a sizeable un-landed class that had to work for wages to survive. Marx asserts that liberal theories of property are "idyllic" fairy tales that hide a violent historical process.

Charles Comte: legitimate origin of property

[edit]

Charles Comte, in "Traité de la propriété" (1834), attempted to justify the legitimacy of private property in response to the Bourbon Restoration. According to David Hart, Comte had three main points: "firstly, that interference by the state over the centuries in property ownership has had dire consequences for justice as well as for economic productivity; secondly, that property is legitimate when it emerges in such a way as not to harm anyone; and thirdly, that historically some, but by no means all, property which has evolved has done so legitimately, with the implication that the present distribution of property is a complex mixture of legitimately and illegitimately held titles."[43]

Comte, as Proudhon later did, rejected Roman legal tradition with its toleration of slavery. Instead, he posited a communal "national" property consisting of non-scarce goods, such as land in ancient hunter-gatherer societies. Since agriculture was so much more efficient than hunting and gathering, private property appropriated by someone for farming left remaining hunter-gatherers with more land per person and hence did not harm them. Thus this type of land appropriation did not violate the Lockean proviso – there was "still enough, and as good left." Later theorists would use Comte's analysis in response to the socialist critique of property.

Pierre-Joseph Proudhon: property is theft

[edit]

In his 1840 treatise What is Property?, Pierre Proudhon answers with "Property is theft!". In natural resources, he sees two types of property, de jure property (legal title) and de facto property (physical possession), and argues that the former is illegitimate. Proudhon's conclusion is that "property, to be just and possible, must necessarily have equality for its condition."

His analysis of the product of labor upon natural resources as property (usufruct) is more nuanced. He asserts that land itself cannot be property, yet it should be held by individual possessors as stewards of humanity, with the product of labor being the producer's property. Proudhon reasoned that any wealth gained without labor was stolen from those who labored to create that wealth. Even a voluntary contract to surrender the product of work to an employer was theft, according to Proudhon, since the controller of natural resources had no moral right to charge others for the use of that which he did not labor to create did not own.

Proudhon's theory of property greatly influenced the budding socialist movement, inspiring anarchist theorists such as Mikhail Bakunin who modified Proudhon's ideas, as well as antagonizing theorists like Karl Marx.

Frédéric Bastiat: property is value

[edit]

Frédéric Bastiat 's main treatise on property can be found in chapter 8 of his book "Economic Harmonies" (1850).[44] In a radical departure from traditional property theory, he defines property, not as a physical object, but rather as a relationship between people concerning a thing. Thus, saying one owns a glass of water is merely verbal shorthand for "I may justly gift or trade this water to another person." In essence, what one owns is not the object but the object's value. By "value," Bastiat means "market value"; he emphasizes this is quite different from utility. "In our relations with one another, we are not owners of the utility of things, but their value, and value is the appraisal made of reciprocal services."

Bastiat theorized that, as a result of technological progress and the division of labor, the stock of communal wealth increases over time; that the hours of work an unskilled laborer expends to buy e.g., 100 liters of wheat, decreases over time, thus amounting to "gratis" satisfaction.[45] Thus, private property continually destroys itself, becoming transformed into communal wealth. The increasing proportion of communal wealth to private property results in a tendency toward equality of humanity. "Since the human race began in greatest poverty, that is, when there were the most obstacles to overcome, all that has been achieved from one era to the next is due to the spirit of property."

This transformation of private property into the communal domain, Bastiat points out, does not imply that personal property will ever totally disappear. On the contrary, this is because man, as he progresses, continually invents new and more sophisticated needs and desires.

Andrew J. Galambos: a precise definition of property

[edit]

Andrew J. Galambos (1924–1997) was an astrophysicist and philosopher who innovated a social structure that sought to maximize human peace and freedom. Galambos' concept of property was essential to his philosophy. He defined property as a man's life and all non-procreative derivatives of his life. (Because the English language is deficient in omitting the feminine from "man" when referring to humankind, it is implicit and obligatory that the feminine is included in the term "man.")

Galambos taught that property is essential to a non-coercive social structure. He defined freedom as follows: "Freedom is the societal condition that exists when every individual has full (100%) control over his property."[46] Galambos defines property as having the following elements:

  • Primordial property, which is an individual's life
  • Primary property, which includes ideas, thoughts, and actions
  • Secondary property includes all tangible and intangible possessions that are derivatives of the individual's primary property.

Property includes all non-procreative derivatives of an individual's life; this means children are not the property of their parents.[47] and "primary property" (a person's own ideas).[48]

Galambos repeatedly emphasized that actual government exists to protect property and that the State attacks property. For example, the State requires payment for its services in the form of taxes whether or not people desire such services. Since an individual's money is his property, the confiscation of money in the form of taxes is an attack on property. Military conscription is likewise an attack on a person's primordial property.

Contemporary views

[edit]

Contemporary political thinkers who believe that natural persons enjoy rights to own property and enter into contracts espouse two views about John Locke. On the one hand, some admire Locke, such as William H. Hutt (1956), who praised Locke for laying down the "quintessence of individualism." On the other hand, those such as Richard Pipes regard Locke's arguments as weak and think that undue reliance thereon has weakened the cause of individualism in recent times. Pipes has written that Locke's work "marked a regression because it rested on the concept of Natural Law" rather than upon Harrington's sociological framework.

Hernando de Soto has argued that an essential characteristic of the capitalist market economy is the functioning state protection of property rights in a formal property system which records ownership and transactions. These property rights and the whole legal system of property make possible:

  • Greater independence for individuals from local community arrangements to protect their assets
  • Clear, provable, and protectable ownership
  • The standardization and integration of property rules and property information in a country as a whole
  • Increased trust arising from a greater certainty of punishment for cheating in economic transactions
  • More formal and complex written statements of ownership that permit the more straightforward assumption of shared risk and ownership in companies, and insurance against the risk
  • Greater availability of loans for new projects since more things can serve as collateral for the loans
  • Easier access to and more reliable information regarding such things as credit history and the worth of assets
  • Increased fungibility, standardization, and transferability of statements documenting the ownership of property, which paves the way for structures such as national markets for companies and the easy transportation of property through complex networks of individuals and other entities
  • Greater protection of biodiversity due to minimizing of shifting agriculture practices

According to de Soto, all of the above enhance economic growth.[49] Academics have criticized the capitalist frame through which property is viewed pointing to the fact that commodifying property or land by assigning it monetary value takes away from the traditional cultural heritage, particularly from first nation inhabitants.[50][51] These academics point to the personal nature of property and its link to identity being irreconcilable with wealth creation that contemporary Western society subscribes to.[50]

See also

[edit]
  • Allemansrätten
  • Anarchism
  • Binary economics
  • Buying agent
  • Capitalism
  • Communism
  • Homestead principle
  • Immovable property
  • Inclusive Democracy
  • International Property Rights Index
  • Labor theory of property
  • Land (economics)
  • Libertarianism
  • Lien
  • Off plan
  • Ownership society
  • Patrimony
  • Personal property
  • Propertarian
  • Property is theft
  • Property law
  • Property rights (economics)
  • Socialism
  • Sovereignty
  • Taxation as theft
  • Interpersonal relationship
  • Public liability

Property-giving (legal)

  • Charity
  • Essenes
  • Gift
  • Kibbutz
  • Monasticism
  • Tithe, Zakat (modern sense)

Property-taking (legal)

  • Adverse possession
  • Confiscation
  • Eminent domain
  • Fine
  • Jizya
  • Nationalization
  • Regulatory fees and costs
  • Search and seizure
  • Tariff
  • Tax
  • Turf and twig (historical)
  • Tithe, Zakat (historical sense)
  • RS 2477

Property-taking (illegal)

  • Theft

References

[edit]
  1. ^ Powell, Richard R. (2009). "2.02". In Wolf, Michael Alan (ed.). Powell on Real Property. New Providence, NJ. ISBN 9781579111588.cite book: CS1 maint: location missing publisher (link)
  2. ^ "property". WordNet. Princeton University. Retrieved 2010-06-19.
  3. ^ Gregory, Paul R.; Stuart, Robert C. (2003). Comparing Economic Systems in the Twenty-First Century. Boston: Houghton Mifflin. p. 27. ISBN 0-618-26181-8. There are three broad forms of property ownership—private, public, and collective (cooperative).
  4. ^ Pellissary, Sony; Dey Biswas, Sattwick (November 2012). "Emerging Property Regimes in India: What it Holds for the Future of Socio-economic Rights?" (PDF). www.irma.ac.in. Institute of Rural Management Anand. Retrieved 26 October 2021.
  5. ^ Graber, David (2002). Toward an Anthropological Theory of Value. New York: Palgrave. p. 9. ISBN 978-0-312-24044-8.
  6. ^ Max Planck Institute for Social Anthropology, Property in Anthropology, "Max Planck Institute for Social Anthropology". Archived from the original on 2015-01-16. Retrieved 2015-01-15.
  7. ^ Understanding the Global Economy, Howard Richards (p. 355). Peace Education Books. 2004. ISBN 978-0-9748961-0-6.
  8. ^ An inquiry into the nature and causes of the wealth of nations. Hackett Publishing Company. 1993. p. 177. ISBN 0-87220-204-6. Retrieved 2011-12-15.
  9. ^ Mundy, John Hine (1995). "Medieval Urban Liberty". In Davis, Richard W. (ed.). The Origins of Modern Freedom in the West. Making of modern freedom. Stanford, California: Stanford University Press. p. 133. ISBN 9780804724746. Retrieved 4 April 2023. Rehearsing other Roman passages, [civilian jurists] found that private property guaranteed freedom by limiting princes and government.
  10. ^ Fuglestad, Eirik Magnus (1 June 2018). "America: 'Destined to Let Freedom Grow'". Private Property and the Origins of Nationalism in the United States and Norway: The Making of Propertied Communities. Cham, Switzerland: Springer. p. 50. ISBN 9783319899503. Retrieved 4 April 2023. [ A quote from 1768] demonstrates again the centrality of property ownership to the colonists' concept of freedom: property was what made men free, and not 'slaves' or 'like beasts subdued by whips and goads.' [...] Property had the potential of creating independence for the individual because, by utilizing and shaping the earth through one's labor and having exclusive (property) right to it, one created the means to act freely in the world. [...] In a letter that Thomas Jefferson wrote [...] thirty years after the American Revolution, he also expressed the importance of private property if an individual was to be free [...]. [...] Owning landed property could satisfy the wants and needs of the individual, this made him or her free.
  11. ^ "13 Code of Federal Regulations § 314.1 ("Definitions")". Cornell University's Legal Information Institute. Retrieved 2021-05-09. Property means Real Property, Personal Property and mixed Property. . . . Real Property means any land, whether raw or improved, and includes structures, fixtures, appurtenances and other permanent improvements, excluding moveable machinery and equipment. Real Property includes land that is served by the construction of Project infrastructure (such as roads, sewers, and water lines) where the infrastructure contributes to the value of such land as a specific purpose of the Project.
  12. ^ "John Locke: Second Treatise of Civil Government: Chapter 5". Constitution.org. Archived from the original on Jun 13, 2015. Retrieved 14 May 2015.
  13. ^ McElroy, Wendy (11 May 2008). "Intellectual Property | Copyright and Patent in Benjamin Tucker's periodical Liberty". Archived from the original on 6 July 2008. Retrieved 14 May 2015.
  14. ^ "Molinari Institute – Anti-Copyright Resources". Praxeology.net. Retrieved 14 May 2015.
  15. ^ "The North American Model of Wildlife Conservation and Public Trust Doctrine". The Wildlife Society. Archived from the original on 2012-01-19. Retrieved 2012-08-19.
  16. ^ "Definition of sporting rights" (PDF). BASC. Archived from the original (PDF) on 2008-02-27. Retrieved 2007-12-31.
  17. ^ Mckay, John P. , 2004, "A History of World Societies". Boston: Houghton Mifflin Company
  18. ^ a b c d "An Englishman's home is his castle". Phrases.org.uk. Retrieved 6 December 2018.
  19. ^ See, for example, "United States v. Willow River Power Co." (not a property right because the force of law not behind it); "Schillinger v. the United States," 155 U.S. 163 (1894) (patent infringement is a tort, not taking of property); "Zoltek Corp. v. United States", 442 F.3d 1345 (Fed. Cir. 2006).
  20. ^ " Penn Central Transportation Co. v. City of New York", 438 U.S. 104 (1978).
  21. ^ See United States v. Riverside Bayview Homes, 474 U.S. 121 (1985).
  22. ^ United States v. Causby, 328 U.S. 256 (1946).
  23. ^ "Property". Graham Oppy. "The shorter Routledge encyclopedia of philosophy." Editor Edward Craig. Routledge, 2005, p. 858
  24. ^ Locke, John (1690). "The Second Treatise of Civil Government". Retrieved 2010-06-26.
  25. ^ Leo XIII (1891), Rerum novarum On the Rights and Duties of Capital and Labor, paragraph 5, accessed 30 January 2023
  26. ^ Hann, Chris "A new double movement? Anthropological perspectives on property in the age of neoliberalism" Socio-Economic Review, Volume 5, Number 2, April 2007, pp. 287–318(32)
  27. ^ Engels, Friedrich. "The Principles of Communism". Vorwärts – via Marxist Internet Archive.
  28. ^ Cited in Merrill & Smith (2017), pp. 238–39.
  29. ^ Samuel Noah Kramer. "From the Tablets of Sumer: Twenty-Five Firsts in Man's Recorded History." Indian Hills: The Falcon's Wing Press, 1956.
  30. ^ "Property and Freedom". www.nytimes.com. Retrieved 2018-01-10.
  31. ^ This bears some similarities to the over-use argument of Garrett Hardin's "Tragedy of the Commons."
  32. ^ Carlyle, A.J. (1913). Property: Its Duties and Rights. London: Macmillan. p. 121. Retrieved 4 April 2015. citing Cicero, De officiis, i. 7, "Sunt autem privata nulla natura".
  33. ^ Carlyle, A.J. (1913). Property: Its Duties and Rights. London: Macmillan. p. 122. Retrieved 4 April 2015. citing Seneca, Epistles, xiv, 2.
  34. ^ Carlyle, A.J. (1913). Property: Its Duties and Rights. London: Macmillan. p. 125. Retrieved 4 April 2015.
  35. ^ Carlyle, A.J. (1913). Property: Its Duties and Rights. London: Macmillan. p. 127. Retrieved 4 April 2015. citing Decretum, D. viii. Part I.
  36. ^ Carlyle, A.J. (1913). Property: Its Duties and Rights. London: Macmillan. p. 128. Retrieved 4 April 2015.
  37. ^ "Summa Theologica: Theft and robbery (Secunda Secundae Partis, Q. 66)". Retrieved 14 May 2015.
  38. ^ John Locke, "The Second Treatise of Civil Government" (1690), Chap. IX, §§ 123–124.
  39. ^ John Locke, "The Second Treatise of Civil Government" (1690), Chap. XI, § 136.
  40. ^ John Locke, "The Second Treatise of Civil Government" (1690), Chap. XI, § 137.
  41. ^ This view is reflected in the opinion of the United States Supreme Court in "United States v. Willow River Power Co.".
  42. ^ An Inquiry Into the Nature and Causes of the Wealth of Nations, by Adam Smith, Cooke & Hale, 1818, p. 167
  43. ^ The Radical Liberalism of Charles Comte and Charles Dunoyer Archived 2006-01-30 at the Wayback Machine
  44. ^ Bastiat: Economic Harmonies.
  45. ^ "Economic Harmonies (Boyers trans.) – Online Library of Liberty". Retrieved 14 May 2015.
  46. ^ Galambos, Andrew (1999). Sic Itur Ad Astra. San Diego, California: The Universal Scientific Publications Company, Inc. pp. 868–869. ISBN 0-88078-004-5.
  47. ^ Galambos, Andrew (1999). Sic Itur Ad Astra. San Diego, California: The Universal Scientific Publications Company, Inc. p. 23. ISBN 0-88078-004-5.
  48. ^ Galambos, Andrew (1999). Sic Itur Ad Astra. San Diego, California: The Universal Scientific Publications Company, Inc. pp. 39, 52, 84, 92–93, 153, 201, 326. ISBN 0-88078-004-5.
  49. ^ "Finance & Development, March 2001 – The Mystery of Capital". Finance, and Development – F&D. Retrieved 14 May 2015.
  50. ^ a b Kristen A. Carpenter, Sonia Katyal, and Angela Riley, 'In Defense of Property' [2009] 118 Yale L J 101, 101–117, 124–138
  51. ^ Margaret Jane Radin, Property and Personhood, 34 STAN. L. REV. 957, 1013-15 (1982)

Bibliography

[edit]
  • Bastiat, Frédéric, 1850. Economic Harmonies. W. Hayden Boyers.
  • Bastiat, Frédéric, 1850. "The Law", tr. Dean Russell.
  • Bethell, Tom, 1998. "The Noblest Triumph: Property and Prosperity through the Ages." New York: St. Martin's Press.
  • Blackstone, William, 1765–69. "Commentaries on the Laws of England", 4 vols. Oxford Univ. Press. Especially Books the Second and Third.
  • De Soto, Hernando, 1989. "The Other Path". Harper & Row.
  • De Soto, Hernando, and Francis Cheneval, 2006. Realizing Property Rights. Ruffer & Rub.
  • Ellickson, Robert, 1993. ""Property in Land" (PDF). Archived from the original (PDF) on 2008-04-09. (6.40 MB)", Yale Law Journal 102: 1315–1400.
  • Mckay, John P., 2004, "A History of World Societies". Boston: Houghton Mifflin Company
  • Palda, Filip (2011) "Pareto's Republic and the New Science of Peace" 2011 [1] chapters online. Published by Cooper-Wolfling. ISBN 978-0-9877880-0-9
  • Pipes, Richard, 1999. "Property and Freedom". New York: Knopf Doubleday. ISBN 978-0-375-40498-6
[edit]
  • Concepts of Property, Hugh Breakey, Internet Encyclopedia of Philosophy
  • "Right to Private Property", Tibor Machan, Internet Encyclopedia of Philosophy
  • Friedmann, Wolfgang (1974). "Property". In Wiener, Philip P. (ed.). Dictionary of the History of Ideas: Studies of Selected Pivotal Ideas. Vol. 3 (University of Virginia, Electronic Text Center ed.). New York: Scribners. pp. 650–657.
  • "Property and Ownership" Jeremy Waldron, The Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy (Winter 2016 Edition), Edward N. Zalta (ed.).

 

 

San Antonio is located in the United States
San Antonio
San Antonio
Location in the United States
San Antonio
City
Downtown San Antonio
Alamo Mission
San Fernando Cathedral
Emily Morgan Hotel
Tower of the Americas
San Antonio Riverwalk
Flag of San Antonio
Official seal of San Antonio
 
Coat of arms of San Antonio
Nickname(s): 
San Antone[1][2][3][4] Alamo City, Military City USA, River City, The 210, S.A., Countdown City, Something to Remember
Motto: 
Latin: Libertatis cunabula ("Cradle of Freedom")
Map
Interactive map of San Antonio
San Antonio is located in Texas
San Antonio
San Antonio
Location in Texas

Coordinates: 29°27′00″N 98°33′38″W / 29.45000°N 98.56056°W / 29.45000; -98.56056Country United StatesState TexasCountiesBexar, Comal, MedinaFoundationMay 1, 1718; 306 years ago (1718-05-01)[5]IncorporatedJune 5, 1837; 187 years ago (1837-06-05)[6]Named forSaint Anthony of PaduaGovernment

 

 • TypeCouncil-Manager • BodySan Antonio City Council • MayorRon Nirenberg (I) • City ManagerErik Walsh • City Council

List

Area

[7]
 • City

504.64 sq mi (1,307.00 km2) • Land498.85 sq mi (1,292.02 km2) • Water5.79 sq mi (14.98 km2)Elevation

[8]

722 ft (220 m)Population

 (2020)[9]
 • City

1,434,625

 • Estimate 
(2024)

1,513,974 Increase • Rank

  • 17th in North America
  • 7th in the United States
  • 2nd in Texas

 • Density2,875.86/sq mi (1,110.38/km2) • Urban

 

1,992,689 (US: 24th) • Urban density3,248.4/sq mi (1,254.2/km2) • Metro

[10]

2,601,788 (US: 24th)DemonymSan AntonianGDP

[11]

 • Metro$163.061 billion (2022)Time zoneUTC−6 (CST) • Summer (DST)UTC−5 (CDT)ZIP Codes

78201–78266, 78268–78270, 78275, 78278–78280, 78283–78285, 78288–89, 78291–78299

Area codes210 (majority), 830 (portions), 726FIPS code48-65000GNIS feature ID2411774[8]Websitewww.SanAntonio.gov

San Antonio (/ËŒsæn ænˈtoÊŠnioÊŠ/ SAN an-TOH-nee-oh; Spanish for "Saint Anthony") is a city in the U.S. state of Texas and the most populous city in Greater San Antonio, the third-largest metropolitan area in Texas and the 24th-largest metropolitan area in the United States at 2.6 million people in the 2020 U.S. census.[12] It is the most populous city in and the county seat of Bexar County. San Antonio is the seventh-most populous city in the United States, and the second-most populous in the Southern United States and Texas,[13] after Houston.[9]

Founded as a Spanish mission and colonial outpost in 1718, the city in 1731 became the first chartered civil settlement in what is now present-day Texas. The area was then part of the Spanish Empire. From 1821 to 1836, it was part of the Mexican Republic. It is the oldest municipality in Texas, having celebrated its 300th anniversary on May 1, 2018.[14][15][16]

Straddling the regional divide between South and Central Texas, San Antonio anchors the southwestern corner of an urban megaregion colloquially known as the Texas Triangle. Downtown Austin and downtown San Antonio are approximately 80 miles (129 km) apart, and both fall along the I-35 corridor. This combined metropolitan region of San Antonio–Austin has approximately 5 million people.[17]

San Antonio was named by a 1691 Spanish expedition for the Portuguese priest Saint Anthony of Padua, whose feast day is June 13.[18][19] The city contains five 18th-century Spanish frontier missions, including the Alamo and San Antonio Missions National Historical Park. Together these were designated as UNESCO World Heritage sites in 2015.[20] Other notable attractions include the River Walk, the Tower of the Americas, SeaWorld San Antonio, the Alamo Bowl, and Marriage Island. Commercial entertainment includes Six Flags Fiesta Texas and Morgan's Wonderland amusement parks. According to the San Antonio Convention and Visitors Bureau, the city is visited by about 32 million tourists a year. It is home to the five-time National Basketball Association (NBA) champion San Antonio Spurs. It hosts the annual San Antonio Stock Show & Rodeo, one of the largest such events in the U.S.

The U.S. Armed Forces have numerous facilities in and around San Antonio;[21][22][23] Fort Sam Houston, which has Brooke Army Medical Center within it, is the only one within the city limits. Lackland Air Force Base, Randolph Air Force Base, Kelly Air Force Base, Camp Bullis, and Camp Stanley are outside the city limits. San Antonio is home to four Fortune 500 companies and the South Texas Medical Center, the only medical research and care provider in the South Texas region.

San Antonio is also one of the largest majority-Hispanic cities in the United States, with 64% of its population being Hispanic.[24]

History

[edit]

At the time of European encounter, the Payaya people lived near the San Antonio River Valley in the San Pedro Springs area. They called the vicinity Yanaguana, meaning "refreshing waters". In 1691, a group of Spanish explorers and missionaries came upon the river and Payaya settlement on June 13, the feast day of St. Anthony of Padua.[18] They named the place and river "San Antonio" in his honor.[25]

Historical affiliations
  •  Spanish Empire (1718–1821)
  •  Mexico (1821–1836)
  • Republic of Texas (1836–1845)
  •  United States (1846–1861)
  •  Confederate States (1861–1865)
  •  United States (1865–present)

It was years before any Spanish settlement took place. Father Antonio de Olivares visited the site in 1709, and he was determined to found a mission and civilian settlement there. The viceroy gave formal approval for a combined mission and presidio in late 1716, as he wanted to forestall any French expansion into the area from their colony of La Louisiane to the east, as well as prevent illegal trading with the Payaya. He directed Martín de Alarcón, the governor of Coahuila y Tejas, to establish the mission complex. Differences between Alarcón and Olivares resulted in delays, and construction did not start until 1718.[26] Olivares built, with the help of the Payaya and the Pastia people, the Misión de San Antonio de Valero (The Alamo), the Presidio San Antonio de Bexar, the bridge that connected both, and the Acequia Madre de Valero.[5]

The families who clustered around the presidio and mission were the start of Villa de Béjar, destined to become the most important town in Spanish Texas.[27] On May 1, the governor transferred ownership of the Mission San Antonio de Valero (later famous as The Alamo) to Fray Antonio de Olivares.[5] On May 5, 1718, he commissioned the Presidio San Antonio de Béxar ("Béjar" in modern Spanish orthography) on the west side of the San Antonio River, one-fourth league from the mission.[26]

On February 14, 1719, the Marquis of San Miguel de Aguayo proposed to the king of Spain that 400 families be transported from the Canary Islands, Galicia, or Havana to populate the province of Texas. His plan was approved, and notice was given the Canary Islanders (isleños) to furnish 200 families; the Council of the Indies suggested that 400 families should be sent from the Canaries to Texas by way of Havana and Veracruz. By June 1730, 25 families had reached Cuba, and 10 families had been sent to Veracruz before orders from Spain came to stop the re-settlement.[28]

Under the leadership of Juan Leal Goraz, the group marched overland from Veracruz to the Presidio San Antonio de Béxar, where they arrived on March 9, 1731. Due to marriages along the way, the party now included 15 families, a total of 56 persons. They joined the military community established in 1718. The immigrants formed the nucleus of the villa of San Fernando de Béxar, the first regularly organized civil government in Texas. Several older families of San Antonio trace their descent from the Canary Island colonists. María Rosa Padrón was the first baby born of Canary Islander descent in San Antonio.[28]

San Antonio was part of the Spanish Viceroyalty of New Spain.

During the Spanish–Mexican settlement of Southwestern lands, which took place over the following century, Juan Leal Goraz Jr. was a prominent figure. He claimed nearly 100,000 sq miles (153,766 acres) as Spanish territory and held some control for nearly three decades; this area stretched across six present-day states. San Antonio was designated as Leal Goraz's capital. It represented Mexican expansion into the area. With his robust military forces, he led exploration and establishing Spanish colonial bases as far as San Francisco, California. Widespread bankruptcy forced Leal Goraz Jr.'s army back into the current boundaries of Mexico; they fell into internal conflict and turmoil with neighboring entities.

