Housing Affordability & Ownership

Housing is the single largest expense for most households and has become less affordable for all, especially renters.

Homeownership rates in Houston’s three-county region have not budged from what they were about a decade ago, and they remain disproportionately low among non-white households. More households are more likely to rent, reflecting lifestyle changes and barriers often associated with buying a home. However, because rents have risen across Houston and the percentage of affordable housing units has declined, over half of Houston-area renters are burdened by housing costs.

The data

Homeownership rates have not increased since 2010

There were about 2.6 million housing units in Houston’s three-county region in 2024, and 92% of them were occupied. This is four points higher than in 2010.

In 2024, nearly 60% of occupied housing units in Houston’s three-county area were occupied by homeowners and 40% were occupied by renters.

Fort Bend and Montgomery counties have consistently outpaced the state and nation in homeownership rates, while Harris County has consistently had the lowest rates across all geographies. In 2024, Fort Bend and Montgomery counties continued their trend of higher homeownership rates, at 76% and 71% respectively, compared to Harris County at 54%, the state at 62%, and the nation at 65%.

Between 2010 and 2024, homeownership rates across the three-county region remained relatively stable, fluctuating within a narrow range year to year without significant change, hovering between 27% and 61% over the 14-year period. By 2024 the homeownership rate in each of the three counties was slightly lower than it was in 2010, dropping from 61% to 59% in Fort Bend County, 78% to 76% in Harris County, and 57% to 54% in Montgomery County.

Between 2010 and 2024, the number of occupied housing units in Houston’s three-county region increased by 37%, more than two times the national growth rate of 16%. The substantial increase in Houston-area rentals (46%) is the primary driver of the overall increase in occupied housing, though the number of housing units occupied by homeowners increased by 32% during this period as well.

Fort Bend and Montgomery counties saw the largest increases in occupied housing overall, with upticks in both homeowners and renters. This is largely because their population growth outpaced the growth of Harris County, Texas, and the nation.

Between 2010 and 2024, the number of households that rent has increased faster than households that own, which contributed to the decline in overall homeownership rates over the last decade. Between 2010 and 2024, renter-occupied households increased by 85% in Fort Bend, 40% in Harris, and 90% in Montgomery counties while owner-occupied households increased by 65% in Fort Bend County, 21% in Harris County, and 63% in Montgomery County.

Homeownership by Race/Ethnicity

There are racial and ethnic disparities in homeownership across Houston’s three-county area. The practice of redlining, combined with other discriminatory yet legal housing policies led to the exclusion of Black households from homeownership for most of our nation’s history. Despite the Fair Housing Act of 1968, we continue to see the impacts of these practices today with Black households consistently having the lowest homeownership rates across all geographic areas and years.

In the Houston three-county area, 72% of white and Asian American households own their homes compared to 40% of Black and 53% of Hispanic households. In 2024, the homeownership rate for white households was 32 percentage points higher than Black households and 19 percentage points higher than Hispanic households across the region. In the three-county region, the gap between white and Black homeownership has widened since 2010 growing by 6 percentage points and driven entirely by declines in homeownership rates among Black households as rates for white households remained unchanged. This pattern was true across all three counties as well between 2010 and 2024 with the homeownership gap between white and Black households increasing by 6 percentage points in Fort Bend County, 7 points in Harris County, and 11 points in Montgomery County.

This homeownership disparity did not happen naturally. It is impossible to separate present-day homeownership rates from decades of racist, discriminatory housing policies that prevented Black, Indigenous, and other communities of color from owning homes in the past.

Homeownership rates tend to be highest in Fort Bend and Montgomery counties and lowest in Harris County, and when disaggregated by race/ethnicity tend to follow the same pattern. In 2024, homeownership rates for Black, Hispanic, and white residents are highest in the outlying counties compared to Harris County, Texas, and the U.S., overall. Except for Asian Americans where homeownership rates are still highest in Fort Bend County but are lowest in Montgomery County. However, homeownership rates for Black and Hispanic households are consistently the lowest in every geography, except Montgomery County.

Between 2010 and 2024 homeownership rates declined for Black residents in each of the three counties and Texas and stagnated across the U.S. overall. For Hispanic residents, rates did not change between 2010 and 2024, except in Montgomery County and across the U.S., where they increased by 5 points and 4 points, respectively. Across all three counties, the state, and the nation, homeownership rates for white residents did not change between 2010 and 2024.

