Moving to Houston from Austin or Dallas

An in-state move is the easiest kind: the contract forms, the homestead rules and the protest calendar are the same everywhere in Texas. What changes is the price you pay per square foot, the tax stack under the house, the drive to work and the way Houston's lack of zoning shapes a street. Here is the side-by-side, with September 2026 figures from the three MLS associations and other published sources.

Prices side by side, September 2026

Two things stand out. Houston is the least expensive of the three at the median and per square foot, and it has the deepest inventory: three times as many active listings as the Austin area and about a quarter more than North Texas. Buyers coming from Austin in particular find more choice at every price point, and sellers face more competition, which is why pricing and presentation matter more here than they did in the 2021 Austin market. Houston's townhome and condo median was $209,000 in September, so a condo budget from central Austin or Uptown Dallas goes a long way inside Loop 610.

Property taxes: same rules, different stacks

The statewide rules travel with you. School districts must exempt $140,000 of a homestead's value, owners 65 or older or with a qualifying disability get another $60,000, and the appraised value of a homestead can rise no more than 10 percent a year once the exemption is in place. The general filing deadline is before May 1, you can apply for the portion of the year you own the home, and a late application is accepted up to two years after the delinquency date. What differs is the rate each taxing unit adopts and the value it applies to.

The Tax Foundation's county figures, which measure what owners actually paid in 2024 after exemptions, put the effective rate at 1.50 percent in Harris County, 1.45 percent in Dallas County and 1.31 percent in Travis County. Austin's lower rate does not translate into a lower bill: the median Travis County owner paid $7,727 on a $523,000 home, against $4,798 in Dallas County and $4,489 in Harris County. For suburban addresses, Fort Bend County came in at 1.77 percent and Montgomery County at 1.44 percent, and MUD districts can add a point or more in new subdivisions around all three cities. The itemized Houston math, including a $500,000 example with the homestead exemption, is on What It Costs to Own a Home in Houston.

Insurance: the line that is higher in Houston

Hurricane and hail exposure makes Houston homeowners insurance expensive even by Texas standards. Insurify's October 2026 figure for Houston is $6,084 a year for $300,000 of dwelling coverage, against $4,668 statewide; Insurance.com's 2026 Texas average is $4,582 against a national $2,872. Most of our buyers land between $3,000 and $6,000 depending on roof age, value and deductibles, and most Houston policies carry a separate wind and hail deductible of 1 to 2 percent of the dwelling coverage. Flood coverage is a separate policy and far more common here: a typical National Flood Insurance Program policy in Harris County runs roughly $800 to $1,300 a year, and the Harris County Flood Control District counted 154,170 homes flooded by Harvey, just under half of them outside the mapped floodplains. Get both quotes during the option period, when you can still walk away.

Commute and housing-stock differences

• Commutes run a few minutes longer. The Census Bureau's 2020 to 2024 estimates give a mean commute of 29.0 minutes in Harris County, 26.8 in Dallas County and 25.2 in Travis County; the Houston metro's 2024 one-year figure is 31.1 minutes against 27.2 nationally. The reason is geography rather than gridlock alone: Houston has at least seven major job centers spread across the region, so the home-to-job match matters more than the regional average.
• No zoning. Austin and Dallas regulate land use through zoning codes. Houston relies on recorded deed restrictions, which the City Legal Department helps enforce, plus development rules on lot size and building lines. On a restricted block the result looks like any zoned neighborhood; on an unrestricted block a townhome project can replace a bungalow. We read the restrictions before you write an offer.
• Infill townhomes inside the Loop. Three- and four-story townhomes on subdivided lots are the dominant new product in Rice Military, Midtown, EaDo and parts of the Heights, usually without an HOA pool or gate. Dallas buyers used to Uptown or Oak Lawn will recognize the form; Austin buyers used to condos will find the price per foot lower.
• MUDs are the suburban norm. Most master-planned communities in Katy, Cypress, Pearland, Sugar Land, Spring and Fulshear sit in a municipal utility district. Texas Water Code Section 49.452 requires the seller to deliver the district's tax rate and bonded debt before a binding contract, and the amount depends on how much of the district's debt has been repaid.
• Flat ground, bayous and flood maps. Houston has no Hill Country lots and no Trinity bluffs. Elevation differences are measured in feet, drainage runs through bayous and detention ponds, and the flood map and flood history of each address are part of due diligence everywhere, not only beside a river.
• Deeper new-construction supply. With more than 40,000 active listings and large builder inventories along the Grand Parkway, buyers who could not find a new home under $400,000 in Austin or Collin County usually can in Katy, Cypress, Richmond or Pearland. Katy's median sale price over the last 12 months was near $346,000 and Cypress near $406,000 in our guides.

Where movers from Austin and Dallas tend to look, by commute need

Distances are by road from a central point in each area with off-peak times from OpenStreetMap routing, as compiled in our neighborhood guides. Rush hour commonly adds half again to double.

The full list, with four to six areas for each job center and a housing note on each, is on Houston Neighborhoods by Commute. If you are weighing the two Inner Loop neighborhoods that Austin movers ask about most, read Heights vs Montrose.

The process is the same, with three Houston additions

You will sign the same written buyer agreement before the first showing (Texas Occupations Code Section 1101.563, effective January 1, 2026), write offers on the same TREC One to Four Family contract, use an option period, and close at a title company. The Houston additions are the deed-restriction review, the MUD notice and a flood check on every address: the FEMA map, the elevation, the county's flood tools and the flood questions on the Seller's Disclosure Notice, which must say whether the home is in a floodplain or floodway, whether it has flooded and whether flood insurance is in place. Our walk-through of every step is on How Buying a Home Works in Texas.

Questions Austin and Dallas movers ask

Plan your move with us Selling a Houston home? Get a value Back to the Moving to Houston guide

Call or text (832) 777-3904. We speak English and Spanish, and we have sold more than 1,000 Houston-area homes in 15 years.

Updated October 29, 2026.