Harris County

Houston Mortgage Broker: Flood Zones, MUDs and Home Loans

The Houston Association of Realtors put the median sale price at $325,000 in its September 2026 report, released in mid-October, flat against a year earlier, with 5.5 months of supply behind it. The price is the easy part of a Houston file. Two local inputs move the monthly cost more than the price does. Whether the structure sits in a mapped flood zone decides whether a second insurance policy is required at all. Whether the parcel sits in a municipal utility district decides whether the combined tax rate lands near 2.1% of assessed value or past 3%.

Both are answered by the address, not by the listing. Here is how each one works, and what else about Houston changes a loan file.

What does the Houston market actually look like right now?

HAR's September 2026 report counted 7,030 closings, down 5.7% from September 2025, against 40,192 active listings, up 6.3%. Months of supply moved to 5.5 from 5.1. The median held at $325,000 while the average price rose 0.7% to $421,311. Inventory is the number that changed, not price.

That gap between a flat median and a rising average tells you the upper end of the market is carrying volume while the middle sits still. The same report showed existing-home closings at 5,062 of the 7,030 total, which leaves roughly 28% of the month's sales in new construction, a share you would not see in Austin or Dallas at the same moment. Houston builds on the periphery faster than almost any metro in the country because land outside the city limits is available and districts finance the infrastructure.

Days on market has stretched. Redfin's metro-level data put the median at 66 days in May 2026, up 11 days year over year, with a metro median sale price of $341,996, up 1.5%. Redfin measures the ten-county metro while HAR measures its own MLS service area, which is why the two medians differ by roughly $17,000. Neither is wrong. They count different ground.

Townhomes and condominiums are a separate market here and a weaker one. HAR put townhome and condominium closings at 323 for September 2026, down 21% year over year, with a median of $209,000, down 9.1%, and 9.3 months of supply against eight months a year earlier. If you are buying attached product inside the Loop, that inventory figure is your negotiating position, and it also means association financials matter more than usual, because a building with thin reserves competes against nine months of alternatives.

For context on the ground this market covers, the Census Bureau's Vintage 2025 estimates, published in 2026, put the city near 2.4 million people and the ten-county metro just under 7.9 million, with Harris County alone at 5,045,026. The Greater Houston Partnership forecast about 30,900 new jobs for 2026, which would set metro employment at a record near 3.52 million, with health care contributing roughly 14,000 of them while oil and gas extraction was projected to shed about 3,200. That composition shift matters to underwriting, and it shows up later in this page in how bonus income and physician contracts get documented.

Why does the flood zone determination come before everything else?

Every federally backed mortgage requires a flood zone determination, and the answer is binary in its consequence. If the structure sits in a Special Flood Hazard Area, meaning a FEMA zone beginning with A or V, flood insurance is required by federal law for the life of the loan. If it does not, no coverage is required. The premium is escrowed either way it is bought, and it counts in your debt-to-income ratio.

That last point is the one buyers miss. Flood insurance is not a side expense you absorb out of pocket. It is escrowed with taxes and homeowner's coverage, and underwriting counts the full escrowed figure against your income. A premium large enough to matter does not only raise your cost, it lowers the loan amount your income supports. On a tight file in Harris County, insurance breaks more approvals than anything else in the file.

So the order of operations on a Houston property is: determination first, real quote second, offer third. A determination is run off the current effective Flood Insurance Rate Map against the structure's location, and it comes back as a zone. Zone AE and Zone A are mapped high risk with a required policy. Zone VE adds coastal wave action, which in this metro means the far southeast near the bay. Zone X is outside the mapped 100-year floodplain, where no policy is required.

Get an actual quote during the option period rather than an estimate, and ask the listing agent three specific questions: whether the property has ever been flooded, whether a claim was ever paid, and whether an elevation certificate exists. A property with paid claim history can be harder to insure and more expensive to insure. A property with an existing elevation certificate hands you a document that may cut the premium, and it costs you nothing to ask for it.

The reason all of this carries weight here rather than being a formality is the rainfall history. Tropical Storm Allison in 2001, the Memorial Day and Tax Day floods in 2015 and 2016, and Hurricane Harvey in 2017, which dropped more than 50 inches of rain in parts of the metro, each produced flooding well beyond what the maps of the time described. Harris County drains across flat coastal prairie through a network of bayous into Galveston Bay, and the system fills from the top down.

What are the 2026 FEMA map revisions doing to Harris County?

