McAllen Mayor Javier Villalobos gave his fifth State of The City Address in February and described his community as having “movement, energy and success.”
Villalobos was exuberant in giving the address before a crowd of 1,300 at the McAllen Convention Center. The mayor walked around a large stage with a wireless headset microphone and enthusiastically ran down a list of accomplishments and projects achieved in 2025. Villalobos often cited the city’s new motto in between the mentions of success, saying, “McAllen Next Is Now.”
“In McAllen, no one is left behind,” Villalobos said in highlighting record amounts of construction to go with the city’s successes in securing federal grants to alleviate homelessness in McAllen, a city with a population of 150,000 residents.
The mayor’s message emphasized that a city renowned for its robust retail trade and business development was also becoming known as a city with new medical education facilities and sophisticated health care that now rivals what is found in larger cities.
Growth In Health & Medicine
In January, the Texas A&M System opened a new 61,000-square-foot Nursing Education and Research Building at its McAllen campus.
The new facility marks a major expansion of the A&M System in McAllen. It includes a state-of-the-art nursing program and veterinary medicine and biomedical sciences. The new center features a 10,000-square-foot clinical simulation center in supporting both nursing and veterinary medicine. It’ll be the first time nurses with bachelor’s degrees from the Texas A&M campus in McAllen will enter the medical field.
“This represents growth driven by need, not geography,” said Glenn Hegar, the chancellor of the Texas A&M System, at the January ribbon-cutting ceremony. “We recognize the need for enhanced educational opportunities and maximized health care in the Valley, which is a cultural, agricultural and economic hub for our state.”
The University of Texas System is likewise making major investments in McAllen. In late 2025, the UT Health RGV Cancer and Surgery Center opened in McAllen. The $145-million facility provides over 140,000 square feet of comprehensive and advanced cancer care and research in oncology, radiation oncology, surgery and clinical trials. The new UT facility and staff will work in collaboration with the MD Anderson Cancer Center in Houston.
The facility was hailed by the UT System and McAllen’s leadership as bringing comprehensive “one-stop” cancer to the Valley and reducing the need to leave the region for such care.
‘Good Living’
All the advances in health and medical care seen in McAllen over the last year add to what the city is best known for when it comes to revenue sales, livability, low cost of living and affordable housing.
Mayor Villalobos listed many of those attributes in his presentation. He cited McAllen as being one of the nation’s best markets for first-time home buyers with a median home price of $275,000. Villalobos cited that what would cost $100 in essential goods in other parts of the United States costs $87 in McAllen. The average commute in McAllen is 18 minutes, the mayor said in highlighting quality-of-life issues.
The city remains a major shopping destination for Mexican nationals. Villalobos said Mexican shoppers in 2025 generated an $80 million economic impact. That kind of foot traffic to stores and restaurants ranked McAllen as one of the top three cities in Texas for sales tax revenue per capita. All told, the city nearly hit the $100 million mark in sales tax reveue last year, an all-time for McAllen.
When it comes to new housing, there were 1,300 residential construction permits issued in 2025 to go with the 810 commercial permits issued in the same year. In wrapping up his enthusiast 40-mintue presentation, the mayor said, “Aqui se vive mejor!”
McAllen did indeed live well in 2025.
