Mortgage Payment Estimates for Texas by Home Price

Why the Texas payment looks the way it does

Between the two non-financing costs on a $300,000 home — the price point closest to the statewide median — property tax edges out insurance in Texas: $450/mo against $345/mo. Texas carries the 6th-highest effective property tax rate of the 51 states and D.C., per the Tax Foundation. Property tax is the standout figure here: Texas has the 6th-highest effective property tax rate of the 51 states and D.C..

Texas's median home price ticked up just 1.2% over the past year, per Zillow — barely above flat. Prices vary widely by metro: Austin at $548,000, Dallas at $350,000, Houston at $295,000, San Antonio at $258,000, Fort Worth at $315,000, all per Zillow 2026.

The math, step by step

Using the price point closest to Texas’s own median — $300,000 — here is how every line item adds up to the monthly payment:

Start with financing. At Freddie Mac Primary Mortgage Market Survey's 2026-06 rate of 6.4% on a standard 30-year fixed loan, a $240,000 loan (20% down on a $300,000 home) amortizes to a principal-and-interest payment of $1,501/mo. Put down only 10% instead and the loan grows to $270,000, which raises principal and interest to $1,689/mo — $188 more every month for a loan that's $30,000 larger, before tax, insurance, or PMI enter the picture.

Property tax adds $450/mo, derived by applying Texas's 1.8% effective rate (Tax Foundation, statewide average across all taxing jurisdictions) to the home's assessed value and dividing by twelve. That statewide figure hides real county variation: Fort Bend County taxes at 2.2% against 0.8% in Kenedy County — a 3.0x spread between the two, so the true monthly tax line on any specific property in Texas depends heavily on which county it sits in. How that assessed value itself gets set also varies: Annual. And the $450/mo figure above is the pre-exemption number: an owner-occupant can bring it down further — General homestead exemption of $100,000 from school district taxes (as of 2023 law).

Hurricanes and 3 other named risks are the kind Texas insurers price into every policy — the reason the $4,142/yr average premium (÷12 = $345/mo) sits where it does; this is the same per-price-point figure the table above sums, so the two always agree by construction. Unlike principal and interest, that line is flat: it doesn't move with the down payment. Note: this is an earlier snapshot of the same Insurance.com series RealCostIQ now publishes at $4,582/yr in the Insurance section below — the PITI math above hasn't been rebuilt against the newer figure yet, so treat the monthly line here as the modeling basis and the figure below as the current published rate.

Those three lines total $2,296/mo at 20% down — matching the table above, since 20% down clears the PMI threshold here. 20% down ($60,000) skips PMI. 10% down ($30,000) adds it at 0.85%, or $191/mo — $2,675 total instead of $2,296. It cancels automatically around month 94, at a $240,000 balance — roughly $17,978 paid in before then.

At this $300,000 price point specifically: qualifying at 20% down takes $98,416/yr under the 28% rule ($76,546/yr under the looser 36% rule); at 10% down it's $114,655/yr — $16,239 more, a meaningful jump — dropping to 10% down doesn't just mean a smaller check at closing, it raises the bar to qualify. A household earning Texas's own median income of $67,321 falls short of the 20%-down bar at this specific price point, by $31,095 — this price point requires an above-median income here. At 10% down, where the higher loan amount raises the bar further, that same median household falls short by $47,334.

What financing costs across the price range

Total interest over the full 30-year term at 20% down runs from $200,291 on a $200,000 Texas home to $751,093 on a $750,000 one — both figures assume the loan is held to term with no extra principal payments. At the $300,000 price point used throughout this page, that works out to $300,437 in interest on a $240,000 loan. At 10% down instead, PMI adds $11,985 in total premiums on the $200,000 home before it cancels, and $44,944 on the $750,000 home — cost that buys nothing but the right to put down less cash up front, and that a 20%-down buyer avoids at either price.

At 20% down and the 28% front-end DTI rule, a $200,000 home in Texas needs $70,542/yr to qualify, while a $750,000 home needs $223,852/yr. That's the binding number for a buyer with no other debt. Once other debt is added to the picture, the 36% back-end ratio is the one that governs, and it takes less income to clear — $54,866/yr and $174,107/yr for the same two homes — but only because it's now competing with a car payment or student loan for that same 36%, not because the home got cheaper to finance. That statewide range plays out locally too: San Antonio's median of $258,000 and Austin's median of $548,000 sit on opposite ends of the same qualifying-income curve.