Nationally and locally, there is a marked decline in Black homeownership. Reasons for the decrease in Black homeownership include lack of affordable housing and lower access to credit. National research found Black residents were more than twice as likely to receive a subprime loan as white applicants.¹

Houston-area home values have risen faster than the nation.

Houston has a reputation for being affordable, especially compared to other metropolitan areas. But recent trends have put that reputation at risk as housing prices in the Greater Houston real estate market have increasingly outpaced incomes. 

Those wondering, “is now a good time to buy a house in Houston?” will find that the answer is never a simple yes or no. In 2024 the median home value in the U.S. was $360,600, just below Montgomery County at $363,200. The median home value in Harris County was $301,700, which was just below the state median value of $313,200. However, the median home value in Fort Bend, $408,100, was well above the national and state median values.

Between 2010 and 2024, median home values increased by 39% across the nation compared with 70% in Texas. Despite this faster growth, the median home value in Texas is consistently lower than in the U.S. Locally, the median home value rose 61% in Fort Bend County, 58% in Harris County, and 58% in Montgomery County between 2010 and 2024.

The House Price Index in the Houston area has risen fastest in Harris County

The Federal Housing Finance Agency House Price Index (HPI) measures average price changes in repeat sales or refinancing on the same properties and serves as a timely indicator of house price trends. It provides a way to compare single-family house prices across different geographic regions that controls for distortions in the market.

In 2025, the HPI was highest in Harris County among Houston’s three counties: 12% higher than in Fort Bend and 22% higher than in Montgomery. Although median housing values are higher in Fort Bend and Montgomery counties compared to Harris County and the nation, the relative lower HPI indicates lower average housing prices in repeat sales or refinancing.

The index trends in Houston’s three-county region and Texas generally follow the national trend, but the national HPI surpassed our region just before the 2008 housing crisis, signaling that housing prices at the national level were rising faster than in our region. But the aftermath played out differently in the Houston region that across the country with the HPI falling for five years in a row between 2008 and 2012, while the Houston region decline was contained mostly to two years between 2010 and 2011.

Following that recovery, annual HPI percent increases were typically in the single digits. However, in 2021 and 2022, likely due to demand, historically low interest rates, and constrained housing supply, annual HPI percent changes increased at an unprecedented rate. In just one year between 2021 and 2022, the HPI increased by 21% in Fort Bend and Montgomery counties, 19% for the state of Texas, 16% across the U.S., and 12% in Harris County.

Monthly costs for renters have risen at a faster pace than for homeowners

Is rent expensive in Houston? While rent is still less expensive than the average housing payment with a mortgage, housing costs for renters have generally increased more than for homeowners. Gross rent is the contract rent plus the estimated average monthly cost of utilities.

Between 2010 and 2024, median gross rent increased by 17% in Fort Bend County, 20% in Harris County, 31% in Montgomery County, 28% across Texas, and 21% across the U.S.

Fort Bend County had the highest medium gross rent in 2024 at $1,823 followed by Montgomery County at $1,595. Median rent was higher in Fort Bend and Montgomery counties compared to Texas at $1,475 and the U.S. at $1,487 while the median rent in Harris County was slightly lower at $1,444.

However, median housing costs for homeowners across all three counties in the region are higher than the national and state average. These cost estimates include the total sum of payments made for mortgages, real estate taxes, insurance, utilities and fees.

Interact with the chart to explore differences in households with a mortgage and ones without.

Between 2010 and 2024, the median monthly housing cost for the average homeowner decreased slightly in Fort Bend County by 2% and Harris County by 7% while it increased by 7% in Montgomery County. By comparison, the median housing cost for homeowners did not change across Texas and they decreased by 12% across the country overall.

The median housing costs for homeowners in 2024 was $2,194 in Fort Bend County, $1,625 in Harris County, $1,811 in Montgomery County, $1,452 across Texas, and $1,395 across the nation.

More than half of Houston-area renters are burdened by housing costs

How is housing affordability defined? The U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development considers affordable housing as not more than 30% of income. If a household spends 30% or more of their income on housing costs, they are considered to be housing cost-burdened. Households that are severely cost-burdened spend 50% or more of their income on housing costs. These thresholds, established in the 1980s by the federal government, indicate when housing is considered affordable.