FEMA posted draft flood maps for Harris County and Houston in February 2026, the first full redraw since the maps that took effect in 2007. The drafts use higher rainfall assumptions, roughly 17 inches in 24 hours against the 13 inches the old maps assumed, and they expand both the 100-year and 500-year floodplains across much of south Houston while reducing mapped risk in parts of the southwest.

As of September 2026 these are still drafts. Harris County has been explicit that they are not final, are not open to appeal, and cannot be used for insurance or regulatory decisions. You can look at them through the county's MAAPnext viewer, which is the right thing to do before you buy, and you cannot be required to insure against them yet.

The sequence from here runs through federal review to Preliminary Flood Insurance Rate Maps, then a formal public comment and appeal period, then a letter of final determination, then effective maps. County officials have estimated the effective date somewhere around 2028 to 2029, with the schedule dependent on FEMA. Treat that as an estimate rather than a date.

What this means for a purchase in 2026 and 2027 is specific. Your lender's requirement today is set by the current effective map, so a Zone X property today is a Zone X property for your closing. Your exposure over the time you hold the house is set by the draft, because the draft is where the mapping is heading. Those two facts can point in opposite directions on the same parcel, and the gap between them is the single most useful thing a Houston buyer can look at this year.

Three practical consequences follow. First, check MAAPnext alongside the effective determination, and treat a parcel the draft moves into a hazard zone as a parcel that will eventually carry a required policy. Second, if the draft moves a property you are buying into an A zone, buying a policy now rather than after the maps turn effective can preserve a better rate through grandfathering provisions, which your insurance agent, not your lender, should price. Third, a property the draft moves out of a hazard zone is not relieved of anything until the maps are final, so budget the premium you are quoted today.

Is the 500-year floodplain a lender problem or a you problem?

The 100-year floodplain describes an area with roughly a 1% chance of flooding in any year. The 500-year floodplain describes roughly a 0.2% annual chance. Your lender only requires insurance inside the 100-year zone, which makes the 500-year floodplain entirely your decision and a decision Houston history argues for taking seriously.

The scale of that history is documented. A 2018 Harris County analysis, reported by the Houston Chronicle, found that roughly three-quarters of the homes that flooded during Harvey sat outside the 100-year floodplain. Independent analyses put the share of inundation outside any mapped zone above half. The mapped high-risk area is a description of modeled channel capacity, not a boundary where water stops.

Houston's own building code took that lesson. The city amended Chapter 19, its floodplain ordinance, in April 2018, effective that September, and the new standard requires new structures and substantial improvements in the special flood hazard area to be elevated 24 inches above the 500-year flood elevation, replacing a prior standard of 12 inches above the 100-year elevation. The amendments also extended fill mitigation requirements into the 500-year floodplain.

That ordinance reaches straight into renovation lending through the substantial improvement test. Any reconstruction, rehabilitation, addition or improvement whose cost equals or exceeds 50% of the structure's market value before the work begins is a substantial improvement, which means the whole structure has to meet current elevation standards. A property with repetitive loss or substantial damage history can be captured regardless of what the specific repair involves. If you are buying a 1950s house in a floodplain with a renovation budget approaching half of what the structure is worth, that threshold decides whether your project is a remodel or a lift, and it needs to be priced before you write the offer rather than discovered during permitting.

Note that Bellaire, West University Place, Jersey Village and the Memorial villages are separate incorporated cities with their own floodplain ordinances, and several of them adopted freeboard requirements that differ from Houston's. The city line is the governing line.

Do you still need an elevation certificate under Risk Rating 2.0?

Not for rating, and often yes in practice. Under Risk Rating 2.0, FEMA no longer requires an elevation certificate to issue or price an NFIP policy, and uses its own elevation data instead. A policyholder may still submit one voluntarily to see whether it produces a lower premium, and FEMA's position is that submitting one cannot raise the rate.

The useful reading of that is simple. FEMA's modeled elevation for your structure is an estimate. If the structure actually sits higher than FEMA's data assumes, which is common for a house on a pier-and-beam foundation or on fill, a surveyed certificate can correct the estimate in your favor. If it sits lower, the certificate does not hurt you with the NFIP. That is a one-way option, and on a property in an A zone it is usually worth the survey cost to find out.

