Austin has the 7th best housing market among large U.S. cities in 2025

As if people needed more reasons to move to Austin: The Texas capital ranked No. 7 on WalletHub's just-released list of the best large real estate markets in 2025.In a separate WalletHub list of 300 U.S. housing markets of various sizes, Austin ranked 18th. For this list, the personal finance website examined 300 U.S. cities based on 17 metrics including each city's real estate market, housing affordability, and economic environment.The "large market" rankings included 68 U.S. cities with populations greater than 300,000 residents.Last year, Austin was the 12th best real estate market in America overall, and it was the third-best out of all large U.S. cities.This is how WalletHub broke down Austin's 2025 ranking:No. 17 – Job growth rateNo. 34 – Foreclosure rateNo. 47 – Percentage of delinquent mortgage holdersNo. 70 – Maintenance costs as a percentage of incomeNo. 71 – Median home price appreciationZillow's Home Values Index says the average home in Austin is worth $512,937 as of July 2025, which is 6.8 percent lower than it was last year."This year, the housing market is skewed much more toward sellers, with mortgage rates continuing to trend upward and home values having risen over 1.4 percent in the last year on average," the report's author wrote. "If you aim for long-term growth, equity and profit with your housing purchase, you’ll need to look beyond tangible factors like square footage and style. Those factors certainly drive up property values. From an investor’s standpoint, though, they hold less significance than historical market trends and the economic health of residents."McKinney, a North Dallas suburb, was named the top housing market (of all sizes) in America for the third year in a row, and the No. 1 best midsize real estate market.Other top real estate markets in TexasElsewhere in Texas, Dallas-Fort Worth cities dominated the overall top 10 best real estate markets. Richardson made an impressive leap into the top 10, ranking No. 5 overall after previously ranking 17th last year. In 2024, Frisco was right behind McKinney with the second best real estate market in the country, but has since dropped into sixth place this year. Denton (No. 9) and Allen (No. 10) rounded out the top 10.Fort Worth also made a substantial improvement over last year's No. 28 rank. Cowtown's housing market has now risen to become the 17th best in the nation, just one spot above Austin.The Dallas real estate market's performance has plummeted since last year, moving down from No. 59 in 2024 to No. 70 in 2025.Five other Dallas-Fort Worth suburbs earned spots among the top 100 best real estate markets, but all of them landed lower than their 2024 rankings.This is how the five remaining DFW cities performed in this year's rankings:No. 45 – Plano (down from No. 34 last year)No. 47 – Carrollton (down from No. 20 last year)No. 49 – Irving (down from No. 31 last year)No. 58 – Grand Prairie (down from No. 43 last year)No. 92 – Arlington (down from No. 88 last year)No. 95 – Garland (down from No. 38 last year)Seven more Texas cities landed outside the top 100 overall best housing markets: Houston (No. 111), El Paso (No. 144), Laredo (No. 185), Mesquite (No. 195), Amarillo (No. 210), San Antonio (No. 238), and Corpus Christi (No. 275).The top 10 best real estate markets in the U.S. are:No. 1 – McKinney, TexasNo. 2 – Cary, North CarolinaNo. 3 – Irvine, CaliforniaNo. 4 – Durham, North CarolinaNo. 5 – Richardson, TexasNo. 6 – Frisco, TexasNo. 7 – Gilbert, ArizonaNo. 8 – Nashville, TennesseeNo. 9 – Denton, TexasNo. 10 – Allen, Texas