Buying a Home in Texas
Buying a home in Texas in 2026 means filing for the state's real homestead exemption and appraisal cap, confirming your target property's specific hurricane, hail, tornado, or wildfire exposure by region, and understanding that Houston, Dallas-Fort Worth, Austin, San Antonio, and El Paso are genuinely different markets with different price points and risk profiles.
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Learn moreFile your homestead exemption -- it is real money and it is not automatic
As of 2026, a filed Texas homestead exemption removes $140,000 of a primary residence's value from school-district property taxes (up from $100,000, per November 2025's Proposition 13), with an additional $60,000 exemption for homeowners 65+ or with a qualifying disability -- the two stack, for up to $200,000 off school-district taxable value. Once filed, Texas Tax Code §23.23 caps how much the home's assessed value can rise each year at 10%, regardless of market appreciation. This exemption requires a one-time application with your county appraisal district -- it is real savings that a new Texas homeowner must actively claim, not a benefit that applies automatically at closing.
Confirm your specific region's real weather and insurance exposure before finalizing an offer
Texas has no single statewide insurance risk profile. Gulf Coast buyers (Houston, Galveston County, Corpus Christi) should confirm current hurricane and flood exposure -- Houston-area premiums run as high as $7,855/year per 2026 sources, driven by hurricane, hail, and bayou-flood risk, and Galveston County is one of 14 Texas Windstorm Insurance Association (TWIA)-eligible coastal counties given its direct hurricane and bay storm-surge exposure (Hurricane Ike's 2008 storm surge reached nearly 15 feet in parts of Galveston Bay and flooded over 100,000 structures). DFW-area buyers should confirm hail exposure (the metro recorded 1,800+ storms and $2.3B+ in regional damage 2020-2025). West Texas and Hill Country buyers should confirm wildfire exposure, for which no single sourced statewide premium figure was found this pass -- get a real, current quote for your specific target property.
Expect a real price and competition premium in Austin's core and DFW's and Houston's premium suburbs
Austin's tech-anchored core and fast-growing suburbs (Round Rock, Cedar Park, Georgetown), DFW's affluent suburbs (Southlake, Frisco, Plano), and Houston's master-planned communities (The Woodlands, Sugar Land) run at a real, disclosed premium over more affordable options within the same metro (Katy, Pearland, League City in Houston; Grand Prairie, Mesquite, Garland in DFW) or over San Antonio and El Paso generally. Confirm your realistic budget against your specific target submarket rather than a statewide Texas housing-market impression.
Property taxes are set locally -- confirm your target county and school district's specific rate
Because Texas relies on property tax rather than income tax, your county and school district's specific millage rate materially affects your real annual cost, on top of the statewide exemption and cap. Confirm your target property's specific county and school district rate directly with the county appraisal district before finalizing a budget -- statewide averages (roughly 1.60% effective rate, roughly $4,111 median annual bill per one 2026 source, though a competing source cites $3,441) understate the real range, which spans from very low in some rural counties to substantially higher in fast-growing DFW-area counties.
Key takeaways
- File your Texas homestead exemption -- as of 2026 it removes $140,000 (plus $60,000 more for 65+/disabled) from school-district taxable value and caps annual assessed-value growth at 10%, but it requires a one-time application.
- Confirm your specific region's real weather/insurance exposure: Gulf Coast hurricane/flood risk, DFW hail risk, or West/Hill Country wildfire risk price very differently and none of them are cheap.
- Expect a real price premium in Austin's core, DFW's affluent suburbs, and Houston's master-planned communities versus more affordable options within the same metro or in San Antonio/El Paso.
- Confirm your target county and school district's specific property tax rate directly -- statewide averages understate the real county-to-county range.
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