Editor’s Note: This is not investment advice, and we are not financial advisers.
Suppose real estate is the most significant investment a majority of people make in their lifetime. In that case, it’s best to understand the places in Texas with best potential return on investment.
After working in real estate adjacent roles for over a decade, I had the hypothesis that the best place to buy for a return on investment would be up-and-coming cities. Smaller cities where crime might be high now, but people still move to.
To test my hypothesis, we are going to look at places in Texas that are growing faster than average, but where home prices are below average, and crime rates are higher than average.
In everyday terms, these might be “deals”. The best deal in Texas at the moment according to Saturday Night Science? That would be Josephine.
29.9% population growth · 2.1% home price growth
16.0% population growth · 0.6% home price growth
Data | Crime | Cost of living | Movers
15.5% population growth · -0.9% home price growth
Data | Crime | Cost of living | Movers
15.8% population growth · -1.1% home price growth
0.4% population growth · 2.0% home price growth
Data | Crime | Cost of living | Movers
14.8% population growth · 2.1% home price growth
7.5% population growth · 1.1% home price growth
Data | Crime | Cost of living | Movers
10.7% population growth · 0.1% home price growth
8.1% population growth · 0.2% home price growth
Data | Crime | Cost of living | Movers
16.3% population growth · 2.5% home price growth
The receipts
Compare the top ten
Pick a metric. The bars rescale. The red line is Texas’s statewide median.
Texas statewide median: $300,957
On the map
Where Texas’s best buys are
Saturday Night Science
Methodology: How do you determine the best places to buy a home in Texas for 2026?
We were in real estate for almost five years and have worked on this site for over a decade. Suffice it to say we’ve put a lot of thought into finding an excellent place to buy a home.
So all that thinking has come to this moment where we get to spell out how we’d approach finding an up-and-coming place to live in Texas. Put differently, the analysis will try to find places in Texas with undervalued homes relative to pent-up demand using Saturday Night Science.
To do that, we looked at the most recent American Community Survey Census data for 2020-2024 and compared it to the previous vintage. Specifically, we used the following criteria:
- Y-o-Y Change In Population (People want to live here)
- Y-o-Y Change In Median Home Prices (People are willing to pay for it)
- Home Prices Relative To The State Average (It’s still kinda cheap)
We want places that are growing, have seen home prices increase in recent years, and are still “cheap” for Texas, with these caveats: home prices had to be within 20% of the state average, home prices increased in the last year, and the city had above 5,000 people.
So of the 1687 cities and towns in Texas, only 372 places made it through our initial filters to even be considered.
We then ranked each place from 1 to 372 for the above criteria, with 1 being the best. We averaged the rankings to create a “best place to buy” index, with the place having the lowest index being the best.