San Antonio grew to become the largest Spanish settlement in Texas; it was designated as the capital of the Spanish, later Mexican, province of Tejas. From San Antonio, the Camino Real (today Nacogdoches Road), was built to the small frontier town of Nacogdoches. Mexico allowed European American settlers from the United States into the territory; they mostly occupied land in the eastern part. In 1835, when Antonio López de Santa Anna unilaterally abolished the Mexican Constitution of 1824, violence ensued in many states of Mexico. which led to many short-lived independent republics.[29] This, in addition to Mexico's abolition of slavery, and cultural differences between the Texians and the Mexicans, led to the Texas Revolution.[30][31]

In a series of battles, the Texian Army succeeded in forcing Mexican soldiers out of the settlement areas east of San Antonio, which were dominated by Americans. Under the leadership of Ben Milam, in the Battle of Bexar, December 1835, Texian forces captured San Antonio from forces commanded by General Martin Perfecto de Cos, Santa Anna's brother-in-law. In the spring of 1836, Santa Anna marched on San Antonio. A volunteer force under the command of James C. Neill occupied and fortified the deserted Alamo mission.[32]

Upon his departure, the joint command of William Barrett Travis and James Bowie were left in charge of defending the old mission. The Battle of the Alamo took place from February 23 to March 6, 1836. The outnumbered Texian force was ultimately defeated, with all of the Alamo defenders killed. These men were seen as "martyrs" for the cause of Texas freedom and "Remember the Alamo" became a rallying cry in the Texian Army's eventual success at defeating Santa Anna's army.[32]

Juan Seguín, who organized the company of Tejano patriots, who fought for Texas independence, fought at the Battle of Concepción, the Siege of Bexar, and the Battle of San Jacinto, and served as mayor of San Antonio. He was forced out of office due to threats on his life by sectarian newcomers and political opponents in 1842, becoming the last Tejano mayor for nearly 150 years.[33]

Lithograph of San Antonio in 1886

In 1845, the United States finally decided to annex Texas and include it as a state in the Union. This led to the Mexican–American War. Though the U.S. ultimately won, the war was devastating to San Antonio. By its end, the population of the city had been reduced by almost two-thirds, to 800 inhabitants.[34] Bolstered by migrants and immigrants, by 1860 at the start of the American Civil War, San Antonio had grown to a city of 15,000 people.

In the 1850s, Frederick Law Olmsted, the landscape architect who designed Central Park in New York City, traveled throughout the Southern and Southwest U.S., and published accounts of his observations. In his 1859 book about Texas, Olmsted described San Antonio as having a "jumble of races, costumes, languages, and buildings", which gave it a quality that only New Orleans could rival in what he described as "odd and antiquated foreignness."[35][36] Following the Civil War, San Antonio prospered as a center of the cattle industry. During this period, it remained a frontier city, with a mixture of cultures that was different from other U.S. cities.

German immigrants founded smaller surrounding towns such as New Braunfels, Castroville, Boerne, Comfort, Fredericksburg, and Bulverde, all towns far out from San Antonio. However, the Germans were then drawn to San Antonio for work, and many buildings and streets still bear German names such as Wurzbach, Huebner, and Jones Maltsberger, and Wiederstein. The German impact on San Antonio was great, in the early 1900s it is estimated that at least 1/3 of San Antonio was ethnically German. Many descendants of German immigrants in San Antonio spoke Texas German up to the fifth or sixth generations. Texas German is a dialect of German that evolved when the German language was separated from Germany. Texas German is best described as an anglicized-German dialect with a Texas twang. Many older generations in New Braunfels and Fredericksburg still speak Texas German to this day.[37]

In 1877, following the Reconstruction Era, the Galveston, Harrisburg, & San Antonio Railroad became the first railroad to reach San Antonio, connecting it to major markets and port cities.[38] Texas was the first state to have major cities develop by railroads rather than waterways.[39] In Texas, the railroads supported a markedly different pattern of development of major interior cities, such as San Antonio, Dallas and Fort Worth, compared to the historical development of coastal port cities in the established eastern states.

At the beginning of the 20th century, the streets of the city's downtown were widened to accommodate street cars and modern traffic. At that time, many of the older historic buildings were demolished in the process of this modernization.[40]

Since the late twentieth century, San Antonio has had steady population growth. The city's population has nearly doubled in 35 years, from just over 650,000 in the 1970 census to an estimated 1.2 million in 2005, through both population growth and land annexation (the latter has considerably enlarged the physical area of the city).[41] In 1990, the United States Census Bureau reported San Antonio's population as 55.6% Hispanic or Latino, 7.0% Black or African American, and 36.2% non-Hispanic white.[42]

The San Antonio Missions National Historical Park and The Alamo became UNESCO World Heritage sites in 2015 and the city was designated a UNESCO "City of Creativity for Gastronomy" in 2017, one of only 26 gastronomy creative cities in the world.[20]

With the increase in professional jobs, San Antonio has become a destination for many college-educated persons, most recently including African Americans in a reverse Great Migration from northern and western areas.[43][44]

Over 31,000 migrants who requested asylum have been released by the Border Patrol into the city in 2019 during the National Emergency Concerning the Southern Border of the United States.[45]

Geography

[edit]
Satellite picture of San Antonio by ESA Sentinel-2

San Antonio is approximately 75 miles (121 km) to the southwest of its neighboring city, Austin, the state capital, about 150 miles (240 km) from the Mexico-United States border, about 190 miles (310 km) west of Houston, and about 250 miles (400 km) south of the Dallas–Fort Worth area. The city has a total area of 465.4 square miles (1,205.4 km2); 460.93 square miles (1,193.8 km2) of San Antonio's total area is land and 4.5 square miles (11.7 km2) of it is water.[46] The city's gently rolling terrain is dotted with oak trees, forested land, mesquite, and cacti. The Texas Hill Country reaches into the far northern portions of the city. San Antonio sits on the Balcones Escarpment. Its altitude is approximately 662 feet (202 m) above sea level.[47]

The city's primary source of drinking water is the Edwards Aquifer.[48] Impounded in 1962 and 1969, respectively, Victor Braunig Lake and Calaveras Lake were among the first reservoirs in the United States built to use recycled treated wastewater for power plant cooling, reducing the amount of groundwater needed for electrical generation.[49]

Neighborhoods

[edit]

Downtown

[edit]

Downtown San Antonio, the city and metro area's urban core, encompasses many of the city's famous structures, attractions, and businesses. The central business district is generally understood to cover the northern half of the "Downtown Loop"—the area bordered by Cesar Chavez to the south. Due to the size of the city and its horizontal development, downtown accounts for less than one half of one percent of San Antonio's geographic area.[50] The Strip (north of Downtown) houses a concentration of clubs and bars catering to the LGBT community.[51]

North Central

[edit]

North Central is home to several enclaves and upscale neighborhoods including Castle Hills, Shavano Park, Hollywood Park, Elm Creek, Inwood, Stone Oak, and Rogers Ranch. The area is also the location of upper-middle-class neighborhoods (Deerfield, Churchill Estates, Hunter's Creek, Oak Meadow, and Summerfield).

Northwest Side

[edit]

Northwest Side is the location of the main campus of the University of Texas at San Antonio, the University of Texas Health Science Center at San Antonio, and the Northwest Campus of the University of the Incarnate Word, which includes the Rosenberg School of Optometry. The Medical Center District is also located in Northwest Side. Companies with headquarters in the area include Valero and NuStar Energy.

South Side

[edit]

The South Side area of San Antonio is characterized by its predominantly Latino and Hispanic neighborhoods, who on average, account for above 81 percent of the population.[52] Large growth came to South Side when Toyota constructed a manufacturing plant. Palo Alto College and Texas A&M University–San Antonio are located in the area.

East Side

[edit]

The East Side of San Antonio is home to the San Antonio Stock Show & Rodeo, the Frost Bank Center, and the Freeman Coliseum. This area has the largest concentration of Black and African American residents.[53]

West Side

[edit]

The West Side is predominantly Hispanic/Latin American and working class, with pockets of wealth in the northwest and far west. African Americans are also located in parts of San Antonio's West Side.[54] The West Side has undergone gentrification as of 2019.[55] It includes the diverse neighborhoods of Avenida Guadalupe, Collins Garden, Las Palmas, Prospect Hill, Rainbow Hills (Marbach), San Juan Gardens, Loma Park, Loma Vista, Memorial Heights, and Westwood. It is also home to the historic Our Lady of the Lake University and St. Mary's University.

 
Skyline of San Antonio (2013)

Flora and fauna

[edit]

Natural vegetation in the San Antonio area (where undisturbed by development) includes oak-cedar woodland, oak grassland savanna, chaparral brush, and riparian (stream) woodland. San Antonio is at the westernmost limit for both Cabbage palmetto (Sabal palmetto) and Spanish moss.

The native Eastern Subterranean Termite (Reticulitermes flavipes) is a common structural pest here.[56] The Formosan Termite (Coptotermes formosanus) is an invasive pest originally from the Far East.[57][58] Researchers at Texas A&M University consider it to be economically devastating.[57]

Climate

[edit]
San Antonio
Climate chart (explanation)
J
F
M
A
M
J
J
A
S
O
N
D
 
 
1.8
 
 
61
38
 
 
1.8
 
 
67
42
 
 
2.3
 
 
74
50
 
 
2.1
 
 
80
57
 
 
4
 
 
86
66
 
 
4.1
 
 
91
72
 
 
2.7
 
 
95
74
 
 
2.1
 
 
95
74
 
 
3
 
 
90
69
 
 
4.1
 
 
82
59
 
 
2.3
 
 
71
49
 
 
1.9
 
 
64
41
â–ˆ Average max. and min. temperatures in °F
â–ˆ Precipitation totals in inches
Source: NOAA
Metric conversion
J
F
M
A
M
J
J
A
S
O
N
D
 
 
45
 
 
16
3
 
 
45
 
 
20
6
 
 
59
 
 
24
10
 
 
53
 
 
27
14
 
 
102
 
 
30
19
 
 
105
 
 
33
22
 
 
70
 
 
35
23
 
 
53
 
 
35
23
 
 
77
 
 
32
20
 
 
104
 
 
28
15
 
 
58
 
 
22
9
 
 
49
 
 
18
5
â–ˆ Average max. and min. temperatures in °C
â–ˆ Precipitation totals in mm

San Antonio has a transitional humid subtropical climate (Köppen: Cfa) that borders a hot semi-arid climate (Köppen climate classification: BSh) towards the west of the city[59][60][61] featuring very hot, long, and humid summers and mild to cool winters. The area is subject to descending northern cold fronts in the winter with cool to cold nights, and is warm and rainy in the spring and fall. San Antonio falls in USDA hardiness zones 8b (15 °F to 20 °F) and 9a (20 °F to 25 °F).[62]

San Antonio receives about a dozen subfreezing nights each year, typically seeing snow, sleet, or freezing rain about once every two or three winters, but accumulation and snow itself are very rare. Winters may pass without any frozen precipitation at all, and up to a decade has passed between snowfalls. According to the National Weather Service, there have been 32 instances of snowfall (a trace or more) in the city in the past 122 years, about once every four years. Prior to 2021 snow was most recently seen on December 7, 2017, when 1.9 inches (4.8 cm) of snow coated the city.[63] On January 13, 1985, San Antonio received a record snowfall of 16 inches (41 cm).[64][65] During the February 13–17, 2021, North American winter storm, San Antonio was blanketed with 4–6 inches (10–15 cm) of snow. The cold air which accompanied this storm caused massive rolling blackouts throughout the city until the 18th. The February 15–20, 2021, North American winter storm dropped another 1–2 inches (2.5–5 cm) on the city on the 16th.

San Antonio and New Braunfels, 40 miles (64 km) to the northeast, are some of the most flood-prone regions in North America.[66] The October 1998 Central Texas floods were among the costliest floods in United States history, resulting in $750 million in damage and 32 deaths. In 2002, from June 30 to July 7, 35 in (890 mm) of rain fell in the San Antonio area, resulting in widespread flooding and 12 fatalities.[67]

Tornadoes within the city limits have been reported as recently as February 2017, although they are uncommon.[68] An F2 tornado lands within 50 mi (80 km) of the city on average once every five years. San Antonio has experienced two F4 tornadoes, one in 1953 and another in 1973. The 1953 tornado resulted in two deaths and 15 injuries.[69] Based on historical data, San Antonio is the safest major city in Texas when it comes to tornadoes.[70]

In San Antonio, July and August tie for the average warmest months, with an average high of 95 °F (35 °C). The highest temperature ever recorded was 111 °F (44 °C) on September 5, 2000.[71] The average coolest month is January. The lowest recorded temperature ever was 0 °F (−18 °C) on January 31, 1949.[71] May, June, and October have quite a bit of precipitation. Since recordkeeping began in 1871, the average annual precipitation has been 29.03 inches (737 mm), with a maximum of 52.28 inches (1,328 mm) and a minimum of 10.11 inches (256.8 mm) in one year.[72]

Climate data for San Antonio (San Antonio Int'l), 1991–2020 normals,[a] extremes 1885–present[b]
Month Jan Feb Mar Apr May Jun Jul Aug Sep Oct Nov Dec Year
Record high °F (°C) 89
(32)
100
(38)
100
(38)
101
(38)
104
(40)
108
(42)
107
(42)
110
(43)
111
(44)
99
(37)
94
(34)
90
(32)
111
(44)
Mean maximum °F (°C) 80.3
(26.8)
84.9
(29.4)
88.9
(31.6)
92.2
(33.4)
96.0
(35.6)
98.9
(37.2)
100.5
(38.1)
102.1
(38.9)
98.7
(37.1)
93.1
(33.9)
85.1
(29.5)
80.6
(27.0)
103.8
(39.9)
Mean daily maximum °F (°C) 63.3
(17.4)
67.5
(19.7)
73.8
(23.2)
80.3
(26.8)
86.6
(30.3)
92.4
(33.6)
94.9
(34.9)
96.0
(35.6)
90.1
(32.3)
82.2
(27.9)
71.7
(22.1)
64.7
(18.2)
80.3
(26.8)
Daily mean °F (°C) 52.2
(11.2)
56.3
(13.5)
62.8
(17.1)
69.4
(20.8)
76.5
(24.7)
82.6
(28.1)
84.8
(29.3)
85.5
(29.7)
79.9
(26.6)
71.3
(21.8)
60.7
(15.9)
53.5
(11.9)
69.6
(20.9)
Mean daily minimum °F (°C) 41.0
(5.0)
45.1
(7.3)
51.8
(11.0)
58.4
(14.7)
66.4
(19.1)
72.7
(22.6)
74.7
(23.7)
74.9
(23.8)
69.6
(20.9)
60.4
(15.8)
49.8
(9.9)
42.4
(5.8)
58.9
(14.9)
Mean minimum °F (°C) 26.2
(−3.2)
29.0
(−1.7)
33.7
(0.9)
41.6
(5.3)
53.1
(11.7)
65.3
(18.5)
70.2
(21.2)
69.4
(20.8)
57.4
(14.1)
41.8
(5.4)
32.2
(0.1)
27.4
(−2.6)
23.5
(−4.7)
Record low °F (°C) 0
(−18)
4
(−16)
19
(−7)
31
(−1)
42
(6)
48
(9)
60
(16)
57
(14)
41
(5)
27
(−3)
21
(−6)
6
(−14)
0
(−18)
Average precipitation inches (mm) 1.96
(50)
1.74
(44)
2.31
(59)
2.42
(61)
4.40
(112)
3.28
(83)
2.41
(61)
2.15
(55)
3.88
(99)
3.75
(95)
2.08
(53)
2.00
(51)
32.38
(822)
Average snowfall inches (cm) 0.0
(0.0)
0.1
(0.25)
0.0
(0.0)
0.0
(0.0)
0.0
(0.0)
0.0
(0.0)
0.0
(0.0)
0.0
(0.0)
0.0
(0.0)
0.0
(0.0)
0.0
(0.0)
0.1
(0.25)
0.2
(0.51)
Average precipitation days (≥ 0.01 in) 6.9 7.4 8.5 6.4 8.3 7.0 5.0 4.7 6.9 6.4 6.4 7.4 81.3
Average snowy days (≥ 0.1 in) 0.0 0.3 0.0 0.0 0.0 0.0 0.0 0.0 0.0 0.0 0.0 0.0 0.3
Average relative humidity (%) 67.1 65.2 63.2 66.3 70.5 68.8 65.0 64.7 68.0 67.2 68.3 68.0 66.9
Average dew point °F (°C) 37.0
(2.8)
39.9
(4.4)
46.8
(8.2)
55.6
(13.1)
63.7
(17.6)
68.4
(20.2)
68.9
(20.5)
68.5
(20.3)
65.7
(18.7)
57.0
(13.9)
48.0
(8.9)
40.1
(4.5)
55.0
(12.8)
Mean monthly sunshine hours 159.4 169.7 215.5 209.7 221.8 275.9 308.8 293.9 234.9 218.0 171.9 149.7 2,629.2
Percent possible sunshine 49 54 58 54 52 66 72 72 63 61 54 47 59
Source: NOAA (relative humidity, dew point and sun 1961–1990)[73][74][75]
Climate data for San Antonio
Month Jan Feb Mar Apr May Jun Jul Aug Sep Oct Nov Dec Year
Mean daily daylight hours 11.0 11.0 12.0 13.0 14.0 14.0 14.0 13.0 12.0 11.0 11.0 10.0 12.2
Average Ultraviolet index 4 6 8 10 11 11 11 11 10 7 5 4 8.2
Source: Weather Atlas[76]

See or edit raw graph data.

Demographics

[edit]
Historical population
Census Pop. Note
1850 3,488  
1860 8,235   136.1%
1870 12,256   48.8%
1880 20,550   67.7%
1890 37,673   83.3%
1900 53,321   41.5%
1910 96,614   81.2%
1920 161,379   67.0%
1930 231,542   43.5%
1940 253,854   9.6%
1950 408,442   60.9%
1960 587,718   43.9%
1970 654,153   11.3%
1980 785,940   20.1%
1990 935,933   19.1%
2000 1,144,646   22.3%
2010 1,327,407   16.0%
2020 1,434,625   8.1%
2023 (est.) 1,495,295 [77] 4.2%
U.S. Decennial Census
2010–2020, 2021[9]
Racial composition 2020[24] 2010[78] 1990[42] 1970[42] 1950[42]
Hispanic or Latino 63.9% 63.2% 55.6% 51.3% n/a
White (Non-Hispanic) 23.4% 26.6% 36.2% 41.0% n/a
Black or African American 6.5% 6.3% 7.0% 7.6% 7.0%
Asian 3.2% 2.3% 1.1% 0.3% 0.2%
Indigenous 1.2% 0.9% 0.4% 0.1% <0.1%
Mixed 2.3% 1.2%
Map of racial distribution in San Antonio, 2010 U.S. census. Each dot is 25 people: ⬤ White

⬤ Black

⬤ Asian

⬤ Hispanic

⬤ Other

The U.S. Census Bureau's 2020 census determined San Antonio had a population of 1,434,625 residents in 2020. In 2019, the American Community Survey estimated San Antonio had a racial makeup of 88.4% White, 6.6% Black and African American, 0.2% American Indian and Alaska Native, 2.8% Asian, 0.1% Native Hawaiian and other Pacific Islander, 0.2% some other race and 1.7% two or more races. Ethnically, 64.5% were Hispanic or Latin American of any race.[79] In 2020, its racial and ethnic makeup was 23.4% non-Hispanic white, 63.9% Hispanic or Latin American of any race, 6.5% Black and African American, 3.2% Asian, and 2.3% multiracial or some other race.

According to the 2010 U.S. census, 1,327,407 people resided in San Antonio city proper, an increase of 16.0% since 2000. The racial composition of the city based on the 2010 U.S. census is as follows: 72.6% White (non-Hispanic whites: 26.6%), 6.9% Black or African American, 0.9% Native American, 2.4% Asian, 0.1% Native Hawaiian or Pacific Islander, 3.4% two or more races, and 13.7% other races. In addition, 63.2% of the city's population was of Hispanic or Latino origin, of any race.[78] According to the 2000 U.S. census, the city proper had a population of 1,144,646,[80] ranking it the ninth-most populated city in the country. San Antonio has a relatively lower cost of living compared to most Texas and U.S. major cities and a strong job market.[81] However, due to San Antonio's low density and relatively small suburban population, the metropolitan area ranked just 30th in the United States, with a population of 1,592,383 in 2000.[82] San Antonio has a large Hispanic population with a significant African American population.[82]

The 2011 U.S. census estimate for the eight-county San Antonio–New Braunfels metropolitan area placed its population at 2,194,927.[83] The 2017 estimate for Greater San Antonio was 2,473,974, making it the third-most populous metro area in Texas (after the Dallas–Fort Worth metroplex and Greater Houston) and the 24th-most populous metro area in the U.S.[12]

About 405,474 households, and 280,993 families resided in San Antonio. The population density as of 2010 was 2,808.5 people per square mile (1,084.4 people/km2). There were 433,122 housing units at an average density of 1,062.7 per square mile (410.3/km2). The age of the city's population was distributed as 28.5% under the age of 18, 10.8% from 18 to 24, 30.8% from 25 to 44, 19.4% from 45 to 64, and 10.4% who are 65 years of age or older. The median age was 32 years. In San Antonio, 48% of the population were males, and 52% of the population were females. For every 100 females, there were 93.5 males. For every 100 females age 18 and over, there were 89.7 males.

At the 2019 American Community Survey, there were 512,273 households and 319,673 families.[84] The average household size was 2.98 and the average family size was 3.83. Of the local population,[85] 201,960 were married-couple households and 172,741 were female households with no spouse or partner present. An estimated 85,462 households were single-person. Roughly 218,249 residents in San Antonio were foreign-born residents. For every 100 females, San Antonio had 97.1 males.[79]

At the 2010 U.S. census, San Antonio's median income for a household was $36,214, and the median income for a family was $53,100. Males have a median income of $30,061 versus $24,444 for females. The per capita income for the city is $17,487. About 17.3% of the population and 14.0% of families are below the poverty line. Of the total population, 24.3% of those under the age of 18 and 13.5% of those 65 and older were living below the poverty line.[86] In 2019, households had a median income of $53,571 and a mean income of $72,587.[87] An estimated 16.8% of the population lived at or below the poverty line.[88] The city of San Antonio and its metropolis was rated the poorest in 2019.[89][90][91]

A Gallup study in 2015 determined 4% of the city and Greater San Antonio identified as lesbian, gay, bisexual, or transgender.[92] In 2016, San Antonio scored a 90 out of 100 in its treatment of the LGBT community.[93]

Religion

[edit]
San Fernando Cathedral is the see of the Roman Catholic Archdiocese of San Antonio.

The population of Greater San Antonio is predominantly Christian. Owing in part to San Antonio's Spanish and Mexican heritage, Roman Catholicism is the largest religious group in the region.[94][95] In addition, American missionary work and immigration into Texas have also resulted in a substantial Protestant population.[96]

The Catholic population forms the largest Christian group in the city and Greater San Antonio.[95] San Antonian Catholics are served primarily by the Roman Catholic Archdiocese of San Antonio. The Latin Church's Roman Catholic Archdiocese of San Antonio was established on August 27, 1784, under the then Diocese of Galveston.[97] It was elevated to archdiocese status in 1926.

According to Sperling's BestPlaces in 2020, the second largest Christian group were Baptists. The largest Baptist Christian denominations within San Antonio and its metro area were the Baptist General Convention of Texas,[98] the Southern Baptist Convention,[99] and the Cooperative Baptist Fellowship.[100] Methodists formed the second largest Protestant group and the third largest Christian group for the area. The United Methodist Church was the most prominent Methodist denomination.[101] From 2017 to 2020, Pentecostalism outgrew Lutheranism and tied with the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints as the fourth largest Christian group. A major predominantly African American-led church is Denver Heights, affiliated with the Church of God in Christ.

After Lutherans, Presbyterians were the next largest Christian denomination, followed by Episcopalian or Anglicans, and Christians of other traditions including the Eastern Orthodox and Oriental Orthodoxy. The Eastern Orthodox communities are divided between the Greek Orthodox Archdiocese of America,[102] the Antiochian Orthodox Archdiocese of North America,[103] the Orthodox Church in America,[104] and the Russian Orthodox Church Outside Russia.[105] Episcopalians and Anglicans primarily are served by the Episcopal Church in the United States and the Anglican Church in North America.[106][107] Churches affiliated with the Episcopal Church form the Episcopal Diocese of West Texas. Overall, the Protestant demographic was predominantly Evangelical as of 2020.

Islam is the second largest religion in the Greater San Antonio area.[95] Eastern religions such as Buddhism, Sikhism, and Hinduism also have a significant presence in San Antonio.[108] An estimated 0.3% of the area's population identified with Judaism according to Sperling's BestPlaces and at least 10,000 Jews live in the city.[109] The San Antonio Jewish community began not long after the independence of the Republic of Texas.[110] The oldest synagogue in South Texas (Temple Beth-El) is located in the city limits and located near San Antonio College.[111][112]

Crime

[edit]
San Antonio police officers

Crime in San Antonio began to rise in the early 1980s, similar to many urban areas in the US. In 1983 San Antonio had the tenth highest homicide rate in Texas with 18.5 homicides per 100,000 residents.[113] The number of juveniles arrested in San Antonio for violent crimes tripled between 1987 and 1994, according to the Texas Law Enforcement Management and Administration Statistics Program. The number of youths arrested for unlawfully carrying firearms doubled over the same period.

In 1993, San Antonio earned the nickname the "Drive-By City" after the San Antonio Police Department recorded over 1,200 drive-by shootings, or an average of about 3.5 per day, which overshadowed the number in other Texas cities. A majority of the violence occurred on the east and west sides of the city, especially in areas with high poverty rates. Gang violence led to the deaths of their members and sometimes innocent bystanders, and housing projects such as the Alazán-Apache Courts served as hubs for various groups, which sometimes included rival gangs.[114] By the end of 1993 the city hit a peak in homicides with 230 killings, the highest since 1991 when 211 were killed.[115]

In 2016, the number of murders hit 151, the highest toll in 20 years. A majority of the San Antonio homicide victims were Hispanic and African American men between ages 18 and 29. According to a study, 40% of the killings were either drug-related or domestic incidents.[116][117] In 2020, San Antonio ranked the fourth U.S. city with the biggest increase in homicides.[118] From January to June 2020, there were 71 homicides according to the San Antonio Police Department. In 2019, there were 53 reported homicides in contrast. A total of 105 homicides occurred in 2019 in the city. According to The Wall Street Journal, homicide rates were relatively low compared to previous decades.[119]

Economy

[edit]
SAT   Corporation   US
1   Valero Energy Corp.   29
2   USAA   103
         

San Antonio has a diversified economy with a gross domestic product (GDP) of approximately $121 billion in 2018.[120] San Antonio's economy focuses primarily on military, health care, government–civil service, professional and business services,[121] oil and gas, and tourism. Since the beginning of the 21st century, the city has become a significant location for American-based call centers and has added a sizable manufacturing sector centered around automobiles.[122][123] The city also has a growing technology sector.[124] Located about 10 miles (16 km) northwest of Downtown is the South Texas Medical Center, a conglomerate of various hospitals, clinics, and research (see Southwest Research Institute and Texas Biomedical Research Institute) and higher educational institutions.[125]

Over twenty million tourists visit the city and its attractions every year, contributing substantially to its economy, primarily due to The Alamo and the River Walk.[126] The Henry B. Gonzalez Convention Center alone hosts over 300 events annually with more than 750,000 convention delegates from around the world. Tourism provided over 130,000 jobs, and it had an economic impact of $13.6 billion in the local economy according to information gathered in 2017.[127] The city of San Antonio received $195 million in the same year from the hospitality industry, with revenues from hotel occupancy tax, sales taxes and others.

Headquarters of Valero Energy Corporation

San Antonio is the headquarters of two Fortune 500 companies: Valero Energy and USAA. iHeartMedia had been on the list but fell off,[128] and NuStar Energy was also on the list until it was purchased by Sunoco LP in 2024. H-E-B, the 5th-largest private company in the U.S.,[129] is also headquartered in San Antonio.

