Houston vs Fort Worth: which should you move to?
Houston or Fort Worth? 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.
Houston
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Fort Worth
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, but the prices are different measures: Houston's is the Houston Association of Realtors' single-family median for all of Greater Houston, Fort Worth's the NTREIS single-family median inside the city. Mortgage, property tax and insurance come to about $2,578 a month on Houston's regional $330,000 and $2,516 on Fort Worth's $327,000, roughly 48% of Houston's median household income of $64,361 and 37% of Fort Worth's $82,503. On a measure that is the same in both the order turns: Zillow's index stood at $261,740 for the City of Houston and $295,800 for the City of Fort Worth. Neither levies an income tax and both charge 8.25% sales tax, but on the same $327,000 house Fort Worth's six taxing units charge $5,044 against $4,340 from Houston's eight, while Houston's insurance budget is $100 a month higher. Crime favors Fort Worth on every line: 375 violent offenses per 100,000 against 890, and about 7.6 homicides per 100,000 against 11.3. Choose Houston for energy, the port, the Texas Medical Center, light rail and a milder winter. Choose Fort Worth for the higher incomes, the lower crime, aerospace, airlines and freight, and a drier year.
| Measure | Houston | Fort Worth | Advantage |
|---|---|---|---|
| City population | 2,397,315 (2025) | 1,028,117 (2025) | Not directly comparable |
| Metro population | 7,904,627 (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. | 4.2% (2020-2025) | 11.9% (2020-2025) | Not directly comparable |
What a home costs in each
The figures the two cities' rent-versus-buy and mortgage calculators run on, read from the same tables.
| Measure | Houston | Fort Worth | Advantage |
|---|---|---|---|
| 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. | $330,000 (August 2026) | $327,000 (August 2026) | Fort Worth |
| Detached house benchmark Houston and Fort Worth publish a single house index rather than a composite, so the two rows repeat. | $330,000 | $327,000 | Fort Worth |
| Apartment or condominium benchmark | Not published | $330,000 | Not directly comparable |
| Two-bedroom rent | $1,327/mo (median, September 2026) | $1,317/mo (median, September 2026) | Fort Worth |
| One-bedroom rent | $1,120/mo | $1,141/mo | Houston |
| 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. | 24.7% of a year's income | 19.2% of a year's income | Fort Worth |
| Mortgage payment on the benchmark, 20% down 30-year amortization on American monthly compounding, the convention in both. | $1,762/mo at 7.03% | $1,746/mo at 7.03% | Fort Worth |
| Price to household income Benchmark price divided by the median household income below. A ratio is comparable across currencies; the dollars are not. | 5.1× | 4.0× | Fort Worth |
| 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. | $4,392/yr (1.331%, 2025) | $5,046/yr (1.543%, 2025) | Houston |
| 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. | None | None | Even |
| Rent control A cap protects a sitting tenant and does nothing for the next lease, so neither column is simply better. | Forbidden by state law | Forbidden by state law | Not directly comparable |
Houston: About 1.33% of value for a homesteaded owner, worked out on the $330,000 Greater Houston median single-family sale price. A house in the City of Houston and Houston ISD, in Harris County, is taxed by eight units for 2025, which add to 2.12522 per $100 before any exemption. Each takes its own homestead exemption off the appraised value first: Houston ISD the state's $140,000 and a further 20% of its own, Houston City College 17%, and Harris County, the Flood Control District, the Port of Houston Authority, the Hospital District, the Department of Education and the City 20% each. So Harris County levies 0.38096 per $100 on $264,000 after a $66,000 exemption, $1,006; Harris County Flood Control District levies 0.04966 per $100 on $264,000 after a $66,000 exemption, $131; Port of Houston Authority levies 0.0059 per $100 on $264,000 after a $66,000 exemption, $16; Harris County Hospital District levies 0.18761 per $100 on $264,000 after a $66,000 exemption, $495; Harris County Department of Education levies 0.004798 per $100 on $264,000 after a $66,000 exemption, $13; City of Houston levies 0.51919 per $100 on $264,000 after a $66,000 exemption, $1,371; Houston ISD levies 0.8783 per $100 on $124,000 after a $206,000 exemption, $1,089; Houston City College levies 0.098802 per $100 on $273,900 after a $56,100 exemption, $271. The eight come to $4,391 a year, 1.33% of the price. Without a homestead, as a landlord or a buyer who never files, the same house owes $7,013. The median is the region's, and a typical home inside the city is cheaper: on $261,740, Zillow's August 2026 value for a typical City of Houston home, the same eight units come to $3,228, 1.23%, 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. When these figures were retrieved the Harris County Tax Office's table already listed 2026 rates for the county, the Flood Control District, the Hospital District and the Port, but not yet for the City, Houston ISD or the college, so the calculators stay on 2025 until all eight are published. Fort Worth: About 1.54% of value for a homesteaded owner, worked out on the $327,000 median single-family sale price. A house in the City of Fort Worth and Fort Worth ISD, the school district more of the city's residents live in than any other, is taxed by six units for 2025, which add to 2.18908 per $100 before any exemption. Each takes its own homestead exemption off the appraised value first, except one: Fort Worth ISD takes the state's $140,000 and nothing more, Tarrant County College 1% with the state's $5,000 floor, Tarrant County, the City and JPS Health Network 20% each, and the Tarrant Regional Water District, which pays for the Fort Worth Floodway, none at all. So Tarrant County levies 0.1862 per $100 on $261,600 after an exemption of $65,400, $487; City of Fort Worth levies 0.67 per $100 on $261,600 after an exemption of $65,400, $1,753; Fort Worth ISD levies 1.0291 per $100 on $187,000 after an exemption of $140,000, $1,924; Tarrant County College levies 0.11228 per $100 on $322,000 after an exemption of $5,000, $362; JPS Health Network levies 0.165 per $100 on $261,600 after an exemption of $65,400, $432; Tarrant Regional Water District levies 0.0265 per $100 on the full $327,000, with no homestead exemption, $87. The six come to $5,044 a year, 1.54% of the price. Without a homestead, as a landlord or a buyer who never files, the same house owes $7,158. In Keller ISD, the district the second most residents live in, the school line is 1.0852 per $100 after the same $140,000, and the same house comes to $5,149, 1.57%. On $295,800, Zillow's August 2026 value for a typical Fort Worth home, the Fort Worth ISD stack comes to $4,425, 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 City has since adopted 0.70565 for 2026, but when these figures were retrieved the Tarrant County Tax Assessor-Collector's table and the appraisal district's still ran to 2025, so the calculators stay on 2025 until all six units' 2026 rates are published.
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.
| Measure | Houston | Fort Worth | Advantage |
|---|---|---|---|
| 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 published | Not published | Not directly comparable |
| Violent crime per 100,000 | 890 (2025) | 375 (2025) | Fort Worth |
| Property crime per 100,000 | 3,854 (2025) | 2,226 (2025) | Fort Worth |
| 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. | 270 (2025) | 78 (2025) | Not directly comparable |
On the FBI's definitions, violent offenses in Houston went from 28,850 in 2021 to 26,383 in 2022, 25,517 in 2023, 26,758 in 2024 and 21,345 in 2025, a 20% drop in the last year and 26% in four, and property offenses from 97,068 to a peak of 105,522 in 2022, then 104,829, 100,302 and 92,382, 12% below the peak. Motor vehicle theft rose from 15,694 in 2021 to 20,085 in 2023 and fell to 12,516 in 2025. In 2025 the CDE shows aggravated assaults down 19% (18,341 to 14,839), robberies down 24% (6,359 to 4,859), rapes down 20% (1,729 to 1,377) and murders down 18% (329 to 270). HPD's own year-end counts show the same direction: homicides down from 331 to 272, robberies from 6,438 to 4,987 and aggravated assaults from 18,590 to 15,378 (Major Cities Chiefs Association survey, as reported by the Houston Chronicle). The 2025 CDE counts were read on 30 September 2026 from a feed last refreshed on 15 September and can still be revised.
What the rates cover: Computed: 21,345 violent offenses (murder, rape, robbery and aggravated assault) in the FBI Crime Data Explorer's summarized data for the Houston Police Department (ORI TXHPD0000) in calendar 2025, divided by the 2,397,315 Vintage 2025 city population. On the CDE's own agency population of 2,413,559 the rate is 884. HPD's year-end figures as reported to the Major Cities Chiefs Association and quoted by the Houston Chronicle run slightly higher than the CDE's: 272 homicides, 4,987 robberies and 15,378 aggravated assaults, against 270, 4,859 and 14,839. The Chronicle did not give HPD's rape count, so HPD's own total on the FBI definition could not be rebuilt.
Homicides: 270 murders and nonnegligent manslaughters in 2025 in the FBI CDE, against 329 in 2024, about 11.3 per 100,000 on the city population. HPD's own year-end count, obtained by the Houston Chronicle through an open records request, was 272 against 331 in 2024, a 17% drop; nothing fetched explains the gap of two cases in each year between the two series. The high point in the CDE series since 2021 is 474, in 2021.
On the FBI's definitions, violent offenses in Fort Worth went from 5,428 in 2021 to 4,876 in 2022, 4,849 in 2023, 4,641 in 2024 and 3,859 in 2025, a 17% drop in the last year and 29% in four, and property offenses from 25,186 to 26,275, 26,098 and a peak of 27,290 in 2024, then 22,886, 16% below it. Motor vehicle theft rose from 3,687 in 2021 to 5,157 in 2024 and fell to 3,616 in 2025, down 30%. In 2025 the CDE shows aggravated assaults down 18% (3,230 to 2,656), rapes down 18% (613 to 505), robberies down 15% (726 to 620), burglaries down 16% and larcenies down 12%, while murders rose 8% (72 to 78), the one violent measure that went up. Eddie Garcia, Dallas's former police chief, took over the department in September 2025 after months without a permanent chief, and FWPD's own figures for January through August 2026 against the same months of 2025 show robberies down from 436 to 269 and aggravated assaults from 1,842 to 1,557 as well as the drop in murders (WFAA). The 2025 CDE counts were read on 30 September 2026 from a feed last refreshed on 15 September and can still be revised.
What the rates cover: Computed: 3,859 violent offenses (murder, rape, robbery and aggravated assault) in the FBI Crime Data Explorer's summarized data for the Fort Worth Police Department (ORI TX2201200) in calendar 2025, divided by the 1,028,117 Vintage 2025 city population. On the CDE's own agency population of 1,030,410 the rate is also 375. That is the lowest of the Texas cities this site compares, against 532 in San Antonio, 577 in Dallas and 890 in Houston. No FWPD total on this definition was found in anything fetched; the city's quarterly crime reports, as the Fort Worth Star-Telegram described them, count crimes against persons, a broader group that includes assaults and sex offenses, and put them 12% lower in the first half of 2025 than a year earlier.
Homicides: 78 murders and nonnegligent manslaughters in 2025 in the FBI CDE, against 72 in 2024, about 7.6 per 100,000 on the city population. Spectrum News, reading city data in February 2026, also put the year's homicides 8% above 2024. Most of the rise came early: the city's quarterly reports counted 20 homicides in January through March 2025 against 9 a year earlier and 43 in the first half against 31 (Fort Worth Star-Telegram). The CDE series has fallen from 118 in 2021, and 2026 has turned the other way: FWPD counted 36 murders through 31 August against 54 in the same months of 2025 (WFAA).
