Austin Housing Market: What the Data Means for Your Next Move

Data as of July 2026

Prices that refuse to move make for a confusing market. The headline says flat, your landlord offers two months free, and the house down the street just cut its ask twice. This page reads the Austin data the way you would want a numbers-literate friend to: what changed, whether it matters, and what it means for your money.

One scope note before the numbers. “Austin” means the five-county metro (Travis, Williamson, Hays, Bastrop, and Caldwell) unless a figure says otherwise. The City of Austin runs far more expensive than the metro, and mixing the two lenses is the single most common way relocating buyers misread this market. Each figure below is labeled.

The market scorecard

Austin market scorecard, May and June 2026 market data; mortgage rate as of July 9, 2026

Median sale price

▼ down over the stated period, favors buyers: $440,000

Austin metro (5-county MSA), May 2026 , down 0.9% year over year

Effectively flat: prices are within 1% of a year ago.

Months of supply

▲ up over the stated period, favors buyers: 4.7 months

Austin metro (5-county MSA), May 2026

Near the balanced band; buyers have real choice again.

Average days on market

▲ up over the stated period, favors buyers: 61 days

Austin metro (5-county MSA), May 2026

Two months is normal now; overpriced homes sit far longer.

Listings with at least one price cut

▲ up over the stated period, favors buyers: about 50%

Austin MLS area, May 14, 2026

Half of sellers have already blinked once.

30-year fixed mortgage rate

▼ down over the stated period, favors buyers: 6.49%

United States, week of July 9, 2026 , down from 6.72% a year earlier; up from 6.43% the prior week

Lower than a year ago, still double the pandemic-era lows.

Median asking rent

● down over the stated period: about $2,533 per month

Austin metro (5-county MSA), May 2026 , down about 6% year over year

Falling rents hand renters the negotiating power.

A colored triangle shows whether the change favors buyers: green favors buyers, red favors sellers. A gray dot marks a metric that is neutral for buyers (its direction is in the subtitle). Direction and color are descriptive of each metric's own stated period, not a forecast. Sources are listed in the source registry at the end of the page.

Is Austin a buyer’s or seller’s market right now?

Austin leans toward buyers as of May 2026, sitting just below the balanced line. Metro supply is 4.7 months (4 to 6 is the conventional balanced band), homes take 61 days to sell on average, about half of listings have taken a price cut, and City of Austin homes close at 95.2% of list. Sellers still close, but the negotiating power has moved.

FinExplained Market Balance Score (beta)

Buyer's market drifting toward buyers

Direction basis: The leading indicators (price-cut share and inventory) read softer than the roughly flat closed-price median, which lags by weeks.

Beta: this score has not yet been backtested against historical market data, and the bands may be recalibrated. Read it alongside the metrics below, not instead of them.

Input	Reading	Normalized (0-100)	Weight applied
Months of supply	4.7 months	48	35%
Days on market	61 days	49	24%
Sale-to-list ratio	95.2%	35	24%
Share of listings with a price cut	50%	17	18%

Months of supply and days on market: Austin metro, May 2026 (Unlock MLS via KXAN).

Close-to-list ratio: City of Austin, May 2026 (Unlock MLS via CultureMap); a metro figure is not published.

Price-cut share: Austin MLS area, May 14, 2026 (Mortgage Austin).

Year-over-year inventory change: no source publishes this figure for Austin yet, so this month's score is computed from the four inputs above only, with each one's influence scaled up proportionally (the table shows the weights actually applied).

How this score works

Each input is normalized onto a 0-100 scale where higher means more seller-favorable: months of supply maps 0 months to 100 and 9 or more to 0; days on market maps 0 days to 100 and 120 or more to 0; sale-to-list maps 90 percent to 0 and 105 percent to 100; price-cut share maps 0 percent to 100 and 60 percent or more to 0; year-over-year inventory change maps a 40 percent rise to 0 and a 40 percent fall to 100. The design weights are months of supply 30 percent, days on market 20 percent, sale-to-list 20 percent, price-cut share 15 percent, and inventory change 15 percent; when an input is unavailable its weight is redistributed proportionally. Bands: below 40 reads as a buyer's market, 40 to 60 balanced, above 60 a seller's market. We show the band rather than a decimal because the inputs do not support decimal precision. The score is in beta and has not yet been backtested against historical market conditions; read it alongside the underlying metrics, never instead of them.

