Texas is now one of the hottest places to work and live in the entire nation, with even some stock exchanges coming to the Lone Star State.
The Nasdaq said last week it's planning on opening an office in Dallas in addition to keeping its New York City office open, and in February no less than the New York Stock Exchange announced plans to move its Chicago office to Dallas.
If you look at raw data, it's easy to understand the attraction, according to Perryman Group's Ray Perryman.
"In the past 20 years if you look at just the overall financial picture, New York has grown by 16% while Texas has brown by 112%," he point out.
In the past the stock exchanges have often threatened to leave New York City, but it's been a long time since they actually opened new offices elsewhere, much less in Texas, University of Houston Economics Professor Dr. Steven Craig says.
"The New York Stock Exchange has threatened to move out of New York in the past, but then they'll re-negotiate tax incentives and they always stay."
"The fact that people are looking to open exchanges in Texas is a signal that Texas financing has sort of gotten to a certain level of maturity," Dr. Craig says.
But it's not just incentives, he says, there are lots of other reasons for the Nasdaq and others to move to Texas, including the broad pro-business policies and the supporting industries nearly both in Dallas and elsewhere in the state.
"On average government incentives are a very small part of the whole package when companies are deciding whether to move or not," according to Dr. Craig.