How Much House Can You Afford in Texas? A Broker’s Honest Answer
The median Texas household earns about $79,721 a year (source: U.S. Census Bureau, American Community Survey 2024). At today’s wholesale rates, that income qualifies for roughly a $234,000 home with 10% down. The median Texas home price is $328,000 (source: Texas REALTORS®, Q1 2026 Texas Quarterly Housing Report). The typical Texas household can afford about 71% of the typical Texas home — the second-best ratio of any state OnPoint is licensed in, beaten only by Idaho.
The rule: in Texas, your max home price is about 2.9x your gross annual salary with 10% down, no other monthly debts, and today’s wholesale rates. With 20% down and clean credit, push it to 3.4x. That’s lower than California’s 3.3x/3.8x rule on the same income, because Texas trades state income tax for higher property taxes and higher homeowners insurance — both of which eat into your front-end DTI cap before the loan officer ever quotes a rate. Your take-home pay is bigger in Texas. Your mortgage approval, on gross income alone, is smaller.
What follows is the math, a salary-by-salary table for Texas buyers, what the national calculators miss, and how to get a number you can offer on a home with.
Quick answer: Multiply your gross annual salary by 2.9 for a realistic Texas max home price at 10% down. Stretch to 3.4x at 20% down. Texas property taxes (1.7-2.0% in major metros) and hurricane-and-hail insurance ($4,000+/yr average) compress what your income carries, but no state income tax means your take-home covers the higher PITI more comfortably than the gross math suggests.
On This Page
- How Much House Can I Afford in Texas by Salary?
- How Much More House Do You Get With a Wholesale Broker Rate?
- How Do Lenders Actually Decide What You Can Afford?
- What Are the DTI Limits for Conventional, FHA, and VA Loans?
- Why Is Home Affordability Different in Texas?
- How Does Your Down Payment Change What You Can Afford?
- What Do National Calculators Get Wrong About Texas?
- What Are the Most Common Texas Affordability Questions?
- How Do You Get a Real Affordability Number Instead of an Estimate?
How Much House Can I Afford in Texas by Salary?
Assumptions: 30-year fixed at today’s wholesale conventional purchase rate (~5.75% as of May 2026, source: Mortgage News Daily), 10% down, Texas property tax 1.7% effective (typical for Houston, Dallas, Austin, San Antonio metros), Texas homeowners insurance ~1.0% of home value annually (source: Texas Department of Insurance 2026 market overview), no HOA, no MUD/PID, no other monthly debts, 28% front-end DTI cap. Four levers move your number: rate, down payment, debts, MUD/HOA.
| Gross Annual Salary | Max Home Price (TX, 10% down) | Approximate Monthly PITI |
|---|---|---|
| $100,000 | ~$293,000 | $2,333 |
| $135,000 | ~$396,000 | $3,150 |
| $150,000 | ~$440,000 | $3,500 |
| $200,000 | ~$587,000 | $4,667 |
| $250,000 | ~$733,000 | $5,833 |
| $300,000 | ~$880,000 | $7,000 |
| $400,000 | ~$1,174,000 | $9,333 |
| $500,000 | ~$1,467,000 | $11,667 |
Two things to notice. The median Texas household ($79,721) qualifies for about $234,000 of home, which lands at 71% of the statewide median home price of $328,000 — tight but reachable, especially in the suburbs of every major Texas metro. And the conforming loan limit in Texas is $832,750 for every county (no Texas county is on the FHFA “high-cost” list), so the jumbo step doesn’t hit until you’re shopping above the $300K-salary tier. The 2026 Texas conforming loan limit lives on the /mortgage-texas/ page.
Run your exact numbers (your rate, your down payment, your tax bracket, your debts, your county) in our Texas mortgage affordability calculator. It’s tuned for Texas’s property tax and insurance reality, not national averages.
How Much More House Do You Get With a Wholesale Broker Rate?
The table above uses OnPoint’s current wholesale conventional purchase rate of ~5.75%. The national average retail rate reported by Mortgage News Daily is 6.67%. That 0.92% gap between what a retail bank quotes and what a wholesale broker can access doesn’t sound like much, until you see what it does to your max home price.
