Photo: iStockphoto
Houston is known for affordable housing, relative to other cities, but a variety of factors may be putting a home out of reach for many of us.
That’s the word from a new study by the Kinder Institute of Urban Research at Rice University.
It’s not just the price of the land, the home,” said Economist Vance Ginn. “You’ve also got to worry about your property taxes and your insurance costs. Those costs have been increasing dramatically.”
In relative terms, Ginn says Houston remains more affordable than similar cities, including Texas cities like Austin. But researchers found the median price tag for a home in Harris County, $325,000, is $130,000 more than what someone making the median income in the county could afford.
Ginn points to the growing need for homes because of substantial migration of new residents into the area, as well as the growing risk to home insurance carriers in a region prone to severe weather.
He sees the trend as a combination of multiple trends.
“We saw a lot of inflation during the Biden years,” he said. “There have also been increases in property taxes. We’ve seen more demand with more and more people moving to Houston, tariffs on Canada where we get a lot of our lumber from. Homeowners’ insurance has soared dramatically. That has all played into reducing housing affordability in the Houston area.”
But that trend could be ready to slow. Real estate experts note that home sales have slowed down, reducing upward pressure on prices.
And Ginn sees promise in new measures from the state to encourage homebuilding, such as reducing the minimum lot size which allowing for more, and less expensive home construction..
“What we will see in Houston, I think, is more building,” he said. “I’m hopeful that that will help to bring down some of these housing price increases.”