Winters, summers and what the weather can do to a house
| Measure | Houston | Fort Worth | Advantage |
|---|---|---|---|
| January mean | 12.1 °C | 7.7 °C | Not directly comparable |
| July mean | 29.5 °C | 29.5 °C | Not directly comparable |
| Precipitation a year | 1,317 mm | 898 mm | Not directly comparable |
| Snowfall a year | 0 cm | 4 cm | Not directly comparable |
| Sunshine a year | 2,578 hours | 2,850 hours | Fort Worth |
NOAA NCEI 1991-2020 normals for Houston Bush Intercontinental Airport (station USW00012960), inside the city about 23 miles north of downtown and the station where the National Weather Service keeps Houston's official record: January mean 53.8F, July mean 85.1F, annual mean 70.5F, 51.84 in of precipitation, 0.1 in of snow. August is the warmest month by a tenth of a degree at 85.2F, with a mean high of 94.9F; July's mean high is 94.5F and January's mean low is 43.7F. June (6.00 in) and October (5.46 in) are the wettest months and February (2.97 in) the driest, and rain is spread through the year with no dry season. The normals count 111.3 days a year at 90F or above, 7.0 at 100F or above and 10.1 nights at or below freezing. William P. Hobby Airport (USW00012918), about 7 miles southeast of downtown and nearer the Gulf, averages 55.0F in January and 84.8F in July with 55.62 in of rain, 2.9 days at 100F or above and 4.2 nights at or below freezing; its normals give no snowfall. Converted here to 12.1 C, 29.5 C, 1,317 mm and 0.3 cm. That precipitation is the most of any Texas city this site compares, 344 mm more than Dallas's at Love Field. Sunshine hours are the older 1961-1990 NCDC means (2,578 hours, 59% of possible, and 90 clear days), since the 1991-2020 normals do not include sunshine.
Hazards: Flooding is the defining hazard, from hurricanes, tropical storms and stalled rain alike. Hurricane Harvey made landfall near Port Aransas as a category 4 storm on 25 August 2017 and then stalled inland, and over four days 26 to 47 in (660 to 1,204 mm) of rain fell across Harris County, a maximum of 47.4 in at Clear Creek and I-45 and an average of 33.7 in (856 mm) over the county's 1,777 square miles, about 1 trillion gallons. The Harris County Flood Control District counted 154,170 homes flooded in the county, 68% of them outside the 100-year floodplain and 64% without flood insurance, 60,049 people rescued by government crews and 36 flood deaths in the county; statewide Harvey killed 68 people directly, the most from a landfalling hurricane in Texas since 1919. Bush Intercontinental recorded 31.26 in (794 mm) from 25 to 29 August, including 16.07 in (408 mm) on the 27th, the wettest day in its record since 1969, and Hobby 37.01 in (940 mm). NOAA puts Harvey's cost at $125 billion ($160 billion in 2024 dollars, second only to Katrina on its list). Harvey came after others: Tropical Storm Allison in June 2001 ($8.5 billion, 43 deaths), Hurricane Ike in September 2008 ($30.0 billion, 112 deaths), the Tax Day flood of 17 and 18 April 2016 ($2.7 billion, 8 deaths, with 9.92 in at Bush Intercontinental on the 18th) and Tropical Storm Imelda in September 2019 ($5.0 billion, 5 deaths). Wind and the power grid are the second hazard. On 16 May 2024 a derecho cut power to more than 900,000 customers in the Houston area and killed 8 people, and on 8 July 2024 Hurricane Beryl came ashore near Matagorda as a category 1 storm with 80 kt (92 mph) winds and crossed the western side of the metro, gusting to 72 kt (83 mph) at Bush Intercontinental and dropping 14.88 in (378 mm) at a gauge in western Houston. More than 2.2 million customers in the region lost power that afternoon (the National Hurricane Center cites media reports of 2.7 million across southeastern Texas), many of them for days in July heat. The NHC counted 11 direct deaths in Texas and 34 indirect ones, 14 of them from heat as the power stayed off, and NOAA puts the damage at $7.2 billion. Heat is the constant. The normals give only 7.0 days a year at or above 100F (37.8 C), far fewer than Dallas's 22.4, but 111.3 at or above 90F. Bush Intercontinental's record is 46 days of 100F in 2011, including 24 in a row from 1 to 24 August, and 45 in 2023, and its highest reading is 109F (42.8 C), on 4 September 2000, 27 August 2011 and 24 and 27 August 2023; 2026 had 9 such days through 21 September. Cold is rare and badly handled. Winter Storm Uri brought 1.0 in (2.5 cm) of snow to Bush Intercontinental on 15 February 2021 and a low of 13F (-10.6 C) on the 16th, above the station's record of 7F (-13.9 C) on 23 December 1989. 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, 43 of them in Harris County, more than in any other county. On 20 and 21 January 2025 a Gulf Coast snowstorm left 1.4 in (3.6 cm) at the airport and a low of 20F (-6.7 C) on the 22nd.
NOAA NCEI 1991-2020 normals for Fort Worth Meacham International Airport (station USW00013961), the city-owned general aviation field inside the city about 5 miles north-northwest of downtown: January mean 45.8F, July mean 85.1F, annual mean 65.9F, 35.34 in of precipitation. Meacham's normals carry no snowfall, so the 1.6 in of snow stored here is the normal at Dallas Fort Worth International Airport (USW00003927), about 20 miles northeast of downtown, where the National Weather Service keeps the metro's official record. August is the warmest month by a tenth of a degree at 85.2F, with a mean high of 95.9F; July's mean high is 95.7F and January's mean low is 35.3F. October (4.46 in) is the wettest month, then May and June (4.02 in each), and January (2.05 in) the driest. The normals count 105.5 days a year at 90F or above, 24.1 at 100F or above and 32.8 nights at or below freezing. DFW Airport averages 46.3F in January and 85.7F in July with 37.01 in of rain, 20.3 days at 100F or above and 29.2 nights at or below freezing. Converted here to 7.7 C, 29.5 C, 898 mm and 4.1 cm. Those 24.1 days at 100F are more than Love Field's 22.4 for Dallas and fewer only than Austin's 28.7 among the Texas cities this site compares, although the July mean is 1.2 C below Dallas's. Sunshine hours are the older 1961-1990 NCDC means that Current Results lists for Dallas (2,850 hours, 61% of possible, and 135 clear days); it lists no separate Fort Worth figure, and the 1991-2020 normals do not include sunshine.
Hazards: Hail is the costly routine hazard. On the evening of 5 May 1995 a supercell dropped hail up to softball size on Mayfest, the outdoor festival on the bank of the Trinity River, where more than 10,000 people were caught in the open: more than 400 were hurt and 60 seriously enough to be hospitalized, though no one died at the festival. The storms went on to kill one driver in a swollen creek in western Tarrant County and 19 people in Dallas County, most of them in floodwater, and the National Weather Service puts the damage at about $2 billion, one of the costliest hailstorms in history. Cotality counted more than 235,000 Texas homes hit by damaging hail in 2025, far more than in any other state, with the risk concentrated in Dallas-Fort Worth and the other Texas Triangle metros. Tornadoes have hit the center of the city. At 6:18 pm on 28 March 2000 a tornado touched down near Castleberry High School, about 4 miles west of downtown, and tracked east along West 7th Street, nearly destroying the Cash America building and heavily damaging Mallick Tower before it weakened over downtown, where debris broke 80% of the windows in the Bank One building and 1,300 of the 5,000 in the Union Pacific Resources building. Two people died and about 80 were injured, 6 of them hospitalized; the Texas Tech damage survey rated it F2. A second tornado later that evening did F3 damage in Arlington and Grand Prairie without a death, and NOAA counts the storms of 28 and 29 March across the South at $690 million ($1.27 billion in 2024 dollars). Flooding shaped the city's form. In May 1949 a night of 6 to 12 in of rain overflowed the Trinity, killing 10 people and leaving more than 13,000 homeless, and the Army Corps of Engineers later built the 27 miles of levees of the Fort Worth Floodway, which the Tarrant Regional Water District maintains. The Corps' $1.16 billion Central City project, known locally as Panther Island, is to carry the river around downtown through new bypass channels and protect more than 2,400 acres; work on the northern half of the channel is due to begin late in 2026 and the project to be finished in 2032. Flash floods on the creeks are the more frequent danger: on 21 and 22 August 2022, 9.56 in (243 mm) fell at Meacham over the two days, 5.11 in (130 mm) of it on the 22nd, and the National Weather Service measured 8.41 in in Fort Worth, with flooding reported from Como and the John T. White neighborhood to West 7th Street; the city's 2016 floodplain plan counted more than $1 billion of stormwater improvements needed. Heat is the constant. The normals give Meacham 24.1 days a year at or above 100F (37.8 C). The summer of 2026 has been among its hottest: 55 days at 100F or above through 27 September, fourth in its record after 72 in 2011, 64 in 2023 and 62 in 1998, and 31 in a row from 3 August to 2 September, the longest run it has recorded; its highest reading is 112F (44.4 C), on 12 July 1998 and 4 September 2000. At DFW Airport the National Weather Service counts 52 days of 100F in 2026 through 22 September, tied for fifth, against the record of 71 in 2011. Cold is rare and badly handled. Winter Storm Uri took Meacham to -2F (-18.9 C) on 16 February 2021, tying 31 January 1949 for the lowest in its record, and DFW Airport also fell to -2F, the lowest there since 1953, with 5.0 in (12.7 cm) of snow over the storm. 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, 11 of them in Tarrant County. In January 2026 Winter Storm Fern brought 2.4 in (6.1 cm) of snow and sleet to DFW Airport and a low of 11F (-11.7 C) at Meacham on the 25th.
What people earn and what the government takes
| Measure | Houston | Fort Worth | Advantage |
|---|---|---|---|
| Median household income | $64,361 USD (2024) | $82,503 USD (2024) | Fort Worth |
| Unemployment rate | 5.1% (July 2026) | 4.6% (July 2026) | Fort Worth |
| Sales tax | 8.25% | 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 Houston and Fort Worth 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 USD | Even |
BLS counted 3,495,300 nonfarm jobs in the Houston-Pasadena-The Woodlands MSA in August 2026 (not seasonally adjusted, preliminary), up 44,700 or 1.3% on the year. Construction grew fastest (+5.5%, to 269,000), then professional and business services (+2.6%, to 581,300) and government (+1.9%), with education and health services and leisure and hospitality both up 1.3%, while information (-5.9%), financial activities (-1.2%), mining and logging (-0.5%, to 73,300) and manufacturing (-0.2%, to 240,400) shrank. Trade, transportation and utilities is the largest sector at 695,600 jobs, unchanged on the year. The seasonally adjusted series (SMS48264200000000001) was 3,510,100 in August 2026, 1.2% above August 2025. The Greater Houston Partnership counts 27 Fortune 500 headquarters in the region on the 2026 list, tied with Chicago for second among US metros behind New York and ahead of Dallas-Fort Worth's 24, with a 28th due when Expand Energy moves to Spring; ExxonMobil (No. 9) and Chevron (No. 21) lead them. Port Houston calls the Houston Ship Channel complex the nation's largest port for waterborne tonnage (309.5 million tons in 2023, USACE) and the fifth-ranked US container port by TEUs.
