City comparison · 293 km apart

Austin vs Dallas: which should you move to?

Austin or Dallas? Housing, rent, crime, climate, income, taxes and transit, side by side, from each city's own published figures. Written for someone deciding where to live, not for a ranking.

Downtown across Lady Bird Lake
Texas · United States

Austin

Photograph: Downtown across Lady Bird Lake · Hensbread · CC BY 4.0 · source
Downtown across the Trinity
Texas · United States

Dallas

Photograph: Downtown across the Trinity · Tony Webster · CC BY-SA 2.0 · source
The short answer

Both cities are in Texas and both were priced at Freddie Mac's 7.03% rate of 24 September 2026, so the rate and the state's rules are shared and the figures net directly. Neither levies an income tax, both charge 8.25% sales tax, and a single filer on $100,000 pays $13,449 of federal tax in either. Austin has the dearer house and the higher pay: mortgage, property tax and insurance come to about $4,041 a month on Austin's median sale price and $3,529 on Dallas's single-family median, yet that is roughly 54% of Austin's median household income of $90,430 against 57% of Dallas's $74,323. The tax stacks differ before exemptions, 2.22671 per $100 in Dallas against 2.046485, and are close to level after them, an effective 1.58% against 1.61%. Crime splits by kind. Property crime is level at 3,081 and 3,093 per 100,000, while Dallas's violent rate is 577 against 421 and its homicide rate about twice Austin's. Choose Austin for technology pay, the lower violence and an 11.2 C January. Choose Dallas for the larger labor market, DFW, the cheaper house and rail that runs today.

Population
MeasureAustinDallasAdvantage
City population1,002,632 (2025)1,329,491 (2025)Not directly comparable
Metro population2,620,945 (2025)8,477,157 (2025)Not directly comparable
Five-year growth
Growth is pressure on rents and roads as much as it is opportunity, so it is reported without a winner.
4.6% (2020-2025)1.9% (2020-2025)Not directly comparable
01: Housing

What a home costs in each

The figures the two cities' rent-versus-buy and mortgage calculators run on, read from the same tables.

Housing costs
MeasureAustinDallasAdvantage
Benchmark home price
MLS® HPI or equivalent benchmark. Lower is treated as the advantage, which is the buyer's view rather than the owner's.
$560,000 (August 2026)$469,900 (August 2026)Dallas
Detached house benchmark
Dallas publishes a single house index rather than a composite, so the two rows repeat.
$527,943$469,900Dallas
Apartment or condominium benchmark$355,596$310,000Dallas
Two-bedroom rent$1,812/mo (average, August 2026)$1,853/mo (average, August 2026)Austin
One-bedroom rent$1,421/mo$1,416/moDallas
Two-bedroom rent against median income
A year of two-bedroom rent as a share of the median household income below. A household paying the median rent out of the median income is a fiction, but it is the same fiction in both columns and it crosses currencies.
24.0% of a year's income29.9% of a year's incomeAustin
Mortgage payment on the benchmark, 20% down
30-year amortization on American monthly compounding, the convention in both.
$2,990/mo at 7.03%$2,509/mo at 7.03%Dallas
Price to household income
Benchmark price divided by the median household income below. A ratio is comparable across currencies; the dollars are not.
6.2×6.3×Austin
Property tax on the benchmark home
The effective rate on market value, which is what the two rates have in common and what the Advantage column is decided on; the bills are in each city's own dollars.
$9,022/yr (1.611%, 2025)$7,448/yr (1.585%, 2025)Dallas
Transfer tax on the benchmark home
Compared as a share of the price. Where the seller pays it, it is a cost of leaving rather than arriving.
NoneNoneEven
Rent control
A cap protects a sitting tenant and does nothing for the next lease, so neither column is simply better.
Forbidden by state lawForbidden by state lawNot directly comparable

Austin: About 1.61% of value for a homesteaded owner, worked out on the $560,000 median sale price. A house in the City of Austin and Austin ISD is taxed by five units for 2025, which add to 2.046485 per $100 before any exemption. Each takes its own homestead exemption off the appraised value first: Austin ISD the state's $140,000, the City, Travis County and Central Health 20%, and Austin Community College 1% with a $5,000 floor. So Travis County levies 0.375845 per $100 on $448,000 after a $112,000 exemption, $1,684; City of Austin levies 0.524017 per $100 on $448,000 after a $112,000 exemption, $2,348; Austin ISD levies 0.9252 per $100 on $420,000 after a $140,000 exemption, $3,886; Austin Community College levies 0.1034 per $100 on $554,400 after a $5,600 exemption, $573; Central Health levies 0.118023 per $100 on $448,000 after a $112,000 exemption, $529. The five come to $9,019 a year, 1.61% of the price. Without a homestead, as a landlord or a buyer who never files, the same house owes $11,460. These are the 2025 rates, the bills mailed in October 2025. For 2026 the City has adopted 0.579948, the county 0.38621, Central Health 0.132863 and ACC 0.103643, and Austin ISD has proposed 0.9184; on the same house those would come to about 1.67%. Dallas: About 1.58% of value for a homesteaded owner, worked out on the $469,900 median single-family sale price. A house in the City of Dallas and Dallas ISD is taxed by five units for 2025, which add to 2.22671 per $100 before any exemption. Each takes its own homestead exemption off the appraised value first: Dallas ISD the state's $140,000 and a further 10% of its own, and Dallas County, the City, Dallas College and the Parkland Hospital District 20% each. So Dallas County levies 0.2155 per $100 on $375,920 after a $93,980 exemption, $810; City of Dallas levies 0.6988 per $100 on $375,920 after a $93,980 exemption, $2,627; Dallas ISD levies 0.993835 per $100 on $282,910 after a $186,990 exemption, $2,812; Dallas College levies 0.106575 per $100 on $375,920 after a $93,980 exemption, $401; Parkland Hospital District levies 0.212 per $100 on $375,920 after a $93,980 exemption, $797. The five come to $7,446 a year, 1.58% of the price. Without a homestead, as a landlord or a buyer who never files, the same house owes $10,463. The appraisal district's own typical homestead is cheaper than the typical sale: its certified median market value for a City of Dallas homestead was $364,530 for the 2025 appraisal year, the value on 1 January 2025 these rates were levied on, and $364,000 for 2026. On $364,530 the same five units come to $5,465, 1.50%, lower because the school district's flat exemption is a larger share of a cheaper house. These are the 2025 rates, the bills due by 31 January 2026. The appraisal district's 2026 table was still its estimate of 4 March 2026 when these figures were retrieved, so the calculators stay on 2025 until the five units' 2026 rates are published.

02: Crime and safety

How safe each city is, by the numbers it publishes

Police-reported figures for the most recent year each force or statistics agency has released. Rates describe a whole city or metro area, and the spread between neighbourhoods inside one city is usually wider than the gap between the two cities.

Crime
MeasureAustinDallasAdvantage
Crime Severity Index
Statistics Canada's weighted index for the metropolitan area, where 100 is Canada in 2006. American cities have no equivalent series.
Not publishedNot publishedNot directly comparable
Violent crime per 100,000421 (2025)577 (2025)Austin
Property crime per 100,0003,093 (2025)3,081 (2025)Dallas
Homicides
Counts, not rates, and a single year in a small city moves a long way on chance alone. What each figure covers is under the table.
51 (2025)140 (2025)Not directly comparable
Austin

On the FBI's definitions, violent offenses in Austin went from 5,335 in 2022 to 5,046 in 2023, 4,692 in 2024 and 4,221 in 2025, a 10% drop in the last year and 21% in three, and property offenses from 35,035 to 32,900, 32,407 and then 31,011. APD's own NIBRS records for 2025 show aggravated assaults down 13% (3,038 to 2,652), robberies down 5% (835 to 790) and motor vehicle thefts down 26% (5,908 to 4,345), while rapes rose from 501 to 541 and drug offenses, which rise and fall with enforcement, went from 4,097 to 5,256. The 2025 CDE counts were read on 27 September 2026 from a feed last refreshed on 15 September and can still be revised, and APD notes that its open data may differ from its official figures.

What the rates cover: Computed: 4,221 violent offenses (murder, rape, robbery and aggravated assault) in the FBI Crime Data Explorer's summarized data for the Austin Police Department (ORI TX2270100) in calendar 2025, divided by the 1,002,632 Vintage 2025 city population. On the CDE's own agency population of 1,000,639 the rate is 422. APD does not publish a total on this definition: its open NIBRS data sort offenses into crimes against persons (19,469 in 2025, of which 9,464 simple assaults and 5,918 intimidation) and crimes against property (44,250, with robbery, fraud and vandalism inside it), so neither of its totals is the FBI's violent or property count. Summing APD's own 2025 records on the FBI's definition gives 4,219, within two of the CDE.

Homicides: 51 murders and nonnegligent manslaughters in 2025 in both the FBI CDE and APD's open NIBRS data, against 66 in 2024, about 5.1 per 100,000 on the city population. APD's assistant chief put the year's homicides at 55 in January 2026 (KUT), and APD's dataset separately lists 14 negligent manslaughters and 7 justifiable homicides, which the FBI does not count as murder. The high point in the CDE series since 2021 is 81, in 2021.

Dallas

On the FBI's definitions, violent offenses in Dallas went from 11,181 in 2021 to 10,255 in 2022, 9,025 in 2023, 8,747 in 2024 and 7,674 in 2025, a 12% drop in the last year and 31% in four, and property offenses from 46,991 to 49,224, a peak of 52,641 in 2023, then 45,106 and 40,962, 22% below the peak. Motor vehicle theft drove most of that swing: 11,818 in 2021, 18,457 in 2023 and 11,162 in 2025. In 2025 the CDE shows aggravated assaults down 12% (5,826 to 5,144), robberies down 10% (2,235 to 2,020), rapes down 27% (505 to 370) and murders down 23% (181 to 140). On its own definitions DPD reported violent crime down 12%, robberies down 10%, aggravated assaults down 12% and sexual assaults down 13%. The 2025 CDE counts were read on 27 September 2026 from a feed last refreshed on 15 September and can still be revised.

What the rates cover: Computed: 7,674 violent offenses (murder, rape, robbery and aggravated assault) in the FBI Crime Data Explorer's summarized data for the Dallas Police Department (ORI TXDPD0000) in calendar 2025, divided by the 1,329,491 Vintage 2025 city population. On the CDE's own agency population of 1,331,217 the rate is 576. DPD does not publish a total on this definition. The violent crime its Violent Crime Reduction Plan tracks is murder, robbery and aggravated assault, with family-violence and other aggravated assaults counted separately and rape left out. Its public incident dataset on Dallas OpenData, which the city describes as a research copy rather than the authoritative count, lists only 57 murder incidents and 12 family-violence aggravated assault incidents for 2025, so it cannot rebuild either total.

