Texas Housing Market: Home Prices, Rent and Affordability
The typical Texas home is worth $299,367, down 1.6% over the past year and up 11.1% over five years, 18.8% below the national $368,697 (Zillow, latest release). That ranks #33 of 50 on price. A 20%-down mortgage runs $1,540 a month and takes about $88,061 of income; the median Texas household earns $73,035, $15,026 short.
In Dallas, the state's largest metro, typical rent is $1,659 a month against a $1,854 principal-and-interest payment on the typical home, so renting is $195 a month cheaper before taxes, insurance and maintenance. The market is cool: 28.4% of listings cut their price (national 26.4%), homes go pending in 76 days (national 53), and for-sale inventory is down 1.1% from a year ago.
All figures are Zillow Research's published numbers for August; median household income is from the Census Bureau. How the data works → · Home prices in all 50 states →
Texas Housing by the Numbers
How much does a house cost in Texas? The typical home is worth $299,367, the median sale price is $344,000 and the median list price $360,667. The six figures below describe the market this month, each with the national comparison.
How Have Texas Home Prices Changed?
The typical Texas home value every month since 2000, with the national typical home as a dashed line. Values fell 1.6% over the past year, are up 11.1% over five years, up 62.1% over ten, and up 160% since January 2000.
Is It Cheaper to Rent or Buy in Texas?
Two direct answers from the Zillow data. Rent versus buy sets typical asking rent in Dallas, the state's largest metro, against the mortgage payment on the typical home there, since Zillow publishes rents by metro rather than by state. The affordability gap is the income needed to buy the typical Texas home minus what the median household actually earns.
Rent vs. buy · Dallas, TX
The payment excludes property tax (1.63% of value in Texas), insurance and maintenance, all of which push the cost of owning higher; renting builds no equity. If values kept rising at the past five years' pace (11.1%), equity would narrow that gap over a long stay.
Affordability gap · #20 of 50
A $1,540 monthly payment takes 25.3% of the median Texas household's income before property tax and insurance; lenders generally cap total housing costs near 28–31%. Full budget for your household →
Is Texas a Buyer's or a Seller's Market?
Market temperature is our label from three Zillow signals compared with the national market: the share of listings with a price cut, days from listing to pending (days on market), and whether homes for sale are up from a year ago. Texas is cool: it leans toward buyers: two of the three market signals point cooler than the national market.
Median sale price $344,000 against a median list price of $360,667, so the typical home closes 4.6% below asking.
Where the Texas market is heading
Compared with a year ago, two of the three signals point tighter, in sellers' favor: the share of listings with a price cut is down 0.9 points from a year ago to 28.4%, homes take 5 days longer to go pending than a year ago (76 now), and the number of homes for sale is down 1.1%. The typical home value fell 1.6% over the same period and is 6.1% below its August 2022 peak of $318,684. We publish no forecasts: these are Zillow's current-month readings, not a prediction of where Texas home prices go next.
Home Values and Rents in Texas Cities
Zillow publishes a city-level home value or rent for 20 of the Texas cities we track. The most expensive is Frisco ($638,512) and the cheapest Brownsville ($199,327). Click a city for its full profile.
| City | Population | Home value | 1 yr | 5 yr | Rent | Rent 1 yr | Value ÷ income |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Houston | 2,311,461 | $261,740 | -2.3% | ||||
| San Antonio | 1,495,312 | $247,453 | -2.2% | ||||
| Dallas | 1,302,859 | $305,765 | -1.7% | ||||
| Austin | 979,700 | $497,418 | -3.7% | ||||
| Fort Worth | 976,932 | $295,800 | -1.8% | ||||
| El Paso | 678,945 | $238,475 | +2.2% | ||||
| Arlington | 398,423 | $309,891 | -0.8% | ||||
| Corpus Christi | 316,603 | $223,078 | +0.3% | ||||
| Plano | 288,228 | $493,092 | -3.8% | ||||
| Lubbock | 266,878 | $212,039 | +2.1% | ||||
| Irving | 254,392 | $339,198 | -0.3% | ||||
| Laredo | 252,974 | $222,782 | +2.2% | ||||
| Garland | 243,536 | $283,276 | -3.3% | ||||
| Frisco | 225,009 | $638,512 | -4.1% | ||||
| McKinney | 213,504 | $472,118 | -5.6% | ||||
| Amarillo | 203,042 | $211,528 | +4.0% | ||||
| Grand Prairie | 202,092 | $314,397 | -1.3% | ||||
| Brownsville | 190,166 | $199,327 | +1.6% | ||||
| Killeen | 159,635 | $219,533 | -1.1% | ||||
| Denton | 158,361 | $346,719 | -3.2% |
Home value and rent are Zillow's city-level indexes; population and median household income are Census ACS. Cities without a Zillow index are omitted. All Texas cities ranked →
How Texas Compares With Nearby States
The South states closest to Texas on price. Each card links to that state's housing page; the compare link puts the two states side by side on every category.
