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Houston home prices jumped 86 percent in 10 years, report reveals

Houstonians, stick to buying houses outside downtown.

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A new real estate report confirms something that Houstonians pretty much already knew: The city of Houston saw a significant increase in housing prices among U.S. cities within the last decade, with median home prices skyrocketing up to 86 percent.

The report by online real estate database PropertyShark analyzed median home sale prices in 41 of the most populous U.S. cities and locales in 2014 and 2023. According to the study, the median sale price of a home in Houston in 2014 was $142,000. A decade later, median housing prices in the city nearly doubled, landing at $264,000 in 2023.

Demand for housing increased dramatically due to the COVID-19 pandemic, when "millions of office employees suddenly shifted to working from home across the country" and many of the city's attractions, restaurants, and events were suddenly gone, according to the report.

The report did not analyze the reasons for Houston's price growth, but it did analyze Dallas' growth, which was the sharpest jump of all cities at 142 percent. It says the jump in Dallas was due to "a notable increase in population, a robust economy (further bolstered by the increase in corporate HQs) and a generally low unemployment rate." Houston likely followed a similar pattern.

According to the study's analysis of downtown-only residential transactions, median sale prices of a home in downtown Houston jumped from $324,000 in 2014 to $391,000 in 2023.

The 21 percent price hike over the last decade reflects a common trend Houstonians already know well: Living close to downtown has always been less sustainable than living in other parts of the city, but as both get more expensive, the outskirts are catching up.

This — a major slowdown in prices of downtown residential properties — was a big trend throughout the country. It's one that started during the pandemic in 2020 and has widened ever since. In 31 downtowns of the 41 locations analyzed, prices grew at a slower rate than they did in the entire city.

"As the pandemic persisted — along with remote work models, which later morphed into hybrid setups — buying preferences shifted from downtowns to more suburban areas and smaller towns," the report said.

Even more dramatic, Dallas was one of nine locations in the U.S. where city-level housing prices rose so fast that they eclipsed downtown prices, along with cities such as Los Angeles, California, Seattle, Washington, and Kansas City, Missouri.

The full report can be found on propertyshark.com.

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The income you need to buy a starter home in Houston right now

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A new housing affordability report has revealed Houston's first-time buyers are finally catching a small break with the income they need to purchase a starter home in 2026.

Houstonians need to earn $70,384 to afford a median-priced home in the metro area, or 4 percent less than they did last year, the Redfin report found.

Houston had the 9th biggest decline in the income needed to afford a starter home out of the 50 U.S. metros analyzed in the report. Redfin also determined that all starter home listings in Houston are "affordable" based on the city's median household income — which the report estimated at $90,865.

Houston's income requirement to afford a starter home is not far off from the national average, and affordability is improving slightly across the board. Americans need to make $70,693 to afford the typical starter home, according to the report's findings.

"The income needed to buy a starter home is declining while earnings are rising," the report said. "The typical American household earns an estimated $87,599, about $17,000 more than what’s needed to buy the median-priced U.S. starter home. That gap is widening: A year ago, the typical American earned roughly $12,500 more than they needed to buy a starter home."

Still, starter home affordability is "still often out of reach" for first-time homebuyers in expensive real estate markets due to "near high record" sale prices and soaring mortgage rates, the study said.

For comparison, this is the income needed to afford a starter home in other major Texas metros:

Austin – $92,607 (down 6.1 percent)
Dallas – $83,096 (down 5.1 percent)
Fort Worth – $77,886 (down 4.9 percent)
San Antonio – $62,859 (down 3.7 percent)

Unfortunately, affording a home in the overall housing market is further straining Americans' wallets. American households need to make just under $110,000 afford the typical U.S. home, but Redfin's evaluation found the typical household makes about $22,000 less than that.

"The discrepancy is partly because the overall market is driven by outsized price increases in the luxury segment, and outsized price increases in places like San Francisco and West Palm Beach, where affluent buyers are active," the report said. "At the same time, some would-be buyers of starter homes are pulling back because they typically earn less money and are more sensitive to affordability pressures."

The top 10 U.S. metros with the biggest declines in the income required to afford the typical starter home are:

No. 1 – Austin, Texas
No. 2 – Oakland, California
No. 3 – Dallas, Texas
No. 4 – Fort Worth, Texas
No. 5 – Denver, Colorado
No. 6 – San Francisco, California
No. 7 – Phoenix, Arizona
No. 8 – Las Vegas, Nevada
No. 9 – Houston, Texas
No. 10 – Los Angeles, California

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