Other companies headquartered in the city include Bill Miller Bar-B-Q Enterprises, Carenet Health, Security Service Federal Credit Union, Visionworks of America, Frost Bank, Harte-Hanks, Kinetic Concepts, SWBC, NewTek, Rackspace, Pabst Brewing Company, Taco Cabana, Broadway Bank, Zachry Holdings/Zachry Construction Company, Randolph-Brooks Federal Credit Union, SAS, Globalscape, and Whataburger. The North American Development Bank, a development finance institution jointly held by the governments of the U.S. and Mexico, is headquartered in San Antonio as well. Other notable companies that maintain sizable presences in the city include Hulu,[130][131] OCI,[132] Capital Group, CGI,[133][134] Marathon Petroleum,[135] Silver Spring Networks,[136][137] Toyota,[138] Argo Group,[139] EOG Resources, Microsoft,[140] Cogeco Peer1,[141] Wells Fargo, Citi Bank,[142] and Boeing.[143] In December 2020, Amazon announced plans to for three new facilities in San Antonio.[144][145]

San Antonio has lost several major company headquarters, the largest being the 2008 move of AT&T Inc. to Dallas "to better serve customers and expand business in the future."[146] In 2019, Andeavor (Formerly Tesoro) was acquired by Marathon Petroleum; this merger eliminated the company and the headquarters was moved to Findlay, Ohio.[147] After a Los Angeles buyout specialist purchased Builders Square, the company's operations were moved out of San Antonio.[148]

The city is home to one of the largest concentrations of military bases in the U.S., and has been nicknamed "Military City, USA". The city is home to several active military installations: Lackland Air Force Base, Brooke Army Medical Center, Randolph Air Force Base, and Fort Sam Houston.[23][149]

San Antonio and Mexico share strong economic ties and engage in important exchanges to the benefit of their business communities. To better strengthen these business and cultural ties, the City of San Antonio opened Casa San Antonio to act as the city's trade and cultural office in Mexico.[150]

The Formosan termite (Coptotermes formosanus) causes economic devastation in the region due to the structural damage it causes.[57][58] It is an invasive pest originally from the Far East.[57][58] First found in the state in 1957, it has since spread into the greater San Antonio area, creating a problem for the region's pecan orchards.[151]

Arts and culture

[edit]
The River Walk with the Tower of the Americas in the background

San Antonio is a popular tourist destination. The Alamo Mission in San Antonio ("The Alamo"), located in Downtown, is Texas' top tourist attraction. Because of the mission, San Antonio is often called "Alamo City".[152]

The River Walk, which meanders through the Downtown area, is the city's second-most-visited attraction, giving it the additional nickname of "River City". Extended by an additional 13 miles (21 km) between 2009 and 2013, the landscaped walking and bike path line the San Antonio River from the "Museum Reach" beginning in Brackenridge Park through downtown, "Downtown Reach", past the Blue Star's "Eagleland" to the "Mission Reach" ending near Loop 410 South past Mission Espada.[153]

Lined with numerous shops, bars, and restaurants, as well as the Arneson River Theater, this attraction is transformed into a festival of lights during the Christmas and New Year holiday period (except for the Mission Reach), and is suffused with the local sounds of folklorico and flamenco music during the summer, particularly during celebrations such as the Fiesta Noche del Rio.

The Downtown area also features San Fernando Cathedral, The Majestic Theatre, Hemisfair (home of the Tower of the Americas, and UTSA's Institute of Texan Cultures), La Villita, Market Square, the Spanish Governor's Palace, and the historic Menger Hotel. The Fairmount Hotel, built in 1906 and San Antonio's second oldest hotel, is in the Guinness World Records as one of the heaviest buildings ever moved intact.[154] It was placed in its new location, three blocks south of the Alamo, over four days in 1985, and cost $650,000 to move.

SeaWorld, 16 miles (26 km) west of Downtown in the city's Westover Hills district, is one of the largest marine life parks in the world. The San Antonio Zoo is in Brackenridge Park. The British company Merlin Entertainments developed an aquarium attraction and indoor counterpart to SeaWorld. It is inside the Shops at Rivercenter in Downtown San Antonio and is one of Merlin's Sea Life Aquariums. The San Antonio Aquarium features a number of interactive exhibits.

San Antonio is also home to several commercial amusement parks, including Six Flags Fiesta Texas and Morgan's Wonderland, a theme park for children with special needs.[155] Kiddie Park, featuring old-fashioned amusement rides for children, was established in 1925 and is the oldest children's amusement park in the U.S.[156]

Aerial view of Six Flags Fiesta Texas

San Antonio is home to the first museum of modern art in Texas, the McNay Art Museum.[157][158] Other art institutions and museums include ArtPace, Blue Star Contemporary Art Center, the Briscoe Western Art Museum, Ruby City, Buckhorn Saloon & Museum (where visitors can experience something of cowboy culture year round), San Antonio Museum of Art, formerly the Lonestar Brewery, Say Sí (mentoring San Antonio artistic youth), the Southwest School of Art, Texas Rangers Museum, Texas Transportation Museum, the Witte Museum and the DoSeum. An outdoor display at North Star Mall features 40-foot (12-meter)-tall cowboy boots.

The city's five missions, the four in the San Antonio Missions National Historical Park plus The Alamo, were named UNESCO World Heritage sites on July 5, 2015.[20] The San Antonio Missions became the 23rd U.S. site on the World Heritage list, which includes the Grand Canyon and the Statue of Liberty; it is the first site in Texas. The new Mission Reach of the River Walk was completed in 2013, and created over 15 miles (24 km) of biking, hiking, and paddling trails that connect the Missions to Downtown and the Broadway Corridor.[159]

San Antonio's Howard W. Peak Greenway Trail System is a big draw. It covers more than 82 miles (132 km) and has more than 50 trailheads.[160]

Other places of interest include the San Antonio Botanical Garden, Brackenridge Park, the Japanese Tea Gardens, and the Woodlawn Theater.

In 2015 work was authorized to begin on the restoration of the former Hot Wells hotel, spa, and bathhouses on the San Antonio River on the city's south side.[161]

Annual events

[edit]

Yearly events, such as Fiesta San Antonio (the city's signature event), Luminaria (a contemporary arts festival) and Fiesta Noche del Rio, add a variety of entertainment options to the area, as well as strengthening the economy. Fiesta San Antonio alone carries an annual economic impact of $340 million.[162] The city also plays host to the San Antonio Film Festival every summer in August.[163]

Sports

[edit]
Professional and major NCAA D1 sports teams (ranked by attendance)
Club Sport League Founded Venue (capacity) Attendance Titles Championship
years

UTSA Roadrunners
Football NCAA Division I 2011 Alamodome (65,000) 27,576 2  

San Antonio Spurs
Basketball NBA 1967 Frost Bank Center (18,580) 18,418 5 1999, 2003, 2005, 2007, 2014

San Antonio Missions
Baseball Double-A Central 1888 Wolff Stadium (9,200) 8,500 13 [o 1]

San Antonio FC
Soccer USL Championship 2016 Toyota Field (8,300) 6,765 1 2022

San Antonio Brahmas
Football UFL 2022 Alamodome (65,000) 27,576 0  
  1. ^ 1897, 1908, 1933, 1950, 1961, 1963, 1964, 1997, 2002, 2003, 2007, 2011, 2013

Professional sports

[edit]

The city's only top-level professional sports team is the San Antonio Spurs of the National Basketball Association. Previously the Spurs played at the Alamodome (which was speculatively built in an attempt to lure a professional football team to the region), and before that the HemisFair Arena. They moved into the SBC Center in 2002 (since renamed the Frost Bank Center), built with public funds.

San Antonio is home to the Double-A San Antonio Missions, who play at Nelson Wolff Stadium and are the Minor League Baseball affiliate of the San Diego Padres.[164]

Toyota Field during the 2014 Soccer Bowl

San Antonio had a professional soccer franchise when the San Antonio Thunder played two seasons in the original NASL during the 1975–1976 seasons. Professional soccer returned with the birth of the San Antonio Scorpions of the modern NASL in 2012. The Scorpions won the 2014 Soccer Bowl, the first soccer championship in city history. On December 22, 2015, it was announced that Toyota Field and S.T.A.R. Soccer Complex were sold to the City of San Antonio and Bexar County, a deal which was accompanied by an agreement for Spurs Sports and Entertainment to operate the facilities and field a team would play in the United Soccer League Championship. San Antonio FC began play in the soccer-specific stadium, Toyota Field, in 2016, and won the 2022 league championship. As a result, the San Antonio Scorpions franchise of the NASL was shut down.

  • San Antonio has two rugby union teams, the Alamo City Rugby Football Club, and San Antonio Rugby Football Club. The San Antonio metropolitan area's smaller population has so far contributed to its lack of an NFL, MLB, NHL, or MLS team. City officials are said to be attempting to lure the National Football League permanently to San Antonio. Former NFL Commissioner Paul Tagliabue stated San Antonio was successful in temporarily hosting the New Orleans Saints following Hurricane Katrina, and that the city would be on the short list for any future NFL expansions.[165] The city has also hosted the Dallas Cowboys and Houston Oilers preseason camps in the past, and the Cowboys practiced in San Antonio through 2011.[166] Cowboys owner Jerry Jones acknowledged his support for the city to become home to an NFL franchise.[167]

The city has played host to a number of major and minor league football teams, primarily at Alamo Stadium and the Alamodome. The San Antonio Gunslingers of the United States Football League and the San Antonio Riders of the World League of American Football played for two seasons each in the 1980s and 1990s, respectively; while the San Antonio Wings of the World Football League and the San Antonio Texans of the Canadian Football League each played a single season. In 2018, the Alliance of American Football announced that the San Antonio Commanders would play in the city beginning in 2019.[168] The Commanders opened play at the Alamodome in February 2019. San Antonio was also home to the minor-league Toros of the Texas Football League (later the Continental Football League, then Trans-American Football League) from 1966 to 1971; and the minor-league Charros of the American Football Association from 1978 to 1981. Since 2020, the San Antonio Brahmas of the UFL's XFL conference have played at the Alamodome.

The Valero Texas Open is a professional golf tournament on the PGA Tour held at San Antonio since 1922. It has been played at TPC San Antonio since 2010. Previous venues include the Brackenridge Park Golf Course, La Cantera Golf Club and Pecan Valley Golf Club; the latter also hosted the 1968 PGA Championship. The Alamo Ladies Classic was an LPGA Tour event held from 1960 to 1973.

The first Rising Phoenix World Championships was held at Grand Hyatt, San Antonio in 2015.

The city used to be home to the San Antonio Stars Women's National Basketball Association until the franchise was relocated in October 2017 to Las Vegas to become the Las Vegas Aces.[169]

The city used to be home to the San Antonio Rampage ice hockey team until the franchise was sold in February 2020 to the Vegas Golden Knights.[170]

College sports

[edit]
The Alamodome, home of the UFL's Brahmas and the UTSA Roadrunners

The University of Texas at San Antonio fields San Antonio's NCAA Division I athletic teams, known as the UTSA Roadrunners. The teams play in the American Athletic Conference. The university added football in 2011, hiring former University of Miami coach Larry Coker as its initial head coach. Roadrunner football began play in 2011, with a record of 4–6. UTSA set attendance records for both highest attendance at an inaugural game (56,743) and highest average attendance for a first year program (35,521).[171][172] The Roadrunners moved to the Western Athletic Conference in 2012, to Conference USA in 2013, and to the American Athletic Conference in 2023.

The University of the Incarnate Word (UIW) also fields a full slate of NCAA Division I athletic teams, known as the Incarnate Word Cardinals. UIW's football team competes in the Football Championship Subdivision (FCS) in the Southland Conference. Since 2018, UIW's football team has won three Southland Conference championships and has made three appearances in the FCS playoffs.

Trinity University fields all the typical collegiate sports, but at the NCAA Division III level. Trinity competes in the Southern Collegiate Athletic Conference (SCAC). The Trinity baseball team won the 2016 Division III College World Series, one of six national team and 21 national individual championships won by the school's athletic program in the Division III era.[173] Prior to moving to Division III, Trinity was a national power in tennis, winning five USTA women's championships and one NCAA men's title between 1968 and 1976.[173] Chuck McKinley won the men's championship at Wimbledon and was a member of the winning Davis Cup team as a student at Trinity in 1963.[174]

San Antonio hosts the NCAA football Alamo Bowl each December. The city is also home of the U.S. Army All-American Bowl,[175] played annually in the Alamodome and televised live on NBC. The Bowl is an East versus West showdown featuring the nation's top 90 high school football senior players. The game has featured NFL stars Reggie Bush, Vince Young, Adrian Peterson, and many other college and NFL stars.

The University of Texas at San Antonio fields the only collegiate men's rugby team in the city. UTSA competes in Division III Texas Rugby Union.

Government

[edit]
City Hall, San Antonio, Texas (postcard, c. 1906)
San Antonio City Hall

The city of San Antonio is operated under the council-manager system of government. The city is divided into 10 council districts designed to be of equal population. Each district elects one person to the city council, with the mayor elected on a citywide basis. All members of the San Antonio City Council, including the mayor, are elected to two-year terms and are limited to four terms (except for those who were in office in November 2008 and are limited to a total of two terms). Houston and Laredo have similar term limits to San Antonio. All positions are elected on nonpartisan ballots, as required by Texas law. Council members are paid $45,722 and the mayor earns $61,725 a year. The current mayor is Ron Nirenberg, who was elected in 2017 with 54.59% of the vote.[176] Nirenberg was narrowly reelected in 2019 against conservative challenger Greg Brockhouse.[177][178]

The council hires a city manager to handle day-to-day operations. The council effectively functions as the city's legislative body with the city manager acting as its chief executive, responsible for the management of day-to-day operations and execution of council legislation. The current city manager is Erik Walsh.

The city operates its own electric and gas utility, CPS Energy. The San Antonio Police Department (SAPD) is the city's municipal body of law enforcement. The San Antonio Fire Department (SAFD) provides the city with fire protection and EMS service.

The city stretches into several national congressional districts and is represented in Congress by:[179]

  • Senate
    • Ted Cruz (R)
    • John Cornyn (R)
  • House of Representatives
    • Texas District 20: Joaquin Castro (D)
    • Texas District 21: Charles E. "Chip" Roy (R)
    • Texas District 23: Tony Gonzales (R)
    • Texas District 28: Henry Cuellar (D)
    • Texas District 35: Greg Casar (D)
  • State Governor
    • Greg Abbott (R)

State and federal representation

[edit]

The Texas Department of Criminal Justice (TDCJ) operates the Parole Division Region IV headquarters in the San Antonio Metro Parole Complex. San Antonio district parole offices I and III are in the parole complex, while office II is in another location.[180]

The Texas Department of Transportation operates the San Antonio District Office in San Antonio.[181]

The United States Postal Service operates San Antonio's main post office.[182] Other post offices are located throughout San Antonio.

Politics

[edit]
San Antonio Presidential Election Results[183]
Year Democratic Republican Third Parties
2024 57.8% 282,122 41.0% 200,501 1.2% 5,816
2020 61.91% 326,553 36.53% 192,653 1.56% 8,244
2016 57.63% 244,678 36.55% 155,186 5.82% 24,668
2012 56.0% 207,861 44.0% 163,315 0% 0
2008 55.6% 220,426 44.0% 174,579 0.5% 1,795

Growth policy

[edit]
Broadway Street in Alamo Heights, an enclaved city

Unlike most large cities in the U.S., San Antonio is not completely surrounded by independent suburban cities, and under Texas state law it exercises extraterritorial jurisdiction (ETJ) over much of the surrounding unincorporated land,[184][185] including planning major thoroughfares and enforcing rules for platting and subdivision. It pursues an aggressive annexation policy and opposes the creation of other municipalities within its ETJ.[186] Nearly three-fourths of its land area has been annexed since 1960.[187]

In the 2000s the city annexed several long narrow corridors along major thoroughfares in outlying areas to facilitate eventual annexation of growth developing along the routes. The city planned to annex nearly 40 additional square miles by 2009.[188]

In May 2010, the City of San Antonio agreed to release thousands of acres of land in its extraterritorial jurisdiction along Interstate 10 to Schertz. The agreement releases a total of 3,486 acres (14.11 km2) of San Antonio's ETJ lands north of I-10 to Schertz. The ETJ lands are in an area bordered by FM 1518 to the west, Lower Seguin Road to the north, Cibolo Creek to the east and I-10 to the south.[189]

Involuntary annexation is a controversial issue in those parts of unincorporated Bexar County affected by it. Residents attracted to the outlying areas by lower taxes and affordable real estate values often see annexation as a mechanism to increase property tax rates (which are primarily driven by school district taxes, not city taxes) without a corresponding improvement in services such as police and fire protection, while the city regards its annexation policy as essential to its overall prosperity.[190]

Since the city has annexed areas over time, San Antonio surrounds several independent enclave cities, including Alamo Heights, Balcones Heights, Castle Hills, Hill Country Village, Hollywood Park, Kirby, Leon Valley, Olmos Park, Shavano Park, and Terrell Hills.

Education

[edit]

Higher education

[edit]
UTSA
The University of Texas at San Antonio

San Antonio hosts over 100,000 students in its 31 higher-education institutions. Publicly supported schools include UT Health San Antonio, the University of Texas at San Antonio, Texas A&M University–San Antonio, Troy University-San Antonio Student Support Center, and the Alamo Community College District. The University of Texas at San Antonio is San Antonio's largest university.

Trinity University

Private universities include Trinity University, St. Mary's University, Our Lady of the Lake University, University of the Incarnate Word, Webster University, Baptist University of the Américas, Hallmark University, Oblate School of Theology, ECPI University,[191] and the Southwest School of Art, which enrolled its first BFA class in 2014.[192][193] The San Antonio Public Library serves all of these institutions along with the 19 independent school districts within the Bexar County and Greater San Antonio metropolitan area.[194] San Antonio is also home to a campus of The Culinary Institute of America.[195]

The National Autonomous University of Mexico (UNAM), one of Latin America's most prestigious universities, has a campus in San Antonio.[196][197]

Primary and secondary education

[edit]

The city of San Antonio is also served by the following separate independent school districts (ISDs) which each encompass elementary, middle, and high schools:[198][199]

  • Alamo Heights
  • East Central
  • Edgewood
  • Fort Sam Houston
  • Harlandale
  • Judson
  • North East
  • Northside
  • San Antonio
  • South San Antonio
  • Southside
  • Southwest
  • Somerset
  • Comal

Additionally the following school districts do not cover the San Antonio city limits but have locations which use San Antonio postal addresses:

  • Lackland

The city is home to more than 30 private schools and charter schools. The Roman Catholic Archdiocese of San Antonio operates parochial Catholic schools in San Antonio. San Antonio's private and charter schools include: Keystone School, St. Gerard Catholic High School, Central Catholic Marianist High School, Incarnate Word High School, Saint Mary's Hall, The Atonement Academy, Antonian College Preparatory High School, San Antonio Academy, Holy Cross High School, Providence High School, The Carver Academy, Keystone School, TMI – The Episcopal School of Texas, St. Anthony Catholic High School, Lutheran High School of San Antonio, and Harmony Science Academy (School of Science and Technology).

Military

[edit]

San Antonio is home to U.S. Air Force Basic Military Training (AFBMT).[200] The Air Force only has one location for enlisted basic training: the 737th Training Group, at Lackland Air Force Base. All new Air Force recruits go through the same basic training at Lackland. Each year, over 35,000 new recruits go through AFBMT. In addition, METC (the Military Education and Training Campus), which provides the medical training for the U.S. military at Fort Sam Houston, hosts 30 programs and over 24,000 annual graduates. It is the largest medical education center in the world.

Media

[edit]

Print

[edit]

San Antonio has one major newspaper, the San Antonio Express-News, which has served the area since 1865. The Express-News circulates as the largest newspaper service in South Texas. The Hearst Corporation, which owned a second newspaper, the San Antonio Light, purchased the Express-News from News Corp. in 1992 and shut down the Light after failing to find a buyer.

Hearst, using the Express-News brand, also produces Conexión, a weekly magazine written by an entirely Hispanic and Latin American staff with a Latino spin on weekly events. The San Antonio Current is the free "alternative" paper published weekly with local political issues, art and music news, restaurant listings and reviews, and listings of events and nightlife around town. The San Antonio Business Journal covers general business news. La Prensa, a bilingual publication, also has a long history in San Antonio. They closed their doors in June 2018.[201] Edible San Antonio, San Antonio's bimonthly food magazine, is published every eight weeks. The 64-page full-color magazine, distributed free across the city, is printed in soy ink on recycled paper and covers the city's food scene with an emphasis on local food and sustainability. The San Antonio River Walk Current covers general San Antonio news. The San Antonio Observer is the only African American newspaper in San Antonio since 1995 and the largest in South Texas.[citation needed]

The San Antonio Report, renamed in 2020 from the Rivard Report, is the city's only digital-only news publication.[202] Founded in 2011 by former Express-News editor Robert Rivard, it began as a blog but has since become a non-profit news source covering civic issues.[203]

Radio

[edit]

About 50 radio stations can be heard in the San Antonio area; 30 of them are in the city proper. San Antonio is home to iHeartMedia, the largest operator of radio stations in the U.S. Its flagship, WOAI AM-1200, is known for its local news operation, considered among the best in the country. It is a 50,000-watt clear channel station that reaches most of North America at night. The first radio station to broadcast in South Texas was KTSA AM-550 in 1922.

The region's National Public Radio member is Texas Public Radio,[204] a group of three stations; KSTX 89.1 FM is NPR news/talk, KPAC 88.3 is a 24-hour classical music station, and KTXI 90.1 is a mix of NPR news/talk and classical music broadcast for the West Central Texas Hill Country. KSTX also broadcasts "Riverwalk Jazz", featuring Jim Cullum Jazz Band at The Landing, a fixture on the River Walk since 1963.

KRTU 91.7 is a non-commercial radio station based at Trinity University.[205] Unlike most other college radio stations in the U.S., the station plays jazz 17 hours a day and college rock/indie rock at night. College alternative station KSYM, 90.1 FM, is owned by the Alamo Community College District and operated by San Antonio College students; like KRTU, it plays the Third Coast music network during the day and alternative music at night.

Most Latin American stations in the area play regional Mexican, Tejano or contemporary pop. On January 12, 2006, Univision-owned KMYO-FM "La Kalle 95.1" changed its format from Hispanic-Rhythmic Contemporary Hits to Spanish Oldies, then named "Recuerdo 95.1". On November 10, 2006, Univision flipped KLTO Tejano 97.7's format to reggaeton in an attempt to reintroduce the format to San Antonio. Then 97.7 was flipped again to feature a rock format. The station no longer broadcasts anything in English. While still owned by Univision, it broadcast music by artists such as Linkin Park, before being sold to the Educational Media Foundation and flipping once again to Air1.

95.1 was then flipped back to the "La Kalle" format again after being flipped to feature a "95X" format. KLTO was acquired and is operated as a simulcast of KVBH-FM Vibe 107.5. San Antonio radio is diversified, due to an influx of non-Tejano Latinos, mostly from the East Coast, who serve in the city's various military bases, as well as immigrants from Mexico. Therefore, just like in the rest of the country, radio station conglomerates have been changing formats in San Antonio to reflect shifting demographics.

Television

[edit]
WOAI-TV is San Antonio's NBC affiliate.

Despite the relatively large size of both the city proper and the metropolitan area, San Antonio has always been a medium-sized market. It presently ranks 33rd in the United States, according to marketing research firm ACNielsen.[206] This is mainly because the nearby suburban and rural areas are not much larger than the city itself.

San Antonio-based television stations include KCWX channel 2 (MyNetworkTV), WOAI-TV channel 4 (NBC, with CW on DT2), KENS channel 5 (CBS), KLRN channel 9 (PBS), KSAT-TV channel 12 (ABC), KNIC-DT channel 17 (UniMás), KABB channel 29 (FOX), KMYS channel 35 (Dabl), KWEX-DT channel 41 (Univision) and KVDA channel 60 (Telemundo). The market is also home to three religious stations, three independent stations and one Internet-based station (210 TV[207]). As of 2010, the San Antonio market has 65% cable TV penetration.[citation needed]

Transportation

[edit]

Air

[edit]
Ticket counters at San Antonio International Airport

San Antonio International Airport (SAT) is located in Uptown San Antonio, about eight miles (13 km) north of Downtown. San Antonio International Airport is the 6th busiest airport based on passenger boardings in Texas and 44th in the United States as of 2015.[208] It has two terminals and is served by 20 airlines, 15 passenger and 5 cargo ones, serving many destinations throughout the United States and Mexico. Stinson Municipal Airport is a reliever airport located six miles (9.7 km) south of Downtown San Antonio. The airport has two runways serving primarily general aviation and is also home to the Texas Air Museum.

Mass transit

[edit]
A VIA bus, stopped at a Downtown San Antonio intersection

A bus system is provided by the city's metropolitan transit authority, VIA Metropolitan Transit. VIA began operating a bus rapid transit line known as VIA Primo[209] in December 2012, which connects Downtown San Antonio to the South Texas Medical Center, the main campus of the University of Texas at San Antonio, and the independent enclave city of Leon Valley. Additionally, VIA also offers VIAtrans Paratransit Service,[210] a wheelchair accessible ride-share service for people with disabilities.

In August 2010, VIA Metropolitan Transit unveiled buses that are powered by diesel-electric hybrid technology.[211] The 30 hybrid buses were put into service on VIA's express routes to serve daily commuters across the city. This set of buses follows the introduction of new vehicles powered by compressed natural gas, which were unveiled in May 2010. In the fall of 2010, VIA took delivery of three new buses that are powered by electricity from on-board batteries. These buses serve the Downtown core area, and are the first revenue vehicles VIA operates which have zero emissions.[211]

VIA offers 90 regular bus routes and two Downtown streetcar routes.[212] This includes express service from Downtown to park and ride locations in the south, west, northwest, north central and northeast sides of the city, with service to major locations such as UTSA, Six Flags Fiesta Texas and SeaWorld. VIA also offers a special service to city events including Spurs games and city parades from its park and ride locations.

Rail

[edit]

San Antonio is served by two Amtrak routes: the daily Chicago to San Antonio Texas Eagle and the thrice-weekly New Orleans to Los Angeles Sunset Limited.[213] On the days that the Sunset Limited operates, a section of the Texas Eagle continues west with it, offering Chicago to Los Angeles through service. The old Sunset Station is now an entertainment venue owned by VIA and neighbored by the current station and the Alamodome.[214][215][216]

San Antonio became the largest American city without an intra-city rail system when Phoenix, the former largest city without such a system, procured one in 2008. A proposed passenger rail line, Lone Star Rail, would have linked San Antonio to Austin, but was cancelled in 2016 after 19 years of planning.[217]

Road

[edit]
US 281 southbound towards Downtown San Antonio

San Antonio is served by these major freeways:

  • I-10: McDermott Freeway (Northwest) runs west toward El Paso, Phoenix and Los Angeles. Jose Lopez Freeway (East) runs east toward Seguin, Houston, New Orleans and Jacksonville.
  • I-35: Pan Am Expressway (Northeast/Southwest)—runs south toward its southern terminus Laredo and runs north toward Austin, Dallas–Fort Worth, Oklahoma City, Wichita, Kansas City, Des Moines, Minneapolis-St. Paul, and finally to its northern terminus in Duluth.
  • I-37: Lucian Adams Freeway (Southeast)—runs from San Antonio through its junction with US 281 south (Edinburg and McAllen) near Three Rivers and into Corpus Christi through its junction with I-69E/US Highway 77 south (Kingsville, Harlingen and Brownsville) to its southern terminus at Corpus Christi Bay.
  • I-410: Connally Loop—simply called Loop 410 (four-ten) by locals is a 53-mile (85 km) inner beltway around the city.
  • US 90: Cleto Rodriguez Freeway (West) through Uvalde and Del Rio to its western terminus at I-10 in Van Horn. Prior to I-10 East and US 90 West expressway being built US 90 traveled through the west side via West Commerce Street (westbound) and Buena Vista Street (eastbound) and Historic Old Highway 90 (known as Enrique M. Barrera Parkway from 2015 to 2022[218]). On the east side it traveled along East Commerce Street to its current alignment which runs concurrent with I-10 East to Seguin.
  • US 281: McAllister Freeway (North) to Johnson City and Wichita Falls. Southbound, it runs concurrent with I-37, then I-410 for 4 miles (6 km), then heads south to Pleasanton. Prior to I-37 and McAllister Fwy. being built US 281 traveled through the north side via San Pedro Avenue and the south side via Roosevelt Avenue.
  • SH 151: Stotzer Freeway runs from US 90 west through Westover Hills which includes SeaWorld to its western terminus at State Loop 1604.
  • Loop 1604: Charles W. Anderson Loop—simply called 1604 (sixteen-oh-four) by locals—is a 96-mile (154 km) outer beltway around San Antonio.

