The 10 Cheapest Places to Live in Texas (2026 Census Data)

Texas's reputation for affordability is uneven. The four big metros — Houston, Dallas–Fort Worth, Austin, and San Antonio — have absorbed enormous in-migration over the last decade and now post housing costs that look closer to the national median than to the state's reputation. But step away from those metros, particularly into the Rio Grande Valley and West Texas, and the affordability picture changes dramatically.

We rank using three Census ACS5 (vintage 2023) tables: B25064 (median gross rent), B25077 (median home value), and B19013 (median household income). We focus on incorporated cities with at least 20,000 people so the list reflects places with a real labor market and amenities.

How we rank Texas affordability

Pure rent and home value rankings always surface the same handful of remote, low-income places. That's not useful if you actually need to earn a living there. We weight median household income equally with housing cost so that the cities that surface are affordable on a ratio basis — what Census calls 'cost-burdened' households (paying more than 30% of income on housing) should be a minority, not a majority.

1. Brownsville

Brownsville sits at the southern tip of Texas on the Mexican border. Median gross rent runs in the high $800s and median home value sits near $115,000 — by a wide margin, the lowest of any Texas city above 100,000 population. Median household income is also low (~$45,000), but the rent-to-income ratio remains within the affordability threshold.

The economic anchor is cross-border trade, the Port of Brownsville, and a growing aerospace presence (SpaceX's Starbase is a short drive east). The trade-offs are heat, hurricane exposure, and a labor market less diversified than the major Texas metros.

2. Laredo

Laredo, three hours up the border from Brownsville, is the largest inland port in the United States by trade value. Housing is cheap (median home value around $135,000, median rent in the low $900s) and the local economy is dominated by logistics, customs brokerage, and warehousing — durable industries that have grown steadily since USMCA took effect.

3. McAllen and 4. Harlingen

Both McAllen and Harlingen sit in the Rio Grande Valley between Brownsville and Laredo. Median home value runs in the $140,000s in McAllen and the $130,000s in Harlingen, with rent in the $950–$1,050 band. McAllen is the larger metro, with a much deeper retail and healthcare base, while Harlingen tends to be cheaper still and quieter.

5. El Paso

El Paso is by far the largest city on this list (population north of 670,000). It posts median home value in the $160,000s and median rent in the high-$900s — a fraction of San Antonio or Austin. The economic base is more diversified than the Valley: Fort Bliss anchors a huge military and federal-contracting workforce, and the cross-border manufacturing economy with Ciudad Juárez is one of the largest in the world.

6–10: The rest of the list

Rounding out the top ten: Killeen (Bell County, anchored by Fort Cavazos — formerly Fort Hood — with strong military demand and rents in the low $1,000s); Wichita Falls (north Texas, near the Oklahoma border, very low home values around $115,000); Abilene (West Texas, with Dyess Air Force Base and three universities); Beaumont (refining and petrochemical hub on the Gulf, with median home value in the $120,000s); and Texarkana (the Arkansas border, where housing costs are among the lowest in the state but the labor market is small).

The hidden Texas variable: property tax

Texas has no state income tax, which is the headline pitch for relocators. But Texas funds local government and public schools largely through property tax, and effective rates routinely exceed 2% of assessed value — among the highest in the country. On a $300,000 home that's $6,000+ per year in property tax alone.

For low-cost cities like Brownsville and Laredo, the absolute property tax bill stays manageable because home values are low. But anyone comparing Texas to a state with both no income tax and lower property tax (Tennessee, Florida outside the coast, Wyoming) needs to model both lines.

Use the data yourself

Every figure is reproducible from the public ACS5 tables. Look up any Texas city or ZIP on our search to see the underlying numbers, and use the compare tool to put two Texas cities side by side.