What is the average mortgage payment in Texas per month?
The loan payment is the part people quote. It is not the part that surprises them.
On the Texas median home price of about 341,800 dollars, with 10 percent down at a 6.35 percent rate over 30 years, principal and interest work out to roughly 1,914 dollars a month. That is the number a lender leads with. Then reality arrives: property tax, homeowners insurance, and mortgage insurance if you put less than 20 percent down.
| Line | Monthly |
|---|---|
| Principal and interest | $1,914 |
| Property tax (1.6%, with $140,000 homestead exemption) | $269 |
| Homeowners insurance (estimated) | $250 |
| PMI (under 20% down) | $154 |
| Realistic total monthly payment | $2,587 |
So the honest answer to the average Texas monthly mortgage payment is closer to 2,587 dollars than to 1,914 dollars. The gap, about 673 dollars a month, is what people mean when they say Texas homes are cheap but Texas ownership is not.
The 2026 homestead exemption changed everything
This is the single most valuable thing on this page, and most Texas mortgage calculators have not caught up with it.
Texas voters approved Proposition 13 in November 2025, and for the 2026 tax year the mandatory school district homestead exemption rose from 100,000 dollars to 140,000 dollars. Separately, the additional exemption for homeowners aged 65 or older, and for disabled homeowners, jumped from 10,000 dollars to 60,000 dollars, giving seniors a combined 200,000 dollars.
On our median 341,800 dollar home, the standard homestead exemption cuts the property tax from about 456 dollars a month to about 269 dollars a month. That is a saving of roughly 187 dollars every month, or 2,240 dollars a year, for filing one form. A senior homeowner on the same house saves closer to 267 dollars a month.
Why Texas property tax is so high
Texas has no state income tax. That money has to come from somewhere, and it comes from your house. Property tax funds the schools, the roads, and the local services that an income tax would pay for elsewhere, which is why the statewide effective rate runs around 1.5 to 1.6 percent against a national average closer to 1 percent.
The statewide number also hides how much your county matters. Suburban counties around Houston, Dallas, and Austin frequently run from 1.8 to 2.5 percent. Here is the same 341,800 dollar home, with the homestead exemption applied, across the major metros.
| County | Effective rate | Property tax per month |
|---|---|---|
| Bexar (San Antonio) | 1.75% | $294 |
| Travis (Austin) | 1.80% | $303 |
| Collin (Plano) | 1.80% | $303 |
| Dallas | 2.00% | $336 |
| Tarrant (Fort Worth) | 2.10% | $353 |
| Harris (Houston) | 2.10% | $353 |
| Fort Bend | 2.40% | $404 |
Buy the identical house in Fort Bend instead of Bexar County and you pay about 110 dollars more per month, forever, for nothing you can see. County choice is a real financial decision in Texas in a way it simply is not in most states.
There is a fair trade here, and it is worth naming. Texas takes nothing from your paycheck. Our Texas paycheck calculator shows exactly how much that is worth to you. For many households the income tax saving more than covers the higher property tax, but that flips as the house gets more expensive relative to the salary.
Texas mortgage assistance programs
Texas runs some of the more generous down payment assistance in the country, and a surprising number of buyers never hear about it because their lender is not approved to offer it. If you are buying in Texas, ask about these before you sign anything.
My First Texas Home (TDHCA)
The main state program for first-time buyers and veterans. It pairs a 30-year fixed mortgage with up to 5 percent of the loan amount as down payment assistance, structured as a zero interest second lien. On a 300,000 dollar loan that is about 15,000 dollars. The assistance is typically forgiven after three years of living in the home, and repaid if you sell or refinance sooner.
My Choice Texas Home (TDHCA)
The same idea, but you do not have to be a first-time buyer. Assistance generally runs 2 to 5 percent. Some versions carry recapture provisions, meaning a portion may be clawed back if your income rises sharply and you sell within the first several years.
Texas Mortgage Credit Certificate (MCC)
Genuinely underused. An MCC converts a slice of your annual mortgage interest into a federal tax credit, not a deduction. A credit reduces your tax bill dollar for dollar, and it is capped at 2,000 dollars a year, every year you hold the loan. It can be stacked with down payment assistance, and over a full 30-year loan it is worth real money.