What changed this month

This is the first edition of this dashboard, so the baseline is the story. The moves already visible in the sourced data:

• The 30-year fixed averaged 6.49% in the July 9, 2026 Freddie Mac survey, up from 6.43% the prior week but down from 6.72% a year earlier (national figure).
• The metro median held near $440,000 in May 2026, down 0.9% year over year (Unlock MLS via KXAN): a flat market, not a fresh decline.
• About 50% of active listings carried at least one price reduction as of May 14, 2026 (Mortgage Austin, MLS area), the clearest sign of seller weakness behind the flat median.
• Metro asking rents fell about 6% year over year to roughly $2,533 in May 2026 with vacancy near 13.8% (Flat Fee Landlord), so renter concessions remain widespread.

Future editions will track each of these against this baseline.

What are Austin home prices actually doing?

Flat, after a correction that already happened. The metro median was $440,000 in May 2026, down 0.9% year over year but down 15.2% from the $550,430 peak of May 2022 (Team Price). 2026 Austin is a sideways plateau on top of a completed 15% correction, not a market in freefall.

The city-versus-metro gap deserves its own paragraph, because it moves your budget more than any monthly market shift. In May 2026 the City of Austin median was $595,000 by the local MLS association’s report (up 0.5% year over year, via CultureMap), while Redfin’s rolling three-month city median showed about $542,000 (down 2.3%). Both sit far above the $440,000 metro median. Those are methodology and geography differences, not errors: single-month MLS medians, rolling three-month medians, and five-county medians measure different things. The practical read: choosing Round Rock over central Austin changes your price roughly $150,000 to $225,000, which is more than the market itself has moved in four years.

Is there finally enough inventory to choose from?

Yes, and that is the real change in this market. Metro supply reached 4.7 months in May 2026 (Unlock MLS via KXAN), up from under 2 months at the 2022 frenzy, with 12,508 active metro listings (16,426 across the wider MLS area as of May 14, a scope difference). Four to six months is the conventional balanced band; Austin now sits inside it.

How much competition will you face as a buyer?

Less than the flat median suggests. About 50% of active listings had taken at least one price cut as of May 14, 2026, and the market’s Activity Index sat at 24.2% against roughly 50% in a balanced market (Mortgage Austin, MLS area). Yet City of Austin homes still closed at 95.2% of list in May 2026, up from 94.6% a year earlier (Unlock MLS via CultureMap).

Those three numbers tell one coherent story: sellers concede before the close, not at it. A listing that starts too high takes its haircut through visible price cuts, and by closing day the remaining gap to list is small. Well-priced homes still sell in weeks; overpriced ones sit for months and drag the 61-day metro average up.

What does the monthly payment actually look like?

Here is the tension that defines Austin in 2026: the price fell and the payment rose. On the $440,000 metro median (May 2026) with 20% down, principal and interest at the 6.49% July 2026 average run $2,223 a month. The same loan at the 3% pandemic-era rate would be $1,484. The rate alone adds $739 a month, which is why a 15% price correction has not made buyers feel richer.

For the full monthly cost, we use a $445,000 example home (near the metro median) at the tax rate a new buyer actually pays: about 2.0% effective with the homestead exemption filed (Travis Central Appraisal District rates, 2025-2026), not the lower current-owner median bill; the property-tax section below unpacks that split. Add about $2,487 a year for insurance (Insurify, 2026). With 20% down at 6.49%, the new-buyer math is $2,248 of principal and interest, $742 of property tax, and $207 of insurance: $3,197 a month of PITI, before maintenance. All of these figures are computed by our tested calculator engine from the stated assumptions, not copied from a listing site. Run your own numbers in the mortgage calculator.

What income do you need to buy in Austin?

By our math, about $137,003 a year for the median-priced home with 20% down. That is the gross income where the $3,197 monthly PITI above equals 28% of income (the front-end half of the 28/36 rule). The metro median household income is about $99,897 (ACS 2024), so the gap is roughly $37,106 a year.

Circulating estimates run lower: roughly $108,000 (Team Price, ACTRIS-based, mid-2025) and $115,618 (Byrne Austin, March 2026). The spread is method, not error. The FinExplained figure runs higher because it uses the new-buyer tax basis (2.0% on the full market value, not the capped bills current owners pay), counts full PITI rather than principal and interest alone, and applies the 28% front-end rule. Estimates that assume a lower price point, a bigger down payment, or a current owner’s capped tax bill land lower. Test your own income, debts, and down payment in the home affordability calculator and the how much can I borrow calculator, and check your ratios with the DTI calculator.

