NO SPACE TO WASTE

This is how big Houston apartments get for $1,500 a month

Houston renters can find apartments that span 997 square feet for $1,500 a month.

cdngeneral.rentcafe.com

We all know what renters dream about when they’re not thinking about the logistics of owning a home: low rent prices with the perfect amount of space. In a city like Houston, that’s getting harder and harder to come by.

In fact, for renters who have a budget of $1,500 a month, the average apartment size they can get in Houston spans about 997 square feet. That’s according to a new study by apartment rental marketplace RentCafe. The study looked at data from their sister site, Yardi Matrix, to determine the average size and price per square foot for a $1,500 monthly budget in 200 of the largest American cities.

H-Town is just outside the top 10 in a ranking of Texas cities with the most space for the same budget, at No. 11. If you head to neighboring Pasadena, residents get an average of 1,180 square feet of space for the same price.

The worst offender, with the smallest space for the price, is Austin. Austin renters have to make do with an average apartment size of 714 square feet, which is a 283-square-foot difference in comparison to Houston. In Killeen, which is only 70 miles north of Austin, renters can find an average apartment size of 1,095 square feet. The Capital City is at the bottom of the list in the overall analysis of Texas cities; adding to the ever-growing list of reasons to be glad we don't live there.

Renters looking to live in Fort Worth or Dallas will notice a nearly 100 square foot difference between apartments, at 909 and 805 square feet, respectively. Residents can get the most bang for their buck in the suburbs with an average apartment size well into the 900-square-foot range. Mesquite residents, by far, get the most space, at 999 square feet, whereas renters in Garland and Arlington get an average of 937 and 928 square feet for the same budget.

Elsewhere in Texas, apartments in the Rio Grande Valley have the best price per square foot in the state. McAllen residents get the most space out of any other Texas city with an average apartment size of 1,471 square feet. Renters in Brownsville, which is 60 miles east on the border, can get a similarly sized apartment that’s 1,307 square feet for the same $1,500 a month budget.

Here’s how much space you can rent for $1,500 a month in other Texas cities:

Amarillo – 1,318 square feet
El Paso – 1,222 square feet
Lubbock – 1,218 square feet
Corpus Christi – 1,126 square feet
Grand Prairie – 873 square feet
Denton – 868 square feet
Irving – 848 square feet
McKinney – 809 square feet
Plano – 766 square feet
Frisco – 740 square feet

The full report can be found on rentcafe.com.

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best in texas

2 Houston suburbs named top-10 best Texas cities to move to

The City of Sugar Land, Texas – City Government/Facebook

The asking rent for a one-bedroom apartment in Sugar Land was $1,450 in June, and two-bedroom units were $1,870.

Several Houston neighbors have been deemed the best Texas cities to move to, with two local suburbs – Sugar Land and League City – coming in among the top 10.

Advisors at ConsumerAffairs, a customer review and news platform, ranked the 50 most populated Texas cities across five main categories – affordability, safety, economy, health care and education, and quality of life – to determine which were the best places to move to. Each city was given a score out of 100 possible points.

Four out of the top five best places to move to in Texas are located in Dallas-Fort Worth: Allen (No .1), Frisco (No. 2), Plano (No. 3), and McKinney (No. 4). Leander, a suburb outside Austin, rounded out the top five.

Of all five categories considered, Sugar Land ranked highest – No. 4 – in the category of "health care and education." The city came in No. 5 for safety, No. 17 for economy, and No. 21 for quality of life. Its lowest ranking was No. 29, for affordability.

Sugar Land has been booming in recent years, and earlier in 2025 it was ranked the No. 3 best place to live in the U.S.. According to Livability.com's report, Sugar Land is well known as "one of the more affluent and rapidly growing master-planned communities in Texas" whose 90s-era population boom has only continued to grow.

Most recently, the City of Sugar Land acquired the 40-acre Imperial Sugar refinery complex for $50 million. The city is planning on redeveloping and renovating the land and its buildings, which include the iconic Char House.

In ConsumerAffairs separate ranking of the best places to live in the South, Sugar Land ranked 6th on the list.

Elsewhere in Houston
League City ranked right behind Sugar Land, and it topped the list with the best healthcare and education in Texas, and it is the 7th safest city in the state.

This suburb, located about 30 miles southeast of Houston, has earned its own reputation as the 7th fastest-growing, affordable city in the U.S.

Meanwhile, Pearland landed just outside the top 10 as the 11th best Texas city to move to with the second-best healthcare and education statewide.

Elsewhere across the Houston metro, three more suburbs made the list: Missouri City (No. 19), Conroe (No. 27), and Pasadena (No. 44). Surprisingly, The Woodlands was nowhere to be found in the rankings.

Despite many of its suburbs ranking highly on the list, Houston proper ranked at the bottom as the 50th best place in Texas to move to.

The top 10 best Texas cities to move to are:

No. 1 – Allen
No. 2 – Frisco
No. 3 – Plano
No. 4 – McKinney
No. 5 – Leander
No. 6 – Mansfield
No. 7 – Sugar Land
No. 8 – League City
No. 9 – Round Rock
No. 10 – Richardson

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