Come out here and only built man-camps
In order to meet the housing demand, a new company to the area, "Wisdom Homes of America", plans to build 200 houses across East Texas by 2015. The President of Wisdom Homes, Brent Nelms, said, "The oil boom has been huge here here in Texas specifically. a lot of workers have relocated here with their companies, and now they've come out here and only built man-camps".
Wisdom Homes' latest project is a 12-acre lot with 15 residential homes in Tyler. Nelms explained, "Our homes range from about $40,000 to $100,000. Square footage runs about 1200 to 2600 square feet".
However there is some concern about the impact low gas prices may have on this oil-dependent economy. Tom Mullins from the Tyler Economic Council, said, "Tyler is very fortunate now. It used to be very, very dependent on the oil and gas sector, and then in the mid-80's when oil and gas collapsed, it really had a negative ripple effect". Mullins believes if gas prices drop much lower than $70 a barrel, it may be a problem.
However, other sectors could still drive the local housing demand. Mullins said, "This area is growing so much. You know if you look at a map of East Texas, the Tyler metropolitan area is the fastest growing metropolitan area between Dallas, Shreveport, and down to Houston".