Private flood carriers, which have taken real market share in Texas, are a different matter. Many of them underwrite from an elevation certificate rather than FEMA's data, so the certificate can be what makes a private quote available at all. On an expensive property in a mapped zone, comparing an NFIP policy against a private policy is worth doing, and the certificate is the document that lets you compare them.

What none of this changes is the mandate. Risk Rating 2.0 reformed pricing, not the mandatory purchase requirement. Your lender reads the effective map, and the effective map decides whether coverage is required. An elevation certificate showing your finished floor well above the base flood elevation does not remove the requirement. Removing the requirement takes a Letter of Map Amendment from FEMA, which is a separate filing, and which an elevation certificate is the main input for.

Why do combined tax rates run past 3% in so much of the metro?

Because large parts of the Houston metro were built on land no city governed, and the infrastructure had to be paid for by someone. Developers created municipal utility districts, sold bonds to fund water, sewer and drainage, and the districts levy a property tax to repay those bonds. That levy stacks on top of county, school, hospital and community college rates.

The stack is what produces a 3% combined rate. Published summaries of Harris County's adopted 2026 rates put the county's own four funds, meaning the general fund, the Flood Control District, Harris Health and the Port of Houston, at roughly $0.6715 per $100 of value, up from about $0.6241 the prior year. That is before any school district, which is usually the largest single line, and before any city, emergency services district or MUD. Add a school district in the low one-dollar range and a young MUD, and 3% arrives quickly.

MUD rates vary enormously, and the range commonly quoted runs from about $0.50 to $1.50 per $100 of value. Three things about that range matter more than the range itself.

A district's rate falls as its bonds are repaid. A first-phase district that issued debt three years ago to build out a new section carries the heaviest levy it will ever carry. A district that finished its build-out in the 1980s may levy very little, and some older districts have been annexed or dissolved entirely. Two houses at the same price in adjacent subdivisions can carry escrows that differ by a full percentage point of value a year purely because of where each district sits in its debt cycle. Ask which stage the specific district is in, and ask for its outstanding bonded debt rather than only its current rate, because remaining debt is what predicts the rate you will pay in year seven.

It varies by section within a single development. A master-planned community spanning several districts can have different rates on either side of a collector street. Verify the parcel, never the neighborhood.

It is counted in full by your lender. The district rate goes into your escrow and into your qualifying ratios, which means it reduces the loan amount your income supports. A pre-approval issued against a city-rate assumption on an unincorporated address does not survive underwriting. We pull the parcel before issuing one, which is the practical reason to send us an address rather than a price. Our Harris County mortgage lending guide covers the county-level side of this, including deed restrictions and the HCAD protest calendar.

How do you verify a MUD rate instead of trusting the listing?

Three documents, in this order, and none of them is the MLS listing. The listing's tax figure is frequently the seller's bill with the seller's exemptions, or last year's rate, or the rate without the district. Treat it as a hint.

First, the Texas Water Code notice. Section 49.452 requires a seller of property inside a district to deliver a written notice to the buyer before the purchase contract is executed, or as a signed addendum at the same time the contract is signed. The notice states the district's current or projected tax rate per $100 of assessed valuation, its bonded debt, and any standby fee. The 88th Legislature changed the required content effective June 18, 2023, repealing the three statutory forms and substituting the language now set out in Section 49.4521, so a notice on an old form may not comply. A buyer who does not receive a compliant notice before signing generally has a right to terminate and recover earnest money, which makes this the most powerful disclosure document in a Texas residential transaction and one most buyers hand back unread.

Second, the tax certificate. A certificate from the collecting entity lists every taxing unit on the parcel, each rate, and whether anything is delinquent. Many Houston-area districts use private collection firms rather than the county tax office, so the certificate may come from the district's collector rather than from Harris County. Your title company orders these as a matter of course, and you should ask for a copy rather than waiting to see the number in a closing statement.

Third, the appraisal district record. The Harris County Appraisal District parcel record, or Fort Bend, Montgomery or Brazoria depending on the address, lists the jurisdictions levying against the parcel. Read every line. An unincorporated address commonly carries the county, the school district, the community college, the hospital district, a MUD and an emergency services district, and occasionally a road district or a levee improvement district on top.

Texas A&M's Texas Real Estate Research Center publishes a plain-language explainer on how districts are created and financed, and it is worth twenty minutes before you shop in Katy, Cypress, Spring or Fort Bend County.

Why is the escrow wrong on so much Houston new construction?

