Texas

Half of All Texans Have No Savings

KUT 90.5 | By Filipa Rodrigues,

Published January 31, 2013 at 12:39 PM CST

State leaders routinely hail the "Texas Miracle" that's created one of the strongest economies in the country.

Everyone mentions the growth and job opportunities across the Lone Star State, but a recent study by shows that many Texans are striving on the edge of poverty.

The group's research reports that 27.7 percent of Texas households have no financial security in case of an emergency. By financial security, the CFED refers to having the assets – such as cash, a house, etc. – to deal with emergencies or longer-term needs.

If homes and cars are excluded from the research, 50 percent of Texans don’t have assets to survive in case they lost their income. Compared with other states, Texas ranks 39th in financial security. “That means even if Texans survived the last economic storm, another one would swamp them, ” reads the CFED study.

“When you look at Texas in terms of its average credit score, we rank 50 ^th, 49 ^th – really, really at the bottom,” says Don Baylor with the Center for Public Policy Priorities, which was involved in the study. “Texans’ credit scores are partly to blame.”

Half of Texans earn incomes below the national poverty level of 23,000 dollars for a family of four. The report also says that 13 percent of Texans do not have a bank account.