A fresh statewide analysis released this week found that 45 percent of Texas renters are spending more than 30 percent of their income on housing, the standard benchmark for being considered cost-burdened – and in the state’s priciest zip codes, from Frisco to Plano, the math keeps getting harder. More than 4.2 million Texas households now rent, and nearly half of them are watching their paychecks vanish into rent before anything else gets paid.
The figures come from a Texas Affiliation of Affordable Housing Providers report highlighted by CultureMap Austin, which also found that 81 percent of extremely low-income Texas households spend more than half their income on housing, a threshold researchers classify as severely cost-burdened. The report pegs the state’s shortage of affordable homes for extremely low-income households at 864,000 units, and says Texas needs more than 320,000 additional affordable homes just to keep pace with workforce demand and population growth.
Renter Wages Trail What a Two-Bedroom Actually Costs
According to the National Low Income Housing Coalition’s “Out of Reach 2026” report, as relayed by Texas Housers, a Texas renter needs to earn $29.93 an hour to afford a modest two-bedroom apartment without becoming cost-burdened, but the average Texas renter earns just $26.09 an hour. The gap is even steeper in the state’s largest metros: Houston renters need $30.25 an hour, Fort Worth renters need $33.13, Austin renters need $35.62, and Dallas renters need the most at $37.13 an hour, per the same report.
The wage gap tracks with how Texans say they feel about their own bills. A July survey of 1,128 Texas adults conducted for the Texas Affiliation of Affordable Housing Providers ahead of the 2026 midterms found that 60 percent of respondents said their housing costs had risen over the past year, as reported by The Texas Tribune.
Frisco Tops Texas Rent Rankings, San Antonio Offers Relief
Frisco topped the list as the most expensive place in Texas to rent, with an average apartment going for $1,477 a month, per apartments.com data cited by CultureMap Austin. Plano ranked second at $1,461, Austin came in third at $1,417, and Dallas placed fourth at $1,413. McKinney, Grand Prairie, Irving, Garland, Fort Worth, and Houston rounded out the top ten, with average rents ranging from $1,363 in McKinney down to $1,183 in Houston…