Other highways include:

  • US 87: Southbound to Victoria along Roland Avenue then Rigsby Avenue. It runs concurrent with I-10 for 52 miles (84 km) where it goes to San Angelo northbound.
  • US 181: Starts 0.5 miles (0.8 km) south of I-410/I-37/US 281 interchange and heads toward Corpus Christi via Beeville. Prior to I-37 being built, US 181 traveled along Presa Street from Downtown to its current alignment.
  • SH 16: From Zapata, it runs concurrent with I-410 for 17 miles (27 km) along southwest San Antonio, over to Bandera Road to Bandera
  • State Highway 130: Starting at its southern terminus at I-35 South, it travels along East South Loop 410 until I-10/US-90, where it runs concurrently with the interstate until outside of Seguin, turning into a state toll road.
  • SH Spur 421: Also known more commonly as "Culebra Road" and "Bandera Road" inside Loop 410.
  • SH Spur 422: Known as the Poteet Jourdanton Freeway. It was originally planned to have a high speed direct connection to I-35.
  • Loop 345: Fredericksburg Road by locals; is the business loop for I-10 West/US-87 North.[219]
  • Loop 368: Broadway and Austin Highway by locals; is the business loop for I-35 North.[220]
  • State PA 1502 (Wurzbach Parkway): Limited-access, high speed road parallel to north IH-410. It has connections to I-35 (via O'Connor Road) and I-10 (via Wurzbach Road) across the north side of town.
  • Loop 353: Nogalitos Street and New Laredo Highway is the business loop for I-35 South.[221]
  • Loop 13: Is the city's inner loop on the south side serving Lackland AFB, Port San Antonio, South Park Mall and Brooks CityBase traveling along Military Drive on the south side and WW White Road on the east side to its junction with I-35/I-410. The northern arc of the loop is now I-410.

Along with FM 471, FM 1957, and SH 211

Also, the city has multiple streets with the same (or similar) names. As examples:

  • "Military Drive", "Military Highway.", and "Military Drive West"—Military Drive loops around the western and southern parts of the city. Military Highway, also called "NW Military Drive" by the locals, serves the northwestern part of the city. Military Drive West serves the far western portion of the city. None intersect each other.
  • "Wurzbach Road", "Wurzbach Parkway", and "Harry Wurzbach Road"—Wurzbach Road serves the northwestern part of the city. Wurzbach Parkway, an expressway, is an east–west road serving the northwestern and northeastern parts of the city (and can be considered an extension of Wurzbach Road). Harry Wurzbach Road runs past Fort Sam Houston and Terrell Hills on the city's northeast side, and it does not intersect Wurzbach Road or Wurzbach Parkway.
  • "Hausman Road" and "South Hausman Road" are two roads serving Helotes and the far northwest side of the city. Hausman is a major road, and a route used by locals of Helotes and NW San Antonio as an alternative to Loop 1604 connecting to I-10. South Hausman is a suburban road that does not connect with Hausman (despite its name).

A large portion of trade between Mexico and the United States passes through the San Antonio area's interstate highway system.[222]

Of the five largest cities in Texas, San Antonio (within city limits) is the largest city in the state without toll roads. (Houston, Dallas, Austin, and Fort Worth have toll roads.)

San Antonio enjoys less traffic congestion than other large Texas cities. In a 2022 study by TomTom, San Antonio is only the 41st-most congested city in the U.S. and the fifth-most congested city in Texas. By comparison, Houston, McAllen, Austin, and Dallas-Fort Worth rank higher than San Antonio for traffic congestion.[223]

Bicycle paths

[edit]

San Antonio has about 136 miles (219 km) of bike lanes, routes or off-road paths.[224] Off-road trails travel along the San Antonio River, linear greenways, or city parks. Although largely disconnected, the progress to create a bicycle-friendly environment was recognized when San Antonio was designated a bronze-level "Bicycle Friendly Community" in 2015 by the League of American Bicyclists.[225]

Bicycle sharing

[edit]

A bike sharing service was approved by the city council on June 17, 2010.[226] The initial program consisted of 140 bikes at 14 locations supported by a "central hub". It is expected to serve both residents and visitors. San Antonio Bike Share, a non-profit, was formed to oversee the operation, locally operated and maintained by Bike World. B-Cycle, the same system used in Denver, supplies the bike share system. It began operation in March 2011.[227]

Walkability

[edit]

As of 2021, Walk Score ranks San Antonio as the least walkable American city a population greater than one million and calls it car-dependent. This is due in large part to its rapid growth after World War II, the prevalence of single-family zoning and thousands of miles of missing or broken sidewalks.[228]

The Howard W. Peak Greenway is an 84-mile system (135 km) of hiking and biking trails that roughly forms a ring around the city. It is accessible by more than 65 trailheads and connects to dozens of parks. With construction beginning in 2007, the trails consist of the Leon Creek Greenway, the Salado Creek Greenway, the Westside Creeks, and the Medina River Greenway.[229][230]

International relations

[edit]

Sister cities

[edit]
A train in Darmstadt, Germany, showcasing the Sister City relationship with San Antonio

San Antonio is twinned with:

  • – Monterrey, Nuevo León, Mexico (1953)[231]
  • – Guadalajara, Jalisco, Mexico (1974)[231][232]
  • – Las Palmas de Gran Canaria, Canary Islands, Spain (1975)[231]
  • – Gwangju, South Korea (1981)[231][233]
  • – Kaohsiung, Taiwan (1981)[231]
  • – Santa Cruz de Tenerife, Canary Islands, Spain (1983)[231]
  • – Kumamoto, Japan (1987)[231]
  • – Chennai, India (2008)[231][234]
  • – Wuxi, China (2012)[231]
  • – Windhoek, Namibia (2016)[235]
  • – Darmstadt, Hesse, Germany (2017)[236]
  • – Moguer, Spain (2018). Hometown of San Antonio founder Father Antonio de Olivares.[237]

Friendship cities

[edit]
  • – Suzhou, China (2010 friendship city)[231][238]
  • – Tel Aviv-Yafo, Israel (2011 friendship city)[239]
  • – Baguio, Philippines (2022 friendship city)[240]
  • – Amman, Jordan (2024 friendship city)[13]

Notable people

[edit]

See also

[edit]
  • National Register of Historic Places listings in Bexar County, Texas
  • San Antonio Area Foundation
  • San Anto Cultural Arts

Explanatory notes

[edit]
  1. ^ Mean monthly maxima and minima (i.e., the highest and lowest temperature readings during an entire month or year) calculated based on data at said location from 1991 to 2020.
  2. ^ Official records for San Antonio were kept at downtown from March 1885 to December 1940, at Stinson Municipal Airport from January 1941 to June 1942, and at San Antonio Int'l since July 1942. For more information, see Threadex

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[edit]
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Further reading

[edit]
  • Rodriguez, Ismael Jr. (August 2021). "We Wanted to Make it Attractive for all Veterans". VFW Magazine. Vol. 108, no. 10. Kansas City, Mo.: Veterans of Foreign Wars of the United States. pp. 30–32. ISSN 0161-8598. A VFW Post in Texas grew its membership by welcoming younger veterans. Among several projects, Post members pioneered VFW's first-ever state-of-the-art esports cybercafé.
[edit]
  • City of San Antonio
  • Visit San Antonio
  • San Antonio Missions: Spanish Influence in Texas, a National Park Service Teaching with Historic Places (TwHP) lesson plan
  • City of San Antonio Mayor/City Council

 

Real estate makes up the largest asset class in the world. Much larger than bonds and stocks, which respectively rank second and third by total market cap.

Real estate investing involves the purchase, management and sale or rental of real estate for profit. Someone who actively or passively invests in real estate is called a real estate entrepreneur or a real estate investor. In contrast, real estate development is building, improving or renovating real estate.

History

[edit]

During the 1980s, real estate investment funds became increasingly involved in international real estate development. This shift led to real estate becoming a global asset class. Investing in real estate in foreign countries often requires specialized knowledge of the real estate market in that country. As international real estate investment became increasingly common in the early 21st century, the availability and quality of information regarding international real estate markets increased.[1] Real estate is one of the primary areas of investment in China, where an estimated 70% of household wealth is invested in real estate.[2]

Overview

[edit]

Types of real estate investments

[edit]

Real estate investing can be divided according to level of financial risk into core, value-added, and opportunistic.[3] Real estate is divided into several broad categories, including residential property, commercial property and industrial property.[4]

Valuation

[edit]

Real estate markets in most countries are not as organized or efficient as markets for other, more liquid investment instruments. Individual properties are unique to themselves and not directly interchangeable, which makes evaluating investments less certain. Unlike other investments, real estate is fixed in a specific location and derives much of its value from that location. With residential real estate, the perceived safety of a neighbourhood and the number of services or amenities nearby can increase the value of a property. For this reason, the economic and social situation in an area is often a major factor in determining the value of its real estate.[5]

Property valuation is often the preliminary step taken during a real estate investment. Information asymmetry is commonplace in real estate markets, where one party may have more accurate information regarding the actual value of the property. Real estate investors typically use a variety of real estate appraisal techniques to determine the value of properties before purchase. This typically includes gathering documents and information about the property, inspecting the physical property, and comparing it to the market value of similar properties.[6] A common method of valuing real estate is by dividing its net operating income by its capitalization rate, or CAP rate.[7]

Numerous national and international real estate appraisal associations exist to standardize property valuation. Some of the larger of these include the Appraisal Institute, the Royal Institution of Chartered Surveyors and the International Valuation Standards Council.[6]

Investment properties are often purchased from a variety of sources, including market listings, real estate agents or brokers, banks, government entities such as Fannie Mae, public auctions, sales by owners, and real estate investment trusts.

Financing

[edit]

Real estate assets are typically expensive, and investors will generally not pay the entire amount of the purchase price of a property in cash. Usually, a large portion of the purchase price will be financed using some sort of financial instrument or debt, such as a mortgage loan collateralized by the property itself. The amount of the purchase price financed by debt is referred to as leverage. The amount financed by the investor's own capital, through cash or other asset transfers, is referred to as equity. The ratio of leverage to total appraised value (often referred to as "LTV", or loan to value for a conventional mortgage) is one mathematical measure of the risk an investor is taking by using leverage to finance the purchase of a property. Investors usually seek to decrease their equity requirements and increase their leverage, so that their return on investment is maximized. Lenders and other financial institutions usually have minimum equity requirements for real estate investments they are being asked to finance, typically on the order of 20% of appraised value. Investors seeking low equity requirements may explore alternate financing arrangements as part of the purchase of a property (for instance, seller financing, seller subordination, private equity sources, etc.)

If the property requires substantial repair, traditional lenders like banks will often not lend on a property and the investor may be required to borrow from a private lender using a short-term bridge loan like a hard money loan. Hard money loans are usually short-term loans where the lender charges a much higher interest rate because of the higher-risk nature of the loan. Hard money loans are typically at a much lower loan-to-value ratio than conventional mortgages.

Some real estate investment organizations, such as real estate investment trusts (REITs) and some pension funds and hedge funds, have large enough capital reserves and investment strategies to allow 100% equity in the properties that they purchase. This minimizes the risk which comes from leverage but also limits potential return on investment.

By leveraging the purchase of an investment property, the required periodic payments to service the debt create an ongoing (and sometimes large) negative cash flow beginning from the time of purchase. This is sometimes referred to as the carry cost or "carry" of the investment. To be successful, real estate investors must manage their cash flows to create enough positive income from the property to at least offset the carry costs.[citation needed]

In the United States, with the signing of the JOBS Act in April 2012 by President Obama, there was an easing on investment solicitations. A newer method of raising equity in smaller amounts is through real estate crowdfunding which can pool accredited and non-accredited investors together in a special purpose vehicle for all or part of the equity capital needed for the acquisition. Fundrise was the first company to crowdfund a real estate investment in the United States.[8][9]

Sources of investment returns

[edit]

Real estate properties may generate revenue through a number of means, including net operating income, tax shelter offsets, equity build-up, and capital appreciation. Net operating income is the sum of all profits from rents and other sources of ordinary income generated by a property, minus the sum of ongoing expenses, such as maintenance, utilities, fees, taxes, and other expenses. Rent is one of the main sources of revenue in commercial real estate investment. Tenants pay an agreed upon sum to landlords in exchange for the use of real property, and may also pay a portion of upkeep or operating expenses on the property.[10]

Tax shelter offsets occur in one of three ways: depreciation (which may sometimes be accelerated), tax credits, and carryover losses which reduce tax liability charged against income from other sources for a period of 27.5 years. Some tax shelter benefits can be transferable, depending on the laws governing tax liability in the jurisdiction where the property is located. These can be sold to others for a cash return or other benefits.

Equity build-up is the increase in the investor's equity ratio as the portion of debt service payments devoted to principal accrue over time. Equity build-up counts as positive cash flow from the asset where the debt service payment is made out of income from the property, rather than from independent income sources.

Capital appreciation is the increase in the market value of the asset over time, realized as a cash flow when the property is sold. Capital appreciation can be very unpredictable unless it is part of a development and improvement strategy. The purchase of a property for which the majority of the projected cash flows are expected from capital appreciation (prices going up) rather than other sources is considered speculation rather than investment. Research results that found that real estate firms are more likely to take a smaller stake in larger assets when investing abroad (Mauck & Price, 2017).

Foreclosure investment

[edit]

Some individuals and companies focus their investment strategy on purchasing properties that are in some stage of foreclosure. A property is considered in pre-foreclosure when the homeowner has defaulted on their mortgage loan. Formal foreclosure processes vary by state and may be judicial or non-judicial, which affects the length of time the property is in the pre-foreclosure phase. Once the formal foreclosure processes are underway, these properties can be purchased at a public sale, usually called a foreclosure auction or sheriff's sale. If the property does not sell at the public auction, then ownership of the property is returned to the lender.[11] Properties at this phase are called Real Estate Owned, or REOs.

Once a property is sold at the foreclosure auction or as an REO, the lender may keep the proceeds to satisfy their mortgage and any legal costs that they incurred minus the costs of the sale and any outstanding tax obligations.

The foreclosing bank or lending institution has the right to continue to honor tenant leases (if there are tenants in the property) during the REO phase but usually, the bank wants the property vacant to sell it more easily.[12]

Buy, rehab, rent and refinance

[edit]

Buy, rehab, rent, refinance (BRRR)[13] is a real estate investment strategy, used by real estate investors who have experience renovating or rehabbing properties to "flip" houses.[14] BRRR is different from "flipping" houses. Flipping houses implies buying a property and quickly selling it for a profit, with or without repairs. BRRR is a long-term investment strategy that involves renting out a property and letting it appreciate in value before selling it. Renting out a BRRR property provides a stable passive income source that is used to cover mortgage payments while home price appreciation increases future capital gains.[15]

The phrase was slightly updated in a 2022 Bloomberg News article noting that BiggerPockets added "Repeat" to the end, making it "BRRRR" to describe a real estate investing strategy of Buy, Rehab, Rent, Refinance, Repeat.[16]

Impact

[edit]

According to Lima et al. (2022), in Ireland, the financialization of rental housing, which includes the entry of institutional investors into urban rental housing markets, contributed to structural factors that create homelessness directly by worsening affordability and security in the private rental market, and indirectly by influencing state policy.[17][18] It was found that the history, politics, and geography of the REITs cause the collapse of Irelands market (Waldron, 2018).

See also

[edit]
  • Cash on cash return
  • Depreciation recapture
  • Internal rate of return
  • Investment company
  • Investment rating for real estate
  • Investors United (School of Real Estate Investing)
  • Real estate appraisal
  • Real estate investment trust (REIT)
  • Off-plan property
  • Wholesaling

References

[edit]
  1. ^ MacGregor, Bryan D.; Schulz, Rainer; Green, Richard K. (7 December 2018). Routledge Companion to Real Estate Investment. Routledge. ISBN 9781317687856.
  2. ^ Lau, Yvonne (2 December 2021). "China stores 70% of its wealth in real estate. Now, the property crisis is forcing investors to reconsider their favorite means of savings". Fortune.
  3. ^ Garay, Urbi, Investment Styles, Portfolio Allocation, and Real Estate Derivatives (2016). Garay, U. “Investment Styles, Portfolio Allocation, and Real Estate Derivatives.” In Kazemi, H.; Black, K.; and D. Chambers (Editors), Alternative Investments: CAIA Level II, Chapter 16, Wiley Finance, 3rd Edition, 2016, pp. 401–421.
  4. ^ Glickman, Edward (14 October 2013). An Introduction to Real Estate Finance. Academic Press. ISBN 978-0-12-378627-2.
  5. ^ Levy, Richard M. (5 November 2019). Introduction to Real Estate Development and Finance. Routledge. ISBN 978-0-429-89113-7.
  6. ^ a b Morri, Giacomo; Benedetto, Paolo (9 July 2019). "Introduction to Property Valuation". Commercial Property Valuation: Methods and Case Studies. John Wiley & Sons. ISBN 978-1-119-51215-8.
  7. ^ Glickman, Edward (14 October 2013). An Introduction to Real Estate Finance. Academic Press. p. 129. ISBN 978-0-12-378627-2.
  8. ^ "Fundrise Adds Big Name Investors Including Ratner, Elghanayan & Guggenheim: Funding Now at $38 Million". 26 September 2014.
  9. ^ Gage, Deborah (26 September 2014). "Renren-Backed Fundrise Bulks up in Real Estate Crowdfunding Sector". Wall Street Journal.
  10. ^ Glickman, Edward (14 October 2013). An Introduction to Real Estate Finance. Academic Press. pp. 95–107. ISBN 978-0-12-378627-2.
  11. ^ Lex Levinrad (17 December 2010). "Investing in Foreclosures For Beginners". Distressed Real Estate Institute. Archived from the original on 2 January 2013. Retrieved 31 December 2012.
  12. ^ Portman, Janet (7 February 2008). "Foreclosure causes heartache for renters". Inman News. Retrieved 24 February 2008.
  13. ^ Eisen, Ben (9 December 2018). "Housing Slowdown Unnerves the Fix-and-Flip Crowd". WSJ. Retrieved 15 October 2019.
  14. ^ "How young investors are chasing early retirement". Albany Business Review. Retrieved 15 October 2019.
  15. ^ Greene, David (16 May 2019). Buy, Rehab, Rent, Refinance, Repeat: The BRRRR Rental Property Investment Strategy Made Simple. pp. 13, 15.
  16. ^ Gopal, Prashant (25 March 2022). "Homeowners Spin Soaring Prices Into U.S. Real Estate Riches". Bloomberg.com. Retrieved 28 March 2023.
  17. ^ Lima, Valesca; Hearne, Rory; Murphy, Mary P. (11 May 2022). "Housing financialisation and the creation of homelessness in Ireland" (PDF). Housing Studies: 1–24. doi:10.1080/02673037.2022.2042493.
  18. ^ Lima, Valesca (2 January 2023). "The political frame of a housing crisis: Campaigning for the right to housing in Ireland" (PDF). Journal of Civil Society. 19 (1): 37–56. doi:10.1080/17448689.2023.2206158.

 

 

Texas
State
Flag of Texas
Official seal of Texas
Nickname: 
The Lone Star State
Motto: 
Friendship
Anthem: "Texas, Our Texas"
Location of Texas within the United States
Location of Texas within the United States
Country United States
Before statehood Republic of Texas
Admitted to the Union December 29, 1845 (28th)
Capital Austin
Largest city Houston
Largest county or equivalent Harris
Largest metro and urban areas Dallas–Fort Worth
Government
 
 • Governor Greg Abbott (R)
 • Lieutenant Governor Dan Patrick (R)
Legislature Texas Legislature
 • Upper house Senate
 • Lower house House of Representatives
Judiciary Supreme Court of Texas (Civil)
Texas Court of Criminal Appeals (Criminal)
U.S. senators John Cornyn (R)
Ted Cruz (R)
U.S. House delegation 25 Republicans
13 Democrats (list)
Area
 
 • Total
268,596[1] sq mi (695,662 km2)
 • Land 261,232[1] sq mi (676,587 km2)
 • Water 7,365[1] sq mi (19,075 km2)  2.7%
 • Rank 2nd
Dimensions
 
 • Length 801[2] mi (1,289 km)
 • Width 773[2] mi (1,244 km)
Elevation
 
1,700 ft (520 m)
Highest elevation
(Guadalupe Peak[3][4][a])
8,751 ft (2,667.4 m)
Lowest elevation
(Gulf of Mexico[4])
0 ft (0 m)
Population
 (2024)
 • Total
Neutral increase 31,290,831[5]
 • Rank 2nd
 • Density 114/sq mi (42.9/km2)
  • Rank 23rd
 • Median household income
 
$75,800 (2023)[6]
 • Income rank
 
23rd
Demonym(s) Texan
Texian (archaic)
Tejano (usually only used for Hispanics)
Language
 
 • Official language None
 • Spoken language
  • English only: 64.9%
  • Spanish: 28.8%[7]
  • Other: 6.3%
Time zones
Majority of state UTC−06:00 (Central)
 • Summer (DST) UTC−05:00 (CDT)
El Paso, Hudspeth, and northwestern Culberson counties UTC−07:00 (Mountain)
 • Summer (DST) UTC−06:00 (MDT)
USPS abbreviation
TX
ISO 3166 code US-TX
Traditional abbreviation Tex.
Latitude 25°50′ N to 36°30′ N
Longitude 93°31′ W to 106°39′ W
Website texas.gov
State symbols of Texas
List of state symbols
Flag of Texas
Seal of Texas
Slogan The Friendly State
Living insignia
Bird Northern mockingbird (Mimus polyglottos)
Fish Guadalupe bass (Micropterus treculii)
Flower Bluebonnet (Lupinus spp., namely Texas bluebonnet, L. texensis)
Insect Monarch butterfly (Danaus plexippus)
Mammal Texas longhorn, nine-banded armadillo (Dasypus novemcinctus)
Mushroom Texas star (Chorioactis geaster)
Reptile Texas horned lizard (Phrynosoma cornutum)
Tree Pecan (Carya illinoinensis)
Inanimate insignia
Food Chili
Game Texas 42 dominoes
Instrument Guitar
Shell Lightning whelk (Busycon perversum pulleyi)
Ship USS Texas
Soil Houston Black
Sport Rodeo
Other Molecule: Buckyball (For more, see article)
State route marker
Route marker
State quarter
Texas quarter dollar coin
Released in 2004
Lists of United States state symbols

Texas (/ˈtɛksəs/ ⓘ TEK-səss, locally also /ˈtɛksɪz/ TEK-siz;[8] Spanish: Texas or Tejas,[b]

pronounced [ˈtexas]) is the most populous state in the South Central region of the United States. It borders Louisiana to the east, Arkansas to the northeast, Oklahoma to the north, New Mexico to the west, and an international border with the Mexican states of Chihuahua, Coahuila, Nuevo León, and Tamaulipas to the south and southwest. Texas has a coastline on the Gulf of Mexico to the southeast. Covering 268,596 square miles (695,660 km2), and with over 31 million residents as of 2024,[5] it is the second-largest state by both area and population. Texas is nicknamed the Lone Star State for its former status as an independent republic, the Republic of Texas.[10]

Spain was the first European country to claim and control Texas. Following a short-lived colony controlled by France, Mexico controlled the land until 1836 when Texas won its independence, becoming the Republic of Texas. In 1845, Texas joined the United States of America as the 28th state.[11] The state's annexation set off a chain of events that led to the Mexican–American War in 1846. Following victory by the United States, Texas remained a slave state until the American Civil War, when it declared its secession from the Union in early 1861 before officially joining the Confederate States of America on March 2. After the Civil War and the restoration of its representation in the federal government, Texas entered a long period of economic stagnation.

Historically, five major industries shaped the Texas economy prior to World War II: cattle, bison, cotton, timber, and oil.[12] Before and after the Civil War, the cattle industry—which Texas came to dominate—was a major economic driver and created the traditional image of the Texas cowboy. In the later 19th century, cotton and lumber grew to be major industries as the cattle industry became less lucrative. Ultimately, the discovery of major petroleum deposits (Spindletop in particular) initiated an economic boom that became the driving force behind the economy for much of the 20th century. Texas developed a diversified economy and high tech industry during the mid-20th century. As of 2024, it has the second-highest number (52) of Fortune 500 companies headquartered in the United States. With a growing base of industry, the state leads in many industries, including tourism, agriculture, petrochemicals, energy, computers and electronics, aerospace, and biomedical sciences. Texas has led the U.S. in state export revenue since 2002 and has the second-highest gross state product.

The Dallas–Fort Worth metroplex and Greater Houston areas are the nation's fourth and fifth-most populous urban regions respectively. Its capital city is Austin. Due to its size and geologic features such as the Balcones Fault, Texas contains diverse landscapes common to both the U.S. Southern and the Southwestern regions.[13] Most population centers are in areas of former prairies, grasslands, forests, and the coastline. Traveling from east to west, terrain ranges from coastal swamps and piney woods, to rolling plains and rugged hills, to the desert and mountains of the Big Bend.

Etymology

[edit]

The name Texas, based on the Caddo word táy:shaʼ (/tə́jːʃaÊ”/) 'friend', was applied, in the spelling Tejas or Texas,[14][15][16][1] by the Spanish to the Caddo themselves, specifically the Hasinai Confederacy.[17]

During Spanish colonial rule, in the 18th century, the area was known as Nuevas Filipinas ('New Philippines') and Nuevo Reino de Filipinas ('New Kingdom of the Philippines'),[18] or as provincia de los Tejas ('province of the Tejas'),[19] later also provincia de Texas (or de Tejas), ('province of Texas').[20][18] It was incorporated as provincia de Texas into the Mexican Empire in 1821, and declared a republic in 1836. The Royal Spanish Academy recognizes both spellings, Tejas and Texas, as Spanish-language forms of the name.[21]

The English pronunciation with /ks/ is unetymological, contrary to the historical value of the letter x (/ʃ/) in Spanish orthography. Alternative etymologies of the name advanced in the late 19th century connected the name Texas with the Spanish word teja, meaning 'roof tile', the plural tejas being used to designate Indigenous Pueblo settlements.[22] A 1760s map by Jacques-Nicolas Bellin shows a village named Teijas on the Trinity River, close to the site of modern Crockett.[22]

History

[edit]

Precontact era

[edit]
Early Native American tribal territories

Texas lies between two major cultural spheres of Pre-Columbian North America: the Southwestern and the Plains areas. Archaeologists have found that three major Indigenous cultures lived in this territory, and reached their developmental peak before the first European contact. These were:[23] the Ancestral Puebloans from the upper Rio Grande region, centered west of Texas; the Mississippian culture, also known as Mound Builders, which extended along the Mississippi River Valley east of Texas; and the civilizations of Mesoamerica, which were centered south of Texas. Influence of Teotihuacan in northern Mexico peaked around AD 500 and declined between the 8th and 10th centuries.