Because the first tax bill on a new house is assessed against a lot that did not have a house on it. When you buy new construction completed in, say, March, the appraisal district's January 1 valuation for that year may reflect an unimproved lot, or a partially complete structure. The tax bill that arrives in October is small, your first-year escrow is funded against something close to it, and the following January the district values a finished house.

The result is an escrow shortage in year two that can be large, and it arrives as a letter telling you your payment is going up. Nothing went wrong with your loan. The tax assessment caught up with the house.

There are two further Houston-specific wrinkles. A brand new MUD in a new section may not have set a rate yet at the time you close, so the figure in your escrow analysis is projected rather than actual. And the homestead exemption, which caps annual increases in assessed value at 10% once you have held the property and filed, does not help you in the first year, because there is no prior capped value to grow from.

What to do about it: ask your lender to escrow against the finished value at the current full district rate rather than against the builder's quoted tax figure, even though that raises the payment you qualify against. It is the number you will actually pay. Ask the builder's sales office for the district's current rate and its bonded debt in writing. File your homestead exemption as soon as you close rather than waiting, and file a protest in your first full year, because your purchase price is the cleanest evidence of market value that exists and the appraisal district's first pass on a new house is frequently off.

What does no zoning do to your appraisal?

Houston is the largest city in the United States without conventional zoning. Land use is governed by recorded deed restrictions, which are private covenants running with the land, rather than by a municipal zoning map. For an appraisal, that produces three real effects.

Adjacent uses can be unexpected and they get adjusted for. A commercial building, a small industrial shop or a mid-rise can sit directly behind a single-family street in ways a zoning code would prevent elsewhere. An appraiser handles this through an external obsolescence adjustment, selecting comparable sales with similar exposure where possible and adjusting where not. The practical risk on a purchase is an appraisal below contract price that is defensible, because the adjustment is real. If you are buying a house that backs to a commercial use, look at what recently sold on that same street rather than at the subdivision average.

Deed restrictions decide what is legal, and some have lapsed. Restrictions are recorded in the county clerk's records and bind you whether or not anyone mentioned them. They govern garage apartments, lot splits, short-term rentals, home businesses, boat and RV parking and setbacks. Some older subdivisions have restrictions that expired without renewal, or civic associations that stopped enforcing decades ago, which is how a metal building ends up next to a brick ranch. The restriction exhibit to your title commitment is the document that answers this, and on anything other than a plain owner-occupied purchase your lender will read it too.

Mixed use shows up in the comparable selection, not in a zoning letter. Appraisers working the inner Loop routinely reconcile a 1920s bungalow, a 2019 three-story townhome on a subdivided half of that bungalow's old lot, and a four-unit building, all within two blocks. That makes comparable selection the whole appraisal. Ask for a copy of the appraisal and read which sales were used. On an inner-Loop property, a report that leans on comparables from a different street a mile away is worth a conversation.

One more consequence applies to attached product. Much of the inner Loop's townhome stock is on a fee-simple plat, and some of it is legally a condominium regime. If the property is a condominium, your lender reviews the association's budget, reserves, insurance and owner-occupancy for warrantability, and a failure there can remove conventional and FHA financing from the table entirely. The title commitment and the plat, not the listing description, tell you which one you are buying.

How do bonus and RSU income get documented on an energy sector file?

Variable compensation is normal in Houston, and it is the part of a file that most often gets undercounted. Base salary is simple. The bonus, the annual incentive and the restricted stock each follow their own documentation rule, and getting them counted is usually a matter of producing the right history rather than arguing.

Bonus and incentive income generally needs a two-year history with the same employer and a reasonable expectation of continuance, documented through W-2s, year-to-date paystubs showing the bonus line and a verification of employment. The underwriter averages it, and a declining trend is treated conservatively, often by using the lower recent figure rather than the average. If your 2025 bonus was smaller than your 2024 bonus, expect the smaller one, and bring an explanation of why from your employer if the drop was structural rather than performance-based.

Restricted stock units are newer territory in agency underwriting. Fannie Mae added restricted stock and RSU income as a defined income type in a December 2023 Selling Guide announcement, and the guide has since been reorganized, so the section reference has moved. The substance generally holds. The stock has to have vested and been distributed to you without restriction, the issuer needs to be publicly traded so the shares can be valued and sold, and lenders typically look for a vesting history of at least 12 months on time-based awards and closer to 24 months on performance-based awards. A sign-on grant that has not vested is not income no matter how large it is, and unvested future tranches do not count.

