When Tom Allen was a boy, Saginaw was a "little bitty country town" with a grocery store, train tracks, grain elevators -- and little else.
Now it's a bustling suburb with super stores, fast-food restaurants and traffic lights."I really don't know what to say about it -- it's just progress," said Allen, 72, who has watched the town build up around his house. "Some of it is good and some of it is not too good. The town has changed radically from my youth until today. ... But I still like living here or I would have moved."This former agricultural community eight miles north of downtown Fort Worth has grown 60.1 percent in the past decade -- its population is now 19,806 -- making it the fifth fastest-growing city in Tarrant County, census data shows. In 2000, its population was 12,374."Oh, my goodness. I think we have 14 housing subdivisions now," said Kathleen Wheeler, a Realtor with Century 21 Alliance Properties in Saginaw. "We actually have traffic jams."Wheeler, who has been a Realtor in Saginaw for more than a decade, said its nearness to big cities, reasonably priced houses and family orientation has made it a go-to spot for people looking to buy homes.In fact, 85.6 percent of the houses in Saginaw are occupied by their owners, up 6.7 percent from a decade ago, according to American Community Survey data released by the Census Bureau in December. In 2000, about 79.1 percent of the houses were owner-occupied.Only Haslet has had a bigger jump in owner-occupied housing in the past 10 years.Wheeler said one of the reasons Saginaw residents may buy rather than rent is that Saginaw is eligible for the Agriculture Department's Rural Development Guaranteed Housing Loan, which allows people of moderate income to buy a home with no money down. (Azle, Blue Mound and Pelican Bay are also eligible for the financing.)"People are specifically choosing Saginaw and not choosing Fort Worth," Wheeler said. "These are young families who are just starting out, first-time buyers. We have a wonderful community and great schools."Melody McDonald, 817-390-7386
Saginaw snapshot
Population: 19,806
Hispanics of all races: 23.5 percent
Median age: 32.5
Households with people over 65: 13.3 percent
Households with people under 18: 49.6 percent
Median household income: $68,855
Housing units built since 2000: 35.2 percent
Median monthly mortgage: $1,412
Homeowners with no mortgage: 19.3 percent
Single-family homes: 90.5 percent
Mean commute time: 27.5 minutes
Parents of children under 6 in workforce: 75.7 percent
Sources: 2009 American Community Survey, 2010 Census
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