Cost of living in Austin, TX in 2026: housing, utilities, taxes and transit from the actual rate sheets

How much does housing cost in Austin in 2026?

Housing is the largest line in the cost of living in Austin, and the number depends on the geography. Unlock MLS's August 2026 Central Texas Housing Report lists a median sale price of $560,000 for the City of Austin, down 4.3 percent from a year earlier, and $412,000 for the Austin–Round Rock–San Marcos metro, down 6.4 percent. The same release reports a median rent of $2,200 in the city and $2,150 across the metro for leases closed through the MLS in August, with the city figure down 4.3 percent from August 2025.

At the Freddie Mac 30-year average of 7.03 percent for the week of September 24, 2026, a buyer putting 20 percent down on the city median borrows $448,000 and pays about $2,990 a month in principal and interest, by our calculation from the standard amortization formula; the metro median works out to about $2,199. Those figures exclude property taxes, insurance and any HOA dues, which in Austin add a large share on top. The table shows each area in the release with its computed payment and its median MLS rent.

Realtor.com's median listing price for the Austin metro was $450,000 in August 2026, per the series on FRED, and listings sat a median 73 days on the market, so asking prices and closed prices are not the same number. None of these are neighborhood prices: a city median mixes a downtown condo with a ranch house at the city's edge. The market page carries each month's release, and the Austin neighborhood atlas is the starting point for what a specific area's housing stock looks like.

Sources: Unlock MLS ↗ · Freddie Mac ↗ · FRED ↗

What do Austin utilities cost per month?

Utilities in Austin arrive on one City of Austin Utilities bill covering electricity, water, wastewater, trash and recycling, drainage and street service, and the two biggest lines follow published rate sheets. Austin Energy's residential rate inside the city has a $16.50 monthly customer charge plus energy charges in four tiers: 4.640 cents per kWh for the first 300 kWh, 5.138 cents for 301 to 900, 7.525 cents for 901 to 2,000 and 10.884 cents above 2,000, before a 4.118-cent power supply adjustment, a 1.338-cent regulatory charge and three community benefit charges that total 1.275 cents, computed from the sheet. Austin Energy's own worked example for 860 kWh in a month comes to $116.45 with every charge and city sales tax included.

Austin Water's residential schedule effective November 1, 2025 charges $7.75 a month for the 5/8-inch meter it calls the average residential size, a fixed charge that steps up with consumption, and a volume charge per 1,000 gallons that rises from $3.27 in the first 2,000 gallons to $20.40 above 20,000, plus surcharges of $0.50 per 1,000 gallons. Wastewater carries an $11.26 monthly charge plus $6.30 per 1,000 gallons for the first 2,000 and $13.40 above that. A new schedule takes effect October 1, 2026 with higher tier rates, per Austin Water's rates and fees page.

For a household billed 5,000 gallons of water and wastewater, treating each tier as a block, those sheets produce a computed $37.41 for water and $66.31 for wastewater under the November 2025 schedule, $103.72 together, rising to a computed $112.27 under the October 2026 schedule. Add Austin Energy's $116.45 example and the two metered utilities come to roughly $220 a month before trash, drainage and street service fees. Opening the account costs a $200 residential deposit, waivable with a good payment record, a utility or landlord reference or Autopay and eBill enrollment, plus $20 to start electric or water service and $15 to start solid waste service, per City of Austin Utilities.

Sources: Austin Energy ↗ · Austin Water ↗ · City of Austin Utilities ↗

What taxes do you pay living in Austin?

Austin's tax picture has no personal income tax, an 8.25 percent sales tax and a property tax bill built from several local units. The Texas Comptroller's Fiscal Notes states that “Texas does not have a personal income tax,” and its sales tax pages put the state rate at 6.25 percent with Austin adding 1 percent for the city and 1 percent for the Capital Metropolitan Transportation Authority, for a total of 8.25 percent.

Property tax is where Austin differs most from an income-tax state. The City of Austin's adopted rate for fiscal year 2026-27 is $0.579948 per $100 of assessed valuation, per the City's August 12, 2026 budget release; applied to a $560,000 assessed value with no exemptions, that city line alone would be a computed $3,248 a year, and the City is only one of the units on the bill alongside the county, the school district, the community college and the hospital district. The taxable value is set by the appraisal district, not by the sale price, and a homestead exemption lowers it, so the guide to budgeting from the actual parcel is the right next step before treating any monthly payment as final.

