On the market

Step into the cocoon: Tanglewood townhouse for less than $500,000 surprises withits privacy

The interior courtyard is a charming feature of the townhouse.
Photo by Patrick Bertolino
Two-story high ceilings in the foyer provide oodles of light.
Photo by Patrick Bertolino
The 18-foot ceilings in the living room offer a spacious feel in the space thatoverlooks the interior courtyard.
Photo by Patrick Bertolino
A balcony view of the living room.
Photo by Patrick Bertolino
The completely remodeled kitchen is spacious and beautifully up-to-date.
Photo by Patrick Bertolino
The formal dining room.
Photo by Patrick Bertolino
Entry to the townhouse is via a shaded, paved walkway.
Photo by Patrick Bertolino

Editor's Note: Houston is loaded with must-have houses for sale in all shapes, sizes and price ranges. In this continuing series, CultureMap Editor-at-Large Shelby Hodge snoops through some of our faves and gives you the lowdown on what's hot on the market.

1605 Potomac #C

Light pours in through banks of windows that soar to the top of the two-story ceiling in this 1990s vintage townhome, the airiness belying its secluded location at the back of a small complex. We found a certain charm in the four-bedroom dwelling due in part to the rush of light through mullioned windows and in its distance from busy Potomac.

You get the feel of a cozy (and that is not to mean small) cocoon offering a welcome sense of privacy in this city's often too-busy landscape. The design is unusual but has appealing points. And the price under $500,000 is attractive for the size of the townhouse.

Walk through: The entry hall is two stories high, a pleasant feature that continues into the living room and along the interior passageway leading to the kitchen. To the right of the entry is the study with half bath and wet bar and a mullioned glass wall that overlooks the foyer, an interesting architectural feature that adds light and a sense of spaciousness to the room.

The two-story high living room addresses the interior paved courtyard, rich with plantings and small trees. It's an attractive feature of the townhouse that comes into play from kitchen windows and breakfast room. Also on the ground floor is a full-sized dining room that opens off of the soaring hallway.

It's all about bedrooms on the second floor where the good-sized master features a fireplace and a spacious, updated bath and walk-in closets. Three other bedrooms with two baths complete the second floor.

Nice: The 18-foot ceilings in the entry, living room and hallway offer loads of light and a feeling of spaciousness. We also found the interior mullioned-glass wall in the study and in one bedroom upstairs a pleasing feature.

Extra nice: The landscaped interior patio with pergola is a lovely focal point that gives this townhouse a rich sense of privacy — a safe and secluded feel yet with lots of green.

Square footage: 3,295

Asking price: $449,000

Listing agent: Gloria Acker, Heritage Texas Properties

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red-hot housing

Houston boasts No. 20 hottest real estate market among big U.S. cities

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It doesn't get much hotter than the Houston housing market. A new report has ranked H-Town as the 20th best real estate market among America's biggest cities right now.

WalletHub's annual study, "Best Real Estate Markets (2026)," compares the real estate markets in 300 U.S. cities based on 17 relevant metrics, such as "housing market attractiveness," home value forecasts, housing affordability, population growth, and many others. Cities were also ranked by size: large cities with over 300,000 residents; midsize cities with 150,000-300,000 residents; and small cities with fewer than 150,000 residents.

In the overall ranking of the best housing markets in America, regardless of city size, Houston ranks 90th out of all 300 cities.

WalletHub ranks Houston's real estate market No. 102 nationally, and its "affordability and economic environment" ranks 111th overall.

This is how WalletHub ranks the "health" of Houston's housing market (where No. 1 is the best and No. 150 is average):

No. 51 – Job Growth Rate
No. 96 – Home Price as a Percentage of Income
No. 99 – Median Home-Price Appreciation
No. 128 – Foreclosure Rate
No. 159 – Share of Seriously Underwater Mortgages
No. 172 – Percentage of Delinquent Mortgage Holders
No. 173 – Median Days on the Market
No. 192 – Maintenance Costs as a Percentage of Income

Despite Houston's good standing among the biggest cities in America, a separate WalletHub report claims Houston is one of the worst cities for first-time homebuyers. Instead, Houstonians are turning to popular ZIP codes in suburbs like Cypress and Katy, which rank among the hottest places to move to in the U.S.

Other high-performing housing markets in Texas
Two popular North Texas suburbs — Frisco and McKinney — topped WalletHub's overall list of the best real estate markets in the U.S. for 2026 at Nos. 1 and 2, respectively, and they locked in the top two spots in the midsize city ranking, too.

Frisco tops the nationwide "affordability and economic environment" category, and ranks No. 2 nationally for its real estate market.

"When you look at home prices as a percentage of income, [Frisco] is the 95th-cheapest among the 300 cities in our study," the report said. "But it’s the 11th-cheapest city for phone service and the 11th-cheapest for maintenance and energy."

Frisco boasts the highest share of houses that were built between 2010 and 2024, at nearly 47 percent, which WalletHub says is "good news for people who want all the benefits of a recently-constructed home," without having to "put in a lot of work" to renovate an older or run down home.

"If you aim to make a profit in the long run with your housing purchase, you’ll need to look beyond tangible factors like square footage and style," the report's author wrote. "Those factors certainly drive up property values. From an investor’s standpoint, though, they hold less significance than historical market trends and the economic health of residents."

Nearby Denton and Allen also made the overall top 10, respectively ranking as the 5th and 8th best real estate markets in the U.S. for 2026. Denton similarly ranked 5th in the midsize city rankings, and Allen topped the list of small cities.

The top 10 best real estate markets in America for 2026 are:

No. 1 – Frisco, Texas
No. 2 – McKinney, Texas
No. 3 – Murfreesboro, Tennessee
No. 4 – Durham, North Carolina
No. 5 – Denton, Texas
No. 6 – Cary, North Carolina
No. 7 – Madison, Wisconsin
No. 8 – Allen, Texas
No. 9 – Charlotte, North Carolina
No. 10 – Irvine, California

wallethub housing market real estate reports houston