Main sectors: Energy: oil and gas producers, refiners, pipelines and oilfield services (ExxonMobil, Chevron, Phillips 66, ConocoPhillips, Enterprise Products Partners, Baker Hughes, Halliburton, Cheniere Energy), Trade, transportation and utilities, the metro's largest sector (the Port of Houston, the nation's largest port by waterborne tonnage; Sysco; United Airlines at Bush Intercontinental; CenterPoint Energy, NRG Energy), Professional and business services, including engineering and construction (KBR, Quanta Services, Comfort Systems USA, Waste Management), Health care and life sciences (the Texas Medical Center, Memorial Hermann, Houston Methodist, MD Anderson Cancer Center, Texas Children's Hospital), Petrochemicals and advanced manufacturing along the Houston Ship Channel (Westlake, NOV).
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 Houston's own rate for tax year 2025 is 51.919 cents per $100 of taxable value, left unchanged by an 11-3 council vote on 15 October 2025 although the city controller warned it would open a $53 million gap in the $7 billion fiscal 2026 budget; the budget committee chair, who voted against, said there was still room under both the state's and the city's own revenue caps. On 10 June 2026 the council passed a $7.5 billion budget for fiscal 2027 by 15 to 1, closing a projected deficit of more than $200 million with no increase in the property tax rate and a new $5 monthly solid waste fee on residential water bills. The rate for tax year 2026 had not been published in anything fetched. The county, school district, METRO and other levies on the same bill belong to the housing layer.
BLS counted 1,222,100 nonfarm jobs in the Fort Worth-Arlington-Grapevine Metropolitan Division in August 2026 (not seasonally adjusted, preliminary), up 17,800 or 1.5% on the year. Professional and business services grew fastest (+5.0%, to 159,300), then mining, logging and construction (+4.8%, to 92,100), leisure and hospitality (+4.4%, to 145,500) and transportation and warehousing (+2.1%, to 102,600), while financial activities (-2.0%), information (-1.8%) and government (-0.6%, to 136,000) shrank; federal employment fell 9.0%, from 16,700 to 15,200. Manufacturing held at 110,000, of which aerospace product and parts manufacturing was 23,600, up 1.3%. The seasonally adjusted series (SMS48231040000000001) was 1,223,400 in August 2026, 1.5% above August 2025. The Texas Comptroller credits Lockheed Martin with about 49,000 direct and indirect workers in Fort Worth and a $9 billion regional impact, and 25,579 direct employees across Texas, and counts 4,553 direct and 21,266 total jobs and $2.75 billion of state GDP for Naval Air Station Joint Reserve Base Fort Worth in 2025. Hillwood's annual report puts AllianceTexas's economic impact at $12.9 billion in 2025 and $142.9 billion since it opened in 1989, and Hillwood says the Comptroller has recognized it as the primary inland port for the southwestern United States. American Airlines, with 103,440 staff in 2024, and BNSF Railway, with about 36,000, are both headquartered in the city (Wikipedia).
Main sectors: Aerospace and defense (Lockheed Martin Aeronautics, which builds the F-35 at Air Force Plant 4; Bell Textron, headquartered in the city; Naval Air Station Joint Reserve Base Fort Worth, the former Carswell Air Force Base), Airlines and freight rail (American Airlines, headquartered in the city, with its largest hub at DFW Airport; BNSF Railway, headquartered in the city), Logistics and advanced manufacturing at AllianceTexas in far north Fort Worth, which Hillwood says holds 602 companies and 73,134 jobs, Trade, transportation and utilities, the division's largest sector by payroll jobs (289,300 in August 2026), Health care and education (JPS Health Network, Cook Children's Medical Center, Texas Christian University and its medical school).
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. On 15 September 2026 the City Council adopted a $3.33 billion operating budget for fiscal 2027 unanimously and raised the city's rate by 3.565 cents to 70.565 cents per $100 of taxable value on a 7 to 4 vote, to help close a $94 million shortfall. The city says the average homeowner's bill will still fall, by $8.19 to $1,643.64 on a home valued at $232,925, because the Tarrant Appraisal District has not reappraised residential property since 2024 and the average value dropped; the city's total taxable value rose only 0.89%, to $130.2 billion (Fort Worth Report, Community Impact, CBS Texas). The budget also raises stormwater, water, sewer, solid waste and environmental fees by about $7 a month for the average resident. The county, school district, JPS hospital district, Tarrant County College and other levies on the same bill belong to the housing layer.
Whether you need a car
| Measure | Houston | Fort Worth | Advantage |
|---|---|---|---|
| System | METRO buses (more than 80 local routes plus Park & Ride commuter buses on the HOV and HOT lanes), three METRORail light rail lines on 22.7 miles of track (the Red Line, opened in 2004, and the Green and Purple lines, opened in 2015), the Silver Line bus rapid transit in Uptown, METRO curb2curb on-demand service and METROLift paratransit, across a service area of about 1,300 square miles | Trinity Metro buses (147 fixed-route and 76 demand-response vehicles), the 27.2-mile TEXRail commuter line with 9 stations from T&P Station downtown through North Richland Hills and Grapevine to DFW Airport Terminal B (opened January 2019), the Trinity Railway Express to Dallas run with DART, ZIPZONE on-demand zones and the downtown Blue Line circulator; Fort Worth is the only full member, with Forest Hill, Grapevine, North Richland Hills and River Oaks partial members | Not directly comparable |
| Commute by public transit | 3.4% (2024) | 0.7% (2024) | Houston |
| Walk or cycle to work | 2.9% (2024) | 1.1% (2024) | Houston |
| Airport | George Bush Intercontinental Airport (IAH), about 23 miles north of downtown and a hub for United Airlines, handled 48,131,213 passengers in 2025, 0.6% fewer than the 48.4 million of 2024 (FAA figures as cited by Wikipedia; Houston Airports gave no per-airport total for 2025 in anything fetched), and a record 12.4 million international passengers, 2.5% more than in 2024. William P. Hobby Airport (HOU), about 7 miles southeast of downtown and an operating base for Southwest Airlines, handled 13,943,759, 4.5% fewer than 2024's 14.6 million; it kept Skytrax's 5-star rating for a fifth year, the only one in North America. Houston Airports puts the two together at 62 million passengers in 2025, below the record 63.1 million of 2024, and a record 562,809 metric tons of air cargo. | Dallas Fort Worth International Airport (DFW), about 20 miles northeast of downtown Fort Worth and midway between the two cities, handled 85,660,127 passengers in 2025, 2.5% fewer than 2024's 87,817,864, per the airport's December 2025 traffic report; American Airlines, headquartered in Fort Worth, carried 82.6% of them, and TEXRail runs from downtown to Terminal B. Fort Worth Meacham International Airport, owned by the city about 5 miles north-northwest of downtown, has no scheduled airline service and serves general aviation; its 1933 American Airways hangar is on the National Register of Historic Places (Wikipedia). | Not directly comparable |
METRO carried 77,996,900 unlinked trips in 2025, 63,315,900 of them by bus and 12,651,100 on light rail, and about 251,800 a weekday in the second quarter of 2026, 37,700 of them on light rail (APTA ridership reports, as cited by Wikipedia; APTA's PDFs refused the fetcher). METRO's own count for fiscal 2025 is 76.3 million boardings on bus and METRORail, 23.3 million riders on its HOV and HOT lanes and 1.9 million METROLift trips. The authority serves the City of Houston, much of unincorporated Harris County and 14 smaller cities, and is paid for by a 1% sales tax that voters created in 1978. Expansion has stalled: voters approved the METRONext plan in November 2019, including 16 miles of light rail extensions and 75 miles of bus rapid transit, but in June 2024 METRO indefinitely postponed the University Line, once the plan's cornerstone, and in February 2025 it adopted METRONow, which puts safety, cleanliness and reliability of the existing service first.
Trinity Metro carried 6,180,600 unlinked trips in 2025, 4,554,400 of them by bus and 906,800 on TEXRail, and about 22,100 a weekday in the second quarter of 2026, 2,800 of them on TEXRail (APTA ridership reports, as cited by Wikipedia; APTA's PDFs refused the fetcher), against 30.7 million for VIA in San Antonio, 52.8 million for DART and 78.0 million for Houston's METRO. The Trinity Railway Express, which Trinity Metro runs with DART between downtown Fort Worth and downtown Dallas, carried 1,337,600 trips in 2025 (APTA, same source). The system is paid for by a half-cent sales tax Fort Worth has levied since 1984, half what DART's and METRO's cities pay. TEXRail runs every 30 minutes until 7 pm and hourly after, and a 2.1-mile extension to the Medical District on the Near Southside, estimated at about $167 million, is due to break ground by the end of 2026 and open in 2029 (Wikipedia).
Health care, schools and what each city is like
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 Houston's rate was 23.3% (553,576 of 2,370,907), Harris County's 20.8% and the metro's 18.4%. The Texas Medical Center, south of downtown, calls itself the largest medical complex in the world: by its own count 10,000 patient beds, more than 120,000 employees, 10 million patient encounters and 750,000 emergency visits a year, and among its members the world's largest children's hospital and largest cancer hospital (Texas Children's and MD Anderson). Harris Health's Ben Taub Hospital in the medical center, licensed for 402 beds, is the county's public Level I trauma center and treats more than 80,000 emergency patients a year; in May 2024 Harris Health broke ground on a $1.6 billion, 12-story hospital on its Lyndon B. Johnson campus in northeast Houston, due to open in late 2028 as the first Level I trauma center in the county outside the medical center. This file did not verify a wait time figure for primary or specialist care.
Education
Houston ISD, the largest school district in Texas, has been run by a state-appointed board and superintendent, Mike Miles, since the Texas Education Agency took it over in 2023. It counted 168,810 students on its official snapshot of 31 October 2025, down 4.5% from 176,727 a year earlier, and just over 155,600 on 4 September 2026, nearly 10,000 fewer than in September 2025, and it is cutting staff and campus budgets as a result (Houston Chronicle). The Texas Tribune counts 21,000 students lost since the takeover began, a faster decline than any of its urban peers, and about $190 million in state funding with them. Under Miles the number of F-rated campuses fell from 56 to five, but voters rejected a $4.4 billion bond in 2024, the largest Texas school bond ever to fail, and in August 2026 Miles said the official end of the takeover may come at the end of the 2026-27 year. The University of Houston (48,950 students in fall 2025) and Rice University (8,880 in fall 2024) are both inside the city, and Houston Community College renamed itself Houston City College in 2025.
Living there
Houston is the fourth-largest city in the country and the energy capital of its fifth-largest metro, which added 126,720 people in 2024-25, more than any other. It spreads into four counties with 22.7 miles of light rail near the core, and 68.7% of its workers drive alone, though its 3.4% transit share is the highest of the Texas cities this site compares. Water is its hazard: Harvey flooded 154,170 homes in Harris County in 2017, most of them outside the mapped floodplain, and Beryl left more than two million customers without power in July heat in 2024. Summer is long and humid rather than extreme, with far fewer 100F days than Dallas but 111 days a year at 90F or above and 1,317 mm of rain. Texas takes no income tax, 23.3% of the city's residents have no health insurance, and the Texas Medical Center, the largest in the world by its own count, sits a few miles south of downtown. The open questions are fiscal and civic: the council held the property tax rate flat in October 2025 against its controller's warning and passed a fiscal 2027 budget that closes a deficit of more than $200 million without raising it, METRO has shelved the University Line that was once the cornerstone of its expansion plan, and Houston ISD, under state control since 2023, began 2026-27 with nearly 10,000 fewer students than the year before.
