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Tyler Police Chief Gary Swindle, member of Leadership Tyler Class 14, received the 2008 Distinguished Alumni Award at the annual LT Homecoming Luncheon on Tuesday.

More than 170 Leadership Tyler alumni and guests attended the luncheon at Marvin United Methodist Church. They included more than 90 percent of Class 14, which graduated in 2000.

Swindle received the award from Pat Pinkerton, whose late husband, Don Pinkerton, received the 2007 award, in memoriam, for his work as a community servant. Don Pinkerton was a member of Leadership Tyler Class 8.

The Distinguished Alumni Award is presented to a person who best exemplifies the LT vision of a life of community service. Nominations are accepted from the alumni base of more than 550 community leaders.

The Leadership Tyler curriculum is a nine-month program that includes two retreats and monthly daylong forums focusing on a community issue and incorporating a leadership training component for those issues.

Forums include diversity, health care, education, poverty, the economy, communication and other issues facing the community.

More information can be obtained by calling 903-535-9242, e-mailing cklein@tylertexas.com or visiting the Web site www.leadershiptyler.org.

An authority on residential real estate says housing affordability will be the "most significant growth stimulant" for Texas over the next 25 years.

"Texas is the most housing-affordable, high-growth state in the nation," said Dr. Jim Gaines, research economist for the Real Estate Center at Texas A&M University. "So far, skyrocketing home prices common to fast-growing states like California and Florida have not occurred in Texas."

In mid-2007, the state's median-priced home was $151,000 - about two-thirds the national median of $229,000 and about 75 percent less than California's $589,000.

Gaines compiles the Texas Housing Affordability Index, which shows a Texas family earning the statewide median income has 152 percent of the income required to qualify for financing on the median-priced home. In contrast, nationally, families have about 16 percent more than is required.

Other measures show just how affordable Texas homes are. One expresses median house value as a multiple of median housing income. The lower the multiple, the more affordable the housing.

"In 2005, the national median home value was 3.62 times the median household income," Gaines said. "In Texas, the median value was only 2.52."

Housing affordability is but one factor that makes Texas attractive. Other factors include lower cost of living and cost of business, greater employment opportunities and an appealing lifestyle.

"Events and circumstances point toward a Texas-sized boom between 2005 and 2030," Gaines wrote in the current issue of Tierra Grande magazine, a periodical sent to all the state's real estate licensees. "The state's population and economy - as well as its housing and commercial real estate markets - are poised to explode in volume and prices."

And native Texans or those who have lived here long enough to get used to the way things are had better be ready to witness some changes.

Population will be a key player, as Texas is projected to grow by 13.6 million by 2030.

"That's the equivalent of adding another Dallas-Fort Worth metropolitan area, another Houston metropolitan area, another San Antonio metropolitan area and another Corpus Christi," he said. "Growth and prosperity will spread throughout the state, but most of the growth will occur in the state's urban areas. Four out of every five Texans will live in the Dallas-Fort Worth-to-Houston-to San Antonio triangle."

And the new Texans will bring new jobs.

"Texas leads the nation in job creation. If Texas maintains its average employment-to-population ratio as expected during the next 25 years, the state will add another 4.5 to 5.8 million jobs," Gaines said. "Job growth is expected to be stimulated by overall U.S. economic growth and enhanced by Texas' employment-friendly characteristics."

More people and more jobs will lead to higher personal income.

"Extending the long-term trend that began in 1969 suggests the state's total personal income could increase by $1 trillion by 2030," he said. "The 2005 Texas median household income of $42,139 could reach nearly $68,000 by 2030."

With the gains will come pains, the economist added.

"The projected population and employment boom will also strain local and state resources to provide public services and infrastructure," he said. "Texas will experience the same growing pains as other high-growth states. State and local fiscal capacities will be stretched, and Texans will debate the level and type of growth they want in their communities."

Business Editor Greg Junek may be reached at 903-596-6280, or by e-mail at business@tylerpaper.com.