Living in College Station, TX

Brazos County

College Station exists because Texas A&M University does -- there is no meaningful way to describe this city without leading with the school. Texas A&M crossed 80,000 total enrolled students in fall 2025 per preliminary reporting (a more conservative, fully-tabulated 2024-25 count puts it at 78,321), establishing it as the largest university in Texas and one of the largest in the country -- a student body that, at the higher figure, exceeds the city's own 2020 Census population of 120,791. That relationship shows up everywhere in the data: a median age of 22.9, a renter-majority housing market (65% of households rent), and a football-Saturday phenomenon at Kyle Field -- the 4th-largest stadium in the country at 102,733 seats, with a 2014 attendance record of 110,633 that alone outnumbers the city's entire Census population. A real, separate research and biotech economy has grown up around the university, anchored by the Research Valley Biocorridor (FUJIFILM Diosynth Biotechnologies' $300 million expansion, G-CON Manufacturing, Texas A&M Health) -- genuine job growth, but still a narrower non-university employment base than Austin, Houston, or Dallas-Fort Worth offer, since Texas A&M itself is Brazos County's largest employer by a wide margin at roughly 26,000 workers. On cost, this is one of the more affordable and lower-insurance-cost Tier A Texas markets in this build: median home prices run $337K-$365K depending on source and month, and homeowners insurance -- well inland, with no hurricane exposure -- averages roughly $901-$1,330/yr, dramatically below both the national average and Texas's own roughly $4,350/yr statewide average. That low-insurance profile is real, not an oversight: College Station does carry genuine hail and flash-flood exposure (the May-June 2016 Central Texas floods produced the wettest March-May on record at the local weather station), but it has none of the hurricane risk that drives Gulf Coast insurance costs, and less of the hail-belt intensity that drives DFW-area costs.

Explore College Station in depth

• Moving to College Station: Pros, Cons & What to Know
• Cost of Living in College Station
• Housing Market in College Station
• Buying a Home in College Station
• Renting in College Station
• Taxes in College Station
• Homeowners Insurance & Natural Hazard Costs in College Station
• Climate & Weather in College Station
• Jobs & Economy in College Station
• Schools in College Station
• Crime & Safety in College Station
• Healthcare in College Station
• Traffic & Transportation in College Station
• Best Areas to Live in College Station
• Pros and Cons of Living in College Station
• Retiring in College Station
• Who Should / Shouldn’t Move to College Station

Housing

Taxes

The tradeoffs

Who this fits

Best for: Families and first-time buyers drawn to a well-regarded, A--rated school district, comparatively affordable housing, low crime, and dramatically below-average homeowners insurance costs relative to the rest of Texas; anyone whose career is tied to Texas A&M, higher education, research/biotech (the Research Valley Biocorridor), or healthcare will find a genuinely strong, growing local job base in those specific fields.

Maybe not for you if: Buyers who need a deep, broad, non-university corporate or professional-services job market should look to Austin, Houston, or Dallas-Fort Worth instead -- Texas A&M's dominance as an employer (roughly 26,000 workers in Brazos County alone) means the rest of the local economy is comparatively thin outside education, research, and healthcare; anyone who wants to avoid the seasonal football-Saturday traffic, crowding, and short-term-rental price surges around Kyle Field, or who needs to be within a short drive of a major metro on a regular basis, should weigh College Station's distance (roughly 90-180 miles) from Austin, Houston, and DFW carefully before assuming it is interchangeable with a bigger Texas market.