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). 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 Fort Worth's rate was 18.9% (189,692 of 1,003,516), Tarrant County's 16.9% and the metro's 16.2%. JPS Health Network, the Tarrant County Hospital District, runs John Peter Smith Hospital, the county's public hospital, a Level I trauma center and the only psychiatric emergency site in the county; on 16 April 2026 it broke ground on a $1.5 billion replacement hospital at South Main and East Morphy streets, part of a $2.5 billion building plan backed by an $800 million bond from 2018, which will take it from 582 beds to more than 740 when it opens in 2030 (Fort Worth Report). Cook Children's Medical Center has 452 licensed beds and a Level II pediatric trauma center (Wikipedia). TCU's Anne Burnett Marion School of Medicine took its first class in 2019. This file did not verify a wait time figure for primary or specialist care.
Education
Fort Worth is served by Fort Worth ISD and, in parts, by fourteen other districts, among them Keller, Northwest, Eagle Mountain-Saginaw, Crowley and Arlington (the 2020 Census school district map, as cited by Wikipedia). Fort Worth ISD is now under state control: after a campus received a fifth straight failing rating, Education Commissioner Mike Morath decided in October 2025 to intervene, and on 24 March 2026 he replaced the elected trustees' authority with a nine-member board of managers led by Pete Geren and named Peter Licata, formerly of Broward County, superintendent. It is the second-largest takeover in Texas history, after Houston ISD's. The board opened by saying roughly 63% of students do not read at grade level and 29% are proficient in math (Fort Worth Report). The district, built for 90,000 students, had 67,315 in 2025-26 on Texas Education Agency data and projected about 66,500 for 2026-27; it has lost more than 12,000 in five years and in May 2025 approved closing 18 campuses by June 2029 (CBS Texas). Texas Christian University (12,980 students in fall 2025) is about 4 miles from downtown, and the city also holds Texas Wesleyan University, UNT Health Fort Worth and Texas A&M University's law school and downtown campus.
Living there
Fort Worth has grown faster than any other US city of a million people: 11.9% since 2020, and 19,512 residents in 2024-25, a gain second only to Charlotte's; it passed a million in 2024. It is the western half of the Dallas-Fort Worth metro and works differently from Dallas: its economy leans on aircraft, airlines and freight, from the F-35 line at Lockheed Martin's plant and Bell's helicopters to the headquarters of American Airlines and BNSF and the warehouses and factories of AllianceTexas, and household income, at $82,503, is higher than in Dallas, Houston or San Antonio. It is built for the car: 74.9% of workers drive alone and 0.7% take transit, the lowest share of any city this site compares, though TEXRail runs to DFW Airport. Violent crime, at 375 per 100,000 on the FBI's counts, is the lowest of the Texas cities here. Summer is long and hot, with 24 days a year at 100F or above and 31 in a row in 2026, and hail and tornadoes are the costly weather. Texas takes no income tax, and 18.9% of residents have no health insurance. The open questions are the costs of growth: the council raised its property tax rate in September 2026 to cover a $94 million gap as appraisals stalled, the state took over the shrinking Fort Worth ISD in March 2026, and the Panther Island flood channels around downtown are not due until 2032.
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 rate and the state's rules are the same on both sides: no transfer or mortgage tax, no rent control, and for a homestead a $140,000 school exemption and a 10% annual cap on appraised value. The prices are different measures. Houston's is the Houston Association of Realtors' median of single-family houses sold across Greater Houston, $330,000 in August 2026, 1.5% below a year earlier, because HAR's city breakdown could not be retrieved. Fort Worth's is the North Texas Real Estate Information System's median of single-family houses sold inside the city, $327,000 in August, 0.9% below, on 805 sales. Zillow's index, which models every home in each city, stood at $261,740 for the City of Houston and $295,800 for the City of Fort Worth in August, so on a measure that is the same in both Fort Worth is the dearer by about $34,000. At 20% down, Houston's $264,000 loan costs about $1,762 a month and Fort Worth's $261,600 loan about $1,746. Property tax is $4,391 a year in Houston and $5,044 in Fort Worth with a homestead, and insurance is budgeted at $450 and $350 a month, both estimates between published averages and neither with a flood policy in it. The three lines come to about $2,578 and $2,516, roughly 48% and 37% of each city's 2024 median household income; of the $62 gap about $16 is the mortgage and $100 the insurance, less the $54 more Fort Worth pays in property tax. The rents are on the same series, Apartment List's September medians for each city, and are close: a one-bedroom at $1,120 in Houston and $1,141 in Fort Worth, a two-bedroom $1,327 and $1,317. Zillow's observed rent index was $1,542 and $1,615 in August.
The definitions match: both cities' figures are the FBI's summarized counts for 2025, divided by Census Vintage 2025 populations and read on 30 September 2026. Fort Worth is the lower on every line. Houston's 21,345 violent offenses come to 890 per 100,000 against Fort Worth's 375 on 3,859, the lowest rate of the Texas cities this site compares, and its 92,382 property offenses to 3,854 against 2,226 on 22,886. Homicide is about half again as common in Houston: 270, about 11.3 per 100,000, against 78 in Fort Worth, about 7.6. The departments' own counts: HPD's year-end figure was 272 homicides, and FWPD counted 36 murders from January through August 2026 against 54 in the same months of 2025. Both are falling, and at about the same pace. Violent offenses dropped 20% in Houston in 2025 and 26% in four years, and 17% and 29% in Fort Worth, though Fort Worth's murders were the one violent measure that rose, from 72 to 78. Motor vehicle theft fell in both, from 20,085 in 2023 to 12,516 in Houston and from 5,157 in 2024 to 3,616 in Fort Worth. Both sets of counts come from a feed last refreshed on 15 September and can still be revised.
The two have the same July and different everything else. July averages 29.5 C at both Bush Intercontinental and Meacham, but January 12.1 C in Houston against 7.7 C in Fort Worth, with 10.1 nights a year at or below freezing against 32.8. Fort Worth's heat is the drier and the more extreme: its normals count 24.1 days a year at or above 37.8 C (100F) against 7.0 in Houston, though 105.5 days at 90F or above against 111.3, and in 2026 Meacham had 55 days of 100F through 27 September, 31 of them in a row. Houston gets 1,317 mm of rain, the most of the Texas cities this site compares, and Fort Worth 898 mm; snow is 0.3 cm against 4.1 cm, the Fort Worth figure DFW Airport's. The hazards differ in kind. Houston's come off the Gulf: Hurricane Harvey flooded 154,170 homes in Harris County in August 2017, 68% of them outside the 100-year floodplain, and Beryl left more than 2.2 million customers in the region without power in July 2024. Fort Worth's costly one is hail. The Mayfest storm of 5 May 1995 dropped hail up to softball size on more than 10,000 people at a festival by the Trinity, hurting more than 400, and did about $2 billion of damage across Tarrant and Dallas counties, and on 28 March 2000 a tornado tracked along West 7th Street into downtown and killed two. Fort Worth floods on its creeks too: 9.56 in (243 mm) fell at Meacham over two days in August 2022. Winter Storm Uri brought 13F (-10.6 C) to Houston and -2F (-18.9 C) to Meacham in February 2021 while ERCOT cut power across the state grid, and Texas counted 43 of its 246 deaths in Harris County and 11 in Tarrant.
Houston's metro is a labor market of its own; Fort Worth's is half of one. BLS counted 3,495,300 nonfarm jobs around Houston in August 2026, 1.3% more than a year earlier, and 1,222,100 in the Fort Worth-Arlington-Grapevine division, Fort Worth's half of the Dallas-Fort Worth metro, 1.5% more. Unemployment is on the same unadjusted basis in both, 5.1% around Houston and 4.6% in the Fort Worth division in July, against 4.4% nationally. Houston runs on energy, the Port of Houston and the Texas Medical Center, and the Greater Houston Partnership counts 27 Fortune 500 headquarters in the region, led by ExxonMobil and Chevron. Fort Worth runs on aircraft, airlines and freight: Lockheed Martin builds the F-35 at Air Force Plant 4, with about 49,000 direct and indirect workers in the city on the Texas Comptroller's count, Bell Textron, American Airlines and BNSF Railway have their headquarters there, and AllianceTexas in the far north holds 73,134 jobs by its developer's count. Federal jobs in the Fort Worth division fell 9.0% on the year. Neither profile carries a wage figure. City median household income was $64,361 in Houston and $82,503 in Fort Worth in 2024, and the metros' $81,417 and $92,733. The state's taxes are shared: no income tax, so $100,000 pays $13,449 in both for 2025, and 8.25% sales tax. The property tax stacks are not. Houston's eight units add to 2.12522 per $100 and Fort Worth's six to 2.18908, and Houston ISD adds 20% to the state's $140,000 where Fort Worth ISD adds nothing, while the Tarrant Regional Water District takes no homestead exemption at all. So the same $327,000 house pays $4,340 in Houston and $5,044 in Fort Worth, and Houston's $330,000 would pay $5,104 on Fort Worth's stack.
Neither city has much transit, and Fort Worth has the least of any city this site compares. In 2024, 3.4% of Houston workers took transit and 2.9% walked or cycled, against 0.7% and 1.1% in Fort Worth; 68.7% of Houston's workers drove alone against 74.9%, and 10.9% and 10.5% worked from home. METRO carried 77,996,900 trips in 2025, 12,651,100 of them on 22.7 miles of light rail. Trinity Metro carried 6,180,600, 906,800 of them on TEXRail, the 27.2-mile commuter line from downtown Fort Worth to DFW Airport, and runs the Trinity Railway Express to Dallas with DART. Houston's expansion has stalled: METRO postponed the University Line, once the centerpiece of the METRONext plan voters approved in 2019, indefinitely in June 2024. Fort Worth's is small: a 2.1-mile TEXRail extension to the Medical District, estimated at about $167 million, is due to break ground by the end of 2026 and open in 2029. Transit takes 1% of the sales tax for METRO and half a cent in Fort Worth, which it has levied since 1984. Both cities have a hub. Bush Intercontinental, United's, handled 48,131,213 passengers in 2025, a record 12.4 million of them international, and Hobby 13,943,759. DFW, American's largest hub, about 20 miles northeast of downtown Fort Worth, handled 85,660,127, more than the two Houston airports together, and American, which carried 82.6% of them, is headquartered in Fort Worth.
Coverage is Texas's problem in both cities, and the larger one in Houston. The state has not expanded Medicaid and had the highest uninsured rate of any state in 2024, 16.7%; the City of Houston's rate was 23.3% and the City of Fort Worth's 18.9%, and their counties' 20.8% and 16.9%. Houston has the Texas Medical Center, by its own count the largest medical complex in the world, with 10,000 patient beds, MD Anderson and Texas Children's, and Harris Health's Ben Taub Hospital, the county's public Level I trauma center. Fort Worth's public hospital is JPS Health Network's John Peter Smith Hospital, Tarrant County's Level I trauma center and its only psychiatric emergency site, which broke ground on 16 April 2026 on a $1.5 billion replacement that will take it from 582 beds to more than 740 in 2030; Cook Children's Medical Center has 452 licensed beds. Neither profile verified a wait time. Both cities' largest school districts are run by the state and shrinking. Houston ISD, the largest district in Texas and under a state-appointed board since 2023, counted just over 155,600 students on 4 September 2026, nearly 10,000 fewer than a year earlier. Fort Worth ISD, built for 90,000, had 67,315 in 2025-26 and has approved closing 18 campuses by June 2029, and on 24 March 2026 the Education Commissioner replaced its elected trustees with a board of managers, the second-largest takeover in Texas after Houston's. Fort Worth ISD covers only about half the city; fourteen other districts serve the rest. The University of Houston enrolled 48,950 in fall 2025 and Rice 8,880 in fall 2024; TCU, about 4 miles from downtown Fort Worth, has 12,980.