Cash to close is the other gate. On the $445,000 example, engine-computed:

Below 20% down, add PMI on top of these payments; the sources for this page do not publish an Austin PMI average, so we leave it unquantified rather than guess. Itemize your own line items in the buyer closing cost calculator.

Is it cheaper to rent or buy in Austin right now?

Month to month, renting wins clearly. The metro median asking rent was about $2,533 in May 2026, down about 6% year over year (Flat Fee Landlord). Owning the $445,000 example home costs $3,568 a month with 20% down once you add 1% annual maintenance to PITI at the new-buyer tax rate, and $3,849 with 10% down before PMI. That is a monthly gap of $1,035 to $1,316 in renting’s favor.

Monthly cost is not the whole answer, because owners build equity and renters do not. Our engine-computed Austin rent vs buy playbook runs that full wealth comparison: at its July 2026 single-family preset, buying does not catch renting for roughly two decades in the base case, and only strong appreciation assumptions bring breakeven into single digits. Treat the popular five-to-seven-year rule of thumb as a claim to test, not a fact; in today’s Austin the tested math says the horizon is much longer. Run your own inputs in the rent vs buy calculator, which loads an Austin preset you can edit.

Two more renter facts worth knowing. Vacancy near 13.8% (metro, May 2026) is why one-to-two month concessions are widespread. And the price-to-rent ratio reads 16 to 18 on a single-family basis (Keenan Group) but about 24 on an apartment basis (SoFi): the same market, different rent denominators, so quote the basis when you cite one.

Are condos doing worse than houses?

Yes, by every proxy the sources publish. Single-family homes are holding value better than condos and the extra inventory is concentrated in condos and the luxury tier. Condo-heavy Downtown Austin shows it directly: a $559,000 median, down 11.6% year over year, with 106 days on market (Redfin, early-to-mid 2026), against 46 days in house-heavy South Austin.

The sources for this edition do not publish a clean metro-wide condo-vs-single-family price series, so this page keeps the split qualitative plus the downtown proxy rather than inventing a series; if a sourced series appears, a future edition will chart it.

Which Austin neighborhoods fit your budget?

The submarket table is where this market gets personal. Every submarket below is down year over year, but the range runs from a 3.3% dip to an 11.6% drop, and days on market run from 46 to 117 (Redfin, early-to-mid 2026).

Two honest caveats. Neighborhood medians bounce on small sample sizes, and suburbs with heavy new construction (Georgetown, Kyle) show medians pulled down by entry-level closings rather than by falling values on existing homes.

What about the luxury tier and the entry tier?

The averages hide a split market. Above $2 million, supply sits near 16 months with days on market around 111 (brokerage data through March 2026): a deep buyer’s market. Under $400,000, only about 15% of listings qualify, so entry-level buyers still face competition in a market that is balanced overall. This is also why the average sale price runs far above the median; use the median for citywide conclusions.

How healthy is the Austin economy behind this market?

Solid on the surface, concentrated underneath. The metro added 27,200 jobs in 2025 (2.0% growth) and unemployment was about 3.7% in January 2026 (Opportunity Austin, benchmark-revised BLS). Major employers include Dell, IBM, Apple, Oracle, Tesla, Samsung, AMD, Google, and the University of Texas.

The concentration is the caveat. Austin’s housing demand leans on the tech sector more than Houston’s, Dallas’s, or San Antonio’s diversified bases, and tech hiring is bifurcated: public layoffs at Oracle and Indeed with sustained WARN-notice activity, against continued construction demand anchored by Samsung’s Taylor semiconductor campus and Tesla. Over the next 6 to 24 months, in-migration and professional-services growth support demand, and a further tech-layoff wave is the single biggest downside risk to it.

The Austin-specific module: tech jobs and apartment oversupply

Two local forces set Austin apart from every other metro this series will cover, and they push in the same direction: toward patience.

The tech cycle owns the demand side. When one sector concentrated in six-figure jobs drives marginal demand, its hiring cycle becomes the housing cycle. The 2020 to 2022 boom was remote-work migration plus sub-3% rates; the 15.2% correction tracked the tech pullback. Watch WARN filings and the big employers’ hiring pages as leading indicators for the buyer pool.

