Football, College Towns, Affordable Homes... Oh, My!

Texas Triangle top-ranked in college football and affordable homes

Real estate agency Coldwell Banker has cleverly ranked college towns based not only on average home price for a 2,200 square foot home but also in terms of BCS standings. Texas performs well along both axes.

Fort Worth and Houston are highlighted as having football-teams-to-watch this year, currently ranked in the BCS top 25 standings, and also being front-runners for home buyers:

• Fort Worth, Texas (Texas Christian University), $153,450
• Houston, Texas (University of Houston), $159,847
• Cincinnati, Ohio (University of Cincinnati), $189,750
• Boise, Idaho (Boise State University), $215,432
• Iowa City, Iowa (University of Iowa), $217,500

The following Texas Triangle towns are ranked as being in the top 10 most affordable college markets:

-5th Fort Worth....Texas Christian University....$153,450
-7th Denton..........University of North Texas....$154,900
-8th Houson..........Rice & Univ. of Houston.....$159,847


A further 110 more college towns are ranked by Coldwell. Below are the other Lonestar college towns on the list. (Aggies will note they edged out UT by a mere $142):

-17th Lubbock.........Texas Tech University...$175,225
-38th Waco.............Baylor University.............$201,000
-52nd El Paso..........UT - El Paso.....................$218,000
-58th Coll. Station...Texas A&M.....................$226,500
-59th Austin...........UT - Austin.......................$226,642
-101st Dallas...........Southern Methodist..........$332,375







You can find the complete list here. .:.

How Much is Texas Football Worth?

Study looks deep in the heart of Texas for answers

In the paper "Do College Football Games Pay for Themselves?" two economists take a look at a rather important subject to Texans--football. Specifically, they want to find out whether college football games raise or lower local tax revenue.

One promising indicator the East Coast academics know what they're doing is that they pick the heart of the Texas Triangle for their analysis.

Texas is a natural place to ask this question. First, the four universities located in the cities we investigate all play Division I FBS football, the cities are all moderately sized, though Austin is much larger than the others, and none are home to any major professional sports franchises which might make it more difficult to identify the impact of a college football game on local sales tax revenues. Three of the institutions, the University of Texas at Austin, Texas Tech University, and Texas A & M University, are public, while Baylor University is private and religiously affiliated.

The findings are surprising, and raise some interesting questions about the economics of football. But as the paper correctly points out, football has a value that far exceeds dollars and cents. .:.