{"id":393005,"date":"2026-07-31T04:08:12","date_gmt":"2026-07-31T04:08:12","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/393005\/"},"modified":"2026-07-31T04:08:12","modified_gmt":"2026-07-31T04:08:12","slug":"despite-slightly-lower-rent-prices-expert-says-houstons-affordability-remains-a-real-issue","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/393005\/","title":{"rendered":"Despite slightly lower rent prices, expert says Houston’s affordability remains a ‘real issue’"},"content":{"rendered":"

HOUSTON, Texas (KTRK) — A study by the Houston Association of Realtors<\/a> shows rent prices in the Houston metropolitan region have slightly decreased over the last year.<\/p>\n

HAR found the average monthly rent in the region was $2,050 during the first quarter of 2026, down from $2,075 during the same period in 2025, according to the report.<\/p>\n

But does a slight decrease in monthly rent mean properties are more affordable for Houstonians?<\/p>\n

“I think affordability is a real issue,” Bill Baldwin with HAR said. “It’s certainly an issue in the rental market.”<\/p>\n

Rice University’s Kinder Institute for Urban Research publishes a yearly report on the State of Housing<\/a> in the Houston metropolitan region.<\/p>\n

Caroline Cheong, associate director of community engagement for the Kinder Institute, said a decrease in rent doesn’t equate to affordability. Cheong said wages have largely stayed stagnant in the face of inflation.<\/p>\n

“There’s (still) less income to actually spend on housing,” she said.<\/p>\n

She said people making between 30% and 50% less than the median household income in the area are struggling to find affordable places to live.<\/p>\n

The U.S. Census Bureau says the median household income in Houston was nearly $65,000 in 2024.<\/p>\n

Cheong and Baldwin both said anyone looking for a rental property also needs to look beyond the total of their monthly rent.<\/p>\n

Baldwin mentioned the possibility of higher utilities if you move into an older unit, the cost of gas if you live farther from your job, and other expenses.<\/p>\n

Copyright \u00a9 2026 KTRK-TV. All Rights Reserved.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"HOUSTON, Texas (KTRK) — A study by the Houston Association of Realtors shows rent prices in the Houston…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":393006,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[7],"tags":[138297,56,58,57],"class_list":["post-393005","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-houston","tag-138297","tag-houston","tag-houston-headlines","tag-houston-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/393005","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=393005"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/393005\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/393006"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=393005"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=393005"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=393005"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}