Same monthly payment, more house:
| Gross Annual Salary | Max Home at Retail 6.67% | Max Home at Wholesale 5.75% | Extra House You Get |
|---|---|---|---|
| $79,721 (TX median) | ~$219,000 | ~$234,000 | +$15,000 |
| $100,000 | ~$274,000 | ~$293,000 | +$19,000 |
| $135,000 | ~$371,000 | ~$396,000 | +$25,000 |
| $200,000 | ~$549,000 | ~$587,000 | +$38,000 |
| $300,000 | ~$824,000 | ~$880,000 | +$56,000 |
Or same house, lower monthly payment:
| Home Price | Monthly P&I at Retail 6.67% | Monthly P&I at Wholesale 5.75% | You Save |
|---|---|---|---|
| $328,000 (TX median) | $1,902 | $1,723 | $179/mo ($64,440 over 30 yr) |
| $440,000 | $2,551 | $2,311 | $240/mo ($86,400 over 30 yr) |
| $587,000 | $3,403 | $3,083 | $320/mo ($115,200 over 30 yr) |
| $880,000 | $5,103 | $4,623 | $480/mo ($172,800 over 30 yr) |
That’s not a marketing claim. It’s the math of the rate you’re offered. A retail bank quotes from one rate sheet: its own. A wholesale broker sends your file to 20+ wholesale lenders and brings you back the comparison. The rate that wins your file is almost always lower than the rate a single retail desk would have quoted, because wholesale lenders compete for your business in a way no retail bank ever will.
The median Texas household earns $79,721 and qualifies for $15,000 more home at wholesale. Or it saves $179 a month on the same home, which is $64,440 the retail borrower pays that the wholesale borrower doesn’t. That’s the cost of not comparison-shopping.
How Do Lenders Actually Decide What You Can Afford?
Two ratios. That’s the whole game.
Front-end DTI (the 28% rule). Your total housing payment (principal, interest, property tax, homeowners insurance, HOA dues, MUD/PID assessments, and mortgage insurance) cannot exceed roughly 28% of your gross monthly income. That’s PITI. It sets your max house price.
Back-end DTI (the 36% rule). Your total monthly debt (PITI plus car loans, student loans, credit-card minimums, child support, alimony) cannot exceed roughly 36% of your gross monthly income. This is where existing debt eats your house budget.
Each loan program sets its own DTI ceiling (the next section breaks them down). What doesn’t change across programs: when your back-end DTI is the binding constraint, every $100 of monthly debt costs you roughly $12,500 of house at today’s Texas rates. Pay down a $500/mo car payment before you shop and you unlock roughly $63,000 more house on the same income.
The 2.9x rule isn’t magic. The 28% cap times 12 months equals 3.36 annual income worth of housing payments. Subtract Texas’s tax-and-insurance overhead (about 2.7% of home value per year, before HOA or MUD) and divide by the 30-year mortgage factor at today’s ~5.75% wholesale rate, and you land at home price = 2.9x gross income. If rates climb a full point to 6.75%, the multiplier compresses to ~2.6x. With 20% down and no PMI, it stretches to 3.4x. That’s it.
What Are the DTI Limits for Conventional, FHA, and VA Loans?
The 28/36 baseline is the textbook rule. The actual ceiling depends on which loan program is underwriting your file. Three programs cover the vast majority of Texas purchases, and each has a different ceiling, which means the same income produces a different max house price depending on which loan you use.
Fannie Mae (Conventional)
- Front-end DTI: Not strictly enforced. 28% is the traditional benchmark guideline.
- Back-end DTI: Normally capped at 36%, but can go up to 45% with strong credit and reserve requirements. Under Fannie Mae’s Desktop Underwriter (DU) automated underwriting, the absolute maximum is 50% (source: Fannie Mae Selling Guide, Section B3-6-02, Debt-to-Income Ratios).
For Texas buyers, the DU 50% ceiling is the lever that turns a “no” into a “yes” on Austin- and DFW-priced conforming files where property tax is dragging the front-end DTI up. The stretch comes with conditions: 700+ FICO, 6-12 months of reserves, low LTV, clean housing history. Below those compensating factors, expect DU to cap you closer to 45%.
FHA (Federal Housing Administration)
- Front-end DTI: Officially set at 31%.
- Back-end DTI: Officially capped at 43%. The FHA’s TOTAL Scorecard automated underwriting approves DTIs of 50% to 57% when the borrower has strong compensating factors: high credit score, large cash reserves, residual income, or a documented history of carrying similar housing payments (source: HUD Handbook 4000.1, Section II.A.5.d, Qualifying Ratios).
FHA loans are heavily used in Texas’s affordable metros (San Antonio, Corpus Christi, El Paso, Killeen-Temple, Lubbock) because the higher DTI ceiling stretches qualifying income on lower-priced homes. The Texas FHA loan limit follows the conforming ceiling at $1,209,750 for high-cost areas, but every Texas county uses the baseline $524,225 FHA limit — well above the statewide median home price, so FHA reaches further up the price scale than most buyers realize.