What people underestimate is that the smaller city is growing faster in absolute numbers too. Houston had 2,397,315 residents in July 2025 and Fort Worth 1,028,117, but Fort Worth added 19,512 in the last year, the second-largest gain of any US city, against Houston's 11,515, and grew 11.9% from 2020, the fastest of the twelve US cities of more than a million, against 4.2%. The metros are the two that grew most in the country: Houston's added 126,720 people in 2024-25 and Dallas-Fort Worth 123,557. Harris County lost 43,377 more residents to the rest of the country than it gained, and Tarrant 6,978. So $4,391 and $5,044 are bills for an address inside each city and one school district, Houston ISD in Harris County and Fort Worth ISD in Tarrant, and the edges add charges neither figure includes. Newer Houston subdivisions often pay a municipal utility district, at a median of about 0.54 per $100 in 2025. Newer Fort Worth ones often sit in a public improvement district, 0.155 per $100 on a house in Park Glen or $482 to $1,559 a year per lot in Walsh Ranch's first phase, and in Keller ISD, the district the second most residents live in, the same $327,000 house pays $5,149. The city rates are moving apart. The City of Houston's has been 51.919 cents since 2023 under a charter cap on its revenue. Fort Worth's council voted 7 to 4 on 15 September 2026 to raise the City's by 3.565 cents, from the 67 cents in the $5,044 to 70.565, to help close a $94 million shortfall, though the City says the average homeowner's bill will still fall a little because the appraisal district has not reappraised houses since 2024.
Better here
- The Greater Houston Partnership counts 27 Fortune 500 headquarters in the region for 2026, led by ExxonMobil and Chevron, and Port Houston calls itself the country's largest port by waterborne tonnage.
- The Texas Medical Center, by its own count the largest medical complex in the world, has 10,000 patient beds, with MD Anderson and Texas Children's among its members.
- METRO carried 77,996,900 trips in 2025, 12,651,100 of them on 22.7 miles of light rail, against Trinity Metro's 6,180,600, and 3.4% of workers took transit against 0.7%.
- January averages 12.1 C with 10.1 nights a year at or below freezing, and the normals count 7.0 days at or above 37.8 C (100F), against 7.7 C, 32.8 and 24.1 at Meacham.
- Property tax on the regional median is $4,391 a year with a homestead against $5,044 on Fort Worth's, and on the same $327,000 house the eight units take $4,340.
- Zillow's index for the City of Houston stood at $261,740 in August 2026, against $295,800 for the City of Fort Worth on the same measure.
Worse here
- Violent crime was 890 per 100,000 in 2025 against 375 in Fort Worth on the same FBI counts, and there were 270 homicides, about 11.3 per 100,000, against 78 at about 7.6.
- City median household income was $64,361 in 2024 against $82,503 in Fort Worth, so a similar carry takes about 48% of it against 37%.
- The City of Houston's uninsured rate was 23.3% in 2024 against 18.9% in the City of Fort Worth, and Harris County's 20.8% against Tarrant's 16.9%.
- Harvey flooded 154,170 homes in Harris County in 2017, 68% of them outside the 100-year floodplain, and the $450 a month insurance budget, $100 above Fort Worth's, has no flood policy in it.
- Rain totals 1,317 mm a year against 898 mm in Fort Worth, and Beryl cut power to more than 2.2 million customers in the region in July 2024.
- A municipal utility district, common in newer subdivisions at a median of about 0.54 per $100 in 2025, is not in the $4,391, and the city has no zoning.
Choose Houston if
- you work in energy, petrochemicals, the port, engineering or at the Texas Medical Center
- you fly United, whose hub at Bush Intercontinental handled a record 12.4 million international passengers in 2025
- you want light rail inside the city and a transit system that carried 77,996,900 trips in 2025
- you would take humidity and a hurricane season for a 12.1 C January and 7.0 days a year at 100F rather than 24.1
The Houston guide · Neighborhoods · Houston rent vs buy · Houston mortgage calculator
Better here
- Violent crime was 375 per 100,000 in 2025, the lowest of the Texas cities this site compares, against 890 in Houston, and there were 78 homicides, about 7.6 per 100,000, against 270 at about 11.3.
- City median household income was $82,503 in 2024 against $64,361 in Houston, so a similar carry takes about 37% of it against 48%.
- The City of Fort Worth's uninsured rate was 18.9% in 2024 against 23.3% in the City of Houston, and Tarrant County's 16.9% against Harris County's 20.8%.
- Rain totals 898 mm a year against 1,317 mm, and home insurance is budgeted at $350 a month against $450.
- The city added 19,512 residents in 2024-25, the second-largest gain of any US city, against 11,515 in Houston, and grew 11.9% from 2020 against 4.2%.
- DFW, American's largest hub, handled 85,660,127 passengers in 2025, more than Bush Intercontinental and Hobby together, and TEXRail runs to it from downtown.
Worse here
- On the same $327,000 house the six taxing units take $5,044 a year against $4,340 from Houston's eight, because Fort Worth ISD adds nothing to the state's $140,000 and the water district exempts nothing.
- Zillow's index for the City of Fort Worth stood at $295,800 in August 2026, against $261,740 for the City of Houston on the same measure.
- In 2024, 0.7% of workers took transit, the lowest share of any city this site compares, against 3.4% in Houston.
- January averages 7.7 C with 32.8 nights a year at or below freezing, and the normals count 24.1 days at or above 37.8 C (100F), against 12.1 C, 10.1 and 7.0 in Houston.
- Hail is the costly routine hazard: the Mayfest storm of 1995 hurt more than 400 people and did about $2 billion of damage across Tarrant and Dallas counties.
- Fort Worth ISD has been run by a state-appointed board since 24 March 2026 and has approved closing 18 campuses by June 2029.
Choose Fort Worth if
- you work in aerospace, defense manufacturing, airlines, freight rail or logistics
- you want the lower violent crime and homicide rates, on figures built the same way
- you fly American, or want a hub airport reached by train from downtown
- you would take a colder winter and more 100F days for a drier year and no hurricane season
The Fort Worth guide · Neighborhoods · Fort Worth rent vs buy · Fort Worth mortgage calculator
Houston or Fort Worth, in short
Is Houston or Fort Worth cheaper to live in?
About level, to own, and Fort Worth by a clear margin against local pay. Both cities were priced at the same 7.03% mortgage rate of 24 September 2026, so the figures net directly, though the prices are different measures. HAR's single-family median for all of Greater Houston was $330,000 in August 2026 and the NTREIS single-family median inside Fort Worth $327,000; Zillow's index for each city turns the order, $261,740 for Houston against $295,800 for Fort Worth. At 20% down the mortgage is about $1,762 against $1,746. Property tax is $4,391 against $5,044 with a homestead, and insurance $450 a month against $350, so the three lines come to about $2,578 in Houston and $2,516 in Fort Worth, roughly 48% and 37% of each city's median household income, $64,361 and $82,503. Renting is close on the same series, Apartment List's September medians: $1,327 for a two-bedroom in Houston against $1,317. Income tax is nil in both and sales tax 8.25% in both.
Is Houston or Fort Worth safer?
Fort Worth, on every line, on figures built the same way. Both are the FBI's summarized counts for 2025 divided by Census estimates, read on 30 September 2026. Violent offenses ran 890 per 100,000 in Houston against 375 in Fort Worth, property offenses 3,854 against 2,226, and homicide was 270 in Houston, about 11.3 per 100,000, against 78 in Fort Worth, about 7.6. Both improved in 2025, violent offenses dropping 20% in Houston and 17% in Fort Worth, though Fort Worth's murders rose from 72 to 78. Every rate here is a count divided by a Census estimate rather than a published rate, and the counts can still be revised.
Which has the better weather, Houston or Fort Worth?
It depends which discomfort you mind more. The July mean is the same, 29.5 C at both stations. Houston is humid, wetter and milder in winter: 1,317 mm of rain against 898 mm, and a 12.1 C January with 10.1 freezing nights against 7.7 C and 32.8. Fort Worth is drier and has more of the extreme days: 24.1 a year at or above 37.8 C (100F) against 7.0, and 55 of them at Meacham in 2026 through 27 September. The hazards differ in kind. Houston's are hurricanes and flooding off the Gulf, from Harvey in 2017, which flooded 154,170 homes in Harris County, to Beryl in 2024, which cut power to more than 2.2 million customers. Fort Worth's are hail and tornadoes, and its creeks flood too. Home insurance is budgeted at $450 a month in Houston and $350 in Fort Worth, and in both flood cover is a separate policy.
Why does Fort Worth's house pay more property tax than Houston's?
Because Fort Worth's six units levy a little more and exempt less. The state frame is the same: a $140,000 homestead exemption from the school levy and a 10% annual cap on a homestead's appraised value that starts after purchase. Fort Worth's six units add to 2.18908 per $100 and Houston's eight to 2.12522. In Houston almost every unit takes 20% off a homestead and Houston ISD adds 20% on top of the state's $140,000. In Fort Worth, Tarrant County, the City and JPS Health Network take 20%, Tarrant County College 1% with a $5,000 floor, Fort Worth ISD, the largest line at 1.0291, the state's $140,000 and nothing more, and the Tarrant Regional Water District nothing at all. So Fort Worth's $327,000 median pays $5,044 and Houston's $330,000 pays $4,391, and on the same $327,000 house Houston's stack would charge $4,340. Without a homestead the two medians would owe $7,158 and $7,013. Neither figure includes a Houston utility district or a Fort Worth improvement district.
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.