Renters are more likely to be burdened (spending 30% or more on housing) by housing costs than homeowners. While this has been true for at least a decade, this trend has worsened in recent years — particularly for the most vulnerable residents.

The total number of housing cost-burdened owner households in 2024 compared to 2010 was 11% lower in the U.S., 19% higher in Texas, 21% higher across the three-county region, 47% higher in Fort Bend, 9% higher in Harris, and 77% higher in Montgomery.

Comparatively, the number of housing cost-burdened renter households increased 14% in the U.S., 44% in Texas, 60% overall in the region, 110% in Fort Bend, 54% in Harris, and 125% in Montgomery County.

As of 2024 Harris County leads the region with the highest rate of renters (53%) facing housing cost burdens. In Fort Bend County, 49% of renters are housing cost burdened, and this rate is 46% in Montgomery County. Meanwhile, Harris County has the lowest rate of homeowners in the region that are housing cost burdened at 26% compared to 29% in Fort Bend County and 27% in Montgomery County. In the Houston three-county region overall, the percentage of homeowners who are housing cost burdened decreased between 2010 and 2024 from 29% to 26% while this rate for renters increased from 47% to 52%.

Households that are severely cost-burdened spend 50% or more of their income on housing costs. According to the National Low Income Housing Coalition, severely cost-burdened renter households are more likely than other renters to sacrifice necessities like healthy food and health care to pay the rent and are more likely to experience unstable housing situations and evictions. These are the most vulnerable among vulnerable households, and housing costs for this group have only become more burdensome.

Renters are more likely to be severely cost-burdened than homeowners. About 26% of renter households in Greater Houston were severely housing cost-burdened in 2024 similar to 24% statewide and nationally but more than double the rate for homeowners. About 12% of homeowners in the Houston three-county area were severely housing cost-burdened in 2024 compared to about 10% for the state and national averages.

Similar to housing cost burdened households, Harris County typically has the highest rate of renters who are severely housing cost burdened at 27% in 2024. This is compared to 21% in Fort Bend and Montgomery counties.  

Housing Cost Burdened by Income

Income plays a crucial role in understanding the impact of being housing cost burdened. Households with higher incomes, even when spending 30% or more of their income on housing, are likely to have greater financial flexibility to manage other essentials like healthcare, food and transportation. In contrast, lower-income households that are housing cost burdened face much tighter budgets. With more of their limited income consumed by housing, they often struggle to cover basic needs, increasing their risk of debt, eviction, and financial instability. The financial strain is far more significant for those with lower incomes, making housing affordability a more critical issue for them.

Across all regions, very low-income households (those earning less than or equal to 30% of the HUD Area Median Family Income) face the highest levels of housing cost burden with more than 3 out of 4 very low-income households in the Houston three-county region being housing cost burdened compared to 1 out of 17 households earning more than 100% of the HUD Area Median Family Income (HAMFI).

We see the same trend for households who are severely cost burdened with 2 out of 3 very low-income households in the Houston three-county region spending at least 50% of their income on housing compared to less than 1% of households that earn more than 100% of the HAMFI.

About one out of every two dollars in income goes to housing and transportation costs in Fort Bend and Montgomery counties

There is more to housing affordability than mortgage, rent or utilities. For most households in the United States, housing and transportation represent the largest and second-largest expenditures, respectively. The Housing and Transportation (H+T®) Affordability Index estimates the percentage of a household’s income that will be spent on housing and transportation costs in a given location, which can help people make better-informed decisions about where to live and work. Here we show the cost burden of the combined expenses in each county.

Fort Bend residents spend a higher share of their income on housing and transportation than the other Houston-area counties and compared to other populous counties in the state. Fort Bend County residents spent approximately 54% of household income on combined housing and transportation costs in 2022, compared to 50% of household income for residents in Montgomery County and 43% of household income for residents in Harris County. The percentage of income spent on housing and transportation costs in Fort Bend and Montgomery counties is higher than the H+T cost-burden threshold of 45%, driven primarily by exorbitant transportation costs.

Residents in Fort Bend and Montgomery counties also spend a larger share of their income on housing and transportation than residents of Cook County, Illinois (Chicago), Fulton County, GA (Atlanta), and Los Angeles County, which is infamous for its expensive housing market and congested freeways.

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