VA (Department of Veterans Affairs)
- Front-end DTI: None. The VA does not consider or require a front-end housing ratio.
- Back-end DTI: The VA generally prefers a back-end DTI of 41%. However, DTIs of 50% and higher are routinely approved when the borrower exceeds VA’s residual income standard by 20% or more, because VA underwrites primarily to residual income (the net monthly cash left after all obligations), not to DTI (source: VA Lenders Handbook 26-7, Chapter 4, Section 4.07, Income Analysis).
Texas has the second-largest veteran population in the country — over 1.4 million veterans, concentrated around Fort Hood (Killeen), Fort Bliss (El Paso), JBSA-Lackland and JBSA-Randolph (San Antonio), and Naval Air Station Corpus Christi. VA loans require zero down payment, accept higher DTI than any other program, and don’t price-penalize jumbo loans inside VA limits. A VA-eligible buyer in Texas can frequently afford 15-25% more house than the same buyer using a conventional or FHA loan on the same income.
Why Is Home Affordability Different in Texas?
National calculators use national averages. Texas isn’t an average state. Four reasons the numbers move.
Property tax is among the highest in the country. Texas runs a 1.6-2.0% effective rate in most major metros (Tax Foundation: Texas effective rate 1.40%; major-metro counties consistently 1.7-2.0% after voter-approved school and county bonds). On a $400,000 home in Houston’s Harris County, that’s $7,200-$8,000 a year, or $600-$667 a month. The $100,000 homestead exemption on school-district taxes (effective 2024) takes some of the sting out for primary residences, but the effective rate after exemption is still 1.4-1.7% in the major metros. In MUD or PID districts (newer master-planned communities across the DFW exurbs, Houston suburbs like Cypress and Katy, and the I-35 corridor north of Austin), add another 0.5-1.5% on top. That’s $200-500/mo of line item the national calculator pretends doesn’t exist.
Homeowners insurance is a hurricane, hail, and tornado story. Texas premiums have roughly doubled in five years. A $400,000 Texas home insures for $3,500-$5,000 a year on the standard market in inland metros, and $6,000-$12,000 in coastal counties (Galveston, Brazoria, Chambers, Harris coastal ZIPs, Aransas, Nueces, Cameron). Coastal Texas homeowners often rely on the Texas Windstorm Insurance Association (TWIA), the state-backed residual market, layered with a separate fire-and-theft policy. Hail Alley — the DFW-to-Lubbock corridor — has its own premium load from spring hailstorms that total roofs. Underwriters quote real Texas insurance, not the national 0.35% average.
No state income tax changes the take-home math. Texas has zero state income tax. A $200,000 W-2 earner in Houston keeps roughly $14,000 more annually than the same earner in Los Angeles, after state tax. DTI math runs on gross income; your life runs on net. The 28% cap is the same rule everywhere. Texas’s take-home advantage means a Texan can live at a higher DTI more comfortably than a Californian on the same gross income — which is why TX lenders see more DU-stretched approvals at 45-50% back-end than CA lenders do on similar files. The gross-income multiplier (2.9x) is lower, but the net-income comfort is higher.
No high-cost-county jumbo step. The 2026 conforming loan limit is $832,750 for every Texas county. The FHFA doesn’t classify any Texas MSA as “high-cost,” so unlike California (where the conforming line varies from $832,750 to $1,249,125 depending on county), Texas has a single line. Cross $832,750 anywhere in Texas and you’re in the jumbo market: different rates, different reserves, different qualifying rules. The good news: $832,750 is well above the statewide median, so most Texas buyers never hit the jumbo step. The exception: Austin proper, parts of the Park Cities (DFW), River Oaks/West U (Houston), and Alamo Heights (San Antonio) routinely trade in jumbo territory.
How Does Your Down Payment Change What You Can Afford?
The same buyer hits different max prices depending on how much they put down. The reason isn’t “less to borrow.” It’s that small down payments add mortgage insurance (PMI on conventional, MIP on FHA), and that monthly premium eats your front-end DTI cap.
3% down (conventional first-time buyer, or 3.5% FHA). Best for buyers conserving cash. PMI runs $80-$200/month per $100K borrowed. PMI drops off at 20% equity on conventional; FHA MIP stays for the life of the loan unless you refinance out. Lowest down payment, lowest max house price. Both Fannie Mae HomeReady and Freddie Mac Home Possible work alongside Texas’s state DPA programs.