Vehicle owners pay the state too: a $50.75 base registration fee plus a $1 TexasSure fee, a $4.75 processing fee, a $7.50 inspection program replacement fee and a local county fee of up to $31.50, per the Texas Department of Motor Vehicles, and an $11.50 emissions test in Travis and Williamson counties, per the Department of Public Safety. Newcomers bringing a car also owe the Comptroller's one-time $90 new resident tax; the moving to Austin post walks through those deadlines.

Sources: Texas Comptroller, Fiscal Notes ↗ · Texas Comptroller ↗ · City of Austin ↗ · Texas Department of Motor Vehicles ↗ · Texas Department of Public Safety ↗

How much does getting around Austin cost?

Getting around Austin without a car costs $1.25 a ride, $2.50 a day or $41.25 a month on CapMetro's local buses, Rapid lines, UT shuttles and Pickup service, per CapMetro's fares page, and $3.50, $7.00 or $96.25 for commuter service on MetroExpress and MetroRail. Fares cap after two paid rides in a service day, and after 17 capped days in a month the rest of the month is free; kids under 18 ride free and reduced fares are half price. CapMetro has posted proposed fare increases for January 2027 and 2029.

A car's fixed costs in Austin start with the registration and inspection fees above, a computed $75.50 to $107 a year in Travis County depending on the local fee, before insurance, fuel and parking, none of which a public rate sheet prices. Which mode a household actually uses depends on the address, which is why the three-route test belongs in a scouting visit: a $41.25 pass is only a saving if the bus goes where the week goes.

Sources: CapMetro ↗ · Texas Department of Motor Vehicles ↗ · Texas Department of Public Safety ↗

How does Austin's cost of living compare with local incomes?

Austin's cost of living sits against a median household income in Travis County of $97,487 for 2024, per the Census Bureau's Small Area Income and Poverty Estimates on FRED, essentially unchanged from $97,544 in 2023. Set against that, the computed $2,990 principal-and-interest payment on the city's median-priced home is about 37 percent of the median household's gross monthly income of $8,124, before property tax and insurance, by our computation; the $2,200 median rent is about 27 percent.

The job base behind those incomes was 1,424,000 nonfarm jobs in the Austin metro in August 2026, up from 1,407,000 a year earlier, per the Bureau of Labor Statistics series on FRED, and the metro's unemployment rate was 3.7 percent in July 2026. The city itself reached 1,002,632 residents on July 1, 2025, per the Census Bureau's Vintage 2025 estimates. These are context, not a rule: a household's own income, down payment and debts set what it can carry, and the payment estimator on the homes page runs the numbers on a real asking price.

Sources: FRED ↗ · Unlock MLS ↗ · Freddie Mac ↗ · U.S. Census Bureau ↗

What does a month in Austin add up to?

Two computed examples show how the lines combine, using only figures on this page. A renter at the city's $2,200 median MLS rent who uses 860 kWh of electricity and 5,000 gallons of water pays about $2,461 a month with a $41.25 CapMetro pass, before internet, groceries, insurance, trash and drainage fees. A buyer at the city's $560,000 median with 20 percent down at 7.03 percent pays about $3,210 for principal, interest and the same utilities, before property tax, insurance, HOA dues and transportation.

The biggest gap between the two columns is property tax, which appears in neither because it depends on the parcel's appraised value, exemptions and full set of taxing units. Even the City's rate alone adds a computed $271 a month on a $560,000 assessed value, and the other units add more, which is why a rent-versus-buy comparison in Austin cannot be done from the mortgage payment alone.

Sources: Unlock MLS ↗ · Freddie Mac ↗ · Austin Energy ↗ · Austin Water ↗ · CapMetro ↗ · City of Austin ↗

What the Austin cost of living numbers do not tell you

Every figure above is a median, an example or a rate sheet, and none of them describes one home. A median sale price mixes new construction in Williamson County with condos downtown; Austin Energy's 860-kWh example is a modest month for an older house in summer; the water example assumes 5,000 gallons and no irrigation. Utility providers change at the city limits, where an electric cooperative or a separate water utility may bill on different sheets.

What the numbers do tell you is which lines to check for an address before you commit: the parcel's taxing units and exemptions, the utility providers, the transit routes and the closed comparable sales rather than the asking price. If you want the budget built for a specific home or a shortlist, bring the addresses and David can pull the parcel's tax history, the closed comparable sales and a current rate scenario into one sheet.

Sources: Unlock MLS ↗ · Austin Energy ↗ · Austin Water ↗