Can a median-income household actually afford this?

The gap is severe: a household earning Texas's median income of $67,321 is $33,179 short — 49% below — the $100,500/yr a lender would want to see on the median-priced home at 20% down. Lenders check two DTI thresholds, not one: the 28% front-end ratio covers housing costs alone ($98,416/yr at this page's price point), while the looser 36% back-end ratio also counts other debt and takes less income to clear on housing alone — $76,546/yr here. The catch: that 36% is shared with a car payment or student loan, so a buyer carrying other debt can end up needing MORE total income than the 28% figure suggests, not less. The price a median-income household can actually afford under the 28% rule is $187,170 — $117,830 below the statewide median of $305,000. That gap is not uniform statewide: Travis County, Collin County, Fort Bend County price out median earners fastest, while Zavala County, Presidio County, Hudspeth County stay within reach on a median income.

Cash to close

Texas's closing costs sit at the low end of typical for the country — 1.9% of the purchase price (Below average — no transfer tax). On this $300,000 home that's $5,700. Title insurance ($1,800) is a meaningful chunk of that figure, though not the majority of it. Layered on top of the down payment, total cash to close runs $65,700 at 20% down or $35,700 at 10% down — the closing-cost portion is identical either way; only the down payment changes. Unlike property tax — which runs 2.2% in Fort Bend County versus 0.8% in Kenedy County — closing costs don't swing nearly as much by county; the figure above is a reasonable statewide planning number wherever in Texas the home sits. Texas has no state transfer tax on real estate. Texas does not require an attorney at closing, though buyers may hire one at their own cost. Once the sale closes, Texas homeowners can file for the homestead exemption described in the property-tax section above — it isn't automatic, and it only reduces the tax line going forward, not any cost at the closing table itself.

Insurance and flood risk

Texas homeowners pay an average of $4,582/yr for homeowners insurance at $300,000 dwelling coverage ($382/mo), per Insurance.com — Average homeowners insurance rates by state (Rate Analysis 2026) — against a national average of $2,765/yr. The named factors — each explained below — are hurricanes, hailstorms, tornadoes, flooding. That ranks 7th most expensive of the 51 states and D.C. — 166% of the national average. The private insurance market has not seen the large-scale carrier exits reported in some higher-risk states. Flood risk is high in parts of the state, notably Houston metro (Harris County — highest NFIP claim count in U.S. history), Gulf Coast (Galveston, Brazoria, Jefferson counties), San Antonio flash flood corridor (Bexar County). Hurricane Harvey (2017) dropped 60 inches of rain on Houston — the most rainfall from any U.S. tropical storm on record — causing $125B in damage. Harris County has filed more NFIP claims than any county in U.S. history. The 2025 Texas Hill Country floods killed dozens and caused significant uninsured losses. The average NFIP premium runs $756/yr, and lenders require coverage in FEMA Zones Zone A, Zone AE, Zone AO, Zone V, Zone VE. Premiums vary sharply by county: Loving County (~$2,100/yr), Culberson County (~$2,300/yr), Jeff Davis County (~$2,500/yr) run cheapest, while Galveston County (~$7,500/yr), Brazoria County (~$6,800/yr), Nueces County (~$6,500/yr) run highest — the statewide average above blends both ends. Private flood insurance is available in Texas alongside the NFIP, giving buyers outside a mandatory-purchase zone a second option for coverage. 620,000 NFIP policies are currently in force statewide.

Hurricanes — Gulf Coast are a catastrophic, low-frequency event that insurers reinsure against separately — it drives the premium far more than it drives claim frequency in an ordinary year. Hailstorms are a frequency risk: common enough in an ordinary year to move the loss-ratio math at every renewal, not just after a single storm. Tornadoes are a narrow, high-severity damage path rather than a broad one — insurers price it as a probability-weighted catastrophe even though any single property's odds of a direct hit are low. Flooding is typically excluded from a standard homeowners policy outright, which is why NFIP or private flood coverage is a separate line item, not folded into the premium above.