The apartment pipeline owns the supply side, temporarily. More than 30,000 new apartment units delivered pushed vacancy to about 13.8% and asking rents down about 6% year over year (metro, May 2026). That oversupply is cyclical, not structural: deliveries fall sharply after 2025, so today’s concessions and falling rents have a shelf life. Renters get a strong hand right now; landlords get relief later as the pipeline empties. On the construction side more broadly, Samsung’s Taylor semiconductor campus and Tesla anchor the metro’s building demand; the sources for this edition publish no single-family permit series, so future for-sale supply stays qualitative here.

What do property taxes, insurance, and local risks add?

The two carrying costs are the quiet half of Austin affordability, and they are why this page runs its math at new-buyer rates. Property tax: a new buyer with the homestead exemption filed pays about 2.0% of market value effective (Travis Central Appraisal District rates, 2025-2026; the county band runs 1.8% to 2.2%, Westlake 1.78% to Manor 2.71%), which is $742 a month on the $445,000 example home. The 1.30% you may see quoted (Ownwell, 2025) is the median bill among current owners, whose homestead caps have held assessed values below market; a purchase resets that basis. Insurance: about $2,487 a year for $300,000 of dwelling coverage in Austin (Insurify, 2026), against a $3,506 Texas statewide average (Texas Department of Insurance, 2025 preliminary).

The non-dollar risks worth naming: wildfire exposure on the wooded west side (inspect and check insurability before you offer), extreme summer heat and its utility bills, and the tech-cycle concentration covered above, which is the structural one. The property tax calculator shows what any rate or assessment scenario does to a monthly payment.

What should buyers do with this market?

A framework, not marching orders: this is an educational read of the data, not personalized advice.

• Treat the 50% price-cut share and 4.7 months of supply (metro, May 2026) as permission to negotiate. Reasonable offers get answered now.
• Ask for seller-paid rate buydowns and closing credits, not just price cuts. On the numbers above, payment relief often beats an equivalent sticker discount.
• Do not stretch for scarce entry-level stock. Under $400,000 the market still runs competitive, and overbidding there gives back your negotiating edge.
• Budget the full cost: $3,197 of PITI on the example home, plus maintenance, at the 2.0% new-buyer tax rate and current insurance levels. Prioritize inspections, especially on older west-side homes in the wildfire zone.
• Run a five-to-seven-year horizon in the rent vs buy calculator before you commit; the monthly math favors renting, so the case for buying rests on your timeline and the equity you build.

What should sellers do?

• Price to the last 90 days of comps, not to your 2022 anchor. The market pays 15.2% less than the peak (metro, May 2026), and buyers can see the cut history on every listing.
• Expect about 61 days on market (metro average, May 2026) and plan your carrying costs for it.
• Avoid the overpricing penalty: the homes inflating that 61-day average are the ones that chased the market down through multiple cuts.
• Consider concessions (rate buydowns, closing credits) instead of headline price cuts; they protect your comp and often cost less than the discount a stale listing eventually takes.
• Before you list, run the seller net proceeds calculator so the number you plan around is the one you keep.

What should renters do?

• Negotiate now. Vacancy near 13.8% and rents down about 6% (metro, May 2026) is the strongest renter’s market in a decade; one-to-two month concessions are common.
• Bank the gap. Renting the median apartment runs $1,035 to $1,316 a month cheaper than owning the example home; saved consistently, that is roughly $12,400 to $15,800 a year toward a down payment.
• Know the clock. Apartment deliveries fall sharply after 2025, so today’s concessions fade as the pipeline empties. Lock longer leases while the leverage is yours.
• If buying tempts you, test it honestly in the rent vs buy calculator rather than reacting to a single month of headlines.

What should current homeowners do?

• Refinance math is marginal at 6.49% (PMMS, July 9, 2026) unless you bought near the 2023 to 2024 rate peak. Find your break-even in the refinance calculator.
• Weigh the lock-in effect honestly: leaving a 3% mortgage raises your payment on the same dollar of house, so move for life reasons, not market timing.
• Watch the carrying costs, not the Zestimate. The median Travis County owner’s bill runs near a 1.30% effective rate (Ownwell, 2025) because homestead caps limit assessed-value growth, and insurance around $2,487 a year (Austin, 2026) is the line that creeps; file the homestead exemption and protest your assessment when the comps support it. The property tax calculator shows what a rate or assessment change does to your monthly cost.
• Tapping equity? Compare routes in the HELOC calculator before assuming a cash-out refinance at today’s rates.

What should investors consider?