Homicides: 140 murders and nonnegligent manslaughters in 2025 in the FBI CDE, against 181 in 2024, about 10.5 per 100,000 on the city population. DPD's own year-end count was 141 homicides against 184 in 2024, a 23% drop (CBS Texas, February 2026); nothing fetched explains the gaps of one and three cases between the two series. The high point in the CDE series since 2021 is 244, in 2023.

03: Climate

Winters, summers and what the weather can do to a house

Climate normals
MeasureAustinDallasAdvantage
January mean11.2 °C8.8 °CNot directly comparable
July mean29.9 °C30.7 °CNot directly comparable
Precipitation a year921 mm973 mmNot directly comparable
Snowfall a year1 cm4 cmNot directly comparable
Sunshine a year2,644 hours2,850 hoursDallas
Austin

NOAA NCEI 1991-2020 normals for Austin Camp Mabry (station USW00013958), the official Austin climate station: January mean 52.2F, July mean 85.8F, annual mean 70.0F, 36.25 in of precipitation, 0.2 in of snow. August is the warmest month at 86.5F, with a mean high of 97.8F; July's mean high is 96.6F and January's mean low is 41.8F. May (5.04 in) and October (3.91 in) are the wettest months, and February (1.89 in) and July (1.96 in) the driest. The normals count 122.8 days a year at 90F or above, 28.7 at 100F or above and 11.9 nights at or below freezing. Austin-Bergstrom International Airport (USW00013904), southeast of downtown, averages 50.1F in January and 84.5F in July with 35.57 in of rain, and its nights run colder, with 33.0 at or below freezing a year. Converted here to 11.2 C, 29.9 C, 921 mm and 0.5 cm. Sunshine hours are the older 1961-1990 NCDC means (2,644 hours, 60% of possible), since the 1991-2020 normals do not include sunshine.

Hazards: Flash flooding on the creeks that cross the city is the recurring danger. The Memorial Day flood of 1981 sent Shoal Creek through central Austin and killed 13 people. On 30 to 31 October 2013 a band of 12 to 14 in (305 to 356 mm) of rain between Wimberley and Driftwood, with 6 to 10 in (152 to 254 mm) over central Travis County, sent Onion Creek through southeast Austin, damaging more than 500 homes and killing five people; in 2014 the city authorized $60 million to buy out homes in the Onion Creek floodplain. Over Memorial Day weekend 2015 the Blanco River at Wimberley, upstream in Hays County, rose from about 5 ft to 41 ft (1.5 m to 12.5 m) in four hours overnight and destroyed 350 to 400 homes in the town, and on the holiday itself Camp Mabry recorded 5.20 in (132 mm) and Shoal Creek flooded again. On 4 to 5 July 2025, 15 to 20 in (381 to 508 mm) fell on the headwaters of Cow Creek and Big Sandy Creek northwest of the city; the Central Texas floods of that week killed 139 people, 18 of them in Travis, Williamson and Burnet counties. Heat is the season to plan around: the normals give Camp Mabry 28.7 days a year at or above 100F (37.8 C), and 2023 had 80, including 45 in a row from 8 July to 21 August that broke the 27-day run of 2011, which still holds the record for a year with 90. The station's highest reading is 112F (44.4 C), in September 2000 and again in August 2011. Cold is rare and badly handled when it comes. Winter Storm Uri left 6.4 in (16.3 cm) of snow at Camp Mabry on 14 to 15 February 2021 and a low of 7F (-13.9 C) on the 16th, the coldest there since December 1989 (the airport reached 6F, or -14.4 C), with 164 hours of freezing temperatures. ERCOT cut power across the state grid from 15 to 18 February, about 4.5 million customers lost it at the worst, more than 40% of Austin Energy's customers were without power and the city was under a boil-water notice for seven days. Texas counted 246 deaths from the storm, 28 of them in Travis County. Drought is the slow hazard. Austin's water depends on Lakes Buchanan and Travis, the Highland Lakes reservoirs LCRA manages; their combined storage fell to 42% in March 2024, when most of LCRA's downstream farm customers went without lake water, and the July 2025 rains took it from 51% to more than 95%. It stood at about 92% on 1 July 2026.

Dallas

NOAA NCEI 1991-2020 normals for Dallas Love Field (station USW00013960), the city's own climate station about 6 miles northwest of downtown: January mean 47.8F, July mean 87.3F, annual mean 68.0F, 38.32 in of precipitation, 1.7 in of snow. July and August tie as the warmest months at 87.3F, with mean highs of 96.9F and 97.1F, and January's mean low is 37.9F. October (4.79 in) and May (4.57 in) are the wettest months and July (1.71 in) the driest, and most of the snow falls in February (0.9 in). The normals count 107.5 days a year at 90F or above, 22.4 at 100F or above and 23.1 nights at or below freezing. Dallas Fort Worth International Airport (USW00003927), where the National Weather Service keeps the metro's official record, averages 46.3F in January and 85.7F in July with 37.01 in of rain and 1.6 in of snow, 20.3 days at 100F or above and 29.2 nights at or below freezing. Converted here to 8.8 C, 30.7 C, 973 mm and 4.3 cm. That July mean is the warmest of any city this site compares, 1.5F (0.8 C) above Austin's at Camp Mabry. Sunshine hours are the older 1961-1990 NCDC means (2,850 hours, 61% of possible), since the 1991-2020 normals do not include sunshine.

Hazards: Heat is the constant. The normals give Love Field 22.4 days a year at or above 100F (37.8 C); its record since 1939 is 73 such days in 2011, including 40 in a row from 2 July to 10 August, and its highest reading is 112F (44.4 C), on 26 and 27 June 1980 and again on 22 July 2018. At DFW Airport the record is 71 days in 2011 and the longest run 42, from 23 June to 3 August 1980, when the airport reached 113F (45.0 C). The summer of 2026 is among the hottest on record: by 22 September Love Field had 54 days at 100F or above, fourth in its record, and DFW 52, tied for fifth, 27 of them in August. Hail is the costly routine hazard. NOAA's billion-dollar disaster list counts a North Texas hailstorm on 23 and 24 March 2016 at $2.06 billion in 2016 dollars, and on 11 April 2016 a supercell dropped hailstones up to 5.25 in (13.3 cm), the record for the NWS Fort Worth area, and hit 80% of the homes in Wylie, northeast of the city; Cotality counted more than 235,000 Texas homes hit by damaging hail in 2025, far more than in any other state. Tornadoes reach the city itself. On 20 October 2019 an EF3 with winds near 140 mph (225 km/h) tracked 15.76 miles (25.4 km) from near I-35E and Walnut Hill Lane through Preston Hollow to US 75 and on into Richardson, damaging a high school, a middle school and an elementary school, destroying about 118 structures and doing $1.55 billion of damage without a death; on 26 December 2015 an EF4 killed 10 people in Sunnyvale, Garland and Rowlett in eastern Dallas County. The Trinity River passes downtown between 23 miles (37 km) of levees 29 to 32 ft (8.8 to 9.8 m) high, completed in 1932 and upgraded by the Army Corps of Engineers in the 1950s. The river's record crest at Dallas, 52.6 ft (16.0 m), came in the flood of May 1908, before them; the highest since was 47.1 ft (14.4 m) in May 1990, and by November 2023 the Corps had raised the West levee to carry 277,000 cubic feet (7,844 cubic meters) a second, with the East levee still to do. Flash floods on the creeks are the more frequent danger: on 21 and 22 August 2022, 9.19 in (233 mm) fell at DFW Airport in 24 hours, second only to 9.57 in (243 mm) in September 1932, 9.14 in (232 mm) fell at Love Field and 15.16 in (385 mm) at a gauge on White Rock Creek at Scyene Road, and at least one person died. Cold is rare and badly handled when it comes. Winter Storm Uri left 5.3 in (13.5 cm) of snow at Love Field from 14 to 17 February 2021 and a low of 2F (-16.7 C) on the 16th, matched there only in January 1949 and beaten only in January 1940 (0F, -17.8 C) and December 1989 (1F, -17.2 C); DFW Airport fell to -2F (-18.9 C), the lowest in its record since 1953. ERCOT cut power across the state grid from 15 to 18 February and about 4.5 million customers lost it at the worst; Texas counted 246 deaths from the storm, 22 of them in Dallas County. In January 2026 Winter Storm Fern brought 2.4 in (6.1 cm) of snow and sleet to DFW Airport and lows of 13F (-10.6 C), and the grid held. Drought is the slow hazard. The seven water supply lakes the Texas Water Development Board counts for the Dallas area stood at 86.5% of conservation capacity on 27 September 2026, down from 98.7% at the end of June; in the 2011 to 2015 drought they fell to 62.7% before the rains of 2015 filled them. Dallas has capped lawn watering at twice a week since April 2012.

04: Income, jobs and taxes

What people earn and what the government takes

Income and taxes
MeasureAustinDallasAdvantage
Median household income$90,430 USD (2024)$74,323 USD (2024)Austin
Unemployment rate3.7% (July 2026)4.2% (July 2026)Austin
Sales tax8.25%8.25%Even
Top marginal income tax
Federal plus provincial or state. The American figure leaves out payroll taxes and the cost of health insurance, both of which a Canadian household covers through the tax it pays here.
37%37%Even
Income tax on $100,000, single filer
Austin and Dallas sit under one province's or state's income tax, so the two cells describe the same tax and any difference between them is one of method rather than of tax. The two cells agree to the dollar here. The Advantage column is Even for that reason, and the essay below says the same thing.
$13,449 USD$13,449 USDEven
Austin

BLS counted 1,421,700 nonfarm jobs in the Austin MSA in July 2026 (not seasonally adjusted), up 23,800 or 1.7% on the year. Mining, logging and construction grew fastest (+5.5%), then professional and business services (+3.2%), the largest sector at 294,600 jobs, and other services (+2.7%), while information shrank 4.9% and government, at 201,000 jobs with the state capital and the University of Texas inside it, was flat. The seasonally adjusted series (FRED AUST448NA) was 1,424,000 in August 2026, 1.2% above August 2025. Average weekly wages across the metro were $1,957 in the first quarter of 2026 against $1,654 nationally. Opportunity Austin, the chamber's economic development program, lists Dell Technologies, Apple, Samsung Austin Semiconductor, Tesla, H-E-B, Amazon's fulfillment centers, the State of Texas, the University of Texas, Ascension Seton, St. David's HealthCare and Baylor Scott & White among the employers with 6,000 or more local jobs. bls.gov answered 403 to curl and FRED refused it, so both were read through the web fetcher.