Turns out that Josephine is the best potential gem in the not-so-rough in the Lone Star State.
The full plate
Best Places To Buy A Home In Texas
Click any column to sort. Search by city name.
| Rank | City | Population | Median Home Price | Population Change | Home Price Increase |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Josephine | 5,842 | $287,283 | 29.9% | 2.1% |
| 2 | Northlake | 8,283 | $497,061 | 16.0% | 0.6% |
| 3 | Lavon | 6,498 | $349,797 | 15.5% | -0.9% |
| 4 | Mabank | 5,187 | $274,129 | 15.8% | -1.1% |
| 5 | Nassau Bay | 5,230 | $397,247 | 0.4% | 2.0% |
| 6 | Venus | 6,745 | $321,977 | 14.8% | 2.1% |
| 7 | Justin | 5,447 | $371,851 | 7.5% | 1.1% |
| 8 | Van Alstyne | 5,952 | $433,827 | 10.7% | 0.1% |
| 9 | Argyle | 5,371 | $594,342 | 8.1% | 0.2% |
| 10 | Alvarado | 6,307 | $305,899 | 16.3% | 2.5% |
| 11 | Aubrey | 7,396 | $363,613 | 11.4% | -1.2% |
| 12 | Pilot Point | 5,332 | $329,619 | 10.4% | -4.8% |
| 13 | Liberty Hill | 8,371 | $485,096 | 24.8% | 2.0% |
| 14 | Wilmer | 6,391 | $226,033 | 8.8% | 8.3% |
| 15 | Hickory Creek | 5,611 | $494,276 | 8.7% | -0.7% |
| 16 | Mineola | 5,068 | $267,346 | 2.3% | -1.4% |
| 17 | Aledo | 5,825 | $537,268 | 7.2% | -1.6% |
| 18 | Parker | 5,999 | $1,088,169 | 3.9% | 0.9% |
| 19 | Dripping Springs | 7,405 | $689,080 | 17.1% | 0.2% |
| 20 | Primera | 5,344 | $170,627 | 1.2% | 1.0% |
| 21 | Hudson | 5,104 | $182,080 | 1.7% | -6.1% |
| 22 | Bowie | 5,770 | $239,906 | 2.7% | -3.9% |
| 23 | Oak Point | 5,887 | $419,835 | 9.1% | -0.6% |
| 24 | Krum | 6,189 | $338,248 | 5.0% | -0.3% |
| 25 | Giddings | 5,151 | $295,835 | 1.3% | 0.0% |
| 26 | Wolfforth | 6,701 | $268,400 | 8.3% | 1.3% |
| 27 | Gilmer | 5,025 | $239,437 | 1.4% | -0.6% |
| 28 | Granite Shoals | 5,328 | $358,052 | 1.5% | 0.6% |
| 29 | Livingston | 5,718 | $197,158 | -0.2% | 0.3% |
| 30 | Center | 5,271 | $198,363 | 1.4% | -5.1% |
| 31 | McGregor | 5,761 | $235,103 | 2.7% | 40.3% |
| 32 | Bulverde | 6,486 | $476,432 | 5.2% | 2.3% |
| 33 | Brady | 5,230 | $115,851 | 0.3% | 4.6% |
| 34 | Iowa Colony | 12,891 | $339,032 | 16.9% | -1.8% |
| 35 | Sinton | 5,584 | $161,876 | 1.3% | 8.2% |
| 36 | Terrell Hills | 5,070 | $883,660 | 0.4% | 0.1% |
| 37 | Breckenridge | 5,170 | $136,983 | -0.2% | 1.8% |
| 38 | Atlanta | 5,439 | $163,217 | 0.1% | 3.0% |
| 39 | Cameron | 5,416 | $254,328 | 0.6% | 4.9% |
| 40 | Rockdale | 5,523 | $241,931 | 1.2% | 3.3% |
| 41 | Muleshoe | 5,667 | $144,581 | 6.4% | 2.1% |
| 42 | Willow Park | 5,874 | $407,700 | 7.8% | -1.2% |
| 43 | Sansom Park | 5,392 | $200,627 | 0.1% | 5.8% |
| 44 | Rusk | 5,477 | $207,435 | 2.7% | -1.0% |
| 45 | Brookshire | 5,495 | $348,438 | 3.1% | -1.0% |
| 46 | Marlin | 5,516 | $91,227 | 0.3% | -7.0% |
| 47 | Wake Village | 5,867 | $202,775 | -0.3% | 1.4% |
| 48 | Edna | 6,027 | $212,347 | 0.6% | -2.8% |
| 49 | Nolanville | 6,690 | $311,057 | 5.0% | 0.1% |
| 50 | Yoakum | 5,846 | $214,802 | 3.5% | 1.1% |
| 51 | Hutchins | 7,496 | $249,516 | 31.2% | 3.5% |
| 52 | Luling | 5,531 | $225,022 | 0.8% | 1.2% |
| 53 | Windcrest | 5,820 | $309,779 | 0.1% | 0.1% |
| 54 | Littlefield | 5,822 | $109,265 | -1.1% | 8.2% |
