ROCKPORT, Texas — The Mayor of Rockport said his town is experiencing a real housing boom. Thousands of new single family homes and apartments are under construction or soon will be.
Rockport Mayor Patrick Rios said that the City of Rockport has about 1,300 homes under construction and another 1,100 are scheduled to be built around Aransas County.
"I think people have discovered our little slice of paradise here and people are interested in coming to Rockport," Rios said.
Rios believes that the folks who are wanting to live in Rockport are new employees of chemical and steel plants set to open soon.
"A lot of people who are going to be working in Sinton at the Steel Dynamics plant are here and we expect more and more of them coming," he said.
Former University of Texas star linebacker and professional football player Kiki DeAyala runs his own development company in the area. He's about to begin the second phase of his project known as the Islands of Rockport off of Business 35. It's a $400 million upscale housing community.
"We thought it was always a really good investment," DeAyala said. "Its become an even better investment now because we're starting to see people take early retirement. We're starting to see people doing remote working. We're starting to see younger couples coming in here and buying in a development like this."
Off of the State Highway 35 bypass, Mark Uhr is developing a $77 million Pearl Point project. It's a mixture of affordable housing along with retail.
"We went through Hurricane Harvey and it just devastated our community and when I did most of the affordable housing and multi-family housing got destroyed, so my partner and I decided we'd take the challenge," Uhr said.
While developers are trying to meet the needs of those looking for a new home in Rockport, those projects are also providing plenty of jobs for those in the construction industry.
And by the sound of things, they're going to have plenty work for the next few years.