What to bring on an energy sector file: two years of W-2s, two years of federal returns if you have any schedule income, your most recent paystubs, your vesting statements or equity plan portal screenshots showing grant dates, vest dates and shares distributed, and the brokerage statements showing the shares arriving. If a large share of your compensation is equity, send that documentation at application rather than after a pre-approval is issued, because it changes the qualifying income figure materially in both directions.

If your income runs through a K-1, an LLC or 1099 contracting, which describes a meaningful share of consulting and service-company work in this metro, the tax-return math may not reflect your actual cash flow. Bank statement loans qualify on deposits instead, and for a rental property a DSCR loan qualifies on the property's rent against its own payment rather than on your returns.

Can you close on a Medical Center contract before you start work?

Often yes. Lenders can qualify a borrower on a future income stream from a signed employment contract that has not begun, which is the specific situation of a physician, fellow or researcher relocating to the Texas Medical Center with a start date two or three months out. The conditions are strict and they are worth knowing before you shop.

The offer or contract has to be fully executed by both you and the employer and it has to be non-contingent, meaning any remaining credentialing, licensing, background check or health screening condition is a problem to resolve before closing rather than a detail to mention later. Qualification uses base pay from the contract only, so a signing bonus, a productivity bonus, call pay or future RSUs do not count until there is a history of receiving them. The transaction is generally limited to a one-unit primary residence, and the employer cannot be a family member or a party to the sale.

Beyond that, the specifics vary by investor and by program, and the two that vary most are the window between the note date and your start date and the reserve requirement covering the gap. Some programs want the start date inside a defined window after closing and want reserves measured in months of full housing expense, with a smaller requirement when the start date is close. Some require the lender to hold the loan until your first paystub from the new job arrives. There is usually also a verification of employment shortly before closing.

Send the fully signed contract at application. Not the recruiter's email, not the term sheet, the executed contract with the start date and the base figure on it. That one document is what determines whether a start-date file works, and the earlier it is reviewed, the less likely you are to find out during underwriting that the offer still carried a credentialing contingency. If the contract will not be signed in time, refinancing after you start work is the cleaner path, and you can buy on the income you have now.

Which Houston areas do we lend in?

All of them. What differs between them is build era, lot size, which school district the parcel sits in, whether a city tax applies, and whether a district does. These are the attributes that change the loan, and they are the ones below.

Inside the Loop

The Heights was platted in 1891 as a separate city and annexed by Houston in 1918. Its housing stock runs from 1890s Queen Anne cottages through 1920s and 1930s bungalows, on lots commonly platted at 50 by 100 feet or 66 by 132 feet, many of them since subdivided for townhomes. Several city historic districts cover parts of it, and a historic designation constrains exterior alterations, which matters when a renovation budget assumes new windows or a second story. Houston ISD, and roughly three miles northwest of downtown.

Montrose holds 1910s through 1930s bungalows and courtyard apartment buildings alongside extensive three-story townhome infill on subdivided lots. The Menil Collection campus sits inside it. Houston ISD, about two miles southwest of downtown.

Midtown is mostly post-2000 construction on the old street grid between downtown and the Museum District, dominated by townhomes and mid-rise buildings, with the METRORail Red Line running through it and a management district and a tax increment reinvestment zone layered on the city rate. Houston ISD.

River Oaks was platted in the 1920s on large lots, with deed restrictions enforced by an active property owners association, and most of its sales sit above the 2026 conforming limit of $832,750, which puts them in jumbo loan territory. Houston ISD.

Third Ward, southeast of downtown, holds pre-war shotgun and bungalow stock alongside new townhome construction, with Texas Southern University and the University of Houston campuses inside it and Emancipation Park on Elgin Street, established in 1872 and the oldest public park in Texas. Houston ISD.

EaDo, east of downtown, is converted warehouse blocks and new townhome construction, with Shell Energy Stadium and the downtown ballpark within walking distance and two METRORail lines through it. Houston ISD.

Oak Forest was platted in the late 1940s and early 1950s as one-story brick ranch houses on lots generally between 7,000 and 9,000 square feet, with heavy teardown and rebuild activity since the 2010s, so a single street can hold an original 1,500 square foot ranch next to a new 4,000 square foot two-story. Houston ISD, just north of Loop 610.

