The City of Kyle in Hays County Texas – Downtown in Photos

Kyle, Texas – From Small Town to Boom Town: What’s Next?

The City of Kyle, in Hays County, Texas, is located along the I-35 corridor between San Antonio and Austin. Since 2000, Kyle has seen it’s population grow by 291%, to over 20,000 residents, according to Sperling’s Best Places.

Because we love driving around small towns, and in particular small towns in Texas, we thought we’d take and share a few photos of the downtown area of Kyle.

According to the City of Kyle’s website, the town was founded in 1880 along the International & Great Northern Railroad by settlers from the communities of Blanco and Mountain City. 200 acres of donated land were auctioned off under the Auction Oak on October 14th, 1880 at the Western edge of what would become the city. According to the Texas Historical Marker (1975) located near the tree, the land was donated by Fergus Kyle (1834 to 1906) and the family of David E. Moore.

Real Estate Data: City of Kyle for February 2011

(note: all data from the Austin Board of Realtors)

As of February 15th, 2011, the Austin Board of Realtors has 217 properties listed for sale in the City of Kyle, which is about 5 months’ of inventory.

28 of these are listed as foreclosures (12.9%).

These homes range from $89,000 to $625,000 with sizes ranging from 1,000 to 4,079 square feet.

The median list price of these 217 homes for sale in Kyle is $145,000.

The most expensive home is situated on 3.85 acres of waterfront property.

Real Estate Data: City of Kyle for 2009 and 2010

498 homes sold in Kyle in 2009.

116 of these were foreclosures (23.3%).

The selling prices of these homes ranged from $29,900 to $330,500 and the sizes ranged from 500 square feet to 4,782 square feet.

The median price of these homes was $140,000.

The median Days on the Market (DOM) was 41 days.

464 homes sold in Kyle in 2010.

106 of these were foreclosures (22.8%).

The selling prices of these homes ranged from $48,000 to $340,000 and the sizes ranged from 841 square feet to 4,856 square feet.

The median price of these homes was $138,500, a slight drop from 2009.

The median Days on the Market (DOM) was 41 days, the same as in 2009.

Real Estate Data: Specific Areas

The sales numbers above cover thousands of properties in the City of Kyle, which makes it hard to get a feel for specific areas of town.Some other real estate sales data tidbits you might like, from the Austin Board of Realtors and the REALIST tax database:

Only three (3) of 231 properties listed in the tax database (REALIST) as part of the Kyle Original Town changed hands in 2010.

Four (4) homes (of the 464) that sold in 2010 were built before 1950. 422 of them were built in 2000 or later.

Photos of Downtown Kyle – zip code 78640

We thoroughly enjoyed walking around and reading the numerous Texas Historical Markers in the downtown Kyle area, and kept forgetting to take photos! I posted the photos on Flickr a few days after we got home and immediately received a comment asking where the photo was of the giant slice of pie. Apparently, I had overlooked it in the pile, so here is the Giant Slice of Pie, in all it’s glory!

Unfortunately, we passed through town at the wrong time of day for taking the best photos – the sun was high in the sky, which makes for contrasty photos and long harsh shadows. Fortunately, the glorious warmth of the Texas sun in February made walking around a true pleasure.

True Americana Through the Lens

Since we started posting photos of our small town adventures on Flickr, we’ve realized that lots and lots of other people share our various passions.

Mine include taking photos of old signs, rusty vehicles and farm animals. Orlando and our oldest son, 9, gravitate towards photographing the Harley Davidson motorcycles that are in abundant supply in Central Texas. Of those categories, we found just this old sign on the side of an old grocery store on the main drag.

Do you have signs like this where you live and is someone capturing them on film or digital media so they aren’t lost to the future?

New About Kyle

Want more information about what’s going on it Kyle and the rest of Hays County? Subscribe to the Hays Free Press and be in the local know.

Google Map of Kyle, Texas

View Larger Map