More on Texas
Texas dashboard
→Overall rank and grade, every category score, taxes, utilities, safety, schools and all tracked cities.
What you'd keep in Texas
→Take-home after housing, taxes, childcare, utilities and groceries for your household and income.
Who is moving to Texas
→IRS migration data: where new residents come from, where leavers go, and what both groups earn.
Texas Housing Market FAQ
What is the average house price in Texas?
$299,367 is the typical Texas home value according to the latest Zillow Research release of the Zillow Home Value Index, which tracks homes in the middle third of the market. The median sale price was $344,000 and the median list price $360,667. That makes Texas the #33 most expensive state; the national typical home is worth $368,697.
Are home prices dropping in Texas?
Yes. The typical Texas home value fell 1.6% over the past year, and it is 6.1% below its August 2022 peak of $318,684. Over five years it is up 11.1% and over ten years up 62.1%. Nationally, values rose 1.2% over the year.
How have Texas home prices changed over the past 1, 5 and 10 years?
-1.6% over one year, +11.1% over five years and +62.1% over ten years for the typical Texas home value, per the latest Zillow Research release; the national figures are +1.2%, +20.3% and +77.9%. Since January 2000 the typical Texas home is up 160%. The monthly chart above shows the full series against the national line.
Will the Texas housing market crash?
We publish no forecasts, so this page cannot answer that; it can show the current readings and the historical worst case. Right now the typical Texas home value is 6.1% below its August 2022 peak of $318,684 after it fell 1.6% over the past year; 28.4% of listings have cut their price (national 26.4%), homes go pending in 76 days (national 53), and inventory is down 1.1% from a year ago, per Zillow Research. The largest decline in Zillow's monthly series for Texas was 8.2% from December 2007 to January 2012, and values took 22 months to regain that peak.
Is it a good time to buy a house in Texas?
The Texas market is cool right now, which means it leans toward buyers: two of the three market signals point cooler than the national market. 28.4% of listings cut their price (national 26.4%), homes go pending in 76 days (national 53), and for-sale inventory is down 1.1% from a year ago. Affordability is the constraint: buying the typical home takes $88,061 of income, $15,026 more than the median household earns. Whether the timing is right also depends on mortgage rates and how long you plan to stay.
Is Texas a buyer's or seller's market?
Texas leans toward buyers. More listings are cutting prices than the national average (28.4% vs. 26.4%), homes take 76 days to go pending (national 53), and the number of homes for sale is down 1.1% from a year ago at 163K listings. Two of those three signals point toward buyers.
What is the average rent in Texas?
In Dallas, Texas's largest metro, the typical asking rent is $1,659 a month, up 0.4% over the past year and up 11.3% over five years, per the Zillow Observed Rent Index. The national typical rent is $1,948. Among Texas cities we track, rents range from $1,191 to $1,874 a month.
Is it cheaper to rent or buy in Texas?
Renting is cheaper month to month in Dallas, Texas's largest metro. Typical rent is $1,659 and the principal-and-interest payment on the typical home with 20% down is $1,854, a difference of $195 a month in favor of renting. The payment excludes property tax (1.63% of value in Texas), insurance and maintenance, and renting builds no equity, so the full answer depends on how long you stay.
How much income do you need to buy a house in Texas?
About $88,061 a year, using Zillow's assumptions of 20% down at current mortgage rates and a payment of no more than 30% of income. The median Texas household earns $73,035, so the typical household is $15,026 short. That is the #20 smallest affordability gap of the 50 states. The monthly payment of $1,540 equals 25.3% of the median household's income.
Where are homes cheapest and most expensive in Texas?
Among the Texas cities we track with Zillow data, the most expensive typical home is in Frisco ($638,512) and the cheapest in Brownsville ($199,327). Also at the top: Austin ($497,418), Plano ($493,092), and McKinney ($472,118). The city table above lists every tracked Texas city with its value, one-year change and rent.
How does Texas compare with nearby states?
In the South, the closest comparisons on price are South Carolina ($306,323, up 1.0% in a year), Georgia ($330,817, down 0.5% in a year), and Tennessee ($334,108, up 0.7% in a year). Texas's typical home is $299,367, down 1.6%. On affordability, Texas ranks #20 of 50 versus South Carolina at #25, Georgia at #24, and Tennessee at #31.
How current is the Texas housing data?
Every figure on this page comes from Zillow Research, which publishes state, metro and city data free each month for the prior month; the latest month shown is August. Median household income is from the Census Bureau's American Community Survey. We rebuild the page from the newest Zillow files as they are released.
Home values, rents, mortgage payments, income needed, inventory, price cuts, days to pending and sale and list prices are published by Zillow Research and shown as released, with attribution. Median household income and city populations are from the Census Bureau's American Community Survey. Home prices and housing markets in all 50 states →