Jerry Bartlett and his wife, Liezel Lane, are about to embark on a new adventure. By the end of the year, they hope to be building their dream home on a riverfront lot in a planned new subdivision called Oxbow on the Guadalupe, near the Whitewater Amphitheater in New Braunfels.

Bartlett, a 58-year-old technology executive, said he became familiar with the area while commuting for two years to Austin from Atlanta, where the two currently live. Bartlett said he and Lane "love the small-town, quaint feeling" of New Braunfels and Gruene, the historic shopping, dining and entertainment district by the Guadalupe River. He's also a fan of Willie Nelson, fly-fishing and the Gristmill restaurant, next to the legendary Gruene Hall.

"Nothing goes better with a cold beer than barbecue," he said.

The scenic Hill Country beauty and other attractions drawing Bartlett and Lane to New Braunfels have inspired an influx of other newcomers, too. New Braunfels ranked second in growth last year among U.S. cities with a population of 50,000 or more, according to U.S. Census Bureau estimates released Thursday. New Braunfels' population grew at a rate of 7.2% from July 2017 to July 2018, the figures show.

Among the top 15 cities with the highest growth rate, about half were in Texas, including two Austin-area suburbs in Williamson County. Georgetown came in at No. 7, with an annual growth rate of 5.2%, and Round Rock was No. 15 and grew by 4.3%.

Other smaller Central Texas cities grew even faster, though they did not make the list because their populations don't exceed 50,000 people. Dripping Springs grew by 20.59%, Leander by 12.5% percent and Kyle by 8.1%, all increases similar to those seen in previous years and continuing a boom along the Interstate 35 corridor.

The cities with the largest numeric increases were all cities in the South and Southwest: Phoenix, San Antonio and Fort Worth.

San Antonio added an estimated 20,824 people between July 2017 and 2018, figures show.

"I think it’s interesting San Antonio really has joined the ranks of high-growth cities in the country," Austin demographer Ryan Robinson said. "I think that’s interesting because Austin and San Antonio are developing more of a relationship than we have in the past. We are becoming one big urban region. … Starting in Bell County and ending in Bexar County, everything along the Interstate 35 corridor is growing like crazy. It is really beginning to act like one big urban creature."

Other Texas cities with populations of 50,000 or more that saw some of the fastest growth were Frisco, McKinney and Rowlett in the Dallas area and Midland in West Texas, which is seeing a resurgence because of the rising oil prices.

In New Braunfels, Will Korioth is developing Oxbow on the Guadalupe, a 78-acre project and the one where Bartlett purchased a riverfront lot for his and Lane's future home, plus a second lot to build a rent house.

The development will be about a half-mile down the river from the Whitewater Amphitheater concert venue.

Korioth said there is a huge demand for Oxbow's 57 single-family lots, all one acre or more, including 22 along the Guadalupe River priced from $350,000 to $425,000. He said about half of the nearly two dozen lots reserved to date are buyers from Houston. The homes destined for the lots likely will range from $550,000 to $1.1 million, which includes land costs.

With Austin having gotten so costly, New Braunfels is a less expensive option, Korioth said. He said the tax rate is "way, way lower" than in places including Austin, Houston and Dallas, "and that's real attractive."

"It's so much cheaper, from property taxes to restaurants and other entertainment," he said. "It's a more affordable lifestyle."

Last month, the median price of houses that sold within Austin's city limits was $394,450, according to the most recent figures from the Austin Board of Realtors. The median home-sales price was lower in Williamson County to the north and Hays County to the south: $283,640 and $296,500, respectively, the board's April data showed.

Still, Austin ranked No. 6 on the list of U.S. cities with the greatest numeric increases, adding an estimated 12,504 people in 2018 to bring its total population to 964,254 — or just under 1 million.

People continue to flood into the city, something Robinson says has to do with quality of life and the fact that Austin housing is still more affordable than in many coastal cities, including such tech hubs as San Francisco and Seattle.

However, that growth is beginning to slow, from a rate of 3% in 2014 to 1.3% last year. The city's share of the total metropolitan growth also is falling, with suburban cities accounting for the bulk of the region's growth — something Robinson attributes Austin's affordability problems.

"The city is much more expensive than it was a few years ago, and more importantly, it is much more expensive than housing is in the rest of the metropolitan area," Robinson said. "I am talking about places like Buda, Kyle, Pflugerville, Round Rock, Cedar Park, Leander. All of those suburban housing markets are cranking out a lot of housing that is not just a little bit cheaper than what is in the city, but significantly so. Thousands and thousands of residential units are being created in the suburbs that have a really strong price advantage."

Ed Wendler Jr., an Austin developer and housing market expert, said cities outside of Austin are growing "because it’s cheaper and also because new single-family detached housing is being built."

Wendler said not everyone wants to live in dense urban areas with "24-hour entertainment."

"I think it's affordability, but it is also lifestyle" that is drawing people to outlying areas, he said. "Some folks actually like living in a smaller city — it’s more familiar and comfortable."

Georgetown has made the list of the top 15 fastest growing cities in the nation for the past five years. Mayor Dale Ross said the city boasts the lowest tax rate in Central Texas, good schools and a low crime rate. Builders are constructing new homes every day, he said, that are ideal for small families.

"The biggest challenge we have as a government is to stay ahead of the infrastructure growth," Ross said. "People have discovered the secret of Georgetown, Texas. … The people are the most giving and the most generous folks you’d ever want to meet."

Nearby Leander has run into the same growth problems. Its mayor, Troy Hill, said when he moved to the city north of Austin 14 years ago, the land that he calls home now was just undeveloped Hill Country. Now, it's a luxury subdivision called Travisso, surrounded by other burgeoning subdivisions. The city added 3,700 new multifamily residences this year alone, Hill said. He said the rapid growth has put a strain on Leander's schools, which are among the best in Texas.

"Anytime you have a lot of people moving into an area, you are going to have challenges as to building roads and having an infrastructure to support that population growth," Hill said.

City leaders don't expect the growth to stop anytime soon. Hill said Leander is only 48% built out and still has an abundance of open land. He expects the city's population to hit the 250,000 mark one day.

"At the rate that we’ve been growing, if we keep growing that way I can see us potentially being close to that," Hill said. It is estimated to be 56,111 now.

Data reporter Dan Keemahill contributed to this article.