Living in Granbury, TX
Hood County
Granbury is the Hood County seat, built around Historic Granbury Square -- the first square in Texas listed on the National Register of Historic Places, anchored by the 1890 Hood County Courthouse -- and named Best Historic Small Town in America by USA TODAY's 10 Best Readers' Choice Awards in 2019, 2020, 2021, 2025, and 2026. It sits on the shores of Lake Granbury, an 8,310-acre Brazos River Authority reservoir formed in 1969, about 40 miles southwest of Fort Worth. The city is a genuine, well-documented retirement and relocation draw: sources put its 65-and-older share at roughly 26%-30% of residents against a median age of 51, well above national norms, alongside a median household income of $73,516 (retiree-headed households report a lower median of $50,905, a real fixed-income cohort). Population growth has been real, too -- an estimated 24.3% cumulative growth since the 2020 Census count of 11,054. Housing runs affordable: a $350,000 median sale price (with other sources citing figures from $348K-$395K depending on time window) sits at or modestly below the $408,776 US national median for June 2026, and Ownwell's 0.92% effective property tax rate for the city runs below both the Texas and national medians. Texas's no state income tax applies fully to retirement income here. The city's hazard profile is tornado and hail, not hurricane -- Texas leads the nation in both average annual tornadoes and hail events -- and Granbury's own history includes a real, serious event: an EF4 tornado struck the city's Rancho Brazos subdivision on May 15, 2013, killing 6 people, injuring about 100 more, and standing as the deadliest tornado of that spring's outbreak.
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Learn moreHousing
Redfin cites a $350,000 median sale price, down 11.9% year over year. Sources disagree meaningfully on the current figure: Orchard cites $348,333 over the trailing 30 days (up 4.5% YoY); Movoto cites a $395,000 median list price for August 2026 (down 5% month over month); Will It Flow cites a $385,000 median sale price as of May 2026 (up 16.7% YoY). Treat $348K-$395K as the plausible range rather than one precise figure -- either way, this sits at or modestly below the ~$408,776 US national median sale price for June 2026 (Redfin national data, retrieved 2026-08-22), consistent with Granbury reading as genuinely affordable rather than merely cheap-for-Texas.
Taxes
Not independently sourced at the Hood County level this session. Texas carries no income tax statewide. See the Texas hub page for the statewide property tax context -- do not treat that figure as Granbury-specific.
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Get local guidanceThe tradeoffs
Pros
A genuinely distinctive, historically designated small-town core (Historic Granbury Square, repeatedly named Best Historic Small Town in America) rare among Texas relocation markets; a real, sourced retiree draw with housing that runs affordable relative to the US national median; Lake Granbury as a real recreational and lifestyle amenity bordering the city; no state income tax; a below-national-median effective property tax rate and a below-Texas-average homeowners insurance estimate.
Cons
A real, documented tornado history -- the May 2013 EF4 that killed 6 people in the Rancho Brazos subdivision -- consistent with Texas's position as the most tornado- and hail-exposed state in the country; a car-dependent small-town layout without the job density of the nearby DFW metro; median sale price estimates vary by roughly $50K depending on source and time window, disclosed here rather than resolved to one falsely precise figure; a meaningfully older population skews the community toward retirees more than young professionals or large families.
Who this fits
Best for: Retirees and affordability-focused buyers drawn to a genuine, historically distinctive small-town core with real lake access, at a below-national-median home price and no state income tax.
Maybe not for you if: Buyers who want to minimize tornado/hail exposure, who need a deep local job market rather than a commute or remote-work arrangement, or who are seeking a younger, family-dense peer community should weigh Granbury's real, disclosed tornado history and older demographic profile carefully.
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