• The single-family price-to-rent ratio of 16 to 18 (2026) sits in the range where some deals pencil, but only after honest expenses.
• Model the real carrying costs: at least the 2.0% new-buyer effective tax rate, and higher still without the homestead exemption, which an investment property does not get. Add insurance trending up and rents down about 6% with 13.8% vacancy (metro, May 2026). Underwrite today’s soft rents, not 2022 rents.
• Run cap rate and cash flow in the rental property ROI calculator, and stress the vacancy assumption.
• The supply calendar is your friend after 2025: apartment deliveries drop sharply, which supports rents on a 3-to-5-year hold even though it weakens them today.

Three scenarios for the next 12 months

No single price forecast here, stated as fact or otherwise. Instead, three scenarios with the signals that would confirm or break each one. Assumptions are explicit; probabilities are not offered because the honest answer is that rate policy and tech hiring will decide it.

Buyer-favorable. Rates ease below 6%, inventory stays elevated, and another tech-layoff wave thins demand. Confirmation: months of supply rising past 5.5 and pending sales falling. Invalidation: pending sales accelerating while supply flattens.

Base case. Rates hold near 6.5%, prices move flat to low single digits, and rents stabilize as deliveries slow. Confirmation: days on market steady near 61 and close-to-list steady near 95%. This is the sideways-plateau continuation.

Seller-favorable. Rates fall meaningfully, tech rehiring resumes, and the condo and luxury oversupply gets absorbed. Confirmation: days on market falling and close-to-list rising toward list. Invalidation: price-cut share staying near 50%.

What to watch next month

• The Freddie Mac 30-year average against the 6.49% July 9 print; a move through 6% in either direction changes the scenario weights.
• Months of supply against the 4.7 May reading; past 5.5 confirms the buyer-favorable path.
• The price-cut share against the 50% baseline; falling cuts would signal returning seller strength before the median ever moves.
• Rent concessions as the post-2025 delivery slowdown starts to bite.
• WARN filings from the big tech employers, the leading indicator for the buyer pool.

Run your own numbers

Every dollar figure on this page came from our tested calculator engine at stated assumptions, and each of these tools lets you swap in your own: rent vs buy (with an editable Austin preset), mortgage, home affordability, how much can I borrow, buyer closing costs, seller net proceeds, refinance, property tax, and rental property ROI. For the deeper Austin wealth comparison, read the Austin rent vs buy playbook and the ten-city rent vs buy comparison; for how metro costs shape long-term plans, the FIRE number by metro study.

Frequently asked questions

Is the Austin housing market rising or falling?

Neither, meaningfully. The metro median was $440,000 in May 2026, down 0.9% year over year (Unlock MLS via KXAN), after a 15.2% correction from the May 2022 peak of $550,430. Prices are moving sideways on top of a completed correction, while price cuts and inventory show the pressure still leans downward.

Is Austin a buyer’s or seller’s market in 2026?

It leans buyer’s, just below balanced. Metro supply is 4.7 months (May 2026), average days on market is 61, and about half of listings have cut price. Our beta Market Balance Score reads buyer’s market on those inputs, but well-priced homes still close near 95% of list.

Are Austin home prices expected to fall further?

No one can honestly promise either direction, so this page carries scenarios instead of a forecast. The base case is flat to low single digits with rates near 6.5%; a rate drop below 6% or a tech rehiring wave would firm prices, and elevated supply with more layoffs would soften them. Watch months of supply and pending sales.

What income do you need to buy a house in Austin?

About $137,003 a year by our engine’s math: the income where full PITI on a $445,000 home with 20% down at 6.49% and the 2.0% new-buyer tax rate equals 28% of gross income. Third-party estimates run $108,000 to $115,618 on lighter assumptions. The metro median household income is about $99,897 (ACS 2024).

Is it cheaper to rent or buy in Austin right now?

Renting, by $1,035 to $1,316 a month against the $2,533 metro median asking rent (May 2026), depending on your down payment. Buying builds equity that renting does not, but our engine-computed Austin analysis puts the base-case wealth breakeven far beyond the popular five-to-seven-year rule of thumb at current prices, rates, and taxes.

How much cash do you need to buy a $445,000 home in Austin?

Between about $31,150 (5% down plus 2% closing costs) and $102,350 (20% down plus 3% closing costs), engine-computed. The 10% down middle path runs $53,400 to $57,850. Below 20% down, budget for PMI on top of the monthly payment.

What are the most affordable Austin-area places to buy?