5% down. A middle path. Less PMI than 3%, still preserves cash. Common for Texas buyers using bank-statement programs or non-QM. This is also the tier where TSAHC’s 5% down payment assistance grant stacks cleanly — the grant covers the down payment and you bring closing costs.
10% down. Where the 2.9x rule lands. PMI is smaller and drops off sooner. Most Texas buyers without family help land here.
20% down. No PMI. Max house price climbs to ~3.4x salary. The hardest number to reach in Texas. On a $400,000 home, that’s $80,000 in cash plus closing costs. This is where down payment assistance becomes a real lever. The two Texas DPA powerhouses: TSAHC (Home Sweet Texas and Homes for Texas Heroes — the latter for teachers, nurses, EMTs, police, firefighters, corrections officers, and veterans, both with 5% grant DPA and a 620 minimum FICO), and TDHCA (My First Texas Home, requiring a 640 FICO for FHA/VA/USDA, and My Choice Texas Home, which removes the first-time-buyer requirement so move-up buyers can also use it).
The bigger point: in Texas, your monthly payment moves more than your max house price across these tiers. Going from 5% to 20% down on a $400,000 home cuts PITI by $600-$800/month. That’s not from a smaller loan alone. It’s killing PMI and shrinking principal-and-interest at the same time.
What Do National Calculators Get Wrong About Texas?
Run the same scenario through Zillow, NerdWallet, and our Texas-tuned calculator. Zillow and NerdWallet quote you a max house price 15-25% higher than what a Texas lender will actually approve. Three reasons.
They use 1.0% national property tax. Texas runs 1.6-2.0% effective in the major metros, plus MUD or PID districts where they apply. That’s $250-600/month the national calculator quietly hands you back so you can “afford more house.”
They use 0.35% national homeowners insurance. Texas’s standard market today is 1.0% inland and 1.5-3.0% on the coast. Another $200-600/month off the real picture.
They miss MUD and PID assessments entirely. If you’re shopping a master-planned community north of Austin, west of Houston, or in the Frisco-McKinney-Prosper corridor, your effective tax rate is often 2.5-3.5% — not the 1.6-2.0% the national calculator pulls from a county-average database. National calculators don’t even know MUD districts exist.
Worked example. Buyer at $200K Texas salary, 10% down, today’s wholesale rate. National calculator: about $700,000. Texas-tuned math: about $587,000. The $113,000 gap isn’t a difference of opinion. It’s the calculator pretending you live somewhere with cheaper taxes and insurance.
What Are the Most Common Texas Affordability Questions?
Can I afford a $300K house on a $60K salary in Texas?
Tight. A $60K Texas salary at 10% down qualifies for roughly a $176K home at today’s rates. Stretching to $300K on $60K takes real help: 20%+ down (~$60K cash), zero other debts, top-tier credit, and usually TSAHC or TDHCA down payment assistance plus a co-borrower. In the affordable Texas metros (San Antonio outer suburbs, El Paso, Lubbock, Killeen, parts of Houston’s northeast suburbs), $300K homes exist. With FHA at 3.5% down and a 640+ FICO using TDHCA’s My First Texas Home program, the math gets closer to workable.
What salary do you need to afford a $400,000 house in Texas?
About $136,000 in gross income at 10% down, today’s ~5.75% wholesale rate, no other debts, in a metro with typical 1.7% property tax and 1.0% insurance. Add $400/mo of car-and-card debt and you need closer to $151K. $400K homes in Texas today live across Houston’s suburbs, the DFW exurbs, San Antonio’s northwest corridor, and Austin’s outer-ring cities like Pflugerville and Round Rock. Conforming, no jumbo penalty.
How much house can I afford in Texas with a $200,000 salary?
About $587,000 at 10% down, today’s ~5.75% wholesale rate, Texas-typical taxes and insurance. With 20% down, climb to about $680,000. At $587K you’re still under the $832,750 conforming limit in every Texas county, so the full lender pool is in play. Cross into jumbo (above $832,750 anywhere in Texas) and expect rates to step up 0.25-0.75% and ratios to tighten. The $200K-salary tier puts you squarely in target range for the upper neighborhoods of DFW (Plano, Frisco), Houston (The Woodlands, Sugar Land), Austin’s suburban ring, and San Antonio’s Alamo Heights area.
How much do I need to make to afford a $500,000 house in Texas?