Main sectors: Professional and business services, the metro's largest sector, Technology and advanced manufacturing (Dell Technologies, Apple, Tesla, Samsung Austin Semiconductor, AMD, Applied Materials), Government and education (the state capital, the University of Texas at Austin, the City of Austin), Trade, transportation and utilities (H-E-B, Amazon fulfillment centers), Health care (Ascension Seton, St. David's HealthCare, Baylor Scott & White).

Property tax is the local levy that matters. Tax Foundation puts Texas's effective property tax rate on owner-occupied homes at 1.40%, and school districts must exempt $140,000 of a homestead's value from their tax, plus another $60,000 for owners 65 or older or disabled, after voters raised the general exemption from $100,000 in November 2025. Part of the City of Austin's own rate, 8.75 cents per $100 of taxable value approved with Project Connect in November 2020, pays for the transit program. In November 2025 Austin voters rejected Proposition Q, a city tax rate increase that would have raised nearly $110 million, by 63% to 37%. The county, school district and other levies on the same bill belong to the housing layer.

Dallas

BLS counted 4,353,400 nonfarm jobs in the Dallas-Fort Worth-Arlington MSA in July 2026 (not seasonally adjusted), up 54,000 or 1.3% on the year. Professional and business services (+3.0%, to 805,200) and leisure and hospitality (+3.0%) grew fastest, then mining, logging and construction and education and health services (both +2.0%), while information (-2.8%), financial activities (-1.0%) and manufacturing (-0.7%) shrank. Trade, transportation and utilities is the largest sector at 895,000 jobs, and government employs 465,400. The seasonally adjusted series (FRED DALL148NA) was 4,363,400 in August 2026, 1.1% above August 2025. Average weekly wages across the metro were $1,785 in the first quarter of 2026 against $1,654 nationally. The Dallas Regional Chamber counts 21 Fortune 500 headquarters in the region as of 2025 and 44 in the Fortune 1000, among them AT&T, Texas Instruments, American Airlines, Kimberly-Clark, Toyota Motor North America and McKesson.

Main sectors: Trade, transportation and utilities, the metro's largest sector (DFW Airport, American Airlines, Southwest Airlines, BNSF Railway), Corporate headquarters and professional and business services (AT&T, Texas Instruments, McKesson, Kimberly-Clark, Toyota Motor North America), Financial activities (the Federal Reserve Bank of Dallas, Charles Schwab, JPMorgan Chase, Goldman Sachs, Bank of America), Health care and education (Baylor Scott & White Health, Texas Health Resources, UT Southwestern Medical Center, Children's Health), Aerospace and advanced manufacturing (Lockheed Martin, Bell Textron, Raytheon, Texas Instruments).

Property tax is the local levy that matters. Tax Foundation puts Texas's effective property tax rate on owner-occupied homes at 1.40%, and school districts must exempt $140,000 of a homestead's value from their tax. The City of Dallas's own rate for the fiscal year that starts on 1 October 2026 is 69.78 cents per $100 of taxable value, down from 69.88 cents, the eleventh cut in a row, in a $5.66 billion budget. Proposition U, a charter amendment Dallas voters approved in November 2024, requires the council to put at least half of each year's revenue growth into the Dallas Police and Fire Pension System, with any remainder of that half going to police pay and to a force of at least 4,000 officers; the budget adopted in September 2026 funds 3,651 officers by the end of September 2027 and 3,800 a year later. The county, school district and other levies on the same bill belong to the housing layer.

05: Getting around

Whether you need a car

Transit
MeasureAustinDallasAdvantage
SystemCapMetro buses, including four CapMetro Rapid (formerly MetroRapid) lines, and the Red Line, a 32-mile, 10-station commuter rail line from Leander to downtown (CapMetro Rail, long branded MetroRail); no light rail yet, with Project Connect's first 9.8-mile phase due in 2033DART buses (nearly 700 vehicles), four light rail lines on 93 miles of track, the 26-mile Silver Line commuter rail from Plano to DFW Airport (opened October 2025), the Trinity Railway Express to Fort Worth run with Trinity Metro, the Dallas Streetcar and GoLink on-demand zonesNot directly comparable
Commute by public transit3.0% (2024)2.0% (2024)Austin
Walk or cycle to work4.1% (2024)2.5% (2024)Austin
AirportAustin-Bergstrom International Airport (AUS), 21,666,852 passengers in 2025, 0.4% fewer than 2024's 21,762,904 and below the 2023 record of 22.1 million, per the airport's calendar-year activity report; 1.06 million of them were international. It sits about 5 miles southeast of downtown on the former Bergstrom Air Force Base and replaced Robert Mueller Municipal Airport in 1999.Dallas Fort Worth International Airport (DFW), 85,660,127 passengers in 2025, 2.5% fewer than 2024's 87,817,864, per the airport's December 2025 traffic report; 12.65 million of them were international and American Airlines carried 82.6%. ACI World ranked it the fourth-busiest airport in the world by passengers in 2025 and third by aircraft movements. Dallas Love Field (DAL), about 6 miles northwest of downtown and the birthplace and headquarters of Southwest Airlines, handled 16,899,203 passengers in 2025, 5.5% fewer than in 2024 (FAA figures as cited by Wikipedia; the airport's website refused the fetcher).Not directly comparable
Austin

CapMetro carried 26,283,400 unlinked trips in 2025, 24,067,200 of them by bus and 620,600 on the Red Line, and about 77,400 a weekday in the second quarter of 2026, 1,900 of them by train (APTA ridership reports, as cited by Wikipedia; APTA's PDFs refused the fetcher). Two new CapMetro Rapid lines, 800 and 837, opened in February 2025 and reached 10-minute service in June 2026, and the Red Line gained McKalla Station in 2024, with North Burnet/Uptown Station due in 2027; the Green Line commuter rail project has no funding, environmental review or timeline. Light rail is the unfinished promise. Voters approved Project Connect in November 2020 with a city property tax increase of 8.75 cents per $100 of value, for about 20 miles of light rail reaching the airport at $7.1 billion (Texas Tribune). Its first phase is now 9.8 miles and 15 stations in three directions from downtown, no longer reaching the airport, at an estimated $8.2 billion or more; construction is set to start in 2027 and trains to run in 2033. The FTA gave it environmental clearance in January 2026, but the plan counts on about $4.1 billion in federal money that has not been awarded, and a lawsuit over the scaled-back project is still open.

Dallas

DART carried 52,823,800 unlinked trips in 2025, 28,151,100 of them by bus and 21,611,600 on light rail, and about 157,300 a weekday in the second quarter of 2026, 65,300 of them on light rail (APTA ridership reports, as cited by Wikipedia; APTA's PDFs refused the fetcher). DART's own figure is more than 171,000 passengers a day across a 700-square-mile, 12-city service area. The Trinity Railway Express, which DART runs with Fort Worth's Trinity Metro, carried 1,337,600 trips in 2025 (APTA, same source). The Silver Line opened on 25 October 2025 through Plano, Richardson, Dallas, Addison, Carrollton, Coppell and Grapevine to DFW Airport, every 30 minutes at weekday peaks and hourly otherwise. DART is paid for by a 1% sales tax in its member cities, and the suburbs have pushed back on what they pay: Plano, Irving and Farmers Branch canceled withdrawal elections set for May 2026 after agreements that return part of their sales tax over six years for local transportation projects, Addison and University Park voted to stay, and Highland Park voted by 70% to leave, with service ending on 14 May 2026.

06: Daily life

Health care, schools and what each city is like

Austin

Health care

Care is paid for through employer or marketplace insurance, Medicare and Medicaid, and Texas is one of the ten states that have not expanded Medicaid under the Affordable Care Act (KFF, August 2026). It had the highest uninsured rate of any state in 2024: 16.7%, or 5,152,427 of 30,799,312 people, against 8.2% nationally and 12.0% in Georgia, the next highest, on the ACS 2024 1-year estimates. The City of Austin's rate was 13.0% and Travis County's 12.6%. Ascension Seton runs Dell Seton Medical Center at The University of Texas, the teaching hospital of UT's Dell Medical School, in partnership with Central Health; it is the region's only adult Level I trauma center and serves 11 Central Texas counties. St. David's HealthCare, a partnership between HCA Healthcare and two local nonprofits, has more than 160 sites and calls itself the Austin area's fourth-largest private employer, and Baylor Scott & White joins both systems on the chamber's list of employers with 6,000 or more local jobs. UT and the Michael & Susan Dell Foundation are building the UT Dell Medical Center, with a new UT MD Anderson Cancer Center, beside Dell Seton on the former Frank Erwin Center site, to open in 2030; the UT System put the plan at $2.5 billion when it was announced in August 2023. This file did not verify a wait time figure for primary or specialist care.

Education

Austin ISD, which covers 230 square miles in the middle of the metro, counted 65,951 students in fall 2026, down 3,765 from 69,716 in 2025-26 and from 72,702 in 2024-25. More than 6,400 students enrolled at the end of last year did not return, and the district fell more than 2,000 short of its own projection (Austin Current, 24 September 2026); district officials told KUT that more than half of the 2025-26 loss could be attributed to families' fear of immigration enforcement, with housing costs and falling birth rates also named. In November 2025 the board approved closing and consolidating 10 schools from the 2026-27 school year, affecting 3,796 students and removing 6,319 seats, together with 24 turnaround plans the Texas Education Agency requires for campuses with repeated unacceptable ratings, adopted to head off state-ordered closures or a takeover. The University of Texas at Austin enrolled a record 55,000 students in fall 2025, 44,314 of them undergraduates, the largest total in its history.

Living there

Austin is the Texas state capital and a university town that has become a technology metro, and its growth has outrun what the city has built for it. The metro passed 2.6 million in 2025 after adding 337,554 people since April 2020, but the city grew by less than 5%, and in 2024-25 Travis County lost 6,590 more people to the rest of the country than it gained, so domestic movers now settle in Williamson and Hays counties instead. Inside the city a quarter of workers work from home, 57.5% drive alone and 3.0% take transit, and the one rail line carries about 1,900 riders a weekday. Summer sets the terms of daily life, with a July mean of 85.8F at Camp Mabry and about 29 days at 100F or more in a normal year, and the creeks that cross the city flood fast. Texas takes no income tax and has the highest uninsured rate of any state. The open question is whether Austin can build the transit and keep the schools its growth calls for: voters approved light rail in 2020, and six years later the first 9.8 miles are not due until 2033 and have no federal money, while Austin ISD, down more than 14,000 students in a decade, closed ten schools in 2026.