When Europeans arrived in the Texas region, the language families present in the state were Caddoan, Atakapan, Athabaskan, Coahuiltecan, and Uto-Aztecan, in addition to several language isolates such as Tonkawa. Uto-Aztecan Puebloan and Jumano peoples lived neared the Rio Grande in the western portion of the state and the Athabaskan-speaking Apache tribes lived throughout the interior. The agricultural, mound-building Caddo controlled much of the northeastern part of the state, along the Red, Sabine, and Neches River basins.[24][25] Atakapan peoples such as the Akokisa and Bidai lived along the northeastern Gulf Coast; the Karankawa lived along the central coast.[26] At least one tribe of Coahuiltecans, the Aranama, lived in southern Texas. This entire culture group, primarily centered in northeastern Mexico, is now extinct.

No culture was dominant across all of present-day Texas, and many peoples inhabited the area.[27] Native American tribes who have lived inside the boundaries of present-day Texas include the Alabama, Apache, Atakapan, Bidai, Caddo, Aranama, Comanche, Choctaw, Coushatta, Hasinai, Jumano, Karankawa, Kickapoo, Kiowa, Tonkawa, and Wichita.[28][29] Many of these peoples migrated from the north or east during the colonial period, such as the Choctaw, Alabama-Coushatta, and Delaware.[24]

The region was primarily controlled by the Spanish until the Texas Revolution. They were most interested in relationships with the Caddo, who were—like the Spanish—a settled, agricultural people. Several Spanish missions were opened in Caddo territory, but a lack of interest in Christianity among the Caddo meant that few were converted. Positioned between French Louisiana and Spanish Texas, the Caddo maintained relations with both, but were closer with the French.[30] After Spain took control of Louisiana, most of the missions in eastern Texas were closed and abandoned.[31] The United States obtained Louisiana following the 1803 Louisiana Purchase and began convincing tribes to self-segregate from whites by moving west; facing an overflow of native peoples in Missouri and Arkansas, they were able to negotiate with the Caddo to allow several displaced peoples to settle on unused lands in eastern Texas. These included the Muscogee, Houma Choctaw, Lenape and Mingo Seneca, among others, who came to view the Caddoans as saviors.[32][33]

The temperament of Native American tribes affected the fates of European explorers and settlers in that land.[34] Friendly tribes taught newcomers how to grow local crops, prepare foods, and hunt wild game. Warlike tribes resisted the settlers.[34] Prior treaties with the Spanish forbade either side from militarizing its native population in any potential conflict between the two nations. Several outbreaks of violence between Native Americans and Texans started to spread in the prelude to the Texas Revolution. Texans accused tribes of stealing livestock. While no proof was found,[24] those in charge of Texas at the time attempted to publicly blame and punish the Caddo, with the U.S. government trying to keep them in check. The Caddo never turned to violence because of the situation, except in cases of self-defense.[32]

By the 1830s, the U.S. had drafted the Indian Removal Act, which was used to facilitate the Trail of Tears. Fearing retribution, Indian Agents all over the eastern U.S. tried to convince all Indigenous peoples to uproot and move west. This included the Caddo of Louisiana and Arkansas. Following the Texas Revolution, the Texans chose to make peace with the Indigenous people, but did not honor former land claims or agreements.[citation needed] The first president of Texas, Sam Houston, aimed to cooperate and make peace with Native tribes, but his successor, Mirabeau B. Lamar, took a much more hostile stance. Hostility towards Natives by white Texans prompted the movement of most Native populations north into what would become Indian Territory (modern Oklahoma).[24][32] Only the Alabama-Coushatta would remain in the parts of Texas subject to white settlement, though the Comanche would continue to control most of the western half of the state until their defeat in the 1870s and 1880s.[35]

Colonization

[edit]

The first historical document related to Texas was a map of the Gulf Coast, created in 1519 by Spanish explorer Alonso Álvarez de Pineda.[36] Nine years later, shipwrecked Spanish explorer Álvar Núñez Cabeza de Vaca and his cohort became the first Europeans in what is now Texas.[37][38] Cabeza de Vaca reported that in 1528, when the Spanish landed in the area, "half the natives died from a disease of the bowels and blamed us."[39] Cabeza de Vaca also made observations about the way of life of the Ignaces Natives of Texas.[c][41] Francisco Vázquez de Coronado described another encounter with native people in 1541.[d][43]

The expedition of Hernando de Soto entered into Texas from the east, seeking a route to Mexico. They passed through the Caddo lands but turned back after reaching the River of Daycao (possibly the Brazos or Colorado), beyond which point the Native peoples were nomadic and did not have the agricultural stores to feed the expedition.[44][45]

European powers ignored the area until accidentally settling there in 1685. Miscalculations by René-Robert Cavelier de La Salle resulted in his establishing the colony of Fort Saint Louis at Matagorda Bay rather than along the Mississippi River.[46] The colony lasted only four years before succumbing to harsh conditions and hostile natives.[47] A small band of survivors traveled eastward into the lands of the Caddo, but La Salle was killed by disgruntled expedition members.[48]

In 1690 Spanish authorities, concerned that France posed a competitive threat, constructed several missions in East Texas among the Caddo.[49] After Caddo resistance, the Spanish missionaries returned to Mexico.[50] When France began settling Louisiana, in 1716 Spanish authorities responded by founding a new series of missions in East Texas.[51] Two years later, they created San Antonio as the first Spanish civilian settlement in the area.[52]

Nicolas de La Fora's 1771 map of the northern frontier of New Spain clearly shows the Provincia de los Tejas.[53]

Hostile native tribes and distance from nearby Spanish colonies discouraged settlers from moving to the area. It was one of New Spain's least populated provinces.[54] In 1749, the Spanish peace treaty with the Lipan Apache angered many tribes,[55] including the Comanche, Tonkawa, and Hasinai.[56] The Comanche signed a treaty with Spain in 1785 and later helped to defeat the Lipan Apache and Karankawa tribes.[57][58] With numerous missions being established, priests led a peaceful conversion of most tribes. By the end of the 18th century only a few nomadic tribes had not converted.[59]

Stephen F. Austin was the first American empresario given permission to operate a colony within Mexican Texas.
Mexico in 1824. Coahuila y Tejas is the northeasternmost state.

When the United States purchased Louisiana from France in 1803, American authorities insisted the agreement also included Texas. The boundary between New Spain and the United States was finally set in 1819 at the Sabine River, the modern border between Texas and Louisiana.[60] Eager for new land, many U.S. settlers refused to recognize the agreement. Several filibusters raised armies to invade the area west of the Sabine River.[61] Marked by the War of 1812, some men who had escaped from the Spanish, held (Old) Philippines had immigrated to and also passed through Texas (New Philippines)[62] and reached Louisiana where Philippine exiles aided the United States in the defense of New Orleans against a British invasion, with Filipinos in the Saint Malo settlement assisting Jean Lafitte in the Battle of New Orleans.[63]

In 1821, the Mexican War of Independence included the Texas territory, which became part of Mexico.[64] Due to its low population, the territory was assigned to other states and territories of Mexico; the core territory was part of the state of Coahuila y Tejas, but other parts of today's Texas were part of Tamaulipas, Chihuahua, or the Mexican Territory of Santa Fe de Nuevo México.[65]

Hoping more settlers would reduce the near-constant Comanche raids, Mexican Texas liberalized its immigration policies to permit immigrants from outside Mexico and Spain.[66] Large swathes of land were allotted to empresarios, who recruited settlers from the United States, Europe, and the Mexican interior, primarily the U.S. Austin's settlers, the Old Three Hundred, made places along the Brazos River in 1822.[67] The population of Texas grew rapidly. In 1825, Texas had about 3,500 people, with most of Mexican descent.[68] By 1834, the population had grown to about 37,800 people, with only 7,800 of Mexican descent.[69]

Many immigrants openly flouted Mexican law, especially the prohibition against slavery. Combined with United States' attempts to purchase Texas, Mexican authorities decided in 1830 to prohibit continued immigration from the United States.[70] However, illegal immigration from the United States into Mexico continued to increase the population of Texas.[71] New laws also called for the enforcement of customs duties angering native Mexican citizens (Tejanos) and recent immigrants alike.[72] The Anahuac Disturbances in 1832 were the first open revolt against Mexican rule, coinciding with a revolt in Mexico against the nation's president.[73] Texians sided with the federalists against the government and drove all Mexican soldiers out of East Texas.[74] They took advantage of the lack of oversight to agitate for more political freedom. Texians met at the Convention of 1832 to discuss requesting independent statehood, among other issues.[75] The following year, Texians reiterated their demands at the Convention of 1833.[76]

Republic

[edit]

Within Mexico, tensions continued between federalists and centralists. In early 1835, wary Texians formed Committees of Correspondence and Safety.[77] The unrest erupted into armed conflict in late 1835 at the Battle of Gonzales.[78] This launched the Texas Revolution. Texians elected delegates to the Consultation, which created a provisional government.[79] The provisional government soon collapsed from infighting, and Texas was without clear governance for the first two months of 1836.[80]

Surrender of Santa Anna. Painting by William Henry Huddle, 1886.

Mexican President Antonio López de Santa Anna personally led an army to end the revolt.[81] General José de Urrea defeated all the Texian resistance along the coast culminating in the Goliad massacre.[82] López de Santa Anna's forces, after a thirteen-day siege, overwhelmed Texian defenders at the Battle of the Alamo. News of the defeats sparked panic among Texas settlers.[83]

The Republic of Texas with present-day borders superimposed

The newly elected Texian delegates to the Convention of 1836 quickly signed a declaration of independence on March 2, forming the Republic of Texas. After electing interim officers, the Convention disbanded.[84] The new government joined the other settlers in Texas in the Runaway Scrape, fleeing from the approaching Mexican army.[83]

After several weeks of retreat, the Texian Army commanded by Sam Houston attacked and defeated López de Santa Anna's forces at the Battle of San Jacinto.[85] López de Santa Anna was captured and forced to sign the Treaties of Velasco, ending the war.[86] The Constitution of the Republic of Texas prohibited the government from restricting slavery or freeing slaves, and required free people of African descent to leave the country.[87]

Political battles raged between two factions of the new Republic. The nationalist faction, led by Mirabeau B. Lamar, advocated the continued independence of Texas, the expulsion of the Native Americans, and the expansion of the Republic to the Pacific Ocean. Their opponents, led by Sam Houston, advocated the annexation of Texas to the United States and peaceful co-existence with Native Americans. The conflict between the factions was typified by an incident known as the Texas Archive War.[88] With wide popular support, Texas first applied for annexation to the United States in 1836, but its status as a slaveholding country caused its admission to be controversial and it was initially rebuffed. This status, and Mexican diplomacy in support of its claims to the territory, also complicated Texas's ability to form foreign alliances and trade relationships.[89]

The Comanche Indians furnished the main Native American opposition to the Texas Republic, manifested in multiple raids on settlements.[90] Mexico launched two small expeditions into Texas in 1842. The town of San Antonio was captured twice and Texans were defeated in battle in the Dawson massacre. Despite these successes, Mexico did not keep an occupying force in Texas, and the republic survived.[91] The cotton price crash of the 1840s depressed the country's economy.[89]

Statehood

[edit]
On March 2, 1936, the U.S. Post Office issued a commemorative stamp commemorating the 100th anniversary of the Texas Declaration of Independence, featuring Sam Houston (left), Stephen Austin and the Alamo.

Texas was finally annexed when the expansionist James K. Polk won the election of 1844.[92] On December 29, 1845, the U.S. Congress admitted Texas to the U.S.[93] After Texas's annexation, Mexico broke diplomatic relations with the United States. While the United States claimed Texas's border stretched to the Rio Grande, Mexico claimed it was the Nueces River leaving the Rio Grande Valley under contested Texan sovereignty.[93] While the former Republic of Texas could not enforce its border claims, the United States had the military strength and the political will to do so. President Polk ordered General Zachary Taylor south to the Rio Grande on January 13, 1846. A few months later Mexican troops routed an American cavalry patrol in the disputed area in the Thornton Affair starting the Mexican–American War. The first battles of the war were fought in Texas: the Siege of Fort Texas, Battle of Palo Alto and Battle of Resaca de la Palma. After these decisive victories, the United States invaded Mexican territory, ending the fighting in Texas.[94]

Captain Charles A. May's squadron of the 2nd Dragoons slashes through the Mexican Army lines. Resaca de la Palma, Texas, May 1846.

The Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo ended the two-year war. In return for US$18,250,000, Mexico gave the U.S. undisputed control of Texas, ceded the Mexican Cession in 1848, most of which today is called the American Southwest, and Texas's borders were established at the Rio Grande.[94]

The Compromise of 1850 set Texas's boundaries at their present position: Texas ceded its claims to land which later became half of present-day New Mexico,[95] a third of Colorado, and small portions of Kansas, Oklahoma, and Wyoming to the federal government, in return for the assumption of $10 million of the old republic's debt.[95] Post-war Texas grew rapidly as migrants poured into the cotton lands of the state.[96] They also brought or purchased enslaved African Americans, whose numbers tripled in the state from 1850 to 1860, from 58,000 to 182,566.[97]

Civil War to late 19th century

[edit]

Texas re-entered war following the election of 1860. During this time, Black people comprised 30 percent of the state's population, and they were overwhelmingly enslaved.[98] When Abraham Lincoln was elected, South Carolina seceded from the Union; five other Deep South states quickly followed. A state convention considering secession opened in Austin on January 28, 1861. On February 1, by a vote of 166–8, the convention adopted an Ordinance of Secession. Texas voters approved this Ordinance on February 23, 1861. Texas joined the newly created Confederate States of America on March 4, 1861, ratifying the permanent C.S. Constitution on March 23.[1][99]

Not all Texans favored secession initially, although many of the same would later support the Southern cause. Texas's most notable Unionist was the state governor, Sam Houston. Not wanting to aggravate the situation, Houston refused two offers from President Lincoln for Union troops to keep him in office. After refusing to swear an oath of allegiance to the Confederacy, Houston was deposed.[100]

While far from the major battlefields of the American Civil War, Texas contributed large numbers of soldiers and equipment.[101] Union troops briefly occupied the state's primary port, Galveston. Texas's border with Mexico was known as the "backdoor of the Confederacy" because trade occurred at the border, bypassing the Union blockade.[102] The Confederacy repulsed all Union attempts to shut down this route,[101] but Texas's role as a supply state was marginalized in mid-1863 after the Union capture of the Mississippi River. The final battle of the Civil War was fought at Palmito Ranch, near Brownsville, Texas, and saw a Confederate victory.[103][104]

Texas descended into anarchy for two months between the surrender of the Army of Northern Virginia and the assumption of authority by Union General Gordon Granger. Violence marked the early months of Reconstruction.[101] Juneteenth commemorates the announcement of the Emancipation Proclamation in Galveston by General Gordon Granger, almost two and a half years after the original announcement.[105][106] President Johnson, in 1866, declared the civilian government restored in Texas.[107] Despite not meeting Reconstruction requirements, Congress resumed allowing elected Texas representatives into the federal government in 1870. Social volatility continued as the state struggled with agricultural depression and labor issues.[108]

Like most of the South, the Texas economy was devastated by the War. However, since the state had not been as dependent on slaves as other parts of the South, it was able to recover more quickly. The culture in Texas during the later 19th century exhibited many facets of a frontier territory. The state became notorious as a haven for people from other parts of the country who wanted to escape debt, war tensions, or other problems. "Gone to Texas" was a common expression for those fleeing the law in other states. Nevertheless, the state also attracted many businessmen and other settlers with more legitimate interests.[109]

The cattle industry continued to thrive, though it gradually became less profitable. Cotton and lumber became major industries creating new economic booms in various regions. Railroad networks grew rapidly as did the port at Galveston as commerce expanded. The lumber industry quickly expanded and was Texas' largest industry prior to the 20th century.[110]

Early to mid-20th century

[edit]
Spindletop, the first major oil gusher

In 1900, Texas suffered the deadliest natural disaster in U.S. history during the Galveston hurricane.[111] On January 10, 1901, the first major oil well in Texas, Spindletop, was found south of Beaumont. Other fields were later discovered nearby in East Texas, West Texas, and under the Gulf of Mexico. The resulting "oil boom" transformed Texas.[112] Oil production averaged three million barrels per day at its peak in 1972.[113]

In 1901, the Democratic-dominated state legislature passed a bill requiring payment of a poll tax for voting, which effectively disenfranchised most Black and many poor White and Latino people. In addition, the legislature established white primaries, ensuring minorities were excluded from the formal political process. The number of voters dropped dramatically, and the Democrats crushed competition from the Republican and Populist parties.[114][115] The Socialist Party became the second-largest party in Texas after 1912,[116] coinciding with a large socialist upsurge in the United States during fierce battles in the labor movement and the popularity of national heroes like Eugene V. Debs. The socialists' popularity soon waned after their vilification by the federal government for their opposition to U.S. involvement in World War I.[117][118]

The Great Depression and the Dust Bowl dealt a double blow to the state's economy, which had significantly improved since the Civil War. Migrants abandoned the worst-hit sections of Texas during the Dust Bowl years. Especially from this period on, Black people left Texas in the Great Migration to get work in the Northern United States or California and to escape segregation.[98] In 1940, Texas was 74% White, 14.4% Black, and 11.5% Hispanic.[119]

World War II had a dramatic impact on Texas, as federal money poured in to build military bases, munitions factories, detention camps and Army hospitals; 750,000 Texans left for service; the cities exploded with new industry; and hundreds of thousands of poor farmers left the fields for much better-paying war jobs, never to return to agriculture.[120][121] Texas manufactured 3.1 percent of total United States military armaments produced during World War II, ranking eleventh among the 48 states.[122]

Texas modernized and expanded its system of higher education through the 1960s. The state created a comprehensive plan for higher education, funded in large part by oil revenues, and a central state apparatus designed to manage state institutions more efficiently. These changes helped Texas universities receive federal research funds.[123]

Mid-20th to early 21st century

[edit]

Beginning around the mid-20th century, Texas began to transform from a rural and agricultural state to one urban and industrialized.[124] The state's population grew quickly during this period, with large levels of migration from outside the state.[124] As a part of the Sun Belt, Texas experienced strong economic growth, particularly during the 1970s and early 1980s.[124] Texas's economy diversified, lessening its reliance on the petroleum industry.[124] By 1990, Hispanics and Latino Americans overtook Blacks to become the largest minority group.[124] Texas has the largest Black population with over 3.9 million.[125]

During the late 20th century, the Republican Party replaced the Democratic Party as the dominant party in the state.[124] Beginning in the early 21st century, metropolitan areas including Dallas–Fort Worth and Greater Austin became centers for the Texas Democratic Party in statewide and national elections as liberal policies became more accepted in urban areas.[126][127][128][129]

From the mid-2000s to 2019, Texas gained an influx of business relocations and regional headquarters from companies in California.[130][131][132][133] Texas became a major destination for migration during the early 21st century and was named the most popular state to move for three consecutive years.[134] Another study in 2019 determined Texas's growth rate at 1,000 people per day.[135]

During the COVID-19 pandemic in Texas, the first confirmed case of the virus in Texas was announced on March 4, 2020.[136] On April 27, 2020, Governor Greg Abbott announced phase one of re-opening the economy.[137] Amid a rise in COVID-19 cases in autumn 2020, Abbott refused to enact further lockdowns.[138][139] In November 2020, Texas was selected as one of four states to test Pfizer's COVID-19 vaccine distribution.[140] As of February 2, 2021, there had been over 2.4 million confirmed cases in Texas, with at least 37,417 deaths.[141]

During February 13–17, 2021, the state faced a major weather emergency as Winter Storm Uri hit the state, as well as most of the Southeastern and Midwestern United States.[142][143] Historically high power usage across the state caused the state's power grid to become overworked and ERCOT (the main operator of the Texas Interconnection grid) declared an emergency and began to implement rolling blackouts across Texas, causing a power crisis.[144][145][146] Over 3 million Texans were without power and over 4 million were under boil-water notices.[147]

Geography

[edit]
Sam Rayburn Reservoir
Texas Hill Country

Texas is the second-largest U.S. state by area, after Alaska, and the largest state within the contiguous United States, at 268,820 square miles (696,200 km2). If it were an independent country, Texas would be the 39th-largest.[148] It ranks 26th worldwide amongst country subdivisions by size.

Texas is in the south central part of the United States. The Rio Grande forms a natural border with the Mexican states of Chihuahua, Coahuila, Nuevo León, and Tamaulipas to the south. The Red River forms a natural border with Oklahoma and Arkansas to the north. The Sabine River forms a natural border with Louisiana to the east. The Texas Panhandle has an eastern border with Oklahoma at 100° W, a northern border with Oklahoma at 36°30' N and a western border with New Mexico at 103° W. El Paso lies on the state's western tip at 32° N and the Rio Grande.[95]

With 10 climatic regions, 14 soil regions and 11 distinct ecological regions, regional classification becomes complicated with differences in soils, topography, geology, rainfall, and plant and animal communities.[149] One classification system divides Texas, in order from southeast to west, into the following: Gulf Coastal Plains, Interior Lowlands, Great Plains, and Basin and Range Province.[150]

The Gulf Coastal Plains region wraps around the Gulf of Mexico on the southeast section of the state. Vegetation in this region consists of thick piney woods. The Interior Lowlands region consists of gently rolling to hilly forested land and is part of a larger pine-hardwood forest. The Cross Timbers region and Caprock Escarpment are part of the Interior Lowlands.[150]

Steinhagen Reservoir

The Great Plains region in Central Texas spans through the state's panhandle and Llano Estacado to the state's hill country near Lago Vista and Austin. This region is dominated by prairie and steppe. "Far West Texas" or the "Trans-Pecos" region is the state's Basin and Range Province. The most varied of the regions, this area includes Sand Hills, the Stockton Plateau, desert valleys, wooded mountain slopes and desert grasslands.[151]

Texas has 3,700 named streams and 15 major rivers,[152][153] with the Rio Grande as the largest. Other major rivers include the Pecos, the Brazos, Colorado, and Red River. While Texas has few natural lakes, Texans have built more than a hundred artificial reservoirs.[154]

The size and unique history of Texas make its regional affiliation debatable; it can be considered a Southern or a Southwestern state, or both. The vast geographic, economic, and cultural diversity within the state itself prohibits easy categorization of the whole state into a recognized region of the United States. Notable extremes range from East Texas which is often considered an extension of the Deep South, to Far West Texas which is generally acknowledged to be part of the interior Southwest.[155]

Geology

[edit]
Palo Duro Canyon
Franklin Mountains State Park
Big Bend National Park

Texas is the southernmost part of the Great Plains, which ends in the south against the folded Sierra Madre Occidental of Mexico. The continental crust forms a stable Mesoproterozoic craton which changes across a broad continental margin and transitional crust into true oceanic crust of the Gulf of Mexico. The oldest rocks in Texas date from the Mesoproterozoic and are about 1,600 million years old.[156]

This margin existed until Laurasia and Gondwana collided in the Pennsylvanian subperiod to form Pangea.[157] Pangea began to break up in the Triassic, but seafloor spreading to form the Gulf of Mexico occurred only in the mid- and late Jurassic. The shoreline shifted again to the eastern margin of the state and the Gulf of Mexico's passive margin began to form. Today 9 to 12 miles (14 to 19 km) of sediments are buried beneath the Texas continental shelf and a large proportion of remaining US oil reserves are here. The incipient Gulf of Mexico basin was restricted and seawater often evaporated completely to form thick evaporite deposits of Jurassic age. These salt deposits formed salt dome diapirs, and are found in East Texas along the Gulf coast.[158]

East Texas outcrops consist of Cretaceous and Paleogene sediments which contain important deposits of Eocene lignite. The Mississippian and Pennsylvanian sediments in the north; Permian sediments in the west; and Cretaceous sediments in the east, along the Gulf coast and out on the Texas continental shelf contain oil. Oligocene volcanic rocks are found in far west Texas in the Big Bend area. A blanket of Miocene sediments known as the Ogallala formation in the western high plains region is an important aquifer.[159] Located far from an active plate tectonic boundary, Texas has no volcanoes and few earthquakes.[160]

Wildlife

[edit]

Texas is the home to 65 species of mammals, 213 species of reptiles and amphibians, including the American green tree frog, and the greatest diversity of bird life in the United States—590 native species in all.[161] At least 12 species have been introduced and now reproduce freely in Texas.[162]

Texas plays host to several species of wasps, including an abundance of Polistes exclamans,[163] and is an important ground for the study of Polistes annularis.[164]

During the spring Texas wildflowers such as the state flower, the bluebonnet, line highways throughout Texas. During the Johnson Administration the first lady, Lady Bird Johnson, worked to draw attention to Texas wildflowers.[165]

Climate

[edit]
Köppen climate types in Texas

The large size of Texas and its location at the intersection of multiple climate zones gives the state highly variable weather. The Panhandle of the state has colder winters than North Texas, while the Gulf Coast has mild winters. Texas has wide variations in precipitation patterns. El Paso, on the western end of the state, averages 8.7 inches (220 mm) of annual rainfall,[166] while parts of southeast Texas average as much as 64 inches (1,600 mm) per year.[167] Dallas in the North Central region averages a more moderate 37 inches (940 mm) per year.[168]

Snow falls multiple times each winter in the Panhandle and mountainous areas of West Texas, once or twice a year in North Texas, and once every few years in Central and East Texas. Snow falls south of San Antonio or on the coast only in rare circumstances. Of note is the 2004 Christmas Eve snowstorm, when 6 inches (150 mm) of snow fell as far south as Kingsville, where the average high temperature in December is 65 °F.[169]

Night-time summer temperatures range from the upper 50s °F (14 °C) in the West Texas mountains to 80 °F (27 °C) in Galveston.[170][171]

The table below consists of averages for August (generally the warmest month) and January (generally the coldest) in selected cities in various regions of the state.

Average daily maximum and minimum temperatures for selected cities in Texas[172]
Location August (°F) August (°C) January (°F) January (°C)
Houston 94/75 34/24 63/54 17/12
San Antonio 96/74 35/23 63/40 17/5
Dallas 96/77 36/25 57/37 16/3
Austin 97/74 36/23 61/45 16/5
El Paso 92/67 33/21 57/32 14/0
Laredo 100/77 37/25 67/46 19/7
Amarillo 89/64 32/18 50/23 10/−4
Brownsville 94/76 34/24 70/51 21/11

Storms

[edit]

Thunderstorms strike Texas often, especially the eastern and northern portions of the state. Tornado Alley covers the northern section of Texas. The state experiences the most tornadoes in the United States, an average of 139 a year. These strike most frequently in North Texas and the Panhandle.[173] Tornadoes in Texas generally occur in April, May, and June.[174]

Some of the most destructive hurricanes in U.S. history have impacted Texas. A hurricane in 1875 killed about 400 people in Indianola, followed by another hurricane in 1886 that destroyed the town. These events allowed Galveston to take over as the chief port city. The 1900 Galveston hurricane subsequently devastated that city, killing about 8,000 people or possibly as many as 12,000 in the deadliest natural disaster in U.S. history.[111] In 2017, Hurricane Harvey made landfall in Rockport as a Category 4 Hurricane, causing significant damage there. Its unprecedented amounts of rain over the Greater Houston area resulted in widespread and catastrophic flooding that inundated hundreds of thousands of homes. Harvey ultimately became the costliest hurricane worldwide, causing an estimated $198.6 billion in damage, surpassing the cost of Hurricane Katrina.[175]

Other devastating Texas hurricanes include the 1915 Galveston hurricane, Hurricane Audrey in 1957, Hurricane Carla in 1961, Hurricane Beulah in 1967, Hurricane Alicia in 1983, Hurricane Rita in 2005, and Hurricane Ike in 2008. Tropical storms have also caused their share of damage: Allison in 1989 and again during 2001, Claudette in 1979, and Tropical Storm Imelda in 2019.[176][177][178]

There is no substantial physical barrier between Texas and the polar region. Although it is unusual, it is possible for arctic or polar air masses to penetrate Texas,[179][180] as occurred during the February 13–17, 2021 North American winter storm.[181][182] Usually, prevailing winds in North America will push polar air masses to the southeast before they reach Texas. Because such intrusions are rare, and, perhaps, unexpected, they may result in crises such as the 2021 Texas power crisis.

