Going Down

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

Housing prices in Katy are down 3.44 percent year-over-year.

Photo courtesy of City of Katy

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 prices housing market real estate smartasset reports houston katy spring

Bang for Buck

Surprising suburb unlocks biggest apartments in Houston for $1,500

Photo by Matt Halls on Unsplash

Pasadena has the 6th roomiest apartments on a budget in Texas.

Budget-conscious renters searching for the roomiest apartments in the region should look no further than Pasadena. According to a new study, the east Houston suburb has the biggest apartments on a budget in the metro.

In 2026, Pasadena residents can rent a 1,125-square-foot apartment for $1,500 per month. That's enough space for a two- or three-bedroom unit, and it's four square feet bigger than what renters could get with the same budget last year.

RentCafe's annual report analyzes the places where renters can find the largest apartment sizes across 200 of the most populous U.S. cities for a monthly budget of $1,500. The price per square foot was calculated using the average apartment rent and size per city based on "multifamily properties" containing 50 or more units.

Pasadena offers the 6th most spacious apartments in Texas for $1,500, and Houston ranks 11th statewide.

Renters in Houston proper will net a 976-square-foot apartment for the same price in 2026, a size that has shrunk by more than 20 square feet since 2023.

Apartment sizes across Texas
For the second year in a row, the Rio Grande Valley is the region that has the most spacious apartments for a $1,500 monthly budget, RentCafe found.

McAllen leads the nation with the biggest apartment size – at 1,378 square feet – which is large enough for a three- or four-bedroom unit.

"With rents averaging just $993 and the typical apartment measuring 912 square feet, McAllen renters get a lot more space for their money than most Americans do within that monthly budget," the report said. "Still, that figure is down slightly from last year’s 1,393 square feet — a sign that even the most affordable markets are starting to tighten."

Brownsville, another city on the border located an hour east of McAllen, ranks fourth statewide with apartments spanning 1,213 square feet for the same budget.

These are the top 10 Texas cities that offer the biggest apartments for $1,500 in 2026:

No. 1 – McAllen (1,378 square feet)
No. 2 – Amarillo (1,237 square feet)
No. 3 – Lubbock (1,217 square feet)
No. 4 – Brownsville (1,213 square feet)
No. 5 – El Paso (1,128 square feet)
No. 6 – Pasadena (1,125 square feet)
No. 7 – Corpus Christi (1,115 square feet)
No. 8 – Killeen (1,058 square feet)
No. 9 – San Antonio (1,023 square feet)
No. 10 – Mesquite (988 square feet)

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