Corpus Christi Real Estate
About the City
Corpus Christi, Texas would probably have the same rich history, economy based built on the back of the Gulf of Mexico and expansive culture today even if it weren’t named for the Roman Catholic Feast Day of Corpus Christi, but the fates allowed the area to be “discovered” in 1519 on that very day by Spanish explorer Alonzo Alvarez de Pineda.
What he discovered on the feast day celebrating the “Body of Christ” was a lush, semi-tropical bay on the southern coast of Texas. With Pineda’s discovery, the inevitability of the area’s growth was only a matter of time. Now, the city is the home to the largest city on the Texas coast and is the sixth largest port in the nation that has a thriving economy of petrochemical, tourism, health care, retail, education, shipping, agriculture and the military.
Since its incorporation in 1852, Corpus Christi has grown into a regional hub for marketing, processing, packaging and distributing agricultural commodities for a 12-county trade area.
Corpus Christi began as a frontier trading post, founded in 1838 by Col. Henry Lawrence Kinney, an adventurer and colonizer. The small settlement was called Kinney's Trading Post and Kinney's Ranch.
It remained an obscure settlement until July 1845, when U.S. troops under Gen. Zachary Taylor set up camp here in preparation for war with Mexico. The Army remained until March 1846 when it marched to the Rio Grande to enforce it as the southern border of the United States.
About a year later, the city took the name Corpus Christi because the post office needed a more definitive mark on parcels traveling there.
The city's first ordinance, adopted Jan. 15, 1879, made it against the law to let hogs and goats run loose.
The city government also has become vast to include a variety of facilities and services to the community including police, fire and emergency medical services, health, parks and recreation, which include youth and senior programs, a natural history museum, libraries, an airport and a marina.
Still, the city has taken steps to be progressive in updating its infrastructure and planning for future resources, annually updating a comprehensive capital improvement program. A drought in 1996 brought statewide attention to water problems here and through an extremely effective regional partnership with the Nueces River Authority and the Port of Corpus Christi Authority, the 101-mile Mary Rhodes Pipeline, which transports water from Lake Texana to the city's Stevens Water Treatment Plant, was completed alleviating any future problems.
While the city places strong emphasis on infrastructure and basic services, the organization also has a commitment to provide a variety of recreation and cultural amenities. Part of that commitment includes substantial funding for local arts organizations. Residents and visitors can access any one of five libraries, or spend a fun and educational day at the Corpus Christi Museum of Science and History. Another beautiful and popular attraction has always been the bay front marina, located a stone's throw from downtown Corpus Christi.
Since 2003, the city has been given some of the following awards and honors: Corpus Christi is ranked 8th most favorable city to live in based on wages, cost-of-living and employment, ranks among the top 5 for happiest places to live, ranks fourth in the country as a place for new investments, a top 20 city as the best place for doing business, top 20 for most affordable housing in the U.S. and in the top 10 for economic development.
Corpus Christi is the county seat of Nueces County.
The city is often referred to as “The Sparkling City by the Sea.”
Locals and natives often just call it just “Corpus”.
Demographics
As of the 2000 census, there were 277,454 people in Corpus Christi.
The median income for a household in the city was $36,414 and the median income for a family was $41,672.
Men had a median income of $31,863 versus $22,616 for women.