Greenhouse gases

[edit]

As of 2017, Texas emitted the most greenhouse gases in the U.S.[183] As of 2017 the state emits about 1,600 billion pounds (707 million metric tons) of carbon dioxide annually.[183] As an independent state, Texas would rank as the world's seventh-largest producer of greenhouse gases.[184] Causes of the state's vast greenhouse gas emissions include the state's large number of coal power plants and the state's refining and manufacturing industries.[184] In 2010, there were 2,553 "emission events" which poured 44.6 million pounds (20,200 metric tons) of contaminants into the Texas sky.[185]

Administrative divisions

[edit]
Largest city in Texas by year[186]
Year(s) City
1850–1870 San Antonio[187]
1870–1890 Galveston[188]
1890–1900 Dallas[186]
1900–1930 San Antonio[187]
1930–present Houston[189]
Colonia in the Rio Grande Valley near the Mexico–United States border

The state has three cities with populations exceeding one million: Houston, San Antonio, and Dallas.[190] These three rank among the 10 most populous cities of the United States. As of 2020, six Texas cities had populations greater than 600,000. Austin, Fort Worth, and El Paso are among the 20 largest U.S. cities. Texas has four metropolitan areas with populations greater than a million: Dallas–Fort Worth–Arlington, Houston–Sugar Land–The Woodlands, San Antonio–New Braunfels, and Austin–Round Rock–San Marcos. The Dallas–Fort Worth and Houston metropolitan areas number about 7.5 million and 7 million residents as of 2019, respectively.[191]

Three interstate highways—I-35 to the west (Dallas–Fort Worth to San Antonio, with Austin in between), I-45 to the east (Dallas to Houston), and I-10 to the south (San Antonio to Houston) define the Texas Urban Triangle region. The region of 60,000 square miles (160,000 km2) contains most of the state's largest cities and metropolitan areas as well as 17 million people, nearly 75 percent of Texas's total population.[192] Houston and Dallas have been recognized as world cities.[193] These cities are spread out amongst the state.[194]

In contrast to the cities, unincorporated rural settlements known as colonias often lack basic infrastructure and are marked by poverty.[195] The office of the Texas Attorney General stated, in 2011, that Texas had about 2,294 colonias, and estimates about 500,000 lived in the colonias. Hidalgo County, as of 2011, has the largest number of colonias.[196] Texas has the largest number of people living in colonias of all states.[195]

Texas has 254 counties, more than any other state.[197] Each county runs on Commissioners' Court system consisting of four elected commissioners (one from each of four precincts in the county, roughly divided according to population) and a county judge elected at large from the entire county. County government runs similar to a "weak" mayor-council system; the county judge has no veto authority, but votes along with the other commissioners.[198][199]

Although Texas permits cities and counties to enter "interlocal agreements" to share services, the state does not allow consolidated city-county governments, nor does it have metropolitan governments. Counties are not granted home rule status; their powers are strictly defined by state law. The state does not have townships—areas within a county are either incorporated or unincorporated. Incorporated areas are part of a municipality. The county provides limited services to unincorporated areas and to some smaller incorporated areas. Municipalities are classified either "general law" cities or "home rule".[200] A municipality may elect home rule status once it exceeds 5,000 population with voter approval.[201]

Texas also permits the creation of "special districts", which provide limited services. The most common is the school district, but can also include hospital districts, community college districts, and utility districts. Municipal, school district, and special district elections are nonpartisan,[202] though the party affiliation of a candidate may be well-known. County and state elections are partisan.[203]

 
 
Largest cities or towns in Texas
2022 U.S. Census Bureau Estimate[204]
  Rank Name County Pop. Rank Name County Pop.  
Houston
Houston
San Antonio
San Antonio
1 Houston Harris 2,302,878 11 Laredo Webb 256,187 Dallas
Dallas
Austin
Austin
2 San Antonio Bexar 1,472,909 12 Irving Dallas 254,715
3 Dallas Dallas 1,299,544 13 Garland Dallas 240,854
4 Austin Travis 974,447 14 Frisco Collin 219,587
5 Fort Worth Tarrant 956,709 15 McKinney Collin 207,507
6 El Paso El Paso 677,456 16 Grand Prairie Dallas 201,843
7 Arlington Tarrant 394,602 17 Amarillo Potter 201,291
8 Corpus Christi Nueces 316,239 18 Brownsville Cameron 189,382
9 Plano Collin 289,547 19 Killeen Bell 159,172
10 Lubbock Lubbock 263,930 20 Denton Denton 150,353

Demographics

[edit]
Historical population
Census Pop. Note
1850 212,592  
1860 604,215   184.2%
1870 818,579   35.5%
1880 1,591,749   94.5%
1890 2,235,527   40.4%
1900 3,048,710   36.4%
1910 3,896,542   27.8%
1920 4,663,228   19.7%
1930 5,824,715   24.9%
1940 6,414,824   10.1%
1950 7,711,194   20.2%
1960 9,579,677   24.2%
1970 11,196,730   16.9%
1980 14,229,191   27.1%
1990 16,986,510   19.4%
2000 20,851,820   22.8%
2010 25,145,561   20.6%
2020 29,145,505   15.9%
2024 (est.) 31,290,831 [5] 7.4%
1910–2020[205]
Texas population density map

The resident population of Texas was 29,145,505 in the 2020 census, a 15.9% increase since the 2010 census.[205] At the 2020 census, the apportioned population of Texas stood at 29,183,290.[206] The U.S. Census Bureau estimated the population was 31,290,831 as of July 1, 2024, an increase of 7.4% since the 2020 census.[5] Texas is the second-most populous state in the United States after California and the only other U.S. state to surpass a total estimated population of 30 million people as of July 2, 2022.[207][208]

In 2015, Texas had 4.7 million foreign-born residents, about 17% of the population and 21.6% of the state workforce.[209] The major countries of origin for Texan immigrants were Mexico (55.1% of immigrants), India (5%), El Salvador (4.3%), Vietnam (3.7%), and China (2.3%).[209] Of immigrant residents, 35.8 percent were naturalized U.S. citizens.[209] As of 2018, the population increased to 4.9 million foreign-born residents or 17.2% of the state population, up from 2,899,642 in 2000.[210]

In 2014, there were an estimated 1.7 million undocumented immigrants in Texas, making up 35% of the total Texas immigrant population and 6.1% of the total state population.[209] In addition to the state's foreign-born population, an additional 4.1 million Texans (15% of the state's population) were born in the United States and had at least one immigrant parent.[209]

According to the American Community Survey's 2019 estimates, 1,739,000 residents were undocumented immigrants, a decrease of 103,000 since 2014 and increase of 142,000 since 2016. Of the undocumented immigrant population, 951,000 have resided in Texas from less than 5 up to 14 years. An estimated 788,000 lived in Texas from 15 to 19 and 20 years or more.[211]

Texas's Rio Grande Valley has seen significant migration from across the U.S.–Mexico border. During the 2014 crisis, many Central Americans, including unaccompanied minors traveling alone from Guatemala, Honduras, and El Salvador, reached the state, overwhelming Border Patrol resources for a time. Many sought asylum in the United States.[212][213]

Texas's population density as of 2010 is 96.3 people per square mile (37.2 people/km2) which is slightly higher than the average population density of the U.S. as a whole, at 87.4 people per square mile (33.7 people/km2). In contrast, while Texas and France are similarly sized geographically, the European country has a population density of 301.8 people per square mile (116.5 people/km2). Two-thirds of all Texans live in major metropolitan areas such as Houston.

According to HUD's 2022 Annual Homeless Assessment Report, there were an estimated 24,432 homeless people in Texas.[214][215]

Race and ethnicity

[edit]
Map of counties in Texas by racial and ethnic plurality, per the 2020 U.S. census
  30–40%
  40–50%
  50–60%
  60–70%
  70–80%
  80–90%
  40–50%
  50–60%
  60–70%
  70–80%
  80–90%
  90%+
Ethnic composition as of the 2020 census
Race and ethnicity[216] Alone Total
Hispanic or Latino[e]   40.2% 40.2
 
Non-Hispanic White 39.7% 39.7
 
39.8% 39.8
 
African American 11.8% 11.8
 
12.8% 12.8
 
Asian 5.4% 5.4
 
6.1% 6.1
 
Native American 0.3% 0.3
 
1.4% 1.4
 
Pacific Islander 0.1% 0.1
 
0.2% 0.2
 
Other 0.4% 0.4
 
1.0% 1
 

In 2019, non-Hispanic Whites represented 41.2% of Texas's population, reflecting a national demographic shift.[217][218][219] Black people made up 12.9%, American Indians and Alaska Natives 1.0%, Asian Americans 5.2%, Native Hawaiians and other Pacific Islanders 0.1%, some other race 0.2%, and two or more races 1.8%. Hispanics or Latino Americans of any race made up 39.7% of the estimated population.[220]

At the 2020 census, the racial and ethnic composition of the state was 42.5% White (39.8% non-Hispanic White), 11.8% Black, 5.4% Asian, 0.3% American Indian and Alaska Native, 0.1% Native Hawaiian and other Pacific Islander, 13.6% some other race, 17.6% two or more races, and 40.2% Hispanic and Latino American of any race.[221][222]

In 2010, 49% of all births were Hispanics; 35% were non-Hispanic White; 11.5% were non-Hispanic Black, and 4.3% were Asians/Pacific Islanders.[223] Based on U.S. Census Bureau data released in February 2011, for the first time in recent history, Texas's White population is below 50% (45%) and Hispanics grew to 38%. Between 2000 and 2010, the total population grew by 20.6%, but Hispanics and Latino Americans grew by 65%, whereas non-Hispanic Whites grew by only 4.2%.[224] Texas has the fifth highest rate of teenage births in the nation and a plurality of these are to Hispanics or Latinos.[225][226] As of 2022, Hispanics and Latinos of any race replaced the non-Hispanic White population as the largest share of the state's population.[227]

Texas has the second-largest share of Mexican Americans in the US, making up 32.2% of the total population and 80% of the state's Hispanic population.[228] Other than Mexican, the largest self-reported ancestries in the state as of 2022 were German (8.1%), English (7.9%), Irish (5.8%), those identifying as American (4.6%), Italian (1.9%), Indian (1.9%), Salvadoran (1.4%), Scottish (1.3%), Vietnamese (1.1%), Chinese (1%), Puerto Rican (0.9%), Polish (0.9%), Honduran (0.8%), Filipino (0.8%), and Scotch-Irish (0.7%).[229][230][228]

Languages

[edit]
Most common non-English languages
Language Population
(as of 2010)[231]
Spanish 29.2%
Vietnamese 0.8%
Chinese 0.6%
German 0.3%
Tagalog 0.3%
French 0.3%
Korean and Urdu (tied) 0.2%
Hindi 0.2%
Arabic 0.2%
Niger-Congo languages 0.2%

The most common accent or dialect spoken by natives throughout Texas is sometimes referred to as Texan English, itself a sub-variety of a broader category of American English known as Southern American English.[232][233] Creole language is spoken in some parts of East Texas.[234] In some areas of the state—particularly in the large cities—Western American English and General American English, is increasingly common. Chicano English—due to a growing Hispanic population—is widespread in South Texas, while African-American English is especially notable in historically minority areas of urban Texas.

At the 2020 American Community Survey's estimates, 64.9% of the population spoke only English, while 35.1% spoke a language other than English.[235] Roughly 30% of the total population spoke Spanish. By 2021, approximately 50,546 Texans spoke French or a French-based creole language. German and other West Germanic languages were spoken by 49,565 residents; Russian, Polish, and other Slavic languages by 37,444; Korean by 31,673; Chinese 86,370; Vietnamese 92,410; Tagalog 40,124; and Arabic by 47,170 Texans.[236]

At the census of 2010, 65.8% (14,740,304) of Texas residents age 5 and older spoke only English at home, while 29.2% (6,543,702) spoke Spanish, 0.8 percent (168,886) Vietnamese, and Chinese (which includes Cantonese and Mandarin) was spoken by 0.6% (122,921) of the population over five.[231] Other languages spoken include German (including Texas German) by 0.3% (73,137), Tagalog with 0.3% (64,272) speakers, and French (including Cajun French) was spoken by 0.3% (55,773) of Texans.[231] Reportedly, Cherokee is the most widely spoken Native American language in Texas.[237] In total, 34.2% (7,660,406) of Texas's population aged five and older spoke a language at home other than English as of 2006.[231]

Religion

[edit]
Religious affiliation (2020)[238]
     
Christian
75.5%
Catholic
28%
Protestant
47%
Other Christian
0.5%
Unaffiliated
20%
Jewish
1%
Muslim
1%
Buddhist
1%
Other faiths
5%

With the coming of Spanish Catholic and American Protestant missionary societies,[239] Indigenous American Indian religions and spiritual traditions dwindled. Since then, colonial and present-day Texas has become a predominantly Christian state, with 75.5% of the population identifying as such according to the Public Religion Research Institute in 2020.[240]

St. Mary's Cathedral Basilica of the Archdiocese of Galveston-Houston

Among its majority Christian populace, the largest Christian denomination as of 2014 has been the Catholic Church, per the Pew Research Center at 23% of the population, although Protestants collectively constituted 50% of the Christian population in 2014;[241] in the 2020 study by the Public Religion Research Institute, the Catholic Church's membership increased to encompassing 28% of the population identifying with a religious or spiritual belief.[240] At the 2020 Association of Religion Data Archives study, there were 5,905,142 Catholics in the state.[242] The largest Catholic jurisdictions in Texas are the Archdiocese of Galveston–Houston—the first and oldest Latin Church diocese in Texas[243]—the dioceses of Dallas and Fort Worth, and the Archdiocese of San Antonio.

First Baptist Church of Dallas

Being part of the strongly, socially conservative Bible Belt,[244] Protestants as a whole declined to 47% of the population in the 2020 study by the Public Religion Research Institute. Predominantly-white Evangelical Protestantism declined to 14% of the Protestant Christian population. Mainline Protestants in contrast made up 15% of Protestant Texas. Hispanic or Latino American-dominated Protestant churches and historically Black or African American Protestantism grew to a collective 13% of the Protestant population.

Evangelical Protestants were 31% of the population in 2014, and Baptists were the largest Evangelical tradition (14%);[241] according to the 2014 study, they made up the second-largest Mainline Protestant group behind Methodists (4%). Nondenominational and interdenominational Protestant Christians were the second largest Evangelical group (7%) followed by Pentecostals (4%). The largest Evangelical Baptists in the state were the Southern Baptist Convention (9%) and independent Baptists (3%). The Assemblies of God USA was the largest Evangelical Pentecostal denomination in 2014. Among Mainline Protestants, the United Methodist Church was the largest denomination (4%) and the American Baptist Churches USA comprised the second-largest Mainline Protestant group (2%).

According to the Pew Research Center in 2014, the state's largest historically African American Christian denominations were the National Baptist Convention (USA) and the Church of God in Christ. Black Methodists and other Christians made up less than 1 percent each of the Christian demographic. Other Christians made up 1 percent of the total Christian population, and the Eastern and Oriental Orthodox formed less than 1 percent of the statewide Christian populace. The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints is the largest nontrinitarian Christian group in Texas alongside the Jehovah's Witnesses.[241]

Among its Protestant population, the Association of Religion Data Archives in 2020 determined Southern Baptists numbered 3,319,962; non-denominational Protestants 2,405,786 (including Christian Churches and Churches of Christ, and the Churches of Christ altogether numbering 2,758,353); and United Methodists 938,399 as the most numerous Protestant groups in the state.[242] Baptists altogether (Southern Baptists, American Baptist Associates, American Baptists, Full Gospel Baptists, General Baptists, Free Will Baptists, National Baptists, National Baptists of America, National Missionary Baptists, National Primitive Baptists, and Progressive National Baptists) numbered 3,837,306; Methodists within United Methodism, the AME, AME Zion, CME, and the Free Methodist Church numbered 1,026,453 Texans.

The same study tabulated 425,038 Pentecostals spread among the Assemblies of God, Church of God (Cleveland), and Church of God in Christ. Nontrinitarian or Oneness Pentecostals numbered 7,042 between Bible Way Church of Our Lord Jesus Christ, COOLJC, and the Pentecostal Assemblies of the World. Other Christians, including the Eastern and Oriental Orthodox, numbered 55,329 altogether, and Episcopalians numbered 134,318, although the Anglican Catholic Church, Anglican Church in America, Anglican Church in North America, Anglican Province of America, and Holy Catholic Church Anglican Rite had a collective presence in 114 churches.[245]

Non-Christian faiths accounted for 4% of the religious population in 2014, and 5% in 2020 per the Pew Research Center and Public Religion Research Institute.[241][240] Adherents of many other religions reside predominantly in the urban centers of Texas. Judaism, Islam, and Buddhism were tied as the second largest religion as of 2014 and 2020. In 2014, 18% of the state's population were religiously unaffiliated. Of the unaffiliated in 2014, an estimated 2% were atheists and 3% agnostic; in 2020, the Public Religion Research Institute noted the largest non-Christian groups were the irreligious (20%), Judaism (1%), Islam (1%), Buddhism (1%) and Hinduism, and other religions at less than 1 percent each.

In 1990, the Islamic population was about 140,000 with more recent figures putting the current number of Muslims between 350,000 and 400,000 as of 2012.[246] The Association of Religion Data Archives estimated there were 313,209 Muslims as of 2020.[242] Texas is the fifth-largest Muslim-populated state as of 2014.[247] The Jewish population was around 128,000 in 2008.[248] In 2020, the Jewish population grew to over 176,000.[249] According to ARDA's 2020 study, there were 43 Chabad synagogues; 17,513 Conservative Jews; 8,110 Orthodox Jews; and 31,378 Reform Jews. Around 146,000 adherents of religions such as Hinduism and Sikhism lived in Texas as of 2004.[250] By 2020, there were 112,153 Hindus and 20 Sikh gurdwaras; 60,882 Texans adhered to Buddhism.

Economy

[edit]
A geomap depicting income by county as of 2014
Texas counties by GDP (2021)

As of 2024, Texas had a gross state product (GSP) of $2.664 trillion, the second highest of any U.S. state.[251] Its GSP is greater than the GDP of Brazil, the world's 8th-largest economy.[252] The state ranks 22nd among U.S. states with a median household income of $64,034, while the poverty rate is 14.2%, making Texas the state with 14th highest poverty rate (compared to 13.15% nationally). Texas's economy is the second-largest of any country subdivision globally, behind California.

Texas's large population, an abundance of natural resources, thriving cities and leading centers of higher education have contributed to a large and diverse economy. Since oil was discovered, the state's economy has reflected the state of the petroleum industry. In recent times, urban centers of the state have increased in size, containing two-thirds of the population in 2005. The state's economic growth has led to urban sprawl and its associated symptoms.[253]

In May 2020, during the COVID-19 pandemic, the state's unemployment rate was 13 percent.[254]

In 2010, Site Selection Magazine ranked Texas as the most business-friendly state, in part because of the state's three-billion-dollar Texas Enterprise Fund.[255] As of 2024, it has the second-highest number (52) of Fortune 500 companies headquartered in the United States.[256] In 2010, there were 346,000 millionaires in Texas, the second-largest population of millionaires in the nation.[f][257] In 2018, the number of millionaire households increased to 566,578.[258]

Taxation

[edit]

Texas has a reputation for a low tax.[259] According to the Tax Foundation, Texans' state and local tax burdens are seventh-lowest nationally; state and local taxes cost $3,580 per capita, or 8.4 percent of resident incomes.[260] Texas is one of seven states that lack a state income tax.[260][261]

Instead, the state collects revenue from property taxes (though these are collected at the county, city, and school district level; Texas has a state constitutional prohibition against a state property tax) and sales taxes. The state sales tax rate is 6.25 percent,[260][262] but local taxing jurisdictions (cities, counties, special purpose districts, and transit authorities) may also impose sales and use tax up to 2 percent for a total maximum combined rate of 8.25 percent.[263]

Texas is a "tax donor state"; in 2005, for every dollar Texans paid to the federal government in federal income taxes, the state got back about $0.94 in benefits.[260] To attract business, Texas has incentive programs worth $19 billion per year (2012); more than any other U.S. state.[264][265]

Agriculture and mining

[edit]
Cotton modules after harvest in West Texas
Texas longhorn cattle in Boerne, Texas

Texas has the most farms and the highest acreage in the United States. The state is ranked No. 1 for revenue generated from total livestock and livestock products. It is ranked No. 2 for total agricultural revenue, behind California.[266] At $7.4 billion or 56.7 percent of Texas's annual agricultural cash receipts, beef cattle production represents the largest single segment of Texas agriculture. This is followed by cotton at $1.9 billion (14.6 percent), greenhouse/nursery at $1.5 billion (11.4 percent), broiler chickens at $1.3 billion (10 percent), and dairy products at $947 million (7.3 percent).[267]

Texas leads the nation in the production of cattle, horses, sheep, goats, wool, mohair and hay.[267] The state also leads the nation in production of cotton which is the number one crop grown in the state in terms of value.[266][268][269] The state grows significant amounts of cereal crops and produce.[266] Texas has a large commercial fishing industry. With mineral resources, Texas leads in creating cement, crushed stone, lime, salt, sand and gravel.[266] Texas throughout the 21st century has been hammered by drought, costing the state billions of dollars in livestock and crops.[270]

Energy

[edit]
An oil well
Brazos Wind Farm

Ever since the discovery of oil at Spindletop, energy has been a dominant force politically and economically within the state.[271] If Texas were its own country it would be the sixth-largest oil producer in the world according to a 2014 study.[272]

The Railroad Commission of Texas regulates the state's oil and gas industry, gas utilities, pipeline safety, safety in the liquefied petroleum gas industry, and surface coal and uranium mining. Until the 1970s, the commission controlled the price of petroleum because of its ability to regulate Texas's oil reserves. The founders of the Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC) used the Texas agency as one of their models for petroleum price control.[273]

As of January 1, 2021, Texas has proved recoverable petroleum reserves of about 15.6 billion barrels (2.48×109 m3) of crude oil (44% of the known U.S. reserves) and 9.5 billion barrels (1.51×109 m3) of natural gas liquids.[274][275] The state's refineries can process 5.95 million barrels (946,000 m3) of oil a day.[274][275] The Port Arthur Refinery in Southeast Texas is the largest refinery in the U.S.[274] Texas is also a leader in natural gas production at 28.8 billion cubic feet (820,000,000 m3) per day, some 32% of the nation's production.[276] Texas has 102.4 trillion cubic feet (2.90×1012 m3) of gas reserves which is 23% of the nation's gas reserves.[274][275] Many petroleum companies are based in Texas such as: ConocoPhillips,[277] EOG Resources, ExxonMobil,[278] Halliburton,[279] Hilcorp, Marathon Oil,[280] Occidental Petroleum,[281] Valero Energy,[282] and Western Refining.[283]

According to the Energy Information Administration, Texans consume, on average, the fifth most energy (of all types) in the nation per capita and as a whole, following behind Wyoming, Alaska, Louisiana, North Dakota, and Iowa.[274]

Unlike the rest of the nation, most of Texas is on its own alternating current power grid, the Texas Interconnection. Texas has a deregulated electric service. Texas leads the nation in total net electricity production, generating 437,236 MWh in 2014, 89% more MWh than Florida, which ranked second.[284][285]

The state is a leader in renewable energy commercialization; it produces the most wind power in the nation.[274][286] In 2014, 10.6% of the electricity consumed in Texas came from wind turbines.[287] The Roscoe Wind Farm in Roscoe, Texas, is one of the world's largest wind farms with a 781.5 megawatt (MW) capacity.[288] The Energy Information Administration states the state's large agriculture and forestry industries could give Texas an enormous amount of biomass for use in biofuels. The state also has the highest solar power potential for development in the U.S.[274]

Technology

[edit]
Astronaut training at the Johnson Space Center in Houston

With large universities systems coupled with initiatives like the Texas Enterprise Fund and the Texas Emerging Technology Fund, a wide array of different high tech industries have developed in Texas. The Austin area is nicknamed the "Silicon Hills" and the north Dallas area the "Silicon Prairie". Many high-tech companies are located in or have their headquarters in Texas (and Austin in particular), including Dell, Inc.,[289] Borland,[290] Forcepoint,[291] Indeed.com,[292] Texas Instruments,[293] Perot Systems,[294] Rackspace and AT&T.[295][296][297]

The National Aeronautics and Space Administration's Lyndon B. Johnson Space Center (NASA JSC) is located in Southeast Houston. Both SpaceX and Blue Origin have their test facilities in Texas.[298][299] Fort Worth hosts both Lockheed Martin's Aeronautics division and Bell Helicopter Textron.[300][301] Lockheed builds the F-16 Fighting Falcon, the largest Western fighter program, and its successor, the F-35 Lightning II in Fort Worth.[302]

Commerce

[edit]

Texas's affluence stimulates a strong commercial sector consisting of retail, wholesale, banking and insurance, and construction industries. Examples of Fortune 500 companies not based on Texas traditional industries are AT&T, Kimberly-Clark, Blockbuster, J. C. Penney, Whole Foods Market, and Tenet Healthcare.[303]

Nationally, the Dallas–Fort Worth area, home to the second shopping mall in the United States, has the most shopping malls per capita of any American metropolitan statistical area.[304]

Mexico, the state's largest trading partner, imports a third of the state's exports because of the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA). NAFTA has encouraged the formation of maquiladoras on the Texas–Mexico border.[305]

Transportation

[edit]
The High Five Interchange in Dallas

The state's large size and rough terrain have historically complicated transportation. Texas has compensated by building the nation's largest highway and railway systems. The regulatory authority, the Texas Department of Transportation (TxDOT), maintains the state's highway system, regulates aviation,[306] and public transportation systems.[307]

The state is an important transportation hub. From the Dallas/Fort Worth area, trucks can reach 93 percent of the nation's population within 48 hours, and 37 percent within 24 hours.[308] Texas has 33 foreign trade zones (FTZ), the most in the nation.[309] In 2004, a combined total of $298 billion of goods passed through Texas FTZs.[309]

Highways

[edit]
"Welcome to Texas" sign, entering the state from Arkansas on Interstate 30

The first Texas freeway was the Gulf Freeway opened in 1948 in Houston.[310] As of 2005, 79,535 miles (127,999 km) of public highway crisscrossed Texas (up from 71,000 miles or 114,000 km in 1984).[citation needed] To fund recent growth in the state highways, Texas has 17 toll roads with several additional tollways proposed.[311] In Central Texas, the southern section of the State Highway 130 toll road has a speed limit of 85 miles per hour (137 km/h), the highest in the nation.[312] All federal and state highways in Texas are paved.