By early-to-mid 2026 Redfin medians: Kyle (about $302,000), Pflugerville ($360,000), and Round Rock ($370,000), all suburbs. Inside the city, entry-level stock under $400,000 is only about 15% of listings, which keeps that tier competitive despite the balanced market overall.

Should buyers wait for prices to drop?

Waiting is a bet on rates and layoffs, not a plan. The correction already took prices down 15.2% from the peak, and the monthly cost problem is mostly the 6.49% rate, which no one can time. A better test: if a home fits your budget at today’s rate and you will stay five-plus years, negotiate hard now while supply is 4.7 months.

Are Austin sellers cutting prices?

Yes, about half of active listings carried at least one price reduction as of May 14, 2026 (MLS area), and the Activity Index sat at 24.2% against roughly 50% in a balanced market. The cuts happen before closing, which is why closed homes still average 95.2% of their final list price in the City of Austin.

What is the biggest risk to the Austin housing market?

Tech-sector concentration. Austin’s housing demand depends on tech hiring more than the other big Texas metros, and layoffs at Oracle and Indeed with ongoing WARN filings are the live warning signs. The apartment oversupply pressuring rents is real but temporary; the tech cycle is structural.

Methodology

Where the numbers come from. Every market figure on this page is transcribed from a named source with its geography, period, and confidence level in the source registry below, and is never presented without its period. Where sources disagree (city vs metro medians, MLS-area vs metro listing counts), we show both and label the scope rather than averaging them.

What we computed ourselves. Monthly payments, PITI, income needed, cash to close, and the rent-vs-own gap are computed by the FinExplained calculator engine (decimal-precise, tested) from the stated assumptions: a $445,000 example home, 6.49% 30-year fixed (PMMS, July 9, 2026), the 2.0% new-buyer effective property tax rate (Travis Central Appraisal District rates with homestead, 2025-2026; a purchase resets the taxable basis to market value, so the 1.30% current-owner median bill would understate a buyer’s cost), $2,487 annual insurance (Insurify 2026), and 1% annual maintenance. Golden tests pin each published figure, so a silent change would fail our build.

The Market Balance Score is in beta. Its formula, weights, normalization anchors, and this month’s inputs are fully disclosed on the card above. It has not yet been backtested against historical Austin data, which is why it renders as a band with its inputs, never as a headline number.

Charts. Every chart states its geography and period and carries a text description. Where the sources supply anchors rather than monthly series (long-run prices, supply), the chart draws the sourced anchors and says so instead of interpolating an invented series. Two of the research-specified charts (new listings vs closed sales, listing seasonality) have no sourced series this edition and are omitted rather than fabricated.

Source registry

Every figure used on this page, with value, geography, period, source, and confidence:

Assumptions and limitations

• The worked examples assume a $445,000 home, 20% down unless stated, a 30-year fixed at 6.49%, the 2.0% new-buyer effective property tax rate, $2,487 annual insurance, and 1% annual maintenance. Change any input and the outputs move; the linked calculators exist for exactly that.
• PMI is excluded from the sub-20%-down figures because no sourced Austin PMI average was available; real payments below 20% down will run higher than shown.
• Two Travis County tax figures appear on this page on purpose. The 1.30% median effective rate (Ownwell, 2025) describes CURRENT owners, whose homestead caps limit assessed values; the 2.0% rate our math uses describes a NEW buyer, whose purchase resets the taxable basis to market value (the homestead band runs about 1.8% to 2.2%, Westlake 1.78% to Manor 2.71%). Your school district and exemptions decide where you land. This matches the assumptions in our Austin rent vs buy playbook, which models a $525,000 single-family comparable at the same 2.0% rate.
• Median asking rent ($2,533, apartments) is the renter-side comparison point; single-family rents run higher, and the price-to-rent ratio depends on which denominator you use.
• Neighborhood medians (Redfin, early-to-mid 2026) move with sales mix and small samples; Georgetown’s and Kyle’s declines partly reflect new-construction closing mix.
• Everything here is educational analysis of market data, not financial, investment, or tax advice, and not a recommendation to buy, sell, or rent any property.

Data freshness

This edition carries May and June 2026 market data with the July 9, 2026 mortgage rate, was published July 11, 2026, and refreshes monthly: the next update is planned for mid-August 2026, after the June data lands in the Unlock MLS reports. Notable mortgage-rate moves or an inventory swing past the scenario thresholds above trigger an off-cycle update. Corrections follow our corrections policy and are logged in the changelog.