The enclaves and the west side

Bellaire and West University Place are separate incorporated cities surrounded by Houston, each levying its own city tax rate and administering its own permitting and floodplain rules. West University Place incorporated in 1925, and its original 1920s and 1930s stock on roughly 50 by 100 foot lots has largely been replaced by two-story rebuilds. Bellaire's 1940s and 1950s ranch stock has gone the same way, with elevation requirements driving much of the rebuilding. Both are inside Houston ISD boundaries, and both sit within a few miles of the Texas Medical Center.

Memorial runs west along Buffalo Bayou with 1950s through 1970s ranch houses on wooded lots, many of them rebuilt, and the Memorial villages, meaning Hunters Creek Village, Piney Point Village, Bunker Hill Village and their neighbors, are separate incorporated cities with their own rates. Spring Branch ISD covers most of it.

Spring Branch, inside Beltway 8 north of I-10, is predominantly 1950s and 1960s one-story brick houses on interior lots, and sits in Spring Branch ISD.

Katy spans Harris, Fort Bend and Waller counties about 29 miles west of downtown on I-10, and it is the clearest example of master-planned, district-financed development in the metro, with communities like Cinco Ranch and Cross Creek Ranch built across multiple MUDs. Katy ISD. Verify the district on the parcel, because rates differ by section.

Cypress is unincorporated Harris County about 25 miles northwest via US 290, with large master-planned communities including Bridgeland and Towne Lake, almost all of it inside districts, and no city tax. Cypress-Fairbanks ISD.

South, southeast and northeast

Sugar Land is in Fort Bend County about 20 miles southwest on I-69, with housing stock from the 1970s through the 2000s plus newer redevelopment on the former Imperial Sugar property. Fort Bend ISD. Several of its older districts have been annexed into the city, which changes the rate stack, so the tax certificate matters particularly here.

Pearland straddles Brazoria, Harris and Fort Bend counties with SH 288 running to the Texas Medical Center, and its newer sections, including Shadow Creek Ranch, were built inside districts. Pearland ISD covers much of it and Alvin ISD covers part. Expect a combined rate at the higher end of the metro in the newer sections.

Clear Lake sits about 25 miles southeast near NASA Johnson Space Center, and much of its housing stock dates to the 1960s and 1970s when the center was built. Clear Creek ISD. Proximity to Galveston Bay brings windstorm coverage into the conversation alongside flood, and windstorm is a separate policy from both flood and homeowner's insurance.

Kingwood is about 23 miles northeast along the West Fork of the San Jacinto, developed from the 1970s onward in wooded subdivisions, annexed by Houston in 1996 so the city rate applies, and served by Humble ISD. Flood history along the river is specific and well documented here, which makes the determination and the MAAPnext draft both worth reading closely.

Which loan programs fit Houston purchases?

Conventional loans carry most of the volume, conforming up to $832,750 for a one-unit property in 2026, and they are the program where credit depth and documented income do the most work for you.

FHA loans are heavily used across the mid-market here, and suit a file with shorter credit history or a past credit event, with the 2026 national floor at $541,287 and the Harris County figure above it. HUD's own lookup is the only source worth trusting on the county number.

VA loans matter in a metro with a large veteran population, and the Texas disabled veteran property tax exemption is worth a great deal against a combined rate near 3%. At a 100% rating the homestead property tax line is eliminated, which changes the escrow and therefore the ratio.

Jumbo financing covers River Oaks, West University Place, Memorial, parts of the Heights and much of the Medical Center area, and they ask for deeper reserves and stronger credit than conforming.

USDA loans reach eligible addresses at the metro's rural edges, determined by address rather than by county, and worth checking before ruling out.

Renovation financing is unusually relevant in Houston, because repaired flood damage of varying quality is common in the older stock. A renovation loan funds the remediation as part of the purchase, which beats buying a problem and paying for it twice. Keep the substantial improvement threshold in mind when scoping the work.

Hard money and bridge financing suits the inner-Loop teardown and rebuild market where the renovation is the business plan, and down payment assistance through the City of Houston's program, Harris County's program for unincorporated areas, TDHCA and TSAHC reaches income-qualified buyers, with the caveat that an assistance lien has to be acceptable to your first-lien lender, so raise it at application.

If you are not sure which of these fits, compare every loan program we place and send us the scenario.

What is there to do in Houston?

The Texas Medical Center is the anchor institution and the largest medical complex in the world by hospital count, physician count, square footage and patient volume, with more than 60 member institutions, employment above 106,000 and roughly 10 million patient encounters a year. It is also an enormous commute destination, which is why SH 288 and the Hardy Toll Road corridors carry the premium they do.