Dallas

Health care

Care is paid for through employer or marketplace insurance, Medicare and Medicaid, and Texas is one of the ten states that have not expanded Medicaid under the Affordable Care Act (KFF, August 2026). It had the highest uninsured rate of any state in 2024: 16.7%, or 5,152,427 of 30,799,312 people, against 8.2% nationally and 12.0% in Georgia, the next highest, on the ACS 2024 1-year estimates. The City of Dallas's rate was 22.7% (297,684 of 1,313,770), Dallas County's 21.9% and the metro's 16.2%. Parkland Memorial Hospital, licensed for 983 beds, is Dallas County's only public hospital and UT Southwestern's primary teaching hospital; it became the first certified Level I trauma center in Texas in 1983 and runs a burn center. UT Southwestern Medical Center, whose faculty have received six Nobel Prizes, runs William P. Clements Jr. University Hospital in the Southwestern Medical District, and more than half the doctors practicing in Dallas trained there at least in part. Baylor University Medical Center, which opened in 1903 and is now the North Texas flagship of Baylor Scott & White Health, has 914 beds and a Level I trauma center that Baylor Scott & White describes as one of only three adult trauma centers in Dallas. Children's Health and UT Southwestern broke ground in October 2024 on a $5 billion pediatric campus with 552 beds to replace Children's Medical Center Dallas, projected to open in 2031. This file did not verify a wait time figure for primary or specialist care.

Education

Dallas ISD, the second-largest school district in Texas, opened the 2026-27 year on 11 August with about 132,000 students, down from about 134,300 a year earlier (KERA). Superintendent Stephanie Elizalde blamed federal immigration policy in part. KERA adds that charter schools and the state's new education savings accounts may account for some of the loss; more than 2,800 students in the district had qualified for the accounts, which help pay private school tuition, on the Comptroller's latest count. The district made pre-kindergarten free for all 3- and 4-year-olds this year and enrolled about 11,000 children in it, and the Texas Education Agency rated the district B for 2025. Southern Methodist University (12,544 students in fall 2025) is in University Park, a separate town north of downtown, the University of Texas at Dallas is in Richardson, and Dallas College runs seven campuses in Dallas County.

Living there

Dallas is the corporate and financial center of the fourth-largest metro in the country, and the metro is growing around the city rather than inside it. The Dallas-Fort Worth area added 123,557 people in 2024-25, more than any metro but Houston, while the city lost 1,808 and Dallas County lost 46,226 more residents to the rest of the country than it gained, so newcomers settle in Collin, Denton and Kaufman counties. The city has 93 miles of DART light rail and, since October 2025, a commuter line to DFW Airport, yet 68.6% of its workers drive alone and 2.0% take transit. Summer is the hard season: the July mean at Love Field is 87.3F, the warmest of any city this site compares, and the station had 54 days at 100F or more by late September 2026. Hail and tornadoes are the costly weather. Texas takes no income tax, and 22.7% of the city's residents have no health insurance. The open question is whether the city can hold up its end as the region spreads outward: three suburbs won back part of the sales tax they pay DART and a fourth voted to leave, voters wrote a minimum of 4,000 police officers into the charter in 2024 and the adopted budget plans for 3,800 by September 2028, and Dallas ISD began 2026-27 with about 2,300 fewer students than the year before.

07: The trade-offs

Where each city wins, and where it loses

Both cities are in Texas and both were priced at Freddie Mac's 7.03% rate for 24 September 2026, so the figures net directly and the state's rules are the same on both sides: no transfer or mortgage tax, no rent control under Texas Local Government Code 214.902, and for a homestead a $140,000 school exemption and a 10% annual cap on appraised value. Austin's price is the Unlock MLS median of what sold in the city, $560,000 in August 2026, 4.3% below a year earlier; Dallas's is the NTREIS median of single-family houses sold, $469,900, 6.0% below. They are about 6.2 and 6.3 times each city's 2024 median household income. At 20% down, Austin's $448,000 loan costs about $2,990 a month and Dallas's $375,920 loan about $2,509. Property tax is $9,019 a year in Austin and $7,448 in Dallas with a homestead, and insurance is budgeted at $300 and $400 a month, the Dallas figure set by North Texas hail. The three lines come to about $4,041 and $3,529, roughly 54% and 57% of local median income. On the same RentCafe series for August 2026 a one-bedroom averaged $1,421 in Austin and $1,416 in Dallas, a two-bedroom $1,812 and $1,853.

This is a pair where the definitions match: both cities' figures are the FBI's summarized counts for 2025, divided by Census Vintage 2025 populations and read on the same day, 27 September 2026. Property crime is level, 31,011 offenses in Austin, 3,093 per 100,000, and 40,962 in Dallas, 3,081. Violence is not. Austin's 4,221 violent offenses come to 421 per 100,000 and Dallas's 7,674 to 577, and homicide is about twice as common in Dallas: 140 in the federal file, about 10.5 per 100,000, against 51 in Austin, about 5.1. Each police department's own homicide count runs a little higher, 55 on APD's assistant chief's figure and 141 on DPD's. Neither department publishes a violent total on the FBI's definitions; APD's own records summed that way come within two offenses of the federal count, while DPD's measure leaves rape out. Both are improving. Violent offenses dropped 10% in Austin in 2025 and 12% in Dallas, where they have dropped 31% in four years. Motor vehicle theft drove most of Dallas's property swing, from a peak of 18,457 in 2023 to 11,162, against 4,332 in Austin's federal count for 2025. Both sets of counts can still be revised.

These are the two warmest Julys of the fourteen cities this site compares: 30.7 C at Love Field, the warmest, and 29.9 C at Camp Mabry, the second, 0.8 C apart. Austin's normals count more days at or above 100F (37.8 C), 28.7 a year against 22.4, and 2023 had 80 there; Love Field had 54 in 2026 by 22 September. Winter separates them more: January averages 11.2 C in Austin against 8.8 C, with 11.9 nights a year at or below freezing against 23.1, and 0.5 cm of snow against 4.3 cm. Dallas is a little wetter, 973 mm against 921 mm, and sunnier on the older 1961-1990 series, 2,850 hours against 2,644. The hazards differ in kind. Austin's are flash floods on its creeks, as in the Central Texas floods of July 2025, which killed 139 people, and drought on the Highland Lakes, which fell to 42% of storage in March 2024. Dallas's are hail, with stones up to 5.25 in (13.3 cm) in April 2016, and tornadoes such as the October 2019 EF3. Winter Storm Uri hit both in February 2021, with 7F (-13.9 C) in Austin and 2F (-16.7 C) in Dallas while ERCOT cut power across the state grid.

Dallas's labor market is about three times the size of Austin's; Austin's pays more and is tighter. Unemployment was 3.7% around Austin and 4.2% in Dallas-Fort Worth in July 2026, seasonally adjusted, and nonfarm jobs grew 1.7% to 1,421,700 against 1.3% to 4,353,400. Average weekly wages were $1,957 and $1,785 in the first quarter of 2026, against $1,654 nationally. Austin runs on technology, state government and the University of Texas; Dallas on logistics, finance and 21 Fortune 500 headquarters. The state's taxes are shared. Neither city levies an income tax, so $100,000 pays $13,449 in both for 2025, and both charge 8.25% sales tax, with 1% of it for transit. The comparison is the five-unit property tax stacks. Dallas's is 2.22671 per $100 before exemptions and Austin's 2.046485: Dallas charges more for the city, 0.6988 against 0.524017, the school district, 0.993835 against 0.9252, and the hospital district, 0.212 against 0.118023, and less for the county, 0.2155 against 0.375845. Local exemptions close the gap. Dallas ISD adds its own 10% to the state's $140,000, and Dallas College allows 20% where Austin Community College allows 1%, so a homestead on each median pays an effective 1.58% in Dallas and 1.61% in Austin.

Dallas has the rail, and Austin the larger share of commuters off the road. In 2024, 3.0% of Austin workers took transit and 4.1% walked or cycled, against 2.0% and 2.5% in Dallas, and 57.5% drove alone against 68.6%; 24.8% of Austin's workers worked from home against 13.5%. DART runs four light rail lines on 93 miles of track, nearly 700 buses and, since October 2025, the 26-mile Silver Line from Plano to DFW Airport, and carried 52,823,800 trips in 2025. CapMetro carried 26,283,400, 620,600 of them on the Red Line commuter rail from Leander, and its light rail is still a plan: the first 9.8 miles of Project Connect are due in 2033 at an estimated $8.2 billion or more and count on about $4.1 billion in federal money not yet awarded. Both systems run on a 1% sales tax, and Dallas's is being pulled at from the edges: Plano, Irving and Farmers Branch won back part of what they pay, and Highland Park voted to leave. Flying is Dallas's by a wide margin. DFW handled 85,660,127 passengers in 2025, 12.65 million of them international, and Love Field 16,899,203 more; Austin-Bergstrom handled 21,666,852, 1.06 million of them international.

The state question is shared and the local answer is not. Texas is one of ten states that have not expanded Medicaid and had the highest uninsured rate of any state in 2024, 16.7%; the City of Austin's rate was 13.0% and the City of Dallas's 22.7%. Austin's anchor is Dell Seton Medical Center, the teaching hospital of UT's Dell Medical School and the region's only adult Level I trauma center, and a UT medical center with a new MD Anderson cancer center is due beside it in 2030. Dallas has Parkland Memorial Hospital, UT Southwestern's primary teaching hospital and the first certified Level I trauma center in Texas, and Baylor University Medical Center, which runs another. This site found no published wait time for either city. Both school districts are shrinking. Austin ISD counted 65,951 students in fall 2026, 3,765 fewer than a year earlier, and closed or consolidated 10 schools; Dallas ISD, about twice its size, opened 2026-27 with about 132,000 against about 134,300, made pre-kindergarten free for all 3- and 4-year-olds and was rated B by the state for 2025. The University of Texas enrolled a record 55,000 in fall 2025; SMU and UT Dallas sit outside Dallas's city limits, in University Park and Richardson.

What people underestimate is how much the address decides inside either city, because both metros are growing around their cores. The Dallas metro grew 11.0% from 2020 to 2025 and Austin's 14.8%, while the City of Dallas grew 1.9% and the City of Austin 4.6%, and in 2024-25 Dallas County lost 46,226 more residents to the rest of the country than it gained and Travis County 6,590. The newcomers went to Collin, Denton and Kaufman counties and to Williamson and Hays, each with its own stack. So $7,448 and $9,019 are bills for an address inside each city and its own school district. After a purchase the two follow the same state rules, a buyer taxed at full value and then a 10% annual cap, and move on local decisions. The 2026 rates Austin's units have adopted or proposed would put its median house at about 1.67%, while the City of Dallas cut its own rate for the eleventh year in a row, to 69.78 cents from 1 October 2026. The appraisal districts' own medians sit well below the sale medians: $493,449 for a Travis homestead for 2026 and $364,530 for a City of Dallas one for 2025.

