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    Sad News for Singletons

    Here's how long single homebuyers in Houston have to save for a down payment

    Lindsey Wilson
    Feb 22, 2018 | 8:45 am
    Money stacked next to a house
    It's a longer road for single homebuyers.
    Photo by Sawitree Pamee/EyeEm, Getty Images

    It doesn't take a math genius to know that two incomes are better than one, especially when saving up to buy a house. A new report from Zillow confirms that single homebuyers have it really, really rough, with many living in cities where it takes two or three times as long to save for a down payment as it does for a couple. Even worse, less than half of all U.S. homes are affordable for a single homebuyer.

    In Texas, however, the numbers are a little less scary. While Zillow claims that the average single homebuyers would need to save for 11 years to a reach a 20 percent down payment on a typical U.S. home, in Houston the number is a slightly better 8.8. To reach this estimate, the real estate website combined home values and income data from the Census and assumed that 10 percent of the person's or couple's income was being saved every year.

    So if singles in Houston are having to wait nearly a decade to become homebuyers, how long does it take couples? Only four years. That's mainly because their combined median income ($85,000) is more than twice that of singles ($39,000), which also sets them up to afford a higher percentage of available housing stock: 91 percent versus 58 percent. So a couple in Houston could, at maximum, afford a home priced at $438,272. A single homebuyer is limited to $197,571 or less.

    The silver lining here is that Houstonians have it easier than both Dallas-Fort Worth and Austin residents, no matter their marital status. In Austin, single homebuyers are right in line with the U.S. average at 11.1 years, while couples actually have to wait a little longer than the nation as a whole: 5.1 years. Austin couples have a much higher combined median income ($99,000 versus $45,600) and can afford 87 percent of the homes on the market. Singles are only able to afford 42 percent, or the homes priced at $233,188 or less.

    Single homebuyers in Dallas-Fort Worth have to wait 9.6 years, while couples only scrimp and save for 4.4 years. The median income for DFW couples is $87,800, versus $40,000 for singles, and together they can afford 90 percent of the homes currently for-sale. Singles, meanwhile, are stuck with homes priced at $205,047 or less, or 54 percent of the available housing stock.

    Aspiring San Antonio homebuyers share space with Houston on the fast track to Texas homeownership. San Antonio gives couples a four-year wait time, while singles only need to save for 8.4 years. The majority of San Antonio homes are affordable for couples (91 percent), but dip a little more for single San Antonians (63 percent). Alamo City's median income is low for Texas, however, with couples making $76,000 (only $36,300 for singles).

    No matter how disappointing it might look for Texans, at least it's way better than the situation in California. In San Jose, it can take singles 30 years to save for a down payment — typically the life of a home loan itself. San Francisco and Los Angeles are only marginally better, at 27.8 and 26.8 years.

    Single and itching to sign the mortgage papers now? Go house-hunting in Indianapolis, which only demands 7.5 years of saving time from singles, or Detroit and Cleveland, which both clock in at eight years.

    zillowreports
    news/real-estate
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    Going Down

    This Houston suburb saw top-20 biggest drop in housing prices in U.S.

    Amber Heckler
    Apr 14, 2026 | 9:15 am
    katy Texas
    Photo courtesy of City of Katy
    undefined

    Good news for potential Houston-area homebuyers: Housing prices in the metro have come down as much as $12,000 since last year.

    Typical home values in one particular suburb, Katy, have fallen 3.44 percent since February 2025. That's the 15th biggest drop in housing prices nationwide, according to a new report.

    The new housing study from SmartAsset analyzed home values across the 100 biggest metro areas using Zillow’s Home Value Index tool for single-family homes, condos, and co-ops. Home value data was sourced for the month of February in 2021, 2025, and 2026.

    The findings revealed housing prices in Katy are now standing at $335,844, down from $347,801 last year. In Houston, prices have fallen from $270,036 to $261,976 this year.

    Here's how much cheaper housing prices are Spring:

    • One year change: -0.69 percent
    • Typical home value in 2025: $363,916
    • Typical home value in 2026: $361,396

    Housing prices in the Houston area have been on the decline since 2024, a separate study found, but SmartAsset said they're still about 23 percent higher than they were in 2021. And compared to Houston's pre-pandemic housing market in 2019, prices have ballooned by 38.5 percent.

    Houston homeowners are now entering the best time of the year to sell their houses, which could add a sudden sense of competitiveness for buyers.

    Home prices elsewhere around the U.S. have seen varying changes, according to the report.

    "Between 2025 and 2026, the typical home value in large U.S. cities actually declined by 1.04 percent, with values dropping in 70 percent of cities," the report's author wrote. "But the full range of changes from market to market ran the gamut from -9.1 percent to +5.01 percent, putting both hopeful buyers and homeowners in starkly different environments across the nation."

    The top three U.S. cities where home prices increased the most since 2025 are Toledo, Ohio (No. 2); Lincoln, Nebraska (No. 2); and San Francisco (No. 3).

    housing priceshousing marketreal estatesmartassetreportshoustonkatyspring
    news/real-estate
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