CORPUS CHRISTI, Texas — State Highway 361 is beginning to look crowded by new homes, especially as you get closer to Port Aransas.
This is because more and more development and hundreds more homes are springing up along the highway between Padre Island and Port Aransas.
Port Aransas Realty's Keith McMullin said that the city has grown in popularity, even managing to compete with bigger coastal towns.
"This section of the Texas coast is far and away higher than you see in South Padre or Galveston and it has been for some time," he said.
McMullin said that residents will likely see many "for sale" signs when they drive along Hwy 361 because many homes are being built in the area, with record-setting prices.
"Upper $600,000 range. This last July, we're closing out July it appears it may set an all-time record," he said.
Corpus Christi Dist. 4 City Councilman Dan Suckley said there are reasons Port Aransas is a hotspot for home development.
"We had quite a bit of interest in people coming in and buying tracts," he said. "And at the beginning of COVID, with our beaches and the openness of our beaches and being in a drive market from Austin, San Antonio, Dallas, we had people coming down to the coast and interested in buying beach houses and second homes and working remotely. So all those things have contributed to the interest and the market values being really, really strong out there."
Although there are some multi-acre projects, Padre Island realtor Gary Graham said there is equal interest in individual and short-term leasing properties as well.
He said the pace of selling has slowed only a little because of inflation and the raising of the prime rate.
"It has slowed down. It's measured now in weeks instead of days like it was the last few years," he said.
Many of the developments were started before the pandemic and realtors believe the land sales will continue strongly for the foreseeable future.
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