Buying in Houston: the full guide

What homes cost

The Houston Association of Realtors reported a median single-family sale price of $330,000 for Greater Houston in August 2026, down 1.5% on a year earlier. There were 7,100 closings, 11.5% fewer than a year before, homes took 54 days to sell and inventory stood at 5.3 months of supply. The median townhouse or condominium sold for $195,000, down 7.1%.

The metropolitan area is large and spread out. Sugar Land lies mostly in Fort Bend County, The Woodlands in Montgomery County, Katy across Harris, Fort Bend and Waller counties, and Pearland across Brazoria, Harris and Fort Bend counties. An area-wide median says little about one suburb. Look at sold prices for the neighbourhood, and note the county of the address, because the county decides the appraisal district, the tax rate and, near the coast, the insurer.

Property tax without an income tax

Texas has no personal income tax, and the Comptroller says it relies mainly on sales tax. There is also no state property tax. Counties, cities, school districts and special districts each add a rate to your bill. The Tax Foundation puts the average effective rate, on 2024 data, at 1.50% of value in Harris County, 1.77% in Fort Bend, 1.69% in Brazoria and 1.44% in Montgomery. By our arithmetic, a $400,000 home at 1.5% means about $6,000 a year, before any exemption.

Residents get relief that you may not. School districts give a $140,000 exemption on a home you live in, which Harris Central Appraisal District checks by sending owners an annual postcard, and you apply between 1 January and 30 April. From the second year of a homestead exemption, the appraised value cannot rise by more than 10% a year plus new improvements. A European who buys a holiday home or a rental gets none of this. The Comptroller describes a separate temporary 20% yearly limit for investment property that runs for 2024 to 2026, so check whether it continues for 2027 and whether a second home qualifies.

Ask for the previous year's bill and the appraisal district record for the address, then recalculate at your purchase price without the exemption. Rental income is a federal matter: the United States generally taxes a non-resident's rent at 30% of the gross amount unless you elect to be taxed on net income, and Texas adds no income tax on top.

New neighbourhoods and MUD districts

Much of the newer housing around Houston sits in a municipal utility district, or MUD. It supplies water, sewer and drainage and can issue bonds and levy its own property tax to repay them. It is a little like a water-board levy in the Netherlands, except that it also repays the borrowing for the neighbourhood's infrastructure. The MUD rate comes on top of the county, school and city rates.

The seller must give you a statutory notice about the tax rate and bonded debt of the district, and the TREC contract says you must sign it before the contract is final. The standard wording says the district may impose an unlimited rate of tax to pay its bonds. Ask what the current rate is, how much debt the district carries and how much of the area is still to be built, because a young district with few homes spreads its debt over fewer taxpayers.

Flood, wind and hail

Hurricane Harvey made landfall on 25 August 2017. The Harris County Flood Control District estimates that nearly 136,000 structures flooded in the county. Three practical points follow.

• Flood insurance. FEMA says most homeowners insurance does not cover flood damage, that homes in high-risk areas with a government-backed mortgage must carry it, and that a federal flood policy usually takes 30 days to start. A home outside a high-risk zone can still flood.
• The seller's notice. Under section 5.008 of the Property Code the seller states whether the property lies in a 100-year or 500-year floodplain, floodway or flood pool, whether it has had water penetration from a natural flood, flooding from a reservoir release, and whether there is flood insurance. This is what the seller is aware of, so ask for claims history and check the maps yourself.
• TWIA is only for part of the area. The state windstorm insurer covers wind and hail only, in 14 coastal counties including Brazoria and Galveston, and in Harris County only east of Highway 146 within La Porte, Morgan's Point, Pasadena, Seabrook and Shore Acres. Central Houston, Sugar Land, Katy and The Woodlands are outside it, and Pearland depends on which county the address is in. Elsewhere, ask any insurer how wind and hail are covered and what the deductible is, in dollars or as a percentage of the insured value.

None of this argues against buying. It argues for getting the flood zone, the history and quotes for home, wind and flood cover before the option period ends.

How a Texas purchase works

Agents normally use the contract form promulgated by the Texas Real Estate Commission (the one dated 4 May 2026 is for houses, not condominiums). It differs from a European sale in several ways.

• Earnest money and option fee. Both are due with the escrow agent within three days of the effective date.
• The option period. For a number of days you negotiate, you may terminate for any reason. Unlike a statutory cooling-off period, you pay for it: the option fee goes to the seller and is not refunded, while the earnest money is.
• Seller's disclosure. If the notice is not delivered, you may terminate before closing and recover the earnest money. If it is, you may terminate for any reason within 7 days of receiving it.
• Title. The seller must produce a title commitment within 20 days of the title company receiving the contract. Who pays for the owner's policy is a box to tick on the form, not fixed by law, and copies of restrictive covenants are at your expense.

A title company or escrow agent, not a notary, holds the deposits and issues title insurance. The form does not require a lawyer, and we found no official source on whether one is customary, so decide whether you want a Texas real estate lawyer to read the contract. The form makes the buyer responsible for the prepaid items, including flood and hazard insurance premiums, insurance reserves and tax deposits, so ask the lender for a written estimate of cash to close.

The Texas law on foreign buyers

Senate Bill 17 took effect on 1 September 2025 and added Subchapter H to Chapter 5 of the Property Code. It bars certain buyers from acquiring real property in Texas, homes included. It names no country. A designated country is one the US Director of National Intelligence has identified as a risk to national security in at least one of the three most recent Annual Threat Assessments, or one the governor designates.

Covered buyers include governments of such a country, companies headquartered in it or controlled by its government, individuals domiciled in it, citizens of it who live in a third country, and people acting for it or belonging to its ruling party. An individual from such a country who is lawfully present and living in the United States may still buy a home to use as a residence homestead. US citizens and permanent residents are exempt, and so is a lease of under a year. The Attorney General enforces the law and can bring an action against the property.

We found nothing in the text that applies to EU or UK citizens as such. We did not open the current list of designated countries, so check it. Take legal advice before signing if you hold a second nationality, live in a listed country, or buy through a company with ownership links there.

Financing and the loan limit

The 2026 conforming loan limit is $832,750 for a one-unit home in Harris, Fort Bend, Montgomery, Brazoria and Galveston counties. The August median of $330,000 sits far below it, so most purchases here fit standard lending if you are a resident borrower. If you stay in Europe, expect a foreign national loan with a larger down payment and a higher rate, as explained here. On a sale, the buyer generally withholds 15% for the IRS under FIRPTA unless an exception applies, so ask a cross-border tax adviser about this before you buy.

No zoning, and what replaces it

The City of Houston has no zoning. A Texas Legislature bill analysis says that because of this, deed restrictions, which are private covenants recorded against a subdivision, have become an essential tool for controlling use and construction in residential areas. The title commitment lists the restrictions and the contract notes if membership of a property owners association is mandatory. Read both for the exact street. Where there are no restrictions, a neighbouring plot can be put to a wider range of uses than a European would expect, so look at the surroundings, not only the house. We have not verified Houston's short-term rental rules, so confirm them with the city and the association before relying on letting income.

Getting there

ITA Airways opened nonstop Rome to Houston Bush Airport on 1 May 2026 with three flights a week, rising to five from 1 June, on an Airbus A330-900. Houston Airports lists London, Paris, Amsterdam, Frankfurt and Munich among its European nonstops, with flight times of 9 to 10.5 hours, but its page is undated, so check each airline's current schedule.

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