NASA Johnson Space Center sits southeast near Clear Lake and has run human spaceflight operations since the 1960s, which is where Space City comes from and why the first word spoken from the surface of the Moon was the name of this city. Space Center Houston is the public side of it.

The Museum District holds nineteen institutions within about a mile and a half, including the Museum of Fine Arts Houston, the Houston Museum of Natural Science, the Children's Museum, the Rothko Chapel and the Menil Collection, whose main building and campus are free to enter. Hermann Park, next to it, holds the Houston Zoo, Miller Outdoor Theatre, the Japanese Garden and McGovern Centennial Gardens.

Memorial Park covers roughly 1,500 acres west of downtown, and its Clay Family Eastern Glades, about 100 acres reclaimed at a cost near $35 million, opened on July 31, 2020 with Hines Lake at its center. Buffalo Bayou Park runs 160 acres east toward downtown, and underneath it sits the Buffalo Bayou Park Cistern, a 15-million-gallon concrete reservoir begun in 1926 and in service from 1927, 87,500 square feet of standing water held up by 221 columns, decommissioned in 2007 after an unfixable leak and opened to the public as a space for art installations and tours in May 2016.

The Houston Livestock Show and Rodeo ran March 2 to 22 in 2026 and reported combined attendance of 2,621,765, including 231,304 at the World's Championship Bar-B-Que Contest over three days. Cody Johnson's closing concert drew 80,203 to NRG Stadium, an all-time record for the venue, passing the 80,108 George Strait drew in 2019. Each spring the Orange Show Center for Visionary Art runs the Art Car Parade, which pulls hundreds of modified vehicles through downtown and is the largest event of its kind anywhere.

The food is the best argument for the city. Viet-Cajun crawfish, boiled Louisiana style then tossed in garlic butter with lemongrass and chile, was invented here and is worth planning a trip around in season. Chinatown runs for miles along Bellaire Boulevard in the southwest, the Mahatma Gandhi District sits along Hillcroft, and the barbecue is now genuinely competitive statewide, with Truth Barbeque on Washington Avenue and Killen's in Pearland the two most commonly named. Rice University's Kinder Institute for Urban Research has reported the Houston metro as the most ethnically and racially diverse of the ten most populous metropolitan areas in the United States, a demographic finding that several other measures have since reached independently.

On the sports side, the Astros play downtown at the ballpark that opened in 2000 and now carries the Daikin name after years as Minute Maid Park, the Rockets play at Toyota Center, the Texans play at NRG Stadium, and the Dynamo and Dash play at Shell Energy Stadium east of downtown. The Galleria, in Uptown, is the largest shopping center in Texas and has an ice rink in the middle of it.

Frequently asked questions

Do I need flood insurance in Houston? If the structure sits in a FEMA Special Flood Hazard Area, meaning a zone beginning with A or V, your lender must require it on a federally backed loan. That is federal law rather than lender preference. In Zone X it is not required and is available at much lower cost, which many owners here buy anyway, because a 2018 Harris County analysis found roughly three-quarters of homes flooded during Harvey were outside the mapped high-risk zones.

What is the median home price in Houston right now? The Houston Association of Realtors reported a median of $325,000 for September 2026, essentially unchanged from September 2025, with an average price of $421,311. Redfin's metro-level figure for May 2026 was $341,996, up 1.5% year over year. The two differ because HAR measures its MLS service area and Redfin measures the ten-county metro.

How long are Houston homes taking to sell? Redfin put the metro median at 66 days on market in May 2026, up 11 days from a year earlier. HAR's September 2026 report showed 40,192 active listings, up 6.3% year over year, with months of supply at 5.5 against 5.1. Inventory has loosened more than price has moved, which is the clearest shift in this market.

Why are Houston property taxes so high? Because the rate stacks. A typical unincorporated address pays the county's four funds, a school district, a community college, a hospital district, an emergency services district and a municipal utility district repaying infrastructure bonds. Any one of those is modest. Together they commonly reach or exceed 3% of assessed value, with the school district and the MUD usually the two largest lines.

Do MUD taxes go down over time? They generally decline as the district's bonds are repaid, so a first-phase district carries the heaviest rate it will ever carry and a district that finished building out decades ago may levy very little. Ask for the district's outstanding bonded debt rather than only its current rate, because remaining debt is what predicts the rate you will be paying in several years.