Austin

Better here

  • Average weekly wages in the metro were $1,957 in the first quarter of 2026, against $1,785 around Dallas and $1,654 nationally.
  • Violent crime was 421 per 100,000 in 2025 against 577 in Dallas on the same FBI counts, and there were 51 homicides, about 5.1 per 100,000, against 140 at about 10.5.
  • City median household income was $90,430 in 2024 against $74,323, so the monthly carry of about $4,041 is roughly 54% of it against 57% in Dallas.
  • Metro unemployment was 3.7% in July 2026, seasonally adjusted, against 4.2% in Dallas-Fort Worth, and nonfarm jobs grew 1.7% on the year against 1.3%.
  • January averages 11.2 C on the 1991-2020 normals, with 11.9 nights a year at or below freezing, against 8.8 C and 23.1 nights in Dallas.
  • The City of Austin's uninsured rate was 13.0% in 2024 against 22.7% in the City of Dallas, in the same state without Medicaid expansion.

Worse here

  • Mortgage, property tax and insurance come to about $4,041 a month on the August 2026 median, against $3,529 in Dallas at the same 7.03% rate.
  • Property tax on the median house is $9,019 a year for the 2025 tax year with a homestead, an effective 1.61%, against $7,448 and 1.58% in Dallas, and the 2026 rates would take it to about 1.67%.
  • Austin-Bergstrom handled 21,666,852 passengers in 2025, against 85,660,127 at DFW and 16,899,203 at Dallas Love Field.
  • Light rail's first 9.8 miles are not due until 2033 and count on about $4.1 billion in federal money not yet awarded, against DART's 93 miles running today.
  • The normals count 28.7 days a year at or above 100F (37.8 C) at Camp Mabry, against 22.4 at Love Field, and 2023 had 80.
  • The metro's 1,421,700 nonfarm jobs are about a third of Dallas-Fort Worth's 4,353,400, and Austin ISD counted 3,765 fewer students in fall 2026 than a year earlier.

Choose Austin if

  • you work in technology or chip making and want the higher pay of the two metros
  • you want the lower violent crime and homicide rates of these two Texas cities
  • you would rather have an 11.2 C January and plan a summer around more 100F days
  • you want a city where more commuters take transit, walk or cycle, and can wait for light rail

The Austin guide · Neighborhoods · Austin rent vs buy · Austin mortgage calculator

Dallas

Better here

  • Mortgage, property tax and insurance come to about $3,529 a month on the August 2026 median, against $4,041 in Austin at the same 7.03% rate.
  • Property tax on the median house is $7,448 a year with a homestead, an effective 1.58%, against $9,019 and 1.61% in Austin, and the City of Dallas has cut its own rate eleven years running.
  • The metro had 4,353,400 nonfarm jobs in July 2026, about three times Austin's 1,421,700, and the region counts 21 Fortune 500 headquarters.
  • DFW handled 85,660,127 passengers in 2025, 12.65 million of them international, and Love Field another 16,899,203, against 21,666,852 at Austin-Bergstrom.
  • DART runs 93 miles of light rail and, since October 2025, the Silver Line to DFW Airport, and carried 52,823,800 trips in 2025 against CapMetro's 26,283,400.
  • The normals count 22.4 days a year at or above 100F (37.8 C) at Love Field, against 28.7 at Camp Mabry.

Worse here

  • There were 140 homicides in 2025, about 10.5 per 100,000, against 51 and about 5.1 in Austin, and violent crime ran 577 per 100,000 against 421 on the same FBI counts.
  • The City of Dallas's uninsured rate was 22.7% in 2024, against 13.0% in the City of Austin, in a state that has not expanded Medicaid.
  • City median household income was $74,323 in 2024 against $90,430, so the carry takes roughly 57% of it against 54% in Austin.
  • July averages 30.7 C, the warmest July mean of the fourteen cities this site compares, and Love Field had 54 days at or above 100F (37.8 C) by 22 September 2026.
  • Home insurance is budgeted at $400 a month against $300 in Austin, because North Texas hail is a routine cost and tornadoes reach the city itself, as in October 2019.
  • Only 2.0% of workers commuted by transit in 2024 and 68.6% drove alone, against 3.0% and 57.5% in Austin, despite the larger rail network.

Choose Dallas if

  • you want a labor market of 4,353,400 jobs in corporate headquarters, finance, logistics or aerospace
  • you want the cheaper house of the two in dollars, at about $3,529 a month rather than $4,041
  • you fly often enough that an airport handling 85,660,127 passengers in 2025 changes how you travel
  • you want light rail running today rather than a line due in 2033

The Dallas guide · Neighborhoods · Dallas rent vs buy · Dallas mortgage calculator

08: Questions people ask

Austin or Dallas, in short

Is Austin or Dallas cheaper to live in?

Dallas, to own, in dollars; against local pay the two are close. Both cities were priced at the same 7.03% mortgage rate of 24 September 2026, so the figures net directly. Austin's median sale price was $560,000 in August 2026 and the Dallas single-family median $469,900, and at 20% down the mortgage is about $2,990 against $2,509. Property tax is $9,019 a year against $7,448 with a homestead, and insurance $300 a month against $400, so the three lines come to about $4,041 in Austin and $3,529 in Dallas. That is roughly 54% of Austin's median household income and 57% of Dallas's, because Austin's is higher, $90,430 against $74,323. Renting is level on the same RentCafe series for August 2026: a one-bedroom averaged $1,421 in Austin and $1,416 in Dallas, a two-bedroom $1,812 and $1,853. Income tax is nil in both and sales tax 8.25% in both.

Is Austin or Dallas safer?

Austin, on violence; property crime is level. Both cities' figures are the FBI's summarized counts for 2025 divided by Census estimates and read on 27 September 2026. Violent offenses ran 421 per 100,000 in Austin against 577 in Dallas, and property offenses 3,093 against 3,081. Homicide is the widest gap: 51 in Austin, about 5.1 per 100,000, and 140 in Dallas, about 10.5. Each police department's own count is a little higher, 55 in Austin on the assistant chief's figure and 141 in Dallas, where DPD's count for 2024 was 184. Both improved in 2025, with violent offenses dropping 10% in Austin and 12% in Dallas. Every rate here is a count divided by a Census estimate rather than a published rate, and the counts can still be revised.

Which is hotter, Austin or Dallas?

Dallas has the warmer July and Austin more 100F days. July averages 30.7 C at Love Field, the warmest July mean of the fourteen cities this site compares, and 29.9 C at Camp Mabry, the second-warmest. Austin's normals count 28.7 days a year at or above 100F (37.8 C) against 22.4 at Love Field, and 2023 had 80 in Austin; Dallas had 54 in 2026 by 22 September. Both stations top out at 112F (44.4 C). Austin's winter is milder, 11.2 C in January against 8.8 C, with 11.9 nights at or below freezing against 23.1. Both were hit in February 2021, when Winter Storm Uri brought 7F (-13.9 C) to Austin and 2F (-16.7 C) to Dallas and ERCOT cut power across the state grid.

If Texas's rules are the same, why do the Austin and Dallas property tax bills differ?

Because the five local taxing units set their own rates and some set their own exemptions. The state supplies the frame for both: a $140,000 homestead exemption from the school levy, a 10% annual cap on a homestead's appraised value that starts after purchase, no income tax and no transfer tax. Dallas's five units sum to 2.22671 per $100 before exemptions and Austin's to 2.046485, with Dallas higher for the city, the school district and the hospital district and lower for the county. Dallas ISD adds its own 10% exemption and Dallas College allows 20% where Austin Community College allows 1%, so the median house pays $7,448 in Dallas, an effective 1.58%, and $9,019 in Austin, 1.61%. Without a homestead the bills would be $10,463 and $11,460. An address outside either city's own county or school district pays a different stack.

Sources

Where the figures come from

Housing figures are the ones behind each city's calculators, dated on those pages. The rest are listed here with the date they were retrieved. See the methodology for how facts, estimates and opinion are kept apart.