Airports

[edit]
Terminal D at Dallas/Fort Worth International Airport
Terminal E at George Bush Intercontinental Airport in Houston

Texas has 730 airports, second-most of any state in the nation. Largest in Texas by size and passengers served, Dallas/Fort Worth International Airport (DFW) is the second-largest by area in the United States, and fourth in the world with 18,076 acres (73.15 km2).[313] In traffic, DFW airport is the busiest in the state, the fourth busiest in the United States,[314] and sixth worldwide.[315] Southwest Airlines, headquartered in Dallas, has its operations at Dallas Love Field.[316] American Airlines Group's American / American Eagle, the world's largest airline in total passengers-miles transported and passenger fleet size,[317] uses DFW as its largest and main hub.

Texas's second-largest air facility is Houston's George Bush Intercontinental Airport (IAH). It serves as the largest hub for United Airlines, the world's third-largest airline, by passenger-miles flown.[318][g] IAH offers service to the most Mexican destinations of any U.S. airport.[319][320] The next five largest airports in the state all serve more than three million passengers annually; they include Austin-Bergstrom International Airport, William P. Hobby Airport, San Antonio International Airport, Dallas Love Field and El Paso International Airport. The smallest airport in the state to be designated an international airport is Del Rio International Airport.

Ports

[edit]
Port of Houston along the Houston Ship Channel

Around 1,150 seaports dot Texas's coast with over 1,000 miles (1,600 km) of channels.[321] Ports employ nearly one-million people and handle an average of 317 million metric tons.[322] Texas ports connect with the rest of the U.S. Atlantic seaboard with the Gulf section of the Intracoastal Waterway.[321] The Port of Houston today is the busiest port in the United States in foreign tonnage, second in overall tonnage, and tenth worldwide in tonnage.[323] The Houston Ship Channel spans 530 feet (160 m) wide by 45 feet (14 m) deep by 50 miles (80 km) long.[324]

Railroads

[edit]
DART light rail in Dallas
METRORail in Houston

Part of the state's tradition of cowboys is derived from the massive cattle drives which its ranchers organized in the nineteenth century to drive livestock to railroads and markets.

The first railroad to operate in Texas was the Buffalo Bayou, Brazos and Colorado Railway, opening in August 1853.[325] The first railroad to enter Texas from the north, completed in 1872, was the Missouri–Kansas–Texas Railroad.[326] With increasing railroad access, the ranchers did not have to take their livestock up to the Midwest and shipped beef out from Texas. This caused a decline in the economies of the cow towns.[327]

Since 1911, Texas has led the nation in length of railroad miles within the state. Texas railway length peaked in 1932 at 17,078 miles (27,484 km), but declined to 14,006 miles (22,540 km) by 2000. While the Railroad Commission of Texas originally regulated state railroads, in 2005 the state reassigned these duties to TxDOT.[328]

In the Dallas–Fort Worth area, three public transit agencies provide rail service: Dallas Area Rapid Transit (DART), Denton County Transportation Authority (DCTA), and Trinity Metro. DART began operating the first light rail system in the Southwest United States in 1996.[329] The Trinity Railway Express (TRE) commuter rail service, which connects Fort Worth and Dallas, is provided by Trinity Metro and DART.[330] Trinity Metro also operates the TEXRail commuter rail line, connecting downtown Fort Worth and Northeast Tarrant County to DFW Airport.[331] The A-train commuter rail line, operated by DCTA, acts as an extension of the DART Green line into Denton County.[332] In the Austin area, Capital Metropolitan Transportation Authority operates a commuter rail service known as Capital MetroRail to the northwestern suburbs. The Metropolitan Transit Authority of Harris County, Texas (METRO) operates light rail lines called METRORail in the Houston area.[333]

Amtrak provides Texas with limited intercity passenger rail service. Three scheduled routes serve the state: the daily Texas Eagle (Chicago–San Antonio); the tri-weekly Sunset Limited (New Orleans–Los Angeles), with stops in Texas; and the daily Heartland Flyer (Fort Worth–Oklahoma City). Texas may get one of the nation's first high-speed rail line. Plans for a privately funded high-speed rail line between Dallas and Houston have been planned by the Texas Central Railway company.[334]

Culture

[edit]
The Alamo is one of the most recognized symbols of Texas.

Historically, Texas culture comes from a blend of mostly Southern (Dixie), Western (frontier), and Southwestern (Mexican/Anglo fusion) influences, varying in degrees of such from one intrastate region to another. A popular food item, the breakfast burrito, draws from all three, having a soft flour tortilla wrapped around bacon and scrambled eggs or other hot, cooked fillings. Adding to Texas's traditional culture, established in the 18th and 19th centuries, immigration has made Texas a melting pot of cultures from around the world.[335][336]

Texas has made a strong mark on national and international pop culture. The entire state is strongly associated with the image of the cowboy shown in westerns and in country western music. The state's numerous oil tycoons are also a popular pop culture topic as seen in the hit TV series Dallas.[337]

The internationally known slogan "Don't Mess with Texas" began as an anti-littering advertisement. Since the campaign's inception in 1986, the phrase has become "an identity statement, a declaration of Texas swagger".[338]

Texas self-perception

[edit]
Big Tex presided over every Texas State Fair since 1952 until it was destroyed by a fire in 2012. Since then a new Big Tex was created.

"Texas-sized" describes something that is about the size of the U.S. state of Texas,[339][340] or something (usually but not always originating from Texas) that is large compared to other objects of its type.[341][342][343] Texas was the largest U.S. state until Alaska became a state in 1959. The phrase "everything is bigger in Texas" has been in regular use since at least 1950.[344]

Arts

[edit]
ZZ Top performing in 2016. The power trio are considered cultural icons of Texas and blues-inspired rock music.

Houston is one of only five American cities with permanent professional resident companies in all the major performing arts disciplines: the Houston Grand Opera, the Houston Symphony Orchestra, the Houston Ballet, and The Alley Theatre.[345] Known for the vibrancy of its visual and performing arts, the Houston Theater District ranks second in the country in the number of theater seats in a concentrated downtown area, with 12,948 seats for live performances and 1,480 movie seats.[345] Founded in 1892, Modern Art Museum of Fort Worth, also called "The Modern", is Texas's oldest art museum. Fort Worth also has the Kimbell Art Museum, the Amon Carter Museum, the National Cowgirl Museum and Hall of Fame, the Will Rogers Memorial Center, and the Bass Performance Hall downtown. The Arts District of Downtown Dallas has arts venues such as the Dallas Museum of Art, the Morton H. Meyerson Symphony Center, the Margot and Bill Winspear Opera House, the Trammell & Margaret Crow Collection of Asian Art, and the Nasher Sculpture Center.[346]

Houston Symphony at the Jones Hall

The Deep Ellum district within Dallas became popular during the 1920s and 1930s as the prime jazz and blues hotspot in the Southern United States. The name Deep Ellum comes from local people pronouncing "Deep Elm" as "Deep Ellum".[347] Artists such as Blind Lemon Jefferson, Robert Johnson, Huddie "Lead Belly" Ledbetter, and Bessie Smith played in early Deep Ellum clubs.[348]

Austin, The Live Music Capital of the World, boasts "more live music venues per capita than such music hotbeds as Nashville, Memphis, Los Angeles, Las Vegas or New York City".[349] The city's music revolves around the nightclubs on 6th Street; events like the film, music, and multimedia festival South by Southwest; the longest-running concert music program on American television, Austin City Limits; and the Austin City Limits Music Festival held in Zilker Park.[350]

Since 1980, San Antonio has evolved into "The Tejano Music Capital Of The World".[351] The Tejano Music Awards have provided a forum to create greater awareness and appreciation for Tejano music and culture.[352]

Sports

[edit]
AT&T Stadium, home of the Dallas Cowboys, who are commonly known as America's Team
Playoff game between the San Antonio Spurs (led by Tim Duncan, #21) and the Los Angeles Lakers in 2007; the Spurs won the NBA Finals that year.
Texan baseball fans attending a game between the state's two MLB teams (Texas Rangers and Houston Astros) at Globe Life Field in Arlington

Within the "Big Four" professional leagues, Texas has two NFL teams (the Dallas Cowboys and the Houston Texans), two MLB teams (the Houston Astros and the Texas Rangers),[353][354] three NBA teams (the San Antonio Spurs, the Houston Rockets, and the Dallas Mavericks), and one NHL team (the Dallas Stars). The Dallas–Fort Worth metroplex is one of only thirteen American metropolitan areas that host sports teams from all the "Big Four" professional leagues. Outside of the "Big Four", Texas also has a WNBA team (the Dallas Wings), three Major League Soccer teams (Austin FC, Houston Dynamo FC and FC Dallas), and one NWSL team (the Houston Dash).[citation needed]

Collegiate athletics have deep significance in Texas culture, especially football. The state has twelve Division I-FBS schools, the most in the nation. Four of the state's schools claim at least one national championship in football: the Texas Longhorns, the Texas A&M Aggies, the TCU Horned Frogs, and the SMU Mustangs.[355][356][357][358] According to a survey of Division I-A coaches, the rivalry between the University of Oklahoma and the University of Texas at Austin, the Red River Shootout, ranks the third-best in the nation.[359] The TCU Horned Frogs and SMU Mustangs also share a rivalry and compete annually in the Battle for the Iron Skillet. A fierce rivalry, the Lone Star Showdown, also exists between the state's two largest universities, Texas A&M University and the University of Texas at Austin. The athletics portion of the Lone Star Showdown rivalry was paused between 2012, when Texas A&M left the Big 12 and joined the SEC, and 2024, when Texas joined them.[360]

The University Interscholastic League (UIL) organizes most primary and secondary school competitions. Events organized by UIL include contests in athletics (the most popular being high school football) as well as artistic and academic subjects.[361]

Rodeo (the state sport) in Austin

Texans also enjoy rodeo. The world's first rodeo was hosted in Pecos, Texas.[362] The annual Houston Livestock Show and Rodeo is the largest rodeo in the world. The Southwestern Exposition and Livestock Show in Fort Worth is the oldest continuously running rodeo incorporating many of the state's most historic traditions into its annual events. Dallas hosts the State Fair of Texas each year at Fair Park.[363]

Texas Motor Speedway hosts annual NASCAR Cup Series and IndyCar Series auto races since 1997. Since 2012, Austin's Circuit of the Americas plays host to a round of the Formula 1 World Championship.[364]

The Panther City Lacrosse Club is a professional lacrosse team in the National Lacrosse League. They have played local matches at Dickies Arena in Fort Worth, Texas since their inaugural 2021–2022 season.[365]

Education

[edit]

The second president of the Republic of Texas, Mirabeau B. Lamar, is the Father of Texas Education. During his term, the state set aside three leagues in each county for public schools. An additional 50 leagues of land set aside for the support of two universities would later become the basis of the state's Permanent University Fund.[366] Lamar's actions set the foundation for a Texas-wide public school system.[367]

Between 2006 and 2007, Texas spent $7,275 per pupil, ranking it below the national average of $9,389. The pupil/teacher ratio was 14.9, below the national average of 15.3. Texas paid instructors $41,744, below the national average of $46,593. The Texas Education Agency (TEA) administers the state's public school systems. Texas has over 1,000 school districts; all districts except the Stafford Municipal School District are independent from municipal government and many cross city boundaries.[368] School districts have the power to tax their residents and to assert eminent domain over privately owned property. Due to court-mandated equitable school financing, the state has a tax redistribution system called the "Robin Hood plan" which transfers property tax revenue from wealthy school districts to poor ones.[369] The TEA has no authority over private or homeschooling activities.[370]

Students in Texas take the State of Texas Assessments of Academic Readiness (STAAR) in primary and secondary school. STAAR assess students' attainment of reading, writing, mathematics, science, and social studies skills required under Texas education standards and the No Child Left Behind Act. The test replaced the Texas Assessment of Knowledge and Skills (TAKS) test in the 2011–2012 school year.[371]

Generally prohibited in the Western world, school corporal punishment is not unusual in the more conservative, rural areas of the state,[372][373][374] with 28,569 public school students paddled at least one time,[h] according to government data for the 2011–2012 school year.[375] The rate of school corporal punishment in Texas is surpassed only by Mississippi, Alabama, and Arkansas.[375]

Higher education

[edit]
The University of Texas at Austin
University of Houston
Texas A&M University
Rice University

The state's two most widely recognized flagship universities are The University of Texas at Austin and Texas A&M University, ranked as the 21st[376] and 41st[377] best universities in the nation according to 2020's latest Center for World University Rankings report, respectively. Some observers[378] also include the University of Houston and Texas Tech University as tier one flagships alongside UT Austin and A&M.[379][380] The Texas Higher Education Coordinating Board ranks the state's public universities into three distinct tiers:[381]

  • National Research Universities (Tier 1)[382][383]
    • The University of Texas at Austin
    • Texas A&M University
    • Texas Tech University
    • University of Houston
    • Rice University
    • The University of Texas at Arlington
    • The University of Texas at Dallas
    • The University of North Texas
    • The University of Texas at El Paso
  • Emerging Research Universities (Tier 2)[381]
    • The University of Texas at San Antonio
    • Texas State University
  • Comprehensive Universities (Tier 3)[381]
    • All other public universities (25 in total)

Texas's alternative affirmative action plan, Texas House Bill 588, guarantees Texas students who graduated in the top 10 percent of their high school class automatic admission to state-funded universities. This does not apply to The University of Texas at Austin, which automatically admits Texas students who graduated in the top 6 percent of their high school class.[384] The bill encourages demographic diversity while attempting to avoid problems stemming from the Hopwood v. Texas (1996) case.[385]

Thirty-six public universities exist in Texas, of which 32 belong to one of the six state university systems.[386][387] Discovery of minerals on Permanent University Fund land, particularly oil, has helped fund the rapid growth of the state's two largest university systems: the University of Texas System and the Texas A&M System. The four other university systems: the University of Houston System, the University of North Texas System, the Texas State System, and the Texas Tech System are not funded by the Permanent University Fund.[388]

The Carnegie Foundation classifies five of Texas's universities as Tier One research institutions: Rice University, The University of Texas at Austin, the Texas A&M University, the University of Houston and Texas Tech University. The University of Texas at Austin and Texas A&M University are the flagship universities of the University of Texas System and Texas A&M University System, respectively. Both were established by the Texas Constitution and hold stakes in the Permanent University Fund.[388]

The state has sought to expand the number of flagship universities by elevating some of its seven institutions designated as "emerging research universities". The two expected to emerge first are the University of Houston and Texas Tech University, likely in that order according to discussions on the House floor of the 82nd Texas Legislature.[389]

The state is home to various private institutions of higher learning—ranging from liberal arts colleges to a nationally recognized top-tier research university. Rice University in Houston is one of the leading teaching and research universities of the United States and is ranked the nation's 17th-best overall university by U.S. News & World Report.[390]

Trinity University, a private, primarily undergraduate liberal arts university in San Antonio, has ranked first among universities granting primarily bachelor's and select master's degrees in the Western United States for 20 consecutive years by U.S. News.[391] Private universities include Abilene Christian University, Austin College, Baylor University, University of Mary Hardin–Baylor, and Southwestern University.[392][393][394]

Universities in Texas host three presidential libraries: George Bush Presidential Library at Texas A&M University,[395] the Lyndon Baines Johnson Library and Museum at The University of Texas at Austin,[396][397] and the George W. Bush Presidential Library at Southern Methodist University.[398]

Healthcare

[edit]

Notwithstanding the concentration of elite medical centers in the state, The Commonwealth Fund ranks the Texas healthcare system the third worst in the nation.[399] Texas ranks close to last in access to healthcare, quality of care, avoidable hospital spending, and equity.[399] In May 2006, Texas initiated the program "code red" in response to the report the state had 25.1 percent of the population without health insurance, the largest proportion in the nation.[400]

The Trust for America's Health ranked Texas 15th highest in adult obesity: 27.2 percent of the state's population is obese.[401] The 2008 Men's Health obesity survey ranked four Texas cities among the top 25 fattest cities in America: Houston ranked 6th, Dallas 7th, El Paso 8th, and Arlington 14th.[402] Texas had only one city (Austin, ranked 21st) in the top 25 "fittest cities" in America.[402] The state is ranked forty-second in the percentage of residents who engage in regular exercise according to a 2007 study.[403]

Texas has the highest maternal mortality rate in the developed world, and the rate by which Texas women died from pregnancy-related complications doubled from 2010 to 2014, to 23.8 per 100,000—a rate unmatched in any other U.S. state or economically developed country.[404] In May 2021, the state legislature passed the Texas Heartbeat Act, which banned abortion from as early as six weeks of pregnancy, except to save the life of the mother. The Act allows private citizens to sue abortion providers and anyone else who assists in an abortion, except for the woman on whom the abortion is performed.[405][406] On August 25, 2022, another law took effect that made committing abortion at any stage of pregnancy a felony punishable by life in prison.[407]

Medical research

[edit]
The Texas Medical Center in Houston

Texas has many elite research medical centers. The state has 15 medical schools,[408] four dental schools,[409] and two optometry schools.[410] Texas has two Biosafety Level 4 (BSL-4) laboratories: one at The University of Texas Medical Branch (UTMB) in Galveston,[411] and the other at the Southwest Foundation for Biomedical Research in San Antonio—the first privately owned BSL-4 lab in the United States.[412]

The Texas Medical Center in Houston holds the world's largest concentration of research and healthcare institutions, with over 50 member institutions.[413] Texas Medical Center performs the most heart transplants in the world.[414] The University of Texas M. D. Anderson Cancer Center in Houston is a highly regarded academic institution that centers around cancer patient care, research, education and prevention.[415]

San Antonio's South Texas Medical Center facilities rank sixth in clinical medicine research impact in the United States.[416] The University of Texas Health Science Center is another highly ranked research and educational institution in San Antonio.[417][418]

Both the American Heart Association and the University of Texas Southwestern Medical Center call Dallas home.[419] The institution's medical school employs the most medical school Nobel laureates in the world.[419][420]

 

Government and politics

[edit]

The current Texas Constitution was adopted in 1876. Like many states, it explicitly provides for a separation of powers. The state's Bill of Rights is much larger than its federal counterpart, and has provisions unique to Texas.[421]

State government

[edit]
The Texas State Capitol at night

Texas has a plural executive branch system limiting the power of the governor, which is a weak executive compared to some other states. Except for the secretary of state, voters elect executive officers independently; candidates are directly answerable to the public, not the governor.[422] This election system has led to some executive branches split between parties and reduced the ability of the governor to carry out a program. When Republican president George W. Bush served as Texas's governor, the state had a Democratic lieutenant governor, Bob Bullock. The executive branch positions consist of the governor, lieutenant governor, comptroller of public accounts, land commissioner, attorney general, agriculture commissioner, the three-member Texas Railroad Commission, the State Board of Education, and the secretary of state.[422]

The bicameral Texas Legislature consists of the House of Representatives, with 150 members, and a Senate, with 31 members. The Speaker of the House leads the House, and the lieutenant governor, the Senate.[423] The Legislature meets in regular session biennially for just over a hundred days, but the governor can call for special sessions as often as desired (notably, the Legislature cannot call itself into session).[424] The state's fiscal year begins September 1.[425]

The judiciary of Texas is among the most complex in the United States, with many layers and overlapping jurisdictions. Texas has two courts of last resort: the Texas Supreme Court, for civil cases, and the Texas Court of Criminal Appeals. Except for some municipal benches, partisan elections select judges at all levels of the judiciary; the governor fills vacancies by appointment.[426] Texas is notable for its use of capital punishment, having led the country in executions since capital punishment was reinstated in the Gregg v. Georgia case.[427]

The Texas Ranger Division of the Texas Department of Public Safety is a law enforcement agency with statewide jurisdiction. Over the years, the Texas Rangers have investigated crimes ranging from murder to political corruption. They have acted as riot police and as detectives, protected the Texas governor, tracked down fugitives, and functioned as a paramilitary force. The Texas Rangers were unofficially created by Stephen F. Austin in 1823 and formally constituted in 1835. The Rangers were integral to several important events of Texas history and some of the best-known criminal cases in the history of the Old West.[428]

The Texas constitution defines the responsibilities of county governments, which serve as agents of the state. Commissioners court and court judges are elected to serve as the administrative arm. Most cities in the state, those over 5,000 in population, have home-rule governments. The vast majority of these have charters for council-manager forms of government, by which voters elect council members, who hire a professional city manager as an operating officer.[429]

Politics

[edit]
Lyndon B. Johnson of Texas, 36th president of the United States
George W. Bush of Texas, 43rd president of the United States

The Democratic Party dominated Texas politics from the turn of the 20th century, imposing racial segregation and white supremacy. It held power until after passage in the mid-1960s of national civil rights legislation enforcing constitutional rights of all citizens.[430][431]

The state's conservative White voters began to support Republican presidential candidates by the mid-20th century. After this period, they supported Republicans for local and state offices as well, and most Whites became Republican Party members.[432] The party also attracted some minorities, but many have continued to vote for Democratic candidates. The shift to the Republican Party is much-attributed to the fact the Democratic Party became increasingly liberal during the 20th century, and thus increasingly out-of-touch with the average Texas voter.[433] As Texas was always a conservative state, voters switched to the Republicans, which now more closely reflected their beliefs.[433][434] Commentators have also attributed the shift to Republican political consultant Karl Rove, who managed numerous political campaigns in Texas in the 1980s and 1990s.[434] Other stated reasons included court-ordered redistricting and the demographic shift in relation to the Sun Belt that favored the Republican Party and conservatism.[124]

The 2003 Texas redistricting of Congressional districts led by Republican Tom DeLay, was called by The New York Times "an extreme case of partisan gerrymandering".[435] A group of Democratic legislators, the "Texas Eleven", fled the state in a quorum-busting effort to prevent the legislature from acting, but was unsuccessful.[436] The state had already redistricted following the 2000 census. Despite these efforts, the legislature passed a map heavily in favor of Republicans, based on 2000 data and ignoring the estimated nearly one million new residents in the state since then. Career attorneys and analysts at the Department of Justice objected to the plan as diluting the votes of African American and Hispanic voters, but political appointees overrode them and approved it.[435] Legal challenges to the redistricting reached the national Supreme Court in the case League of United Latin American Citizens v. Perry (2006), but the court ruled in favor of the state (and Republicans).[437]

In the 2014 Texas elections, the Tea Party movement made large gains, with numerous Tea Party favorites being elected into office, including Dan Patrick as lieutenant governor,[438][439] Ken Paxton as attorney general,[438][440] in addition to numerous other candidates[440] including conservative Republican Greg Abbott as governor.[441]

Texas voters lean toward fiscal conservatism, while enjoying the benefits of significant federal investment in the state in military and other facilities achieved by the power of the Solid South in the 20th century. They also tend to have socially conservative values.[259][442]

Since 1980, most Texas voters have supported Republican presidential candidates. Austin, Dallas, Houston, San Antonio, and El Paso consistently lean Democratic in both local and statewide elections.[126] Residents of counties along the Rio Grande closer to the Mexico–United States border, where there are many Latino residents, generally vote for Democratic Party candidates, while most other rural and suburban areas of Texas have shifted to voting for Republican Party candidates.[443][444]

As of the midterm elections of 2022, a large majority of the members of Texas's U.S. House delegation are Republican, along with both U.S. Senators. In the 119th United States Congress, of the 38 Congressional districts in Texas, 25 are held by Republicans and 13 by Democrats. Texas's Senators are John Cornyn and Ted Cruz. Since 1994, Texans have not elected a Democrat to a statewide office. The state's Democratic voters are made up primarily by liberal and minority groups in Austin, Beaumont, Dallas, El Paso, Houston, and San Antonio as well as minority voters in East and South Texas.[445][446][447] According to a study by the Cato Institute, Texas ranks last in personal freedom among the states, by factors including incarceration rates, cannabis laws, civil asset forfeiture policies, educational freedom, gambling laws, marriage freedom, and travel freedom.[448][449]

Lesser parties that have ballot access are the Green Party and the Libertarian Party.[450]

Criminal law

[edit]

Texas has a reputation of very harsh criminal punishment for criminal offenses. It is one of the 32 states that practice capital punishment, and since the US Supreme Court allowed capital punishment to resume in 1976, 40% of all U.S. executions have taken place in Texas.[451] As of 2018, Texas had the 8th highest incarceration rate in the U.S.[452] Texas also has strong right of self-defense and self defense laws, allowing citizens to use lethal force to defend themselves, their families, or their property.[453] Texas has one of the strictest abortion bans in the country.[454]

See also

[edit]
  • Outline of Texas
  • Index of Texas-related articles
  • List of people from Texas
  • USS Texas, 4 ships

Notes

[edit]
 
  1. ^ Elevation adjusted to North American Vertical Datum of 1988
  2. ^ In Peninsular Spanish, the spelling variant Tejas is also used alongside Texas. According to the Diccionario panhispánico de dudas by the Royal Spanish Academy and the Association of Academies of the Spanish Language, the spelling version with ⟨j⟩ aligns with modern-day orthographic conventions and is correct; however, the spelling with ⟨x⟩ is recommended, as it is the one that is used in Mexican Spanish.[9] See Spanish orthography § History.
  3. ^ Cabeza de Vaca wrote, "They went about with a firebrand, setting fire to the plains and timber so as to drive off the mosquitos, and also to get lizards and similar things which they eat, to come out of the soil. In the same manner they kill deer, encircling them with fires, and they do it also to deprive the animals of pasture, compelling them to go for food where the Indians want."[40]
  4. ^ Vázquez de Coronado wrote, "Two kinds of people travel around these plains with the cows; one is called Querechos and the others Teyas; they are very well built, and painted, and are enemies of each other. They have no other settlement or location than comes from traveling around with the cows. They kill all of these they wish and tan the hides, with which they clothe themselves and make their tents, and they eat the flesh, sometimes even raw, and they also even drink the blood when thirsty. The tents they make are like field tents, and they set them up over poles they have made for this purpose, which come together and are tied at the top, and when they go from one place to another they carry them on some dogs they have, of which they have many, and they load them with the tents and poles and other things, for the country is so level, as I said, that they can make use of these, because they carry the poles dragging along on the ground. The sun is what they worship most."[42]
  5. ^ Persons of Hispanic or Latino origin are not distinguished between total and partial ancestry.
  6. ^ Second to California
  7. ^ Based on the industry-standard measure of revenue passenger-kilometers/miles flown
  8. ^ This figure refers to only the number of students paddled, regardless of whether a student was spanked multiple times in a year, and does not refer to the number of instances of corporal punishment, which would be substantially higher.