- 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
- Annual Estimates of the Resident Population for Incorporated Places of 50,000 or More (all states, SUB-EST2025) · US Census Bureau · retrieved Supports: City population, Character
- 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
- Crime Data Explorer summarized agency data, Houston Police Department (TXHPD0000): 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
- Houston homicides drop 17% in 2025, as experts say multiple factors drive national trend · Houston Chronicle · retrieved Supports: Homicides, Crime trend
- Crime continues downward surge in 2025 in Houston and nationwide (Major Cities Chiefs Association year-end survey) · Houston Chronicle · retrieved Supports: Violent crime rate, Crime trend
- US Climate Normals 1991-2020, station USW00012960 Houston Bush Intercontinental Airport (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 53.8F, July 85.1F and August 85.2F from the monthly series, and annual mean 70.5F, precipitation 51.84 in, snowfall 0.1 in and the counts of days at 90F and 100F and nights at freezing from dataset=normals-annualseasonal-1991-2020 for the same station
- US Climate Normals 1991-2020, station USW00012918 Houston William P. Hobby Airport (Access Data Service) · NOAA National Centers for Environmental Information · retrieved Supports: Climate normals
- Global Historical Climatology Network daily summaries, Houston Bush Intercontinental Airport (USW00012960), 1969-2026 · NOAA National Centers for Environmental Information · retrieved Supports: Climate hazards, 31.26 in from 25 to 29 August 2017 and 16.07 in on 27 August 2017, 9.92 in on 18 April 2016, 46 days at or above 100F in 2011 and 24 in a row from 1 to 24 August 2011, 45 in 2023, 9 in 2026 through 21 September, 109F on 4 September 2000, 27 August 2011 and 24 and 27 August 2023, 1.0 in of snow on 15 February 2021 and 13F on 16 February 2021, 7F on 23 December 1989, 1.4 in of snow on 20 and 21 January 2025 and 20F on 22 January 2025
- Global Historical Climatology Network daily summaries, Houston William P. Hobby Airport (USW00012918), 1930-2026 · NOAA National Centers for Environmental Information · retrieved Supports: Climate hazards, 37.01 in from 25 to 29 August 2017
- Average Annual Sunshine in US Cities · Current Results (NCDC Comparative Climatic Data, 1961-1990) · retrieved Supports: Sunshine hours, Climate normals
- 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
- Hurricane Harvey & Its Impacts on Southeast Texas (August 25-29, 2017) · National Weather Service, Houston/Galveston · retrieved Supports: Climate hazards
- Immediate Flood Report, Final Report: Hurricane Harvey, 2017 · Harris County Flood Control District · retrieved Supports: Climate hazards, Character
- National Hurricane Center Tropical Cyclone Report: Hurricane Beryl (AL022024) · NOAA National Hurricane Center · retrieved Supports: Climate hazards
- Houston power outages: Hurricane Beryl plunges 2.2 million into the dark · Houston Public Media · retrieved Supports: Climate hazards, Character
- Public Utility Commission releases investigative report on CenterPoint's response to Hurricane Beryl · The Texas Tribune · retrieved Supports: Climate hazards
- February 2021 Winter Storm-Related Deaths, Texas (mortality surveillance report) · Texas Department of State Health Services · retrieved Supports: Climate hazards
- The Timeline and Events of the February 2021 Texas Electric Grid Blackouts · The University of Texas at Austin Energy Institute · retrieved Supports: Climate hazards
- ACS 2024 1-year tables B08301 and B19013 for Houston city and the Houston-Pasadena-The Woodlands MSA · Census Reporter API (US Census Bureau ACS) · retrieved Supports: Median household income, Transit commute share, Walk and cycle commute share, Character
- ACS 2024 1-year table B27001 (health insurance coverage) for the 50 states, DC, the US, Harris County, Houston city and the Houston-Pasadena-The Woodlands MSA · Census Reporter API (US Census Bureau ACS) · retrieved Supports: Health care, Character
- Local Area Unemployment Statistics, Houston-Pasadena-The Woodlands, TX MSA (LAUMT482642000000003), Harris, Fort Bend and Montgomery counties, and the US rate (LNU04000000), not seasonally adjusted · US Bureau of Labor Statistics · retrieved Supports: Unemployment rate
- Current Employment Statistics, Houston-Pasadena-The Woodlands, TX MSA: total nonfarm (SMU48264200000000001, SMS48264200000000001) and supersectors (SMU4826420xx00000001) · US Bureau of Labor Statistics · retrieved Supports: Main sectors, Labour market
- Fortune 500 Companies (Houston ranks second among US metro areas in Fortune 500 headquarters) · Greater Houston Partnership · retrieved Supports: Main sectors, Labour market
- 27 Houston companies make Fortune 500 for 2026, led by energy giants · CultureMap Houston (InnovationMap) · retrieved Supports: Main sectors, Labour market
- Port Houston Statistics · Port Houston · retrieved Supports: Main sectors, Labour market
- City Sales and Use Tax (city rate table) · Texas Comptroller of Public Accounts · retrieved Supports: Sales tax
- Transit Sales and Use Tax (Houston MTA, effective October 1, 1978) · Texas Comptroller of Public Accounts · retrieved Supports: Sales tax, Transit ridership
- Texas Tax Rates & Rankings · Tax Foundation · retrieved Supports: Top marginal income tax, Income tax on $100,000, Tax notes, Character
- 2025 Tax Brackets and Federal Income Tax Rates · Tax Foundation · retrieved Supports: Top marginal income tax, Income tax on $100,000
- 2026 Tax Brackets and Federal Income Tax Rates · Tax Foundation · retrieved Supports: Top marginal income tax, Income tax on $100,000
- Property Tax Exemptions · Texas Comptroller of Public Accounts · retrieved Supports: Tax notes
- Houston won't raise property tax rate despite budget concerns · The Bond Buyer · retrieved Supports: Tax notes, Character
- City of Houston passes Whitmire's $7.5 billion budget for fiscal year 2027 · Houston Public Media · retrieved Supports: Tax notes, Character
- About METRO · Metropolitan Transit Authority of Harris County (METRO) · retrieved Supports: Transit system, Transit ridership
- Metropolitan Transit Authority of Harris County (citing the APTA Transit Ridership Reports, Q4 2025 and Q2 2026, through Template:American transit ridership) · Wikipedia · retrieved Supports: Transit system, Transit ridership, Character
- Houston Airports closes 2025 with strong international growth, record cargo performance · Houston Airports · retrieved Supports: Airport passengers
- Houston Airports earns global honors as record travel powers momentum · Houston Airports · retrieved Supports: Airport passengers
- Houston Airports shatters passenger record with 63.1 million travelers in 2024 · Houston Airports · retrieved Supports: Airport passengers
- George Bush Intercontinental Airport (2025 passenger totals from the FAA, location, United Airlines hub) · Wikipedia · retrieved Supports: Airport passengers, Climate normals
- William P. Hobby Airport (2025 passenger totals from the FAA, location, Southwest Airlines) · Wikipedia · retrieved Supports: Airport passengers, Climate normals
- Status of State Medicaid Expansion Decisions · KFF · retrieved Supports: Health care
- About Us (TMC at a Glance) · Texas Medical Center · retrieved Supports: Health care, Character
- Harris Health Ben Taub Hospital · Harris Health · retrieved Supports: Health care
- Harris Health System Breaks Ground on Northeast Houston Hospital · Harris Health · retrieved Supports: Health care
- HISD cuts staff, campus budgets after enrollment drops nearly 10,000 from last September · Houston Chronicle · retrieved Supports: Education, Character
- HISD reports about 168,800 students enrolled in 2025-26 school year, a loss of 4.5% · Houston Chronicle · retrieved Supports: Education
- Mike Miles expects HISD's state takeover to end after this school year · Houston Chronicle · retrieved Supports: Education
- High costs, dwindling enrollment: Is Houston ISD's playbook under takeover sustainable? · The Texas Tribune · retrieved Supports: Education, Character
- University of Houston (fall 2025 enrollment) · Wikipedia · retrieved Supports: Education
- Rice University (fall 2024 enrollment) · Wikipedia · retrieved Supports: Education
- Houston City College (formerly Houston Community College, 1971-2025) · Wikipedia · retrieved Supports: Education
- Crime Data Explorer summarized agency data, Fort Worth Police Department (TX2201200): 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, Character
- Dallas sees drop in violent crime while Fort Worth sees increase in homicides · Spectrum News · retrieved Supports: Homicides, Crime trend
- After 'puzzling' spike in homicides, Fort Worth leaders look to new police chief · Fort Worth Star-Telegram (via Yahoo News) · retrieved Supports: Violent crime rate, Homicides
- Eddie Garcia marks one year as Fort Worth police chief, shares reasons behind city's drop in violent crime · WFAA (via Yahoo News) · retrieved Supports: Homicides, Crime trend
- US Climate Normals 1991-2020, station USW00013961 Fort Worth Meacham International Airport (Access Data Service) · NOAA National Centers for Environmental Information · retrieved Supports: January mean, July mean, Annual precipitation, Climate normals, Climate hazards, Character, January 45.8F, July 85.1F and August 85.2F from the monthly series, which carries no snowfall normal for this station, and annual mean 65.9F, precipitation 35.34 in and the counts of days at 90F and 100F and nights at freezing from dataset=normals-annualseasonal-1991-2020 for the same station
- US Climate Normals 1991-2020, station USW00003927 Dallas Fort Worth International Airport (Access Data Service) · NOAA National Centers for Environmental Information · retrieved Supports: Annual snowfall, Climate normals, 1.6 in of snow, January 46.3F, July 85.7F, 37.01 in of precipitation, 20.3 days at 100F and 29.2 nights at freezing, the last three from dataset=normals-annualseasonal-1991-2020
- Global Historical Climatology Network daily summaries, Fort Worth Meacham International Airport (USW00013961), 1946-1953 and 1992-2026 · NOAA National Centers for Environmental Information · retrieved Supports: Climate hazards, Character, 55 days at or above 100F in 2026 through 27 September, 72 in 2011, 64 in 2023 and 62 in 1998, 31 in a row from 3 August to 2 September 2026, 112F on 12 July 1998 and 4 September 2000, -2F on 16 February 2021 and 31 January 1949, 4.45 in on 21 August 2022 and 5.11 in on 22 August 2022, 11F on 25 January 2026
- Global Historical Climatology Network daily summaries, Dallas Fort Worth International Airport (USW00003927), 1953-2026 · NOAA National Centers for Environmental Information · retrieved Supports: Climate hazards, -2F on 16 February 2021, 5.0 in of snow on 14 and 17 February 2021, 2.4 in of snow and sleet on 24 and 25 January 2026
- Dallas/Fort Worth: Annual and Consecutive 100 Degree Days (last updated 22 September 2026) · National Weather Service, Fort Worth/Dallas · retrieved Supports: Climate hazards
- Mayfest Hailstorm, May 5, 1995 · National Weather Service, Fort Worth/Dallas · retrieved Supports: Climate hazards
- Cotality 2026 Report: Hail risk now rivals major hurricanes (2026 Severe Convective Storm Risk Report) · Cotality · retrieved Supports: Climate hazards
- March 28, 2000: 10th Anniversary, a review of the March 28, 2000 tornadoes affecting Fort Worth and Arlington (from NWS Storm Data) · National Weather Service, Fort Worth/Dallas · retrieved Supports: Climate hazards
- Damage Survey and Assessment of Fort Worth Tornado, 28 March 2000 · Texas Tech University Wind Science and Engineering Research Center · retrieved Supports: Climate hazards
- 2000 Fort Worth tornado outbreak · Wikipedia · retrieved Supports: Climate hazards
- Flood Protection · Tarrant Regional Water District · retrieved Supports: Climate hazards
- Panther Island bypass project moves forward after Trinity River dams, flood storage delays · Fort Worth Report · retrieved Supports: Climate hazards, Character
- 'Boom, here we're hit with it again.' How historic rains flooded homes and neighborhoods across Tarrant County · Fort Worth Report · retrieved Supports: Climate hazards
- ACS 2024 1-year tables B08301 and B19013 for Fort Worth city, Tarrant County 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
- ACS 2024 1-year table B27001 (health insurance coverage) for the 50 states, DC, the US, Tarrant County, Fort Worth city and the Dallas-Fort Worth-Arlington MSA · Census Reporter API (US Census Bureau ACS) · retrieved Supports: Health care, Character