  1. Annual Estimates of the Resident Population for Incorporated Places in Texas: April 1, 2020 to July 1, 2025 (SUB-EST2025) · US Census Bureau · retrieved
    Supports: City population, Five-year growth, Violent crime rate, Property crime rate, Homicides, Character
  2. Annual Resident Population Estimates and Components of Change for Metropolitan and Micropolitan Statistical Areas and Their Counties: April 1, 2020 to July 1, 2025 (CBSA-EST2025-ALLDATA) · US Census Bureau · retrieved
    Supports: Metro population, Five-year growth, Character
  3. Crime Data Explorer summarized agency data, Austin Police Department (TX2270100): violent crime, property crime and homicide, 2021-2025 · FBI · retrieved
    Supports: Violent crime rate, Property crime rate, Homicides, Crime trend
  4. NIBRS Group A Offense Crimes (Austin Police Department open data, updated 14 September 2026) · City of Austin Open Data · retrieved
    Supports: Violent crime rate, Property crime rate, Homicides, Crime trend
  5. Austin's crime dropped below pre-pandemic highs in 2025 · KUT Radio, Austin's NPR Station · retrieved
    Supports: Homicides, Crime trend
  6. US Climate Normals 1991-2020, station USW00013958 Austin Camp Mabry (Access Data Service) · NOAA National Centers for Environmental Information · retrieved
    Supports: January mean, July mean, Annual precipitation, Annual snowfall, Climate normals, Climate hazards, Character, January 52.2F, July 85.8F and August 86.5F from the monthly series, and annual mean 70.0F, precipitation 36.25 in, snowfall 0.2 in and the counts of days at 90F and 100F and nights at freezing from dataset=normals-annualseasonal-1991-2020 for the same station
  7. US Climate Normals 1991-2020, station USW00013904 Austin-Bergstrom International Airport (Access Data Service) · NOAA National Centers for Environmental Information · retrieved
    Supports: Climate normals
  8. Global Historical Climatology Network daily summaries, Austin Camp Mabry (USW00013958), 1938-2026 · NOAA National Centers for Environmental Information · retrieved
    Supports: Climate hazards, 80 days at or above 100F in 2023 and 45 in a row from 8 July to 21 August, 90 in 2011 with a 27-day run, 112F on 5 September 2000 and 28 August 2011, 6.4 in of snow on 14 and 15 February 2021, 7F on 16 February 2021 and 4F on 23 December 1989, 5.20 in on 25 May 2015
  9. Global Historical Climatology Network daily summaries, Austin-Bergstrom International Airport (USW00013904), February 2021 · NOAA National Centers for Environmental Information · retrieved
    Supports: Climate hazards
  10. Average Annual Sunshine in US Cities · Current Results (NCDC Comparative Climatic Data, 1961-1990) · retrieved
    Supports: Sunshine hours
  11. This Holiday Weekend Marks The 40th Anniversary Of Austin's 1981 Memorial Day Flood · KUT Radio, Austin's NPR Station · retrieved
    Supports: Climate hazards
  12. October 30-31, 2013 Halloween Flash Flood Event · National Weather Service, Austin/San Antonio · retrieved
    Supports: Climate hazards
  13. Lower Onion Creek Flood Mitigation Buyout Project Gets Kudos from Homeowners · FEMA · retrieved
    Supports: Climate hazards
  14. 2015 Memorial Day Weekend Flooding, 23 to 24 May 2015 (Weather Event Summary) · National Weather Service, Austin/San Antonio · retrieved
    Supports: Climate hazards
  15. Tornado outbreak and floods of May 23 to 26, 2015 (Wimberley homes destroyed, Shoal Creek on May 25) · Wikipedia · retrieved
    Supports: Climate hazards
  16. National Weather Service releases new report on deadly Central Texas floods · KXAN Austin (via Yahoo News) · retrieved
    Supports: Climate hazards
  17. 2021 Winter Storm Uri After-Action Review, Findings Report · City of Austin and Travis County · retrieved
    Supports: Climate hazards
  18. February 2021 Winter Storm-Related Deaths, Texas (mortality surveillance report) · Texas Department of State Health Services · retrieved
    Supports: Climate hazards
  19. The Timeline and Events of the February 2021 Texas Electric Grid Blackouts · The University of Texas at Austin Energy Institute · retrieved
    Supports: Climate hazards
  20. Highland Lakes and Colorado River · Lower Colorado River Authority · retrieved
    Supports: Climate hazards
  21. Most LCRA agricultural customers will go without Highland Lakes water in 2024 · Lower Colorado River Authority · retrieved
    Supports: Climate hazards
  22. Drought persists in Central Texas, Water Management Plan under review · Community Impact · retrieved
    Supports: Climate hazards
  23. Water Supply Operations · Lower Colorado River Authority · retrieved
    Supports: Climate hazards
  24. ACS 2024 1-year tables B08301 and B19013 for Austin city and the Austin-Round Rock-San Marcos MSA · Census Reporter API (US Census Bureau ACS) · retrieved
    Supports: Median household income, Transit commute share, Walk and cycle commute share, Character
  25. ACS 2024 1-year table B27001 (health insurance coverage) for the 50 states, DC, the US, Travis County and Austin city · Census Reporter API (US Census Bureau ACS) · retrieved
    Supports: Health care, Character
  26. Unemployment Rate in Austin-Round Rock-San Marcos, TX (MSA), AUST448UR and AUST448URN · FRED, Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis (BLS LAUS data) · retrieved
    Supports: Unemployment rate
  27. All Employees: Total Nonfarm in Austin-Round Rock-San Marcos, TX (MSA), AUST448NA · FRED, Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis (BLS CES data) · retrieved
    Supports: Labour market
  28. Austin Area Economic Summary · US Bureau of Labor Statistics · retrieved
    Supports: Unemployment rate, Main sectors, Labour market
  29. Major Employers · Opportunity Austin (Austin Chamber of Commerce) · retrieved
    Supports: Main sectors, Labour market, Health care
  30. City Sales and Use Tax (city rate table) · Texas Comptroller of Public Accounts · retrieved
    Supports: Sales tax
  31. Transit Sales and Use Tax (Austin MTA, effective July 1, 1985) · Texas Comptroller of Public Accounts · retrieved
    Supports: Sales tax
  32. Sales and Use Tax · Texas Comptroller of Public Accounts · retrieved
    Supports: Sales tax
  33. Texas Tax Rates & Rankings · Tax Foundation · retrieved
    Supports: Top marginal income tax, Income tax on $100,000, Tax notes, Character
  34. 2025 Tax Brackets and Federal Income Tax Rates · Tax Foundation · retrieved
    Supports: Top marginal income tax, Income tax on $100,000
  35. 2026 Tax Brackets and Federal Income Tax Rates · Tax Foundation · retrieved
    Supports: Top marginal income tax, Income tax on $100,000
  36. Property Tax Exemptions · Texas Comptroller of Public Accounts · retrieved
    Supports: Tax notes
  37. Voters OK property tax breaks for Texas homeowners, businesses · The Texas Tribune · retrieved
    Supports: Tax notes
  38. Austin voters reject Proposition Q, a tax rate increase to fund city services · KUT Radio, Austin's NPR Station · retrieved
    Supports: Tax notes
  39. CapMetro (citing the APTA Transit Ridership Reports, Q4 2025 and Q2 2026) · Wikipedia · retrieved
    Supports: Transit system, Transit ridership, Character
  40. CapMetro Rail (Red Line: Leander to Downtown, 32 miles, 10 stations) · Wikipedia · retrieved
    Supports: Transit system
  41. What's on track and behind schedule with Austin's transit expansion nearly 6 years later · KUT Radio, Austin's NPR Station · retrieved
    Supports: Transit system, Transit ridership, Tax notes, Character
  42. How Austin's Project Connect went off the rails · The Texas Tribune · retrieved
    Supports: Transit ridership, Character
  43. Aviation Activity Report, Calendar Year 2025 vs 2024, Combined Terminals · Austin-Bergstrom International Airport · retrieved
    Supports: Airport passengers
  44. Austin-Bergstrom International Airport (annual passenger traffic table and history) · Wikipedia · retrieved
    Supports: Airport passengers
  45. Status of State Medicaid Expansion Decisions · KFF · retrieved
    Supports: Health care
  46. Dell Seton Medical Center · Wikipedia · retrieved
    Supports: Health care
  47. Dell Seton Medical Center at The University of Texas · Ascension Seton · retrieved
    Supports: Health care
  48. About St. David's HealthCare · St. David's HealthCare · retrieved
    Supports: Health care
  49. Building World-Class Health Care in Austin · Michael & Susan Dell Foundation · retrieved
    Supports: Health care
  50. Austin ISD Board approves 24 state-mandated turnaround plans, school consolidation and programmatic reassignments · Austin Independent School District · retrieved
    Supports: Education
  51. District Demographics · Austin Independent School District · retrieved
    Supports: Education
  52. Austin ISD enrollment dips as transportation costs rise · Austin Current · retrieved
    Supports: Education, Character
  53. Austin ISD loses 3,000 students amid school closures and budget crisis · KUT Radio, Austin's NPR Station · retrieved
    Supports: Education, Character
  54. UT Sets All-Time Highs for Enrollment and Student Performance · UT News, The University of Texas at Austin · retrieved
    Supports: Education
  55. Crime Data Explorer summarized agency data, Dallas Police Department (TXDPD0000): violent crime, property crime, homicide, rape, robbery, aggravated assault, burglary, larceny, motor vehicle theft and arson, 2021-2025 · FBI · retrieved
    Supports: Violent crime rate, Property crime rate, Homicides, Crime trend
  56. Violent Crime Reduction Plan Update, Public Safety Committee, June 3, 2025 · Dallas Police Department (City of Dallas) · retrieved
    Supports: Violent crime rate, Crime trend
  57. Police Incidents (Dallas Police Public Data, RMS incidents from June 1, 2014) · City of Dallas OpenData · retrieved
    Supports: Violent crime rate
  58. Dallas sees lowest violent crime numbers since 2015 as chief credits new crime strategies · CBS Texas · retrieved
    Supports: Homicides, Crime trend
  59. US Climate Normals 1991-2020, station USW00013960 Dallas Love Field (Access Data Service) · NOAA National Centers for Environmental Information · retrieved
    Supports: January mean, July mean, Annual precipitation, Annual snowfall, Climate normals, Climate hazards, Character, January 47.8F, July and August 87.3F from the monthly series, and annual mean 68.0F, precipitation 38.32 in, snowfall 1.7 in and the counts of days at 90F and 100F and nights at freezing from dataset=normals-annualseasonal-1991-2020 for the same station
  60. US Climate Normals 1991-2020, station USW00003927 Dallas Fort Worth International Airport (Access Data Service) · NOAA National Centers for Environmental Information · retrieved
    Supports: Climate normals
  61. Global Historical Climatology Network daily summaries, Dallas Love Field (USW00013960), 1939-2026 · NOAA National Centers for Environmental Information · retrieved
    Supports: Climate hazards, Character, 73 days at or above 100F in 2011 and 40 in a row from 2 July to 10 August 2011, 54 in 2026 through 22 September, 112F on 26 and 27 June 1980 and 22 July 2018, 5.3 in of snow from 14 to 17 February 2021, 2F on 16 February 2021, 31 January 1949, 1F on 23 December 1989 and 0F on 23 January 1940, 13F on 25 January 2026
  62. Global Historical Climatology Network daily summaries, Dallas Fort Worth International Airport (USW00003927), 1953-2026 · NOAA National Centers for Environmental Information · retrieved
    Supports: Climate hazards, 113F on 26 and 27 June 1980, -2F on 16 February 2021, 2.4 in of snow and sleet on 24 and 25 January 2026
  63. Dallas/Fort Worth: Annual and Consecutive 100 Degree Days (last updated 22 September 2026) · National Weather Service, Fort Worth/Dallas · retrieved
    Supports: Climate hazards
  64. Weather and Climate Billion-Dollar Disasters to affect the U.S. from 1980-2024 (events list) · NOAA National Centers for Environmental Information · retrieved
    Supports: Climate hazards
  65. April 11th 2016 Hail Storm · National Weather Service, Fort Worth/Dallas · retrieved
    Supports: Climate hazards