References

[edit]
  1. ^ a b c d e Plocheck, Robert (November 20, 2017). "Facts". Texas Almanac (2010–2011 ed.). Archived from the original on February 28, 2011.
  2. ^ a b "Environment". Texas Almanac. 2008. Retrieved June 28, 2020.
  3. ^ "El Capitan". NGS Data Sheet. National Geodetic Survey, National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, United States Department of Commerce. Retrieved October 20, 2011.
  4. ^ a b "Elevations and Distances in the United States". United States Geological Survey. 2001. Archived from the original on July 22, 2012. Retrieved October 24, 2011.
  5. ^ a b c d "QuickFacts: Texas". Census.gov. United States Census Bureau. Retrieved December 20, 2024.
  6. ^ "Household Income in States and Metropolitan Areas: 2023" (PDF). Retrieved January 12, 2025.
  7. ^ "Languages Spoken at Home". United States Census Bureau. Retrieved June 5, 2020.
  8. ^ Wells, John C. (1982). Accents of English. Vol. 3: Beyond the British Isles (pp. i–xx, 467–674). Cambridge University Press. p. 551. doi:10.1017/CBO9780511611766. ISBN 0-52128541-0 .
  9. ^ "Texas" in Diccionario panhispánico de dudas by Royal Spanish Academy and Association of Academies of the Spanish Language, Madrid: Santillana. 2005. ISBN 978-8-429-40623-8.
  10. ^ "The State of Texas". Netstate.com. Retrieved April 11, 2010.
  11. ^ "Twenty-ninth Congress: Resolutions" (PDF). legisworks.org. 1845. Archived from the original (PDF) on May 25, 2017. Retrieved May 16, 2017.
  12. ^ Ramos, Mary G.; Reavis, Dick J. (2004). Texas. Fodor's Travel Publications. p. 125. ISBN 978-0-676-90502-1.
  13. ^ Sansom, Andrew (2008). Water in Texas: An Introduction. University of Texas Press. p. 25. ISBN 978-0-292-71809-8.
  14. ^ José Arlegui, Chronica de la provincia de N.S.P.S. Francisco de Zacatecas Front Cover (1737), p. 53.
  15. ^ "Texas". Online Etymology Dictionary. Douglas Harper. Retrieved February 25, 2007.
  16. ^ Fry, Phillip L. (March 7, 2016) [July 15, 2010]. "Texas, Origin of Name". Handbook of Texas (online ed.). Texas State Historical Association.
  17. ^ Davis, Lucile (2003). The Caddo of Texas. Rosen Publishing. p. 5. ISBN 9780823964352.
  18. ^ a b Teja, Jesús de la (June 15, 2010). "New Philippines". Handbook of Texas (online ed.). Texas State Historical Association.
  19. ^ Oakah L. Jones, Los Paisanos: Spanish Settlers on the Northern Frontier of New Spain, University of Oklahoma Press (1996), p. 277, citing a document dated November 5, 1730.
  20. ^ Joseph de Laporte, El viagero universal: Ó, Noticia del mundo antiguo y nuevo vol. 27 (1799), p. 114.
  21. ^ "Texas. Grafía recomendada para el nombre de este estado norteamericano. Su pronunciación correcta es [téjas], no [téksas]. Se recomienda escribir asimismo con x el gentilicio correspondiente: texano. Son también válidas las grafías con j (Tejas, tejano), de uso mayoritario en España." Diccionario panhispánico de dudas, Real Academia Española (2005), s.v. Texas.
  22. ^ a b Charles Dimitry, "American Geographical Nomenclature", Appletons' Journal 15 (1876), 758f.
  23. ^ Richardson et al. 2021, p. 9.
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  27. ^ Richardson et al. 2021, p. 10.
  28. ^ Richardson et al. 2021, p. 12.
  29. ^ Klos, George (June 15, 2010). "Indians". Handbook of Texas (online ed.). Texas State Historical Association.
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  32. ^ a b c Glover, William B. "A History of the Caddo Indians". Reprinted from 'The Louisiana Historical Quarterly'; Vol. 18, No. 4. October 1935
  33. ^ Swanton, John R. Indians of the Southeastern United States (Washington: United States Government Printing Office, 1946) p. 139
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  35. ^ Gwynne, S. C. (2011). Empire of the Summer Moon. Constable & Robinson. ISBN 978-1-84901-820-3. OCLC 968100096.
  36. ^ Chipman (1992), p. 243; Weber (1992), p. 34
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  42. ^ Winship, George Parker, ed. (1904). The Journey of Coronado, 1540–1542. A.S. Barnes & Company. pp. 210–211.
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  44. ^ Hudson, Charles M. (2018). Knights of Spain, warriors of the sun : Hernando De Soto and the South's ancient chiefdoms. University of Georgia Press. ISBN 978-0-8203-5160-5. OCLC 981166517.
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  46. ^ Weber (1992), p. 149.
  47. ^ Chipman (1992), p. 83.
  48. ^ Joutel, Henri (1998). The La Salle expedition to Texas : the journal of Henri Joutel, 1684-1687. Texas State Historical Association. ISBN 0-87611-165-7. OCLC 962854705.
  49. ^ Chipman (1992), p. 89.
  50. ^ Weber (1992), p. 155.
  51. ^ Chipman (1992), pp. 111–112; Weber (1992), p. 160
  52. ^ Weber (1992), p. 163.
  53. ^ Bolton, Herbert Eugene (1915). Texas in the Middle 18th Century. University of California Press. p. facing p. 382.
  54. ^ Chipman (1992), p. 205.
  55. ^ Weber (1992), p. 193.
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  62. ^ "Most of the Filipinos in Texas are comparatively recent arrivals. Strong economic and political ties with the Spanish empire from the 16th to the 19th centuries brought few known individuals to the Americas, but United States control in the early 20th century was responsible for Filipino settlement in every metropolitan area in the state. Considering the Spanish trade with the Philippines—the Manila galleons operated between Acapulco and Manila from 1565 to 1815—travelers from the islands may have been in Mexico after the mid-16th century" (PDF). Texascultures.housing.utexas.edu. Archived from the original (PDF) on March 3, 2019. Retrieved April 17, 2021.
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  75. ^ Davis (2006), p. 92.
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  78. ^ Hardin (1994), p. 12.
  79. ^ Winders (2004), p. 72.
  80. ^ Winders (2004), pp. 90, 92Hardin (1994), p. 109
  81. ^ Hardin (1994), p. 102.
  82. ^ Roell, Craig H. (July 12, 2016) [June 12, 2010]. "Coleto, Battle of". Handbook of Texas (online ed.). Texas State Historical Association.
  83. ^ a b Todish, Todish & Spring (1998), p. 68.
  84. ^ Roberts and Olson (2001), p. 144.
  85. ^ Todish, Todish & Spring (1998), p. 69.
  86. ^ Todish, Todish & Spring (1998), p. 70.
  87. ^ "Tarlton Law Library: Constitution of the Republic of Texas (1836): General Provisions". tarlton.law.utexas.edu. Retrieved December 28, 2020. No free person of African descent, either in whole or in part, shall be permitted to reside permanently in the Republic, without the consent of Congress, and the importation or admission of Africans or negroes into this Republic, excepting from the United States of America, is forever prohibited, and declared to be piracy.
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Bibliography

[edit]
  • Chipman, Donald E. (1992). Spanish Texas, 1519–1821. University of Texas Press. ISBN 978-0-292-77659-3.
  • Davis, William C. (2006). Lone Star Rising. Texas A&M University Press. ISBN 978-1-58544-532-5. originally published 2004 by New York: Free Press Lone Star Rising at Google Books
  • Edmondson, J.R. (2000). Alamo Story: From Early History to Current Conflicts. Republic of Texas Press. ISBN 978-1-55622-678-6.
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  • Lack, Paul D. (1992). The Texas Revolutionary Experience: A Political and Social History 1835–1836. Texas A&M University Press. ISBN 978-0-89096-497-2.
  • Manchaca, Martha (2001). Recovering History, Constructing Race: The Indian, Black, and White Roots of Mexican Americans. The Joe R. and Teresa Lozano Long Series in Latin American and Latino Art and Culture. University of Texas Press. ISBN 978-0-292-75253-5.
  • Richardson, Rupert N.; Wintz, Cary D.; Boswell, Angela; Anderson, Adrian; Wallace, Ernest (2021). Texas: The Lone Star State (Eleventh ed.). Taylor & Francis. ISBN 9781000403763.
  • Todish, Timothy J.; Todish, Terry; Spring, Ted (1998). Alamo Sourcebook, 1836: A Comprehensive Guide to the Battle of the Alamo and the Texas Revolution. Eakin Press. ISBN 978-1-57168-152-2.
  • Report of President's Commission on the assassination of President John F. Kennedy. (1992). The Warren Commission Report. Warren Commission Hearings. Vol. IV. National Archives. ISBN 978-0-312-08257-4.
  • Weber, David J. (1992). The Spanish Frontier in North America. Yale Western Americana Series. Yale University Press. ISBN 978-0-300-05198-8.
  • Weddle, Robert S. (1995). Changing Tides: Twilight and Dawn in the Spanish Sea, 1763–1803. Centennial Series of the Association of Former Students Number 58. Texas A&M University Press. ISBN 978-0-89096-661-7.
  • Winders, Richard Bruce (2004). Sacrificed at the Alamo: Tragedy and Triumph in the Texas Revolution. Military History of Texas Series: Number Three. State House Press. ISBN 978-1-880510-80-3.
[edit]
  • The Texas State History Museum
  • The Handbook of Texas Online
  • Texas Register
  • South and West Texas: A National Register of Historic Places Travel Itinerary
  • Geographic data related to Texas at OpenStreetMap
  • View historical photographs from Texas at the University of Houston Digital Library.
  • Lawrence T. Jones III Texas Photographs, DeGolyer Library
  • Texas: Photographs, Manuscripts, and Imprints, DeGolyer Library
  • George W. Cook Dallas/Texas Image Collection, DeGolyer Library
  • John Miller Morris Real Photographic Postcards and Photographs of Texas, DeGolyer Library
  • Rowe-Barr Collection of Texas Currency, DeGolyer Library
  • Oklahoma Digital Maps: Digital Collections of Oklahoma and Indian Territory

State government

[edit]
  • The Official Website of the Government of Texas
  • The State of Texas
  • Texas State Databases
  • Texas Politics

Federal government

[edit]
  • Energy Profile for Texas—Economic, environmental, and energy data
  • USGS real-time, geographic, and other scientific resources of Texas Archived December 9, 2016, at the Wayback Machine
  • Texas State Facts from USDA
  • South and West Texas, a National Park Service Discover Our Shared Heritage Travel Itinerary

31°N 99°W / 31°N 99°W / 31; -99 (State of Texas)

 

 

Real estate is property consisting of land and the buildings on it, along with its natural resources such as growing crops (e.g. timber), minerals or water, and wild animals; immovable property of this nature; an interest vested in this (also) an item of real property, (more generally) buildings or housing in general.[1][2] In terms of law, real relates to land property and is different from personal property, while estate means the "interest" a person has in that land property.[3]

Real estate is different from personal property, which is not permanently attached to the land (or comes with the land), such as vehicles, boats, jewelry, furniture, tools, and the rolling stock of a farm and farm animals.

In the United States, the transfer, owning, or acquisition of real estate can be through business corporations, individuals, nonprofit corporations, fiduciaries, or any legal entity as seen within the law of each U.S. state.[3]

History of real estate

[edit]

The natural right of a person to own property as a concept can be seen as having roots in Roman law as well as Greek philosophy.[4] The profession of appraisal can be seen as beginning in England during the 1500s, as agricultural needs required land clearing and land preparation. Textbooks on the subject of surveying began to be written and the term "surveying" was used in England, while the term "appraising" was more used in North America.[5] Natural law which can be seen as "universal law" was discussed among writers of the 15th and 16th century as it pertained to "property theory" and the inter-state relations dealing with foreign investments and the protection of citizens private property abroad. Natural law can be seen as having an influence in Emerich de Vattel's 1758 treatise The Law of Nations which conceptualized the idea of private property.[6]

One of the largest initial real estate deals in history known as the "Louisiana Purchase" happened in 1803 when the Louisiana Purchase Treaty was signed. This treaty paved the way for western expansion and made the U.S. the owners of the "Louisiana Territory" as the land was bought from France for fifteen million dollars, making each acre roughly 4 cents.[7] The oldest real estate brokerage firm was established in 1855 in Chicago, Illinois, and was initially known as "L. D. Olmsted & Co." but is now known as "Baird & Warner".[8] In 1908, the National Association of Realtors was founded in Chicago and in 1916, the name was changed to the National Association of Real Estate Boards and this was also when the term "realtor" was coined to identify real estate professionals.[9]

The stock market crash of 1929 and the Great Depression in the U.S. caused a major drop in real estate worth and prices and ultimately resulted in depreciation of 50% for the four years after 1929.[10] Housing financing in the U.S. was greatly affected by the Banking Act of 1933 and the National Housing Act in 1934 because it allowed for mortgage insurance for home buyers and this system was implemented by the Federal Deposit Insurance as well as the Federal Housing Administration.[11] In 1938, an amendment was made to the National Housing Act and Fannie Mae, a government agency, was established to serve as a secondary market for mortgages and to give lenders more money in order for new homes to be funded.[12]

Title VIII of the Civil Rights Act in the U.S., which is also known as the Fair Housing Act, was put into place in 1968 and dealt with the incorporation of African Americans into neighborhoods as the issues of discrimination were analyzed with the renting, buying, and financing of homes.[13] Internet real estate as a concept began with the first appearance of real estate platforms on the World Wide Web (www) and occurred in 1999.

Residential real estate

[edit]

Residential real estate may contain either a single family or multifamily structure that is available for occupation or for non-business purposes.[14]

Residences can be classified by and how they are connected to neighbouring residences and land. Different types of housing tenure can be used for the same physical type. For example, connected residences might be owned by a single entity and leased out, or owned separately with an agreement covering the relationship between units and common areas and concerns.[15]

According to the Congressional Research Service, in 2021, 65% of homes in the U.S. are owned by the occupier.[16]

Single-family detached house in Essex, Connecticut, United States
Townhouses in Victoria, Australia
Major categories
  • Attached / multi-unit dwellings
    • Apartment (American English) or Flat (British English) – An individual unit in a multi-unit building. The boundaries of the apartment are generally defined by a perimeter of locked or lockable doors. Often seen in multi-story apartment buildings.
    • Multi-family house – Often seen in multi-story detached buildings, where each floor is a separate apartment or unit.
    • Terraced house (a.k.a. townhouse or rowhouse) – A number of single or multi-unit buildings in a continuous row with shared walls and no intervening space.
    • Condominium (American English) – A building or complex, similar to apartments, owned by individuals. Common grounds and common areas within the complex are owned and shared jointly. In North America, there are townhouse or rowhouse style condominiums as well. The British equivalent is a block of flats.
    • Housing cooperative (a.k.a. co-op) – A type of multiple ownership in which the residents of a multi-unit housing complex own shares in the cooperative corporation that owns the property, giving each resident the right to occupy a specific apartment or unit. Majority of housing in Indian metro cities are of these types.
    • Tenement – A type of building shared by multiple dwellings, typically with flats or apartments on each floor and with shared entrance stairway access found in Britain.
  • Semi-detached dwellings
    • Duplex – Two units with one shared wall.
  • Detached dwellings
    • Bungalows
    • Split-level home
    • Mansions
    • Villas
    • Detached house or single-family detached house
    • Cottages
  • Portable dwellings
    • Mobile homes, tiny homes, or residential caravans – A full-time residence that can be (although might not in practice be) movable on wheels.
    • Houseboats – A floating home
    • Tents – Usually temporary, with roof and walls consisting only of fabric-like material.

Other categories

  • Chawls
  • Havelis
  • Igloos
  • Huts

The size of havelis and chawls is measured in Gaz (square yards), Quila, Marla, Beegha, and acre.

See List of house types for a complete listing of housing types and layouts, real estate trends for shifts in the market, and house or home for more general information.

Real estate and the environment

[edit]

Real estate can be valued or devalued based on the amount of environmental degradation that has occurred. Environmental degradation can cause extreme health and safety risks. There is a growing demand for the use of site assessments (ESAs) when valuing a property for both private and commercial real estate.[17]

Environmental surveying is made possible by environmental surveyors who examine the environmental factors present within the development of real estate as well as the impacts that development and real estate has on the environment.

Green development is a concept that has grown since the 1970s with the environmental movement and the World Commission on Environment and Development. Green development examines social and environmental impacts with real estate and building. There are 3 areas of focus, being the environmental responsiveness, resource efficiency, and the sensitivity of cultural and societal aspects. Examples of Green development are green infrastructure, LEED, conservation development, and sustainability developments.

Real estate in itself has been measured as a contributing factor to the rise in green house gases. According to the International Energy Agency, real estate in 2019 was responsible for 39 percent of total emissions worldwide and 11 percent of those emissions were due to the manufacturing of materials used in buildings.[18]

Development

[edit]

Real estate development involves planning and coordinating of housebuilding, real estate construction or renovation projects.[19] Real estate development can be less cyclical than real estate investing.[20]

Investment

[edit]

In markets where land and building prices are rising, real estate is often purchased as an investment, whether or not the owner intends to use the property. Often investment properties are rented out, but "flipping" involves quickly reselling a property, sometimes taking advantage of arbitrage or quickly rising value, and sometimes after repairs are made that substantially raise the value of the property. Luxury real estate is sometimes used as a way to store value, especially by wealthy foreigners, without any particular attempt to rent it out. Some luxury units in London and New York City have been used as a way for corrupt foreign government officials and business people from countries without strong rule of law to launder money or to protect it from seizure.[21] Investment in real estate can be categorized by financial risk into core, value-added, and opportunistic.[22]

Professionals

[edit]
  • Real estate agent – North America
  • Estate agent – United Kingdom

See also

[edit]
  • Environmental Surveying
  • Green Development
  • Phase I environmental site assessment
  • Commercial real estate
  • Estate (land)
  • Extraterrestrial real estate
  • Fractional financing
  • Land lot
  • Real estate business
  • Real estate economics
  • Right to property

References

[edit]
  1. ^ "Real estate": Oxford English Dictionary online: Retrieved September 18, 2011
  2. ^ James Chen (May 2, 2019). "What Is Real Estate?". investopedia.com. Archived from the original on August 18, 2000. Retrieved May 13, 2019.
  3. ^ a b Real Estate. Funk & Wagnalls New World Encyclopedia, 1. 2018.
  4. ^ Alvik, Ivar (2018). "Protection of Private Property in the Early Law of Nations". Journal of the History of International Law. 20 (2): 220. doi:10.1163/15718050-19041026. S2CID 158672172.
  5. ^ Klaasen, R. L. (1976). "Brief History of Real Estate Appraisal and Organizations". Appraisal Journal. 44 (3): 376–381.
  6. ^ Alvik, Ivar (2018). "Protection of Private Property in the Early Law of Nations". Journal of the History of International Law. 20 (2): 218–227. doi:10.1163/15718050-19041026. S2CID 158672172.
  7. ^ "Louisiana Purchase: Primary Documents in American History". Library of Congress Research Guides. Archived from the original on 2022-06-25. Retrieved 2022-05-18.
  8. ^ Richardson, Patricia (June 2, 2003). "Father-son team scores big at home; Nearly 150 years old, family-owned Baird & Warner Inc. is a dominant force in the area's residential real estate industry, and shows no signs of slowing down or selling out". Crain's Chicago Business.
  9. ^ "History of National Association of Realtors". National Association of Realtors. 13 January 2012. Archived from the original on 13 May 2022. Retrieved 18 May 2022.
  10. ^ Nicholas, T.; Scherbina, A. (2013). "Real Estate Prices During the Roaring Twenties and the Great Depression". Real Estate Economics, 41. 2: 280.
  11. ^ Greer, J. L. (2014). "Historic Home Mortgage Redlining in Chicago". Journal of the Illinois State Historical Society. 107 (2): 204–233. doi:10.5406/jillistathistsoc.107.2.0204.
  12. ^ "A Brief History of the Housing Government-Sponsored Enterprises" (PDF). Federal Housing Finance Agency – OIG. Archived (PDF) from the original on 2023-03-08. Retrieved 2022-05-18.
  13. ^ Taylor, K. Y. (2018). "How Real Estate Segregated America". Dissent. 65 (4): 23–24. doi:10.1353/dss.2018.0071. S2CID 149616841.
  14. ^ "Title 16. Conservation; Chapter 1. National Parks, Military Parks, Monuments, and Seashores; Minute Man National Historical Park". US Legal. Archived from the original on 2017-07-08. Retrieved 2015-10-04.
  15. ^ Kimberley Amadeo (March 28, 2019). "Real Estate, What It Is and How It Works". thebalance.com. Archived from the original on May 13, 2019. Retrieved May 13, 2019.
  16. ^ "Introduction to U.S. Economy: Housing Market" (PDF). Congressional Research Service. Archived from the original on 2022-07-29. Retrieved 2022-05-18.cite web: CS1 maint: bot: original URL status unknown (link)
  17. ^ Cutting, Robert H.; Calhoun, Lawrence B.; Hall, Jack C. (2012). "'Location, Location, Location' Should Be 'Environment, Environment, Environment': A Market-Based Tool to Simplify Environmental Considerations in Residential Real Estate". Golden Gate University Environmental Law Journal.
  18. ^ "Global status report for buildings and construction". International Energy Agency. 2019.
  19. ^ Frej, Anne B; Peiser, Richard B. (2003). Professional Real Estate Development: The ULI Guide to the Business (2 ed.). Urban Land Institute. p. 3. ISBN 0874208947. OCLC 778267123.
  20. ^ Geltner, David, Anil Kumar, and Alex M. Van de Minne. "Riskiness of real estate development: A perspective from urban economics and option value theory." Real Estate Economics 48.2 (2020): 406–445.
  21. ^ "Why Manhattan's Skyscrapers Are Empty". The Atlantic. 16 Jan 2020. Archived from the original on 13 April 2021. Retrieved 13 April 2021.
  22. ^ Garay, Urbi, Investment Styles, Portfolio Allocation, and Real Estate Derivatives (2016). Garay, U. “Investment Styles, Portfolio Allocation, and Real Estate Derivatives.” In Kazemi, H.; Black, K.; and D. Chambers (Editors), Alternative Investments: CAIA Level II, Chapter 16, Wiley Finance, 3rd Edition, 2016, pp. 401–421.
[edit]
  • The dictionary definition of real estate at Wiktionary
  • Quotations related to Real estate at Wikiquote

 

Instant buyer (or iBuyer) is a real estate transaction model wherein companies purchase residential properties directly from private sellers, to eventually re-sell them.[1][2]

Background

[edit]

The term ‘instant’ refers to the fact that this type of business aims to provide a faster cash offer on a property than traditional real estate brokers. Valuation of the property takes place online and is an instantaneous or near-instantaneous process which makes use of machine learning and AI technologies.[2][3][4] Examples of companies using the iBuyer model include Opendoor, Zillow Offers, ibuyhomes.com and RedfinNow.[1][5][6][7] The term iBuyer was coined by Stephen Kim, an equity research analyst at Evercore ISI on May 29, 2017 in a report to clients titled "The Rise of the iBuyer".[8]

The iBuyer process

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iBuyer companies use computer-generated analysis of market data, information supplied by sellers, and in some cases input from local real estate agents, to make instant cash offers on residential properties.[9][10] Individuals wishing to sell their house are asked to enter basic information about the property on a company’s website. In a process largely driven by machine learning and automated data analysis, the property’s approximate value is determined and an initial offer is made.[1][3][4] If the offer is accepted by the seller, the company arranges an inspection of the property to ensure that the data supplied is concomitant with the actual condition of the building. From a seller’s perspective, the process of selling his or her property can take under two weeks.[2][6]

Once an iBuyer company has purchased a property, it arranges for any necessary repairs or modifications to be carried out in the building. The property is then re-sold.[4][10]

Businesses operating under the iBuyer transaction model make their profit on the fees incurred on the seller, which are typically marginally higher (1-4%) than those charged by traditional real estate companies.[1][11] From an Instant buyer company’s perspective, the higher fees cover the investment risk involved in holding the property for a potentially long period of time.[12] For a seller, the fees are paid in exchange for a much faster property-selling process than with a traditional real estate model and for avoiding the need to make repairs and improvements to the property prior to selling.[1][11]

References

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  1. ^ a b c d e Gores, Paul (October 25, 2019). "iBuyers use technology to take the time and hassle out of home selling. And they could be in Milwaukee soon". Milwaukee Journal Sentinel. Retrieved 2019-11-07.
  2. ^ a b c Njus, Elliot (2019-06-14). "A slew of big real estate companies might soon be fighting to buy your house". Oregon Live. Retrieved 2019-11-07.
  3. ^ a b Lerner, Michele (February 12, 2019). "Two new online services are like Priceline.com for home sellers". Washington Post. Retrieved 2019-11-07.
  4. ^ a b c Coile, Jon (October 7, 2019). "Perspective | For sellers in a hurry, iBuyers online service offers a new option". Washington Post. Retrieved 2019-11-07.
  5. ^ "Real estate fintech platform Immo Investment Technologies raises €11M Series A". TechCrunch. Retrieved 2019-11-07.
  6. ^ a b Andrews, Jeff (April 12, 2019). "These startups make selling your house as easy as possible". Curbed. Retrieved 2019-11-07.
  7. ^ "Dependable Homebuyers". Thursday, 20 May 2021
  8. ^ Wiggin, Teke (June 5, 2017). "Instant offer firms may boost home sales, reduce commissions". Inman. Retrieved 2021-10-30.
  9. ^ Schuetz, R. A. (2019-10-02). "Home iBuyers making it good to be a seller". Houston Chronicle. Retrieved 2019-11-07.
  10. ^ a b Wake, John (September 1, 2019). "The Surprising Way Real Estate Agents Are Adapting To "iBuyers" Buying Houses Directly From Sellers". Forbes. Retrieved 2019-11-07.
  11. ^ a b Clothier, Kent. "Real Estate Is Experiencing A Tech Renaissance, But Is It At The Expense Of The Homeowner?". Forbes. Retrieved 2019-11-07.
  12. ^ Blakey, Katy (26 October 2019). "New Option for Homeowners Looking to Sell". NBC 5 Dallas-Fort Worth. Retrieved 2019-11-07.

Reviews for Danny Buys Houses


Danny Buys Houses

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(5)

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Danny Buys Houses

William Porter

(5)

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(5)

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(5)

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(5)

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Reviews for Danny Buys Houses


Danny Buys Houses

William Porter

(5)

I have been working with Danny for a very long time (close to 15 years) . On every transaction that we have done, he is professional, quick and proficient. He is also very patience and thoughtful to the owners concerns and needs. I would definitely recommend him to anyone looking to sell a home. You will not be s disappointed!

Danny Buys Houses

Kay Barnes

(5)

I had a fantastic experience working with Danny Buys Houses in San Antonio, Texas! From start to finish, the process was smooth, transparent, and stress-free. Danny and his team were professional, honest, and extremely knowledgeable about the local real estate market. If you're looking to sell your house fast in San Antonio, TX, I highly recommend Danny Buys Houses. They made what could have been a complicated process feel simple and straightforward. Whether you’re dealing with foreclosure, an inherited property, or just need a fast home sale, this team is the real deal. I would definitely work with them again in the future!

Danny Buys Houses

Jessica Middleton

(5)

If you're looking to sell your house fast, definitely call Danny. He and his team make the entire process seamless and stress-free. He is local, credible, and has 20+ years of experience! Keep up the awesome work, Danny!

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Frequently Asked Questions


A home inspection report provides a comprehensive overview of the propertys condition, allowing cash home buyers to make informed decisions quickly. It highlights any necessary repairs or potential issues, helping buyers negotiate better terms and avoid unexpected expenses after purchase.
Yes, cash buyers should prioritize major structural components like the foundation, roof, plumbing, and electrical systems. These elements can significantly impact the propertys value and safety. Identifying costly repairs upfront enables faster decision-making and negotiation for price adjustments or seller concessions.
Absolutely. By addressing any issues identified in the inspection report early on, both parties can agree on necessary repairs or price adjustments swiftly. This proactive approach minimizes delays during negotiations and helps streamline the closing process, making it easier to finalize quick deals with confidence.