- Local Area Unemployment Statistics, Fort Worth-Arlington-Grapevine, TX Metropolitan Division (LAUDV482310400000003), the Dallas-Fort Worth-Arlington MSA (LAUMT481910000000003), Fort Worth city (LAUCT482700000000003), Tarrant County (LAUCN484390000000003) and the US rate (LNU04000000), not seasonally adjusted · US Bureau of Labor Statistics · retrieved Supports: Unemployment rate
- Current Employment Statistics, Fort Worth-Arlington-Grapevine, TX Metropolitan Division: total nonfarm (SMU48231040000000001, SMS48231040000000001), supersectors (SMU4823104xx00000001) and aerospace product and parts manufacturing (SMU48231043133640001) · US Bureau of Labor Statistics · retrieved Supports: Main sectors, Labour market
- Naval Air Station Joint Reserve Base Fort Worth (Texas military installations economic impact, 2025) · Texas Comptroller of Public Accounts · retrieved Supports: Main sectors, Labour market, Character
- AllianceTexas Drives $142.9 Billion in Economic Impact for North Texas · Hillwood · retrieved Supports: Main sectors, Labour market, Character
- United States Air Force Plant 4 (Lockheed Martin Aeronautics, F-35 production) · Wikipedia · retrieved Supports: Main sectors
- American Airlines (headquarters, DFW hub, employees) · Wikipedia · retrieved Supports: Main sectors, Labour market, Airport passengers
- BNSF Railway (headquarters, employees) · Wikipedia · retrieved Supports: Main sectors, Labour market
- Bell Textron (headquarters) · Wikipedia · retrieved Supports: Main sectors
- Special Purpose District Sales and Use Tax (Fort Worth Crime Control District, effective October 1, 1995) · Texas Comptroller of Public Accounts · retrieved Supports: Sales tax
- Fort Worth passes $4.35B budget and property tax rate increase · Community Impact · retrieved Supports: Tax notes, Character
- Slightly lower property tax bills part of Fort Worth's $3.33B budget for 2027, leaders say · CBS Texas · retrieved Supports: Tax notes
- Fort Worth proposes property tax rate bump, cost cuts to close $94M shortfall for 2027 · Fort Worth Report · retrieved Supports: Tax notes, Character
- Trinity Metro (service area, members, services, fleet, citing the APTA Transit Ridership Reports, Q4 2025 and Q2 2026) · Wikipedia · retrieved Supports: Transit system, Transit ridership
- TEXRail (length, stations, opening, frequency, ridership, Medical District extension) · Wikipedia · retrieved Supports: Transit system, Transit ridership, Airport passengers
- Template:American transit ridership (APTA Transit Ridership Reports, Q4 2025 and Q2 2026) · Wikipedia · retrieved Supports: Transit ridership
- DFW Total Passengers, December 2025 (calendar year 2025 vs 2024) · Dallas Fort Worth International Airport · retrieved Supports: Airport passengers
- Fort Worth Meacham International Airport (ownership, general aviation, history) · Wikipedia · retrieved Supports: Airport passengers, Climate normals
- A new era: JPS breaks ground on $1.5B hospital · Fort Worth Report · retrieved Supports: Health care
- JPS Health Network (Tarrant County Hospital District, John Peter Smith Hospital) · Wikipedia · retrieved Supports: Health care
- Cook Children's Medical Center · Wikipedia · retrieved Supports: Health care
- Texas Education Agency Appoints Board of Managers and Names New Superintendent to Lead Fort Worth ISD · Texas Education Agency · retrieved Supports: Education
- 'We failed our kids': New Fort Worth ISD board signals urgency as state takeover begins · Fort Worth Report · retrieved Supports: Education, Character
- As enrollment drops, FWISD to shift bilingual, special ed services closer to campuses · Fort Worth Report · retrieved Supports: Education, Character
- Fort Worth ISD board gives final approval to close 18 schools amid budget woes, enrollment decline · CBS Texas · retrieved Supports: Education
- Fort Worth, Texas (school districts serving the city, citing the 2020 Census school district reference map for Tarrant County; colleges and universities) · Wikipedia · retrieved Supports: Education
- Texas Christian University (fall 2025 enrollment, location, School of Medicine) · Wikipedia · retrieved Supports: Education, Health care
- HAR.com reports more choices and steady prices in Houston's August housing market · My Neighborhood News, republishing the Houston Association of REALTORS' August 2026 release · retrieved Supports: 7,100 single-family sales in Greater Houston in August 2026, down 11.5% from August 2025, A median single-family sale price of $330,000, down 1.5% or $5,000 from August 2025, and an average of $426,760, up 1.2%, A median of $330,000 for existing single-family homes, down 2.9%, 38,947 active single-family listings and a 5.3-month supply, 405 townhouse and condominium sales, unchanged, at a median of $195,000, down 7.1%, and an 8.8-month supply
- Greater Houston area home sales on the decline · Community Impact · retrieved Supports: From the August 2026 monthly housing update of the Houston Association of Realtors, published 16 September 2026, Single-family sales down 11.5% and the median single-family price down $5,000 to $330,000
- Monthly update: home sales, August 2026 · Greater Houston Partnership · retrieved Supports: 59,843 single-family sales in the region year to date through August 2026, according to the Houston Association of Realtors, A 12-month average of the median MLS sale price of roughly $331,000 in August 2026, down about one percent on a year earlier
- Zillow Home Value Index, all homes, middle tier, smoothed and seasonally adjusted, by city · Zillow Research · retrieved Supports: A typical home value of $261,740 for the city of Houston (region 39051) in August 2026, $267,880 in August 2025, so a fall of 2.3% over the year
- Zillow Home Value Index, single-family and condominium series, by city · Zillow Research · retrieved Supports: A typical single-family value of $267,956 in the city of Houston in August 2026, against $274,277 a year earlier, down 2.3%, A typical condominium value of $131,763 in the same month, against $140,224, down 6.0%, 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
- Houston Rent Report, October 2026 · Apartment List · retrieved Supports: A median rent of $1,120 for a one-bedroom and $1,327 for a two-bedroom in the city of Houston, and $1,269 across all bedroom sizes, Rents flat over September and down 2.3% over the past 12 months, A metro-wide median of $1,335, 5.0% above the city's
- Apartments for rent in Houston, TX: average rent · Apartment List · retrieved Supports: Average listed rents of $1,299 and up for a studio, $1,309 and up for one bedroom, $1,630 and up for two, and $2,102 and up for three or more
- FY 2026 fair market rents, Houston-The Woodlands-Sugar Land, TX HUD Metro FMR Area · United States Department of Housing and Urban Development · retrieved Supports: FY 2026 fair market rents of $1,323 for one bedroom, $1,573 for two and $2,116 for three, as gross rents including utilities
- Zillow Observed Rent Index, all homes plus multifamily, smoothed, by city · Zillow Research · retrieved Supports: An observed rent index of $1,542 for the city of Houston in August 2026, against $1,544 a year earlier, down 0.13%
- Jurisdictions: homestead exemptions and tax rates · Harris Central Appraisal District · retrieved Supports: 2025 rates per $100: Harris County 0.380960, Harris County Flood Control District 0.049660, Harris County Port of Houston Authority 0.005900, Harris County Hospital District 0.187610, Harris County Department of Education 0.004798, City of Houston 0.519190, Houston ISD 0.878300, Houston City College 0.098802, Homestead exemptions of 20% for every one of those units except Houston City College, which grants 17%, and a flat $140,000 plus 20% for Houston ISD, No 2026 rate yet for any of the eight, from the table's data at https://hcad.org/actions/hcad-module/default/jurisdictions, More than 400 active utility districts in the appraisal district's list, at a median 2025 rate of about 0.54 per $100
- Tax rates · Harris County Tax Office · retrieved Supports: The same 2025 adopted rates with their maintenance and operations and debt parts: Harris County 0.33696 and 0.044, the Flood Control District 0.03826 and 0.0114, the Hospital District 0.17876 and 0.00885, the City of Houston 0.40326 and 0.11593, Houston ISD 0.7116 and 0.1667, and the Port's whole rate as debt, The City of Houston's rate at 0.51919 for the 2023, 2024 and 2025 tax years, 2026 rates already listed for Harris County (0.4175), the Flood Control District (0.05266), the Hospital District (0.19528) and the Port (0.00603), and none yet for the City, Houston ISD or the college
- FY2027 adopted budget: General Fund revenues · City of Houston Finance Department · retrieved Supports: Taxable values within the City set by the Harris, Montgomery or Fort Bend central appraisal district, A City tax rate of 51.919 cents per $100 for tax year 2025, and an estimate of the same for 2026, Proposition 1 of November 2004 capping the annual increase in total property tax revenue at the lower of inflation plus population growth or 4.5%, and Proposition H of November 2006 raising the limit by $90 million, Tax bills sent by the Harris County Tax Office around mid-November and due by 31 January
- FY2027 adopted budget: letter from the Mayor · City of Houston · retrieved Supports: Houston has operated for more than a decade under two revenue caps, which forced a nearly 20% reduction in the tax rate
- FY2026 adopted budget: letter from the Mayor · City of Houston · retrieved Supports: No other large Texas city is burdened by both a locally imposed revenue cap and the state cap or must fund solid waste operations without dedicated revenues
- Development regulations · City of Houston Planning and Development Department · retrieved Supports: The City of Houston does not have zoning, and its codes do not address land use, Development governed by ordinance codes on how property can be subdivided, chiefly Chapter 42, within the city and its extraterritorial jurisdiction
- Deed restrictions · City of Houston Legal Department · retrieved Supports: The City's authority to enforce residential deed restrictions under Chapter 212 of the Local Government Code and sections 10-551 through 10-555 of the City Code
- Harris County's flooding history · Harris County Flood Control District · retrieved Supports: A major flood somewhere in Harris County about every two years, mostly in areas developed before current regulations, More flood insurance funds paid in Harris County than in any other community in the National Flood Insurance Program
- Hurricane Harvey frequently asked questions · Harris County Flood Control District · retrieved Supports: Flooding outside the FEMA mapped floodplain, from ponding and overland sheet flow when rainfall overwhelms street drainage, The mapped floodplain is only an estimate of where flooding is predicted to occur from a bayou or creek, The City of Houston as one of the local floodplain administrators for the National Flood Insurance Program
- Home, flood, wind: which policies do you need? · Texas Department of Insurance · retrieved Supports: Most home policies do not cover floods; a flood policy covers damage from rising water
- Drainage utility charge FAQs · City of Houston, Rebuild Houston · retrieved Supports: A residential rate of $0.032 per square foot of impervious surface a year behind a curb and gutter and $0.026 on an open ditch, $48.00 a year, $4.00 a month, on 1,500 square feet behind a curb and gutter
- Valuing property: limitation on residence homestead value increases · Texas Comptroller of Public Accounts · retrieved Supports: A residence homestead's appraised value may not rise more than 10% a year once the owner has qualified in the preceding and current year
- Property tax protests and appeals · Texas Comptroller of Public Accounts · retrieved Supports: A protest deadline of 15 May or 30 days after the appraisal district mails the notice of appraised value, whichever is later
- 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
- Texas homeowners insurance market overview · Texas Department of Insurance · retrieved Supports: A statewide average homeowners premium of $3,489 a year for 2025, from the Texas Statistical Plan for Residential Risks, Paid homeowners losses in 2024 of $4.93 billion from hail and $2.21 billion from wind
- How much is homeowners insurance in Houston, TX? · Insure.com · retrieved Supports: An average Houston premium of $5,391 a year for $300,000 of dwelling cover, $100,000 of liability and a $1,000 deductible, updated 27 May 2026, Standard home insurance policies generally exclude flood damage