Rent vs. buy in Texas

The median asking rent in Texas is $1,450/mo, putting the statewide price-to-rent ratio at 17.5 — moderate — favors buying for stays of 5+ years in most markets. On the median-priced home, RealCostIQ's breakeven math puts the point where buying overtakes renting at 5.8 years of ownership, before accounting for any home-price appreciation. Austin (26.4) and San Antonio (13.9) sit far enough apart that the statewide ratio above is a poor stand-in for either one specifically.

Loan limits

The 2026 conforming loan limit for a single-unit home in Texas is $726,200 statewide — Texas has no FHFA-designated high-cost county, so that ceiling applies everywhere in the state. A loan above it is a jumbo loan, which typically carries stricter underwriting and a different rate. A buyer financing the statewide median home at 20% down borrows only about $244,000 — comfortably under the limit, with $482,200 of headroom before jumbo underwriting would apply.

Down payment assistance

Texas's primary down payment assistance program is My First Texas Home down payment assistance, administered by Texas Department of Housing and Community Affairs (TDHCA). It offers up to $0 as a deferred-payment loan, for buyers under 0% of area median income on homes up to $566,354 — comfortably above Texas's own median home price, so the cap isn't the binding constraint for a typical buyer here. 1 additional program exists statewide: TSAHC 3-year Deferred Forgivable Second Lien (up to $0, a forgivable loan). Stacking with additional local programs is generally not permitted, so a buyer should treat these as alternatives rather than additive.

First-time buyer mortgage programs

Beyond down payment assistance, Texas first-time buyers can also use My First Texas Home, run by Texas State Affordable Housing Corporation: Below-market rate first mortgage. It covers loans up to $726,200 with as little as 3% down, for households under varies by county and family size. Eligibility requirement: must not have owned in past 3 years. Available statewide through approved lenders. A second program, Texas DPA 5% (Texas State Affordable Housing Corporation), covers down payment assistance grant — no repayment, up to $18,120 in assistance. 5% of loan amount; available with My First Texas Home.

Beyond PITI: what else the payment doesn’t cover

Isolate just the mortgage — principal and interest, nothing else — and the payment on Texas's median-priced home is $1,538/mo. The number a buyer should actually budget to is $2,910/mo, three-quarters again on top of the mortgage payment (89% higher). The single biggest add-on in Texas is property tax, at $458/mo — ahead of every other non-mortgage line item in the true-cost breakdown. Maintenance reserves is the runner-up at $381/mo — the two together are the main reason the true-cost figure runs so far above the mortgage-alone number.

PITI is not the full cost of owning. RealCostIQ's true-monthly model adds $381/mo — $4,575/yr — in maintenance reserves (1.5% of home value annually — extreme summer heat stresses HVAC systems; hailstorms accelerate roof wear), $147/mo in electricity plus $41/mo in gas ($188/mo total, per the U.S. Energy Information Administration), and — for the 0% of Texas listings that carry one — an HOA fee averaging $0/mo for single-family homes ($0/mo for condos). Combined, that pushes the true monthly cost of the median home to $2,910 — true monthly cost is 89% higher than mortgage alone. That reserve isn't arbitrary: a typical HVAC system here runs 10-15 years (heat pumps in extreme heat), and a typical roof runs 15-20 years (hail exposure shortens lifespan), per Fannie Mae 1-2% guideline; Bankrate Hidden Costs Study 2025 — both figures already price in Texas's own climate rather than a national average. The 1.5% reserve rate is sized to replace both on that state-specific schedule, without a special assessment or a credit-card repair. HOAs in Texas are governed by Texas Property Code Chapter 202 and 209 (Residential Property Owners Associations), which does not mandate a reserve fund; the main cost drivers are master-planned community prevalence, amenity maintenance (pools, parks), new construction growth. Recent change: Texas SB 1588 (2021) expanded homeowner rights including online access to HOA documents, board meeting transparency, and limits on certain fines.

See the full Texas homebuyer resource page for property tax by county, first-time buyer programs, and utility costs, or compare payments across all eight price points.