Galveston Emerging As Texas Riviera

"Only 51 miles southeast of Houston, Galveston still has plenty of vacant land, low home prices and miles of wide-open beaches. ... Houston residents, eager for a second home and flush with cash from the oil boom, have made Galveston Island an emerging Lone Star equivalent of the Hamptons." And prices have risen accordingly.

" "The world has discovered the Gulf Coast," said James Gaines, research economist at the Real Estate Center at Texas A&M University. "You want a second home on the East Coast at an affordable price, and you're not going to find anything. Here, it's still available and affordable."

The turnaround has been significant in a city that as recently as 10 years ago didn't have enough money to repave roads and install new water lines. Large-scale development had not happened since a hurricane destroyed much of the city in 1900, killing more than 6,000 people.

The development seems to fly in the face of Galveston's geography. As a barrier island, the city can flood during tropical storms. Sometimes, its beaches erode. In September 2005, the city was evacuated when Hurricane Rita threatened the island. But home buyers keep coming because a large-scale hurricane has not damaged the island in more than 20 years.

Developers are putting up condominium towers, resorts and acres of homes from one end of the 32-mile-long island to the other. More than 6,500 residential units are under construction; most of them are condos, according to the development partnership. At the western end of the island, Centex Homes is building one of the largest projects, a 1,000-acre development with 2,300 houses and condos."