{"id":403301,"date":"2026-08-11T06:14:08","date_gmt":"2026-08-11T06:14:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/403301\/"},"modified":"2026-08-11T06:14:08","modified_gmt":"2026-08-11T06:14:08","slug":"40-of-houston-households-can-afford-a-median-priced-home","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/403301\/","title":{"rendered":"40% of Houston households can afford a median-priced home"},"content":{"rendered":"

Forty percent of Houston households could afford a median-priced home during the second quarter, up from 36% during the same time period in 2025 but down from 42% one quarter ago. That\u2019s according to the latest Housing and Rental Affordability Report from the Houston Association of REALTORS\u00ae<\/a>.<\/p>\n

The annual improvement is due to \u201clower mortgage rates and moderating home prices,\u201d HAR said.<\/p>\n

\u201cHouston homebuyers got a little more breathing room during the second quarter,\u201d said HAR Chair Theresa Hill<\/a>. \u201cLower mortgage rates helped bring down monthly housing costs, and while affordability is still a challenge for many people, even a small drop in rates can go a long way toward making homeownership more attainable.\u201d<\/p>\n

Given the median home price of $345,200 \u2014 down 1.2% year over year \u2014 and the average 30-year mortgage rate<\/a> of 6.41% \u2014 down from 6.79% a year prior \u2014 the typical monthly mortgage payment was $2,550, including principal, taxes and insurance. A year ago, the monthly mortgage cost was about $100 more expensive at $2,650.<\/p>\n

That means Houston households needed an annual income of $102,000 to afford a median-priced home, down 3.8% year over year.<\/p>\n

Housing affordability also improved annually both statewide and nationally: About 41% of Texas households could afford a median-priced home in the second quarter, up from 36% a year ago, while the United States affordability index increased from 33% to 37%.<\/p>\n

Houston\u2019s rental affordability dipped slightly in the second quarter, with 45% of households able to afford a median-priced single-family rental<\/a>, down from 46% a year prior.<\/p>\n

The average rent payment increased 2.4% year over year to $2,150, which meant Houston households would need an annual income of $86,000 to afford monthly housing costs.<\/p>\n

However, while lease prices increased across the Houston metro, many counties saw annual declines in single-family lease prices: Fort Bend County was down 1.7%, Harris County was down 2.3%, Montgomery County was down 2.4% and Galveston County<\/a> was down 3.4%.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Forty percent of Houston households could afford a median-priced home during the second quarter, up from 36% during…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":403302,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[7],"tags":[2067,27690,141322,56,24716,58,141323,57,50989,59201,51001,56090],"class_list":["post-403301","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-houston","tag-affordability","tag-har","tag-har-housing-affordability-index","tag-houston","tag-houston-association-of-realtors","tag-houston-headlines","tag-houston-home-prices","tag-houston-news","tag-houston-real-estate","tag-houston-rental-market","tag-sc","tag-theresa-hill"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/403301","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=403301"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/403301\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/403302"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=403301"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=403301"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=403301"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}