TSAHC: Home Sweet Texas and Homes for Texas Heroes
Run by the Texas State Affordable Housing Corporation rather than TDHCA. Homes for Texas Heroes is aimed at teachers, police, firefighters, EMS, corrections officers, and veterans. Both offer down payment assistance and can include an MCC.
City programs, which are often the biggest
Several Texas cities run their own assistance on top of the state programs, and the amounts can be far larger. Houston, Dallas, Austin, San Antonio, and Fort Worth all operate homebuyer assistance programs with their own income limits and residency requirements. If you are buying inside a major city, check the city program before you assume the state program is your ceiling.
How to qualify for Texas down payment assistance
The common requirements across most of these programs:
- A credit score around 620 or better
- Household income under your county limit, commonly near 97,000 dollars for a one or two person household, higher in expensive counties
- A purchase price under your county cap, generally between 350,000 and 500,000 dollars
- Completion of a HUD-approved homebuyer education course, usually 6 to 8 hours, around 75 dollars
- Applying through a participating lender. You cannot apply to the agency directly, and many lenders are not approved
How to choose a mortgage lender in Dallas, or anywhere in Texas
We do not publish a ranked list of "best lenders," because a list like that goes stale within weeks and usually reflects who is paying for placement rather than who will actually quote you the best rate. Here is what genuinely works instead.
Get three Loan Estimates on the same day. Mortgage rates move daily. A quote from Monday and a quote from Thursday are not comparable, and lenders know it. Ask three lenders for a written Loan Estimate on the same day and put them side by side.
Compare the APR, not the rate. The headline rate is marketing. The annual percentage rate includes the fees, and the gap between two lenders is routinely half a percentage point, which on a 400,000 dollar loan is worth tens of thousands of dollars over the life of the loan.
Ask first whether they are approved for TDHCA or TSAHC. If you want down payment assistance, this question eliminates most lenders immediately and saves you weeks. Ask it on the first call, not the fifth.
Rate shopping does not wreck your credit. Multiple mortgage inquiries inside a short window count as a single inquiry. The fear of "too many credit checks" costs Texas buyers far more than the inquiries ever would.
The insurance problem nobody warns you about
Texas has some of the most expensive homeowners insurance in the country, and it is not mainly about hurricanes. It is hail. North Texas in particular takes enormous hail losses, and premiums reflect it statewide.
On the coast it gets more complicated. You may need separate windstorm coverage through the Texas Windstorm Insurance Association, and flood insurance is always a separate policy through the National Flood Insurance Program, never part of a standard homeowners policy. Check the FEMA flood map for any property before you make an offer.
Get an insurance quote on a specific address before your offer, not after. Buyers routinely budget 150 dollars a month for insurance and discover the real number is 350 dollars, which can change what they can afford entirely.
Median home prices across Texas
Texas is not one housing market. It is several, and they behave differently.
| Market | Median sale price |
|---|---|
| Texas statewide | $341,800 |
| Houston | $345,000 |
| Austin | Above $400,000 |
| San Antonio | $261,500 |
Statewide prices have softened slightly year over year, which is a change from the run-up of the early 2020s. More inventory means more negotiating room than Texas buyers have had in years, particularly in the outer suburbs of Dallas and Houston and in smaller cities like Waco, Lubbock, and Amarillo.
Before you buy in Texas
Three numbers matter more than the listing price.
Your take-home pay. Texas has no state income tax, so your paycheck goes further here than almost anywhere. Run it through our Texas paycheck calculator and use that number, not your gross salary, when you decide what you can afford.
Your emergency fund. A house generates emergencies. A new roof after a hailstorm is a Texas rite of passage. Size your cushion with the emergency fund calculator before you drain your savings into a down payment.
Your full monthly budget. The calculator at the top of this page gives you the true payment. Put it into the budget planner and see whether it actually fits, because a mortgage you can technically qualify for and a mortgage you can comfortably live with are not the same thing.