  66. Cotality 2026 Report: Hail risk now rivals major hurricanes (2026 Severe Convective Storm Risk Report) · Cotality · retrieved
    Supports: Climate hazards
  67. North Texas Tornadoes, October 20, 2019 · National Weather Service, Fort Worth/Dallas · retrieved
    Supports: Climate hazards
  68. 2019 North Dallas tornado (path length, structures destroyed, damage, casualties) · Wikipedia · retrieved
    Supports: Climate hazards
  69. December 26, 2015 Tornado Outbreak · National Weather Service, Fort Worth/Dallas · retrieved
    Supports: Climate hazards
  70. Dallas Levee System · City of Dallas, Trinity River Corridor Project · retrieved
    Supports: Climate hazards
  71. Trinity River at Dallas (DALT2), historic crests · NOAA National Water Prediction Service · retrieved
    Supports: Climate hazards
  72. Milestone Achievement for Dallas Floodway Project: Providing Flood Risk Management to Communities · US Army Corps of Engineers, Fort Worth District (DVIDS) · retrieved
    Supports: Climate hazards
  73. Wettest 24 hours in nearly a century for Dallas-Fort Worth · Yale Climate Connections · retrieved
    Supports: Climate hazards
  74. How the Texas power grid is holding up during the winter storm · CBS Texas · retrieved
    Supports: Climate hazards
  75. Energy Secretary Issues Emergency Order to Secure Texas Grid Amid Winter Storm Fern · US Department of Energy · retrieved
    Supports: Climate hazards
  76. Dallas Area Reservoirs (daily storage, percent full) · Texas Water Development Board, Water Data for Texas · retrieved
    Supports: Climate hazards
  77. Frequently Asked Questions (watering schedule) and City of Dallas Water Conservation Ordinance · Dallas Water Utilities, Save Dallas Water · retrieved
    Supports: Climate hazards
  78. ACS 2024 1-year tables B08301 and B19013 for Dallas city and the Dallas-Fort Worth-Arlington MSA · Census Reporter API (US Census Bureau ACS) · retrieved
    Supports: Median household income, Transit commute share, Walk and cycle commute share, Character
  79. ACS 2024 1-year table B27001 (health insurance coverage) for the 50 states, DC, the US, Dallas County, Dallas city and the Dallas-Fort Worth-Arlington MSA · Census Reporter API (US Census Bureau ACS) · retrieved
    Supports: Health care, Character
  80. Unemployment Rate in Dallas-Fort Worth-Arlington, TX (MSA), DALL148UR and DALL148URN · FRED, Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis (BLS LAUS data) · retrieved
    Supports: Unemployment rate
  81. All Employees: Total Nonfarm in Dallas-Fort Worth-Arlington, TX (MSA), DALL148NA · FRED, Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis (BLS CES data) · retrieved
    Supports: Labour market
  82. Dallas-Fort Worth Area Economic Summary · US Bureau of Labor Statistics · retrieved
    Supports: Unemployment rate, Main sectors, Labour market
  83. Dallas Regional Economic Development Guide 2026: Major Companies and Headquarters · Dallas Regional Chamber · retrieved
    Supports: Main sectors, Labour market
  84. Dallas approves $5.66 billion budget for 2026-27 fiscal year · Lake Highlands Advocate · retrieved
    Supports: Tax notes, Character
  85. City of Dallas Update on Proposition U, Police and Fire Funding Appropriation · City of Dallas · retrieved
    Supports: Tax notes, Character
  86. About DART (DART facts) · Dallas Area Rapid Transit · retrieved
    Supports: Transit system, Transit ridership, Character
  87. Silver Line Launches Oct. 25, Connecting Seven Cities and DFW Airport with Modern, Reliable Transit · Dallas Area Rapid Transit · retrieved
    Supports: Transit system, Transit ridership, Character
  88. Dallas Area Rapid Transit (citing the APTA Transit Ridership Reports, Q4 2025 and Q2 2026, through Template:American transit ridership) · Wikipedia · retrieved
    Supports: Transit system, Transit ridership
  89. DART services in Richardson, Plano to remain unchanged as Highland Park withdraws · Community Impact · retrieved
    Supports: Transit ridership, Character
  90. DFW Total Passengers, December 2025 (calendar year 2025 vs 2024) · Dallas Fort Worth International Airport · retrieved
    Supports: Airport passengers
  91. World's Busiest Airports: Atlanta Holds, Asia Climbs (2025 passenger and movement rankings) · ACI World · retrieved
    Supports: Airport passengers
  92. Dallas Love Field (2025 passenger totals from the FAA, location, Southwest Airlines) · Wikipedia · retrieved
    Supports: Airport passengers, Climate normals
  93. Parkland Memorial Hospital · UT Southwestern Medical Center · retrieved
    Supports: Health care
  94. About the Trauma Center · Parkland Health · retrieved
    Supports: Health care
  95. Baylor University Medical Center, part of Baylor Scott & White Health · Baylor Scott & White Health · retrieved
    Supports: Health care
  96. Children's Health and UT Southwestern break ground on new Dallas pediatric campus, announce $100 million donation from The Rees-Jones Foundation · UT Southwestern Medical Center · retrieved
    Supports: Health care
  97. UT Southwestern and Children's Health receive $25 million from the Harry W. Bass, Jr. Foundation for new pediatric campus · UT Southwestern Medical Center · retrieved
    Supports: Health care
  98. New Dallas Pediatric Campus Puts Children First · Southwestern Medical District · retrieved
    Supports: Health care
  99. On Dallas ISD's first day of school, enrollment's down, but letter grade may be up · KERA News · retrieved
    Supports: Education, Character
  100. Southern Methodist University (fall 2025 enrollment, University Park) · Wikipedia · retrieved
    Supports: Education
  101. University of Texas at Dallas (Richardson) · Wikipedia · retrieved
    Supports: Education
  102. Dallas College (seven campuses in Dallas County) · Wikipedia · retrieved
    Supports: Education
  103. August 2026 Central Texas housing report · Unlock MLS · retrieved
    Supports: A median residential sale price of $560,000 in the City of Austin in August 2026, down 4.3% from August 2025, 844 homes sold, down 10.3%, 4,554 active listings and 4.6 months of inventory in the City of Austin, No split of the city figures by property type
  104. Zillow Home Value Index, all homes, middle tier, smoothed and seasonally adjusted, by city · Zillow Research · retrieved
    Supports: A typical home value of $497,418 for the city of Austin (region 10221) in August 2026, $516,564 in August 2025, so a fall of 3.7% over the year
  105. Zillow Home Value Index, single-family and condominium series, by city · Zillow Research · retrieved
    Supports: A typical single-family value of $527,943 in the city of Austin in August 2026, against $546,174 a year earlier, down 3.3%, A typical condominium value of $355,596 in the same month, against $375,347, down 5.3%, from the condominium file at https://files.zillowstatic.com/research/public_csvs/zhvi/City_zhvi_uc_condo_tier_0.33_0.67_sm_sa_month.csv
  106. Austin, TX average rent and rent trends · RentCafe / Yardi Matrix · retrieved
    Supports: An average Austin apartment rent of $1,641, down 2.25% from $1,678 a year earlier, updated 31 August 2026, Average rents of $1,287 studio, $1,421 one-bedroom, $1,812 two-bedroom and $2,405 three-bedroom
  107. Zillow Observed Rent Index, all homes plus multifamily, smoothed, by city · Zillow Research · retrieved
    Supports: An observed rent index of $1,586 for the city of Austin in August 2026, down 0.31% from $1,591 a year earlier
  108. Tax rates and truth-in-taxation rate table, all taxing units · Travis County Tax Assessor-Collector · retrieved
    Supports: 2025 adopted rates per $100: Travis County 0.375845, City of Austin 0.524017, Austin ISD 0.9252, Austin Community College 0.1034, Travis County Healthcare District (Central Health) 0.118023, 2026 adopted rates for Travis County (0.386210), the City of Austin (0.579948), ACC (0.103643) and Central Health (0.132863), and no adopted 2026 rate yet for Austin ISD
  109. 2026 exemption listing, Travis County taxing units · Travis Central Appraisal District · retrieved
    Supports: A residence homestead exemption of $140,000 for Austin ISD, with no local option, Local option homestead exemptions of 20% with a $5,000 minimum for Travis County, the City of Austin and the Travis County Healthcare District, and 1% with a $5,000 minimum for Austin Community College, The same exemptions in the 2025 listing, dated 25 July 2025
  110. Property tax rates · City of Austin Budget Office · retrieved
    Supports: A fiscal 2026 rate of 0.524017 per $100, maintenance and operations 0.410282 and debt service 0.113735, A fiscal 2027 rate of 0.579948 per $100, adopted on 12 August 2026
  111. Ordinance No. 20251120-006, reducing the fiscal 2025-2026 tax rate to the voter-approval rate · City of Austin · retrieved
    Supports: The Council adopted a rate above the voter-approval rate on 13 August 2025, which triggered an automatic election, Proposition Q did not win a majority at the 4 November 2025 election, The rate reduced to the voter-approval rate of $0.524017 per $100 under Tax Code section 26.07(e), effective 1 December 2025
  112. Notice about tax year 2026 property tax rates and impact statement · Austin Independent School District · retrieved
    Supports: A 2025 rate of 0.9252 per $100, maintenance and operations 0.8022 and debt service 0.1230, A proposed 2026 rate of 0.9184, maintenance and operations 0.7954 and debt service 0.1230
  113. Austin ISD claims victory in tax rate election · KUT News · retrieved
    Supports: Austin ISD's Proposition A passed on 5 November 2024 with about 58% of the vote, raising the district's rate 9.1 cents, from 0.8595 to 0.9505 per $100
  114. Travis County Prop A, affordable child care passes with majority of vote in 2024 election, unofficial results show · Community Impact · retrieved
    Supports: Travis County's Proposition A, a tax rate increase of 2.5 cents per $100 to fund child care, passed on 5 November 2024 with 59.43% of the vote, 321,043 to 219,141
  115. Truth-in-taxation rate table, all Travis County taxing units, 2022 to 2026 · Travis County Tax Assessor-Collector · retrieved
    Supports: Travis Central Health: a 2026 total rate of 0.132863 per $100, maintenance and operations 0.123603 and debt service 0.00926, against a no-new-revenue rate of 0.118633 and a voter-approval rate of 0.135195; a 2025 total rate of 0.118023, Travis County: a 2024 total rate of 0.344445 per $100 against a voter-approval rate of 0.319445, the 2.5 cents voters approved, Austin ISD: total rates of 0.8595 for 2023 and 0.9505 for 2024, and for 2026 a no-new-revenue and voter-approval rate but no total rate
  116. ACC approves new property tax rate for fiscal year 2025-26 · Austin Community College District · retrieved
    Supports: A 2025 rate of 0.1034 per $100
  117. Central Health board approves fiscal year 2027 tax rate and budget · Central Health (Travis County Healthcare District) · retrieved
    Supports: The Board of Managers adopted the fiscal 2027 tax rate on Wednesday, 9 September 2026, in a release dated 10 September; the rate itself is in the county's rate table above
  118. Fiscal year 2027 tax rate impact statement · Travis County · retrieved
    Supports: A county tax of $1,653.72 in 2025 on a $550,000 homestead after the 20% exemption, the same arithmetic as here, The 2025 rate set with the disaster calculation after the July 2025 floods, which the county said would come out for fiscal 2027
  119. Valuing property: the homestead cap and the circuit breaker limitation · Texas Comptroller of Public Accounts · retrieved
    Supports: A residence homestead's appraised value may not rise more than 10% a year, from the year after the owner first qualifies, A 20% annual limit on the appraised value of non-homestead property valued at $5 million or less, the circuit breaker, which expires on 31 December 2026
  120. Tax Code, Section 41.44: notice of protest · Texas Legislature · retrieved
    Supports: A protest must be filed by 15 May or the 30th day after the appraisal notice is delivered, whichever is later
  121. 2025 annual report · Travis Central Appraisal District · retrieved