| 55 | Slaton | 5,761 | $140,026 | -0.9% | 7.5% |
| 56 | Gladewater | 6,227 | $166,926 | -1.1% | 2.8% |
| 57 | Alpine | 6,014 | $254,370 | 0.2% | 1.5% |
| 58 | Penitas | 6,444 | $172,286 | 1.4% | 8.1% |
| 59 | Childress | 5,834 | $120,184 | -2.2% | 9.0% |
| 60 | Gun Barrel City | 6,570 | $245,837 | 2.5% | -2.4% |
| 61 | Mont Belvieu | 9,020 | $439,307 | 7.2% | -0.2% |
| 62 | Lindale | 6,644 | $295,137 | 4.0% | -1.0% |
| 63 | Everman | 6,106 | $219,884 | 0.8% | 1.4% |
| 64 | Port Isabel | 5,111 | $262,760 | 0.3% | 2.9% |
| 65 | Kermit | 5,689 | $131,769 | 0.1% | 10.9% |
| 66 | White Oak | 6,235 | $244,809 | 0.4% | 0.6% |
| 67 | Burnet | 6,732 | $411,326 | 1.5% | 1.2% |
| 68 | Iowa Park | 6,578 | $192,109 | 0.1% | 2.7% |
| 69 | Crockett | 6,364 | $185,185 | 0.7% | 2.0% |
| 70 | Sealy | 7,053 | $373,692 | 1.7% | -3.0% |
| 71 | Carthage | 6,601 | $200,497 | 0.5% | 1.4% |
| 72 | Keene | 6,691 | $254,365 | 1.8% | -0.4% |
| 73 | Bridgeport | 6,331 | $223,656 | 2.5% | 4.1% |
| 74 | Silsbee | 6,842 | $172,424 | -0.6% | 2.4% |
| 75 | Sunnyvale | 8,336 | $631,290 | 3.3% | -0.6% |
| 76 | Lacy-Lakeview | 7,274 | $190,058 | 0.4% | 1.8% |
| 77 | Willis | 6,878 | $284,060 | 2.8% | 0.1% |
| 78 | Marble Falls | 7,752 | $403,824 | 6.9% | -2.3% |
| 79 | Bee Cave | 8,862 | $823,338 | 0.0% | -6.8% |
| 80 | Prairie View | 8,431 | $217,584 | 2.6% | 4.2% |
| 81 | Decatur | 7,426 | $435,802 | 4.8% | -0.4% |
| 82 | Elsa | 5,697 | $139,852 | 0.2% | 3.3% |
| 83 | Lago Vista | 9,650 | $402,383 | 3.3% | 1.0% |
| 84 | Crystal City | 6,159 | $87,878 | -1.3% | 3.8% |
| 85 | La Feria | 6,891 | $182,096 | 1.0% | 5.0% |
| 86 | Mexia | 6,859 | $126,059 | -0.1% | -6.3% |
| 87 | Providence Village | 8,721 | $372,220 | 7.5% | 0.9% |
| 88 | Jasper | 7,299 | $164,333 | 1.2% | -1.5% |
| 89 | Gonzales | 7,200 | $251,993 | 0.3% | 1.3% |
| 90 | Kaufman | 8,538 | $291,010 | 6.6% | 1.5% |
| 91 | River Oaks | 7,584 | $222,017 | 0.9% | 3.8% |
| 92 | Monahans | 7,452 | $193,259 | -1.1% | 7.9% |
| 93 | Seminole | 7,184 | $253,279 | 1.2% | 1.4% |
| 94 | Los Fresnos | 8,291 | $218,341 | 1.4% | 4.4% |
| 95 | Navasota | 8,542 | $272,473 | 4.6% | -0.5% |
| 96 | Joshua | 8,550 | $355,622 | 3.3% | 1.4% |
| 97 | Hitchcock | 7,563 | $214,107 | 1.1% | 2.2% |
| 98 | Floresville | 8,007 | $351,701 | 4.3% | -1.7% |
| 99 | Lampasas | 7,671 | $287,104 | 2.2% | -0.3% |
| 100 | Jersey Village | 7,817 | $385,932 | 0.0% | 0.9% |
Source: U.S. Census ACS 2020-2024 via Saturday Night Science. 372 Texas cities cleared the filters.
Summary
Summary: The Best Places To Purchase A House In Texas for 2026
There’s our analysis of the best places to buy a house in Texas. And, to be clear, we aren’t necessarily saying these places are the best places to live, just that it looks like they might be in a couple of years based on the data.
In fact, every place in the following table meets our criteria, so even though it may not look super long, remember we started off with all 1687 places in the state.
The best cities to buy a house in Texas are Josephine, Northlake, Lavon, Mabank, Nassau Bay, Venus, Justin, Van Alstyne, Argyle, and Alvarado.
So if we could rent or buy in these cities, we’d definitely buy.