- Texas homeowners insurance · NerdWallet · retrieved Supports: An average Houston premium of $9,095 a year and a Texas average of $5,910, for $500,000 of dwelling cover, updated 20 February 2026
- Renters insurance in Texas · NerdWallet · retrieved Supports: An average Houston renters premium of $167 a year for $30,000 of personal property
- Monthly homeowners' association and condominium fee, tables B25142 and B25143, 2024 American Community Survey 1-year estimates, Houston city · United States Census Bureau, via the Census Reporter API · retrieved Supports: A median monthly association fee of $144 among Houston owner-occupied units that pay one, 176,568 of 385,594 owner-occupied units, or 45.8%, paying such a fee, and 31,837 paying $500 or more a month
- Homebuyer Assistance Program · City of Houston Housing and Community Development Department · retrieved Supports: Up to $75,000 for income-qualified first-time homebuyers, or buyers who have not owned a home in the last three years, at or below 80% of area median income, The home must pay taxes to the City of Houston, A no-interest forgivable loan secured by a lien, fulfilled if the buyer lives in the home for eight years, with a portion repaid on a sale or move before then, No maximum home price, and less than $50,000 in liquid assets
- 2025 Gazetteer files: places, Texas · United States Census Bureau · retrieved Supports: A land area of 640.819 square miles and a water area of 31.222 square miles for Houston city
- About Houston: education · City of Houston · retrieved Supports: Houston ISD serves 312 square miles with 288 schools
- Local schools · City of Houston Mayor's Office of Education · retrieved Supports: Public school districts in the Houston area including Aldine, Alief, Cypress-Fairbanks, Fort Bend, Houston, Humble, Katy, Klein, Spring and Spring Branch, and North Forest annexed by Houston ISD in 2013
- 2025 was a year of transformation and change for HCC · Houston City College · retrieved Supports: The college publishing under the name Houston City College
- 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 $327,000 in the City of Fort Worth in August 2026 on 805 sales, against $330,000 on 884 sales in August 2025, and an average of $377,572, A median townhouse sale price of $365,000 on 20 sales, against $319,990 on 21, and a median condominium sale price of $330,000 on 16 sales, against $260,000 on 11, 3,086 active single-family listings and 3.6 months of inventory in the City of Fort Worth, A median single-family lease of $2,195 a month on 470 leases, against $2,150 on 453 a year earlier, A median single-family sale price of $343,000 in Tarrant County on 1,736 sales, and $352,250 in the Fort Worth-Arlington-Grapevine metropolitan division, City figures by property type only, with no all-types median; report produced 7 September 2026
- 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
- Fort Worth Rent Report, October 2026 · Apartment List · retrieved Supports: A median rent of $1,141 for a one-bedroom and $1,317 for a two-bedroom in the city of Fort Worth, and $1,336 across all bedroom sizes, Rents down 0.2% over September and down 1.7% over the past 12 months, against -2.1% for the state
- Apartments for rent in Fort Worth, TX: average rent · Apartment List · retrieved Supports: Average listed rents of $1,279 and up for a studio, $1,352 and up for one bedroom, $1,661 and up for two, and $2,066 and up for three or more
- FY 2026 fair market rents, Fort Worth-Arlington, TX HUD Metro FMR Area · United States Department of Housing and Urban Development · retrieved Supports: FY 2026 fair market rents of $1,473 for one bedroom, $1,723 for two and $2,273 for three, as gross rents including utilities, The FMR area as Johnson, Parker and Tarrant counties
- Rates and exemptions: 2025 tax rates per $100 valuation, and detail · Tarrant County Tax Assessor-Collector · retrieved Supports: 2025 rates per $100: Tarrant County 0.186200, City of Fort Worth 0.670000, Fort Worth ISD 1.029100, Keller ISD 1.085200, Tarrant County College 0.112280, JPS Health Network 0.165000, Tarrant Regional Water District 0.026500, Maintenance and debt splits: Tarrant County 0.173000 and 0.013200, City of Fort Worth 0.522500 and 0.147500, Fort Worth ISD 0.786900 and 0.242200, Keller ISD 0.755200 and 0.330000, Tarrant County College 0.096280 and 0.016000, JPS 0.155100 and 0.009900, water district 0.026500 and none, from https://entityportal.tarrantcountytx.gov/ratesExemptions.asp, Homestead exemptions of 20% (minimum $5,000) for Tarrant County, the City of Fort Worth and JPS Health Network, 1% (minimum $5,000) for Tarrant County College, none for the Tarrant Regional Water District, and $140,000 for Fort Worth ISD and Keller ISD, Eagle Mountain-Saginaw ISD at 1.245700, Crowley ISD at 1.255200 with a 10% local option, Emergency Service District 1 at 0.074348, Far North Fort Worth MUD at 1.000000 and Live Oak Creek MUD at 0.942000, Fort Worth public improvement district assessments per $100: PID 1 Downtown 0.125, PID 6 Park Glen 0.155 residential, PID 7 Heritage 0.145 residential, PID 11 Stockyards 0.12, PID 12 Chapel Hill 0.14, PID 14 Trinity Bluff 0.10, PID 15 Sun Valley 0.24, PID 19 Historic Camp Bowie 0.10, PID 20 East Lancaster Avenue 0.266, PID 21 Las Vegas Trail 0.10
- 2025 tax rates per $100 valuation for Tarrant County, last updated 8 October 2025 · Tarrant Appraisal District · retrieved Supports: The same 2025 rates and homestead exemptions for the county, the City, the hospital district, the college, the water district and every school district in the county, Northwest ISD at 1.0841 per $100 for 2025, No 2026 table yet: https://www.tad.org/content/rates/2026TaxRates.pdf returned not found, from https://www.tad.org/resources/rates
- Residential property data, 2026 appraisal roll · Tarrant Appraisal District · retrieved Supports: 255,731 single-family accounts inside the City of Fort Worth in Tarrant County, 121,356 of them in Fort Worth ISD, 33,569 in Eagle Mountain-Saginaw ISD and 32,861 in Keller ISD, 120,071 of the 121,356 City of Fort Worth and Fort Worth ISD single-family accounts carrying the Tarrant Regional Water District
- Tarrant water district lowers property tax rate, but cities will pay more for water use · Fort Worth Report · retrieved Supports: The water district's taxing district, established in 1949, is primarily in Fort Worth and funds operation and maintenance of the 27-mile Fort Worth Floodway
- 2020 block assignment files, Texas: unified school districts and places · United States Census Bureau · retrieved Supports: Read with the 2020 redistricting file's block populations, at https://www2.census.gov/programs-surveys/decennial/2020/data/01-Redistricting_File--PL_94-171/Texas/tx2020.pl.zip, and the district names in https://www2.census.gov/geo/docs/maps-data/data/gazetteer/2025_Gazetteer/2025_Gaz_unsd_national.zip, Of the City of Fort Worth's 918,915 residents in 2020: 473,224 in Fort Worth ISD, 119,281 in Keller ISD, 83,129 in Eagle Mountain-Saginaw ISD, 81,929 in Crowley ISD, 67,070 in Northwest ISD, 27,617 in Hurst-Euless-Bedford ISD, 17,470 in White Settlement ISD and 16,049 in Everman ISD, 473,224 of Fort Worth ISD's 519,747 residents inside the city
- Extraterritorial Jurisdiction (ETJ) · City of Fort Worth Development Services · retrieved Supports: The ETJ as the unincorporated land within five miles of the city limits, where the City can regulate some activities, Water control and improvement districts, fresh water supply districts and municipal utility districts in the ETJ, under the City's MUD policy of 2005
- Extraterritorial Jurisdiction (ETJ) layer, City of Fort Worth open data boundaries · City of Fort Worth · retrieved Supports: The ETJ's polygons summing to 164,965 acres, about 258 square miles, with the latest edit dated 1 September 2026
- Public Improvement Districts (PIDs) · City of Fort Worth · retrieved Supports: Fifteen districts listed: 1 Downtown, 6 Park Glen, 7 Heritage, 11 Stockyards, 12 Chapel Hill, 14 Trinity Bluff, 15 Sun Valley, 16 Walsh Ranch/Quail Valley, 17 Rock Creek Ranch, 18 Tourism, 19 Historic Camp Bowie, 20 East Lancaster Avenue, 21 Las Vegas Trail, 22 Veale Ranch and 23 Panther Island, PIDs 16 and 17, formed in 2016, supporting streets, drainage, water, sewer and other infrastructure; PID 22 Veale Ranch established in 2023 for a 60-year term; PID 23 established in 2026
- Fort Worth Public Improvement District No. 16 (Walsh Ranch/Quail Valley): annual service plan update, fiscal year 2027, 25 August 2026 · City of Fort Worth and MuniCap · retrieved Supports: Fiscal 2027 annual installments per lot in Improvement Area 1 of $482.14 for a 35-foot lot, $597.93 for 50 feet, $737.46 for 60 feet, $940.24 for 70 feet and $1,558.83 for a custom lot, Assessments bearing interest at the rate on the district's bonds, 4.63%, repaid over twenty annual installments, eighteen of them outstanding
- Central City · Tarrant Regional Water District · retrieved Supports: The rerouting of a section of the Trinity River due north of downtown, with flood water storage at Gateway Park, The Army Corps of Engineers building the bypass channel, three isolation gates, a dam, a pump station and ten flood water storage areas; the water district, the City and the state building the rest
- Army Corps awards contract for first half of major $1.2B Fort Worth flood control, development project · Tarrant Regional Water District, republishing WFAA of 24 September 2026 · retrieved Supports: A $169,431,703 contract with Walsh Construction Company for the north bypass channel, An 800-acre island, and 2,400 acres of land protected from flooding
- $403M coming to Panther Island · Tarrant Regional Water District, republishing the Fort Worth Star-Telegram of 19 January 2022 · retrieved Supports: A 1.5-mile bypass channel connecting the Clear and West Forks of the Trinity River north of downtown Fort Worth
- Gas Wells and Gas Compressor/Well Pad Sites layers, planning and development map service · City of Fort Worth · retrieved Supports: 2,351 gas wells, 1,955 of them producing, 287 abandoned, 84 water disposal, 13 permitted and 12 applying, in a layer last edited in December 2025, 529 gas compressor and well pad sites, from layer 9
- Gas well drilling · City of Fort Worth Development Services · retrieved Supports: The Barnett Shale as a natural gas reserve under a 15-county area, about 1.5 miles below the surface, No well drilled closer than 600 feet to a residence, religious institution, public building, hospital, school or public park without a waiver from the protected use owners or City Council approval
- Garbage service · City of Fort Worth Environmental Services · retrieved Supports: Monthly rates of $13.75, $19.50 and $25.75 for the 32-, 64- and 96-gallon garbage cart, shown as effective 1 January 2024, Solid waste fees billed on the Fort Worth water bill as a sanitation fee, with recycling and yard waste collected at no additional charge
- Stormwater utility fee · City of Fort Worth · retrieved Supports: Residential rates from 1 January 2026 of $3.65 a month up to 1,300 square feet of hard surface, $7.29 to 2,475, $10.94 to 3,394 and $14.58 above it, on the monthly water bill
- How much is homeowners insurance in Fort Worth, TX? · Insure.com · retrieved Supports: An average Fort Worth premium of $4,290 a year for $300,000 of dwelling cover, $100,000 of liability and a $1,000 deductible, updated 27 May 2026, An average of $3,342 a year for $200,000 of dwelling cover
- Monthly homeowners' association and condominium fee, tables B25142 and B25143, 2024 American Community Survey 1-year estimates, Fort Worth city · United States Census Bureau, via the Census Reporter API · retrieved Supports: A median monthly association fee of $55 among Fort Worth owner-occupied units that pay one, 85,299 of 210,450 owner-occupied units, or 40.5%, paying such a fee, and 7,153 paying $500 or more a month
- Homebuyer Assistance Program (HAP) · City of Fort Worth Neighborhood Services · retrieved Supports: Up to $25,000 of interest-free assistance toward the down payment and closing costs, as a forgivable loan: forgiven after ten years in the home, or after five on $14,999 or less, Income limits updated July 2026 of $61,800 for one person to $88,250 for four, First-time buyers, or anyone who has not owned a home in three years; an eight-hour homebuyer class; a contribution of $1,000 or 2% of the price, whichever is less; a home inside the city limits; a sales price no more than 95% of the area median, under the HOME rules