Texas Towns Push Back on Instant Slums

It takes about an hour to drive from downtown Houston to Plum Grove, Texas, the kind of reasonable commute that’s attracted oil industry executives to other northern suburbs such as the Woodlands. Trey Harris, whose company, Colony Ridge Land, is developing 9,000 lots in Plum Grove, is after a different market: poor Latino laborers who can’t afford the city.

Harris is selling half-acre patches of dirt at $25,000 apiece with basic water and sewage hookups. Colony Ridge’s website advertises several subdivisions in Plum Grove with names like Grand San Jacinto and Camino Real, and notes commuters to Houston will soon have access to a newly built highway nearby. “You have no place to raise your little animals?” says one Spanish-language ad the company is running on Facebook, accompanied by images of blue skies and women on horses. “You lack space in your apartment?” Colony Ridge offers financing in return for as little as $500 down, with no credit check, though interest rates run as high as 12 percent. “We sell to them at a price point that’s significantly lower than they can find anywhere else,” says Harris. “It’s an opportunity for them.”