How do I find out if a Houston house is in a MUD? Three documents. The seller's Texas Water Code notice, required before you sign the contract, states the district's rate and bonded debt. The tax certificate lists every taxing unit on the parcel. The appraisal district's parcel record shows the jurisdictions levying against it. Do not rely on the listing's tax figure, which often reflects the seller's exemptions or a prior year's rate.

Will the new FEMA flood maps change my insurance requirement? Not yet. FEMA posted draft maps for Harris County in February 2026 and they remained drafts as of September 2026, not appealable and not usable for insurance or regulatory decisions. Your lender's requirement comes from the current effective map. County officials have estimated effective new maps around 2028 to 2029, so check the draft through MAAPnext for what is coming.

What does no zoning mean when I am buying a house in Houston? Land use is controlled by private deed restrictions recorded against the subdivision rather than by a city zoning map, so a commercial or industrial use can sit closer to a house than you would expect elsewhere. Appraisers adjust for adverse adjacent uses, which can produce a value below contract price. Read the restriction exhibit to your title commitment before the option period ends.

What is the conforming loan limit in Harris County for 2026? $832,750 for a one-unit property. Purchases in River Oaks, West University Place, Memorial, parts of the Heights and much of the Medical Center area routinely exceed it and require jumbo terms, which generally ask for deeper reserves and stronger credit than a conforming file.

Can I get a mortgage on a house that flooded before? Frequently yes. The claim history affects the cost and availability of insurance rather than your eligibility, and repairs have to meet the lender's property condition standards. Ask whether the repair work triggered the substantial improvement rule, because a structure improved past 50% of its pre-work value has to meet current elevation standards.

Is windstorm insurance the same as flood insurance? No, they are separate policies covering separate perils, and neither is included in a standard homeowner's policy for rising water. Windstorm matters most in the southeast portions of the metro toward Galveston Bay, including Clear Lake and League City. Flood matters across nearly the whole metro, including well outside the mapped zones.

Can I buy a house in Houston before my new job starts? Often yes, on a fully executed and non-contingent employment contract, which is the common situation for physicians and researchers relocating to the Texas Medical Center. Qualification uses base pay only, so signing bonuses and future equity do not count. Send the signed contract at application, because any remaining credentialing contingency has to be cleared before closing.

Will my RSUs count as income on a mortgage application? Vested and distributed shares from a publicly traded employer generally can, with lenders typically looking for at least 12 months of vesting history on time-based awards and closer to 24 months on performance-based awards. Unvested grants do not count, including a large sign-on award. Bring your grant and vest statements plus the brokerage statements showing shares arriving.

Why did my escrow go up after my first year in a new Houston house? Because your first tax bill was assessed against a lot that was unimproved or partially built on January 1, and the following year the appraisal district valued a finished house. Nothing went wrong with the loan. Escrow against the finished value at the full district rate from the start, file your homestead exemption immediately, and protest in your first full year.

Do I need an elevation certificate for flood insurance in Houston? Not for NFIP rating, since FEMA uses its own elevation data under Risk Rating 2.0, and submitting one voluntarily cannot raise your rate while it may lower it. Many private flood carriers do underwrite from one, so a certificate is often what makes a private quote available at all. Removing a flood insurance requirement entirely takes a Letter of Map Amendment from FEMA, which the certificate is only an input to.

Which school district will my Houston house be in? It depends on the parcel rather than the mailing address, and the metro includes Houston ISD, Katy ISD, Cypress-Fairbanks ISD, Fort Bend ISD, Pearland ISD, Spring Branch ISD, Clear Creek ISD, Humble ISD and Alief ISD among others. Bellaire and West University Place are separate cities inside Houston ISD boundaries. Verify the district on the appraisal district's parcel record, since it also sets your largest tax line.

What is the fastest way to get pre-approved in Houston? Send income documents, two months of asset statements and the property address together. The address is what makes the difference here, because the flood determination and the district stack change the escrow enough to move the loan amount your income supports. A pre-approval without an address is an estimate rather than a position you can write an offer from.

Pull the flood determination and the tax certificate on the same day

On a Houston property, those two documents answer most of what a payment estimate gets wrong. Send us the address and we will run the determination, pull the district stack, and model the real escrow before you write an offer. If you would rather talk it through first, book a call or run your own numbers in the mortgage calculator.

Start your application · Run the numbers · Call 512-588-2771

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