    Supports: 210,038 property value appeals filed in 2025, A districtwide single-family median level of appraisal of 1.00
  122. School district property value study, 2024 final findings, Austin ISD · Texas Comptroller of Public Accounts · retrieved
    Supports: Austin ISD's local value found within the confidence interval of the state's estimate, so the appraisal district's values stand as market value
  123. 2026 market values on their way · Travis Central Appraisal District · retrieved
    Supports: A median residence homestead market value of $493,449 in Travis County for 2026, against $519,677 in 2025
  124. Annexation · City of Austin Planning Department · retrieved
    Supports: The City collects no property tax in limited-purpose areas, On full-purpose annexation an area's emergency services district tax may be eliminated
  125. Senate Bill 2, 86th Legislature: the Texas Property Tax Reform and Transparency Act of 2019 · Texas Legislature Online · retrieved
    Supports: The enrolled bill summary names Senate Bill 2 of 2019, by Bettencourt et al., the Texas Property Tax Reform and Transparency Act of 2019, with provisions taking effect from 1 January 2020 to 1 January 2022
  126. Property tax process post-Senate Bill 2 (2019): explanatory Q&A · Texas Municipal League · retrieved
    Supports: S.B. 2 lowers the multiplier in a city's voter-approval rate from 8 percent to 3.5 percent more maintenance and operations revenue, for nearly every Texas city, A city that adopts a rate above the 3.5 percent voter-approval rate must hold an automatic election on the November uniform election date, where before voters had to petition for one
  127. Truth in taxation · Texas Comptroller of Public Accounts · retrieved
    Supports: The voter-approval rate gives taxing units other than school districts and special taxing units about the previous year's operating revenue plus an extra 3.5 percent
  128. Geologic wonders of Texas: Central Texas · Bureau of Economic Geology, The University of Texas at Austin · retrieved
    Supports: In Austin the Balcones escarpment generally parallels MoPac (Loop 1): west of it the city is hilly and east of it relatively flat, Hard Lower Cretaceous limestones and dolostones form the hills to the west, and younger Upper Cretaceous rocks including clays the flatter ground to the east
  129. Houston Black: Texas state soil · Soil Science Society of America, with USDA Natural Resources Conservation Service figures · retrieved
    Supports: Houston Black, a smectite clay that shrinks when dry and swells when wet, is found in the Blackland Prairie along the route of Interstate 35 from north of Dallas to just south of San Antonio, Construction on it is often plagued by cracking from the shrinking and swelling, and building foundations need reinforcing
  130. Floodplain management · City of Austin Watershed Protection Department · retrieved
    Supports: NOAA's Atlas 14 rainfall study of 2018 found Central Texas getting heavier rain than previously thought, and the City is updating its floodplain maps from it, In November 2019 the City based its development regulations on the current FEMA 500-year floodplain instead of the 100-year floodplain, pending completion of the updated maps; the maps are on ATXFloodPro
  131. Flood zones · Federal Emergency Management Agency · retrieved
    Supports: The Special Flood Hazard Area is the land flooded by the 1-percent-annual-chance flood, the base or 100-year flood; the ground between it and the 500-year flood is a moderate-risk zone
  132. Understanding flood risk: real estate, lending and insurance professionals · Federal Emergency Management Agency · retrieved
    Supports: Federally regulated or insured lenders must require flood insurance for every building in a Special Flood Hazard Area with a federally backed loan
  133. Primary Mortgage Market Survey, 24 September 2026 · Freddie Mac · retrieved
    Supports: A 30-year fixed-rate mortgage averaging 7.03%, up from 6.95% the week before and 6.30% a year earlier
  134. Texas homeowners insurance market overview · Texas Department of Insurance · retrieved
    Supports: A statewide average homeowners premium of $3,489 a year, from the Texas Statistical Plan for Residential Risks, Hail as the largest cause of paid homeowners losses in every year from 2016 to 2025 except 2021
  135. Texas homeowners insurance · NerdWallet · retrieved
    Supports: An average Austin premium of $4,250 a year and a Texas average of $5,910, for $500,000 of dwelling cover
  136. How much is homeowners insurance in Austin, TX? · Insure.com · retrieved
    Supports: An average Austin premium of $2,698 a year for $300,000 of dwelling cover, $100,000 of liability and a $1,000 deductible, updated 27 May 2026
  137. Renters insurance in Texas · NerdWallet · retrieved
    Supports: An average Austin renters premium of $136 a year for $30,000 of personal property
  138. Monthly homeowners' or condominium association fee, table B25143, 2024 American Community Survey 1-year estimates, Austin city · United States Census Bureau · retrieved
    Supports: A median monthly association fee of $76 among Austin owner-occupied units that pay one, 88,975 of 199,801 owner-occupied units, or 44.5%, paying such a fee, from table B25142
  139. City of Austin utility rates and fees, effective 1 July 2026 · City of Austin · retrieved
    Supports: A residential solid waste charge of $23.80 a month plus $4.70 to $40.30 by cart size, Clean Community fees of $5.45 and $4.80 a month, charged to every residential customer, A transportation user fee of $21.80 a month for a single-family home
  140. Homebuyer resources: Down Payment Assistance · City of Austin Housing Department · retrieved
    Supports: Up to $40,000 in assistance for first-time buyers at or below 80% of median family income, A sales price of no more than $440,000, on a home inside Austin's full-purpose city limits
  141. Conforming loan limit values for 2026, by county · Federal Housing Finance Agency · retrieved
    Supports: A baseline one-unit conforming loan limit of $832,750 for 2026, which is the limit in Travis County
  142. Annual estimates of the resident population for incorporated places, 2020 to 2025 · United States Census Bureau, Population Estimates Program · retrieved
    Supports: A population of 1,002,632 for Austin on 1 July 2025, against 961,855 at the 2020 census
  143. 2025 Gazetteer files: places, Texas · United States Census Bureau · retrieved
    Supports: A land area of 325.013 square miles for Austin city, against 319.937 in the 2020 file
  144. NTREIS monthly MLS summary report, August 2026 · North Texas Real Estate Information System and the Texas Real Estate Research Center at Texas A&M University, via the MetroTex Association of REALTORS · retrieved
    Supports: A median single-family sale price of $469,900 in the City of Dallas in August 2026 on 640 sales, against $499,900 on 667 sales in August 2025, A median townhouse sale price of $543,000 on 30 sales, against $475,000 on 42, and a median condominium sale price of $310,000 on 121 sales, against $237,000 on 136, 2,725 active single-family listings and 4.2 months of inventory in the City of Dallas, A median single-family lease of $2,850 a month on 276 leases, City figures by property type only, with no all-types median
  145. Housing market reports · MetroTex Association of REALTORS · retrieved
    Supports: Monthly reports featuring data from the Texas A&M Real Estate Research Center, based on listings of properties physically located within the specified geographic areas
  146. Dallas, TX average rent and rent trends · RentCafe / Yardi Matrix · retrieved
    Supports: An average Dallas apartment rent of $1,592, down 0.92% from $1,607 a year earlier, updated 31 August 2026, Average rents of $1,245 studio, $1,416 one-bedroom, $1,853 two-bedroom and $2,221 three-bedroom
  147. 2025 ad valorem tax rates for Dallas County, revised 5 November 2025 · Dallas Central Appraisal District · retrieved
    Supports: 2025 rates per $100: Dallas County 0.215500, Parkland Hospital 0.212000, Dallas College 0.106575, Dallas 0.698800, Dallas ISD 0.993835, Optional homestead exemptions of 20% for Dallas County, Parkland Hospital, Dallas College and the City of Dallas, and 10% for Dallas ISD, A general homestead exemption of $140,000 for every school district, contingent on the November 2025 constitutional amendment, A calculated local optional homestead value of not less than $5,000, Separate rates and exemptions for Highland Park, University Park, Cockrell Hill and Highland Park ISD
  148. 2026 estimated ad valorem tax rates for Dallas County, revised 4 March 2026 · Dallas Central Appraisal District · retrieved
    Supports: The 2026 table was an estimate, repeating the 2025 rates for the five units, when these figures were retrieved
  149. 2025 and 2026 residence homestead average and median values · Dallas Central Appraisal District · retrieved
    Supports: A certified median residence homestead market value of $364,530 in the City of Dallas for 2025, on 177,599 homesteads, A certified median of $364,000 for 2026, on 172,862 homesteads, in the table dated 22 July 2026
  150. Annual report, 2025 appraisal year · Dallas Central Appraisal District · retrieved
    Supports: 230,276 protests received for the 2025 appraisal year, 180,733 of them residential, and 788,553 appraisal notices mailed, A protest process that begins around 15 April and concludes by 20 July each year
  151. Midtown Improvement District · City of Dallas Office of Economic Development · retrieved
    Supports: The Midtown Improvement District, formerly the Vickery Meadow Public Improvement District, established in 1993 and renewed to 31 December 2032, An annual budget and assessment rate subject to a public hearing and Dallas City Council approval
  152. Public Improvement Districts (PIDs) layer · City of Dallas · retrieved
    Supports: Public improvement districts mapped by the City including Dallas DID, Uptown, Deep Ellum, Klyde Warren/DAD, Knox Street, Oak Lawn-Hi Line, Prestonwood, Lake Highlands, North Lake Highlands, Midtown, University Crossing, South Side, Far East Dallas and RedBird
  153. Insurance and your roof: what to know when buying a policy or filing a claim · Texas Department of Insurance · retrieved
    Supports: Replacement cost coverage pays for a new roof at current prices, and actual cash value coverage pays replacement cost minus depreciation, As roofs age, some companies will switch to actual cash value, A deductible for wind and hail damage can differ from the deductible for other damage
  154. How much is homeowners insurance in Dallas, TX? · Insure.com · retrieved
    Supports: An average Dallas premium of $4,212 a year for $300,000 of dwelling cover, $100,000 of liability and a $1,000 deductible, updated 27 May 2026
  155. Monthly homeowners' or condominium association fee, table B25143, 2024 American Community Survey 1-year estimates, Dallas city · United States Census Bureau · retrieved
    Supports: A median monthly association fee of $280 among Dallas owner-occupied units that pay one, 50,335 of 226,859 owner-occupied units, or 22.2%, paying such a fee, from table B25142
  156. City of Dallas utility fees effective 1 October 2025 · City of Dallas · retrieved
    Supports: A residential sanitation fee of $40.09 a month, $43.40 with tax, A residential stormwater fee of $5.39 to $21.01 a month by impervious area, An environmental cleanup fee of $3.00 a month on every City of Dallas utility account
  157. Dallas Homebuyer Assistance Program (DHAP) · City of Dallas Housing and Homelessness Solutions · retrieved
    Supports: Assistance of up to $60,000 in High Opportunity Areas and $50,000 elsewhere in Dallas, for households at or below 80% of area median income, A maximum sales price of $342,000 for existing and newly built homes, for contracts from 1 September 2024, A second lien as an interest-free forgivable deferred loan with no monthly payments, prorated annually, with partial repayment due on a sale, lease or transfer, Administered by Business and Community Lenders of Texas from 1 May 2026