About $170,000 in gross income at 10% down, or about $147,000 at 20% down. $500K homes are the entry point to Austin proper, common across the better DFW suburbs (Southlake, Westlake, Coppell), Houston’s desirable inner-loop neighborhoods, and Boerne / New Braunfels north of San Antonio. Still under the $832,750 conforming limit, no jumbo penalty.
I make $100,000 a year. How much house can I afford in Texas?
About $293,000 at 10% down. With 20% down and no other debts, push to about $340,000. If your $100K is W-2 with strong job tenure and $20K+ in reserves, some lenders will stretch back-end DTI to 45-50% and get you to $340K-$365K. Above that, you’re using the loan to live thin. The good news: $293K covers a lot of Texas. The median home price across San Antonio, Killeen, Lubbock, El Paso, Corpus Christi, and the smaller East Texas markets sits at or below that line.
Should I buy at my maximum approval amount?
No. Your maximum approval is the lender’s risk tolerance, not your life budget. The lender doesn’t price your retirement contributions, your kids’ activities, your car maintenance, your future vacations, the next hailstorm-totaled roof, or the year your insurance premium jumps 20%. Most Texas households should target 75-85% of the lender’s max approval. Buying at 100% of max is how new homeowners describe themselves as house-poor 18 months later — particularly in Texas, where mid-year property-tax reassessments and annual insurance renewals are not predictable line items.
How Do You Get a Real Affordability Number Instead of an Estimate?
Calculators get you in the ballpark. Two things get you a number you can offer on a home with.
Pre-approval, not pre-qualification. Pre-qualification is a 5-minute self-reported estimate. Useless. Pre-approval is a real underwriter reviewing your real W-2s, real tax returns, real credit pull, real assets, and real debts, then issuing a written letter you can submit with an offer. In a Texas seller’s market — Austin and DFW especially — a listing agent reads your pre-approval letter before they read your offer. A pre-qualification letter gets your offer thrown out.
A wholesale broker pulls a more accurate number than a retail bank. A bank’s pre-approval reflects what that bank will lend you (one underwriting box). A wholesale broker submits your file to 20+ wholesale lenders and brings back the comparison: which lender stretches DTI hardest for your scenario, which has the best jumbo pricing if you’re crossing the $832,750 conforming line in Austin, which competes hardest for self-employed or 1099 income common in Texas’s energy and tech corridors. The pre-approval number you carry into your house hunt should be the best of those 20, not the first one you got.
That’s what we do at OnPoint Mortgage Pro. Texas-licensed (alongside California, Colorado, Florida, Idaho, Maryland, New Hampshire, South Carolina, and Virginia), headquartered in Irvine, serving Texas buyers and homeowners across Houston, Dallas-Fort Worth, Austin, San Antonio, and every market in between. We don’t sell one bank’s loan. We shop your file across the wholesale market and bring you the comparison sheet. The pre-approval number that lands on your phone is the one that wins for your scenario, not the one a retail loan officer happened to pull.
Model your scenario in our Texas mortgage affordability calculator, then tell us what you’re trying to buy and we’ll send your file to 20+ wholesale lenders simultaneously. Or call us directly at (877) 870-0007. The comparison sheet comes back with the lowest total cost on a Texas loan we re-verify is still the best one all the way to funding.
Ask any Texas broker what your pre-approval number would be at their best 5 lenders, side by side. If they can only quote one, walk. Call us at (877) 870-0007 and we’ll show you the sheet.
See Also: Affordability in Other Licensed States
- How Much House Can You Afford in California? — the same analysis tuned to California’s 1.25% property tax, wildfire insurance, and 13.3% state income tax. The CA multiplier is 3.3x at 10% down vs Texas’s 2.9x — same income, different math.
Coming soon: affordability breakdowns for Virginia, Colorado, South Carolina, Maryland, New Hampshire, and Idaho — the other seven states OnPoint is licensed in.
Victor Santos, NMLS #888844, is a Senior Loan Officer and licensed mortgage broker serving Texas buyers and homeowners. OnPoint Mortgage Pro (NMLS #2134550) is licensed in California, Colorado, Florida, Idaho, Maryland, New Hampshire, South Carolina, Texas, and Virginia. The affordability examples on this page use representative market assumptions as of May 2026 for illustration; your actual qualifying amount depends on your specific rate, credit, down payment, debts, property location, county property-tax rate, MUD/PID assessments, and lender. Rates change daily. See today’s rates or call (877) 870-0007 for a current quote. Run your scenario through our Texas mortgage affordability calculator or contact us for a written pre-approval. Equal Housing Lender.
