Texas by the numbers
In Texas, the median worker earns $47,500 a year, the typical home is worth $260,400 and carries $4,111 of property tax, and the average household pays $173 a month for electricity at 16.44¢ per kilowatt-hour.
South ERCOT Retail choice statewide
Energy
Texas runs its own grid. ERCOT covers roughly ninety per cent of the state's load and is not synchronously connected to the rest of the country, which means it is not subject to FERC's wholesale market jurisdiction the way other regions are. It also means Texas has no capacity market. Generators earn from energy and ancillary services alone, and scarcity pricing is the mechanism that signals new investment.
Generation is dominated by natural gas and wind, with rapidly growing solar and battery capacity. West Texas wind and Permian-adjacent solar have added enormous zero-fuel-cost supply, which holds average prices down. Gas sets the marginal price when they are not producing.
The state's rate sits below the national average, but the average conceals wide variation. Two households on the same street can pay very different rates depending on which retail plan they signed and when.
Winter Storm Uri in February 2021 remains the defining event. Wholesale prices hit the cap for days, several retailers failed, and the resulting costs are still being recovered through charges that appear on bills across the state.
Averaged across the twelve months to May 2026, Texas households used 1,093 kilowatt-hours a month and paid $173. At the state median wage that is about 7.6 hours of work a month to keep the lights on. For heating, a heat pump costs less to run than gas here, by about $3.21 per million BTU.
Work and pay
The median Texas worker earned $47,500 in 2024, 4% below the national median. What distinguishes a state's labour market is rarely its biggest occupations, which are retail and food service everywhere, but what it has disproportionately.
| Occupation | Concentration | Median pay |
|---|---|---|
| Wellhead Pumpers | 6.36× | $75,590 |
| Petroleum Engineers | 6.25× | $153,200 |
| Roustabouts, Oil and Gas | 5.85× | $46,180 |
| Rotary Drill Operators, Oil and Gas | 5.06× | $66,430 |
| Wind Turbine Service Technicians | 4.97× | $61,790 |
Property tax
The median Texas homeowner pays $4,111 a year on a home worth $260,400, an effective rate of 1.58% against a national 0.98%. Nobody sets that rate. It is what falls out of county, city, school district and special district levies applied to an assessed value, so the state figure is a weighted average of 202 counties rather than a posted number.
Cost of living
Prices in Texas run at 97.1 where the national average is 100, ranking it #26 of 51. Goods sit at 98.1, which is close to national almost everywhere because most goods are shipped and priced nationally. Rents sit at 96.5, and that is where states actually separate from one another. A median wage of $47,500 therefore buys what $48,919 buys nationally.
Metro areas priced separately: Dallas-Fort Worth-Arlington (103.1) , Houston-Pasadena-The Woodlands (98.6) , Austin-Round Rock-San Marcos (98.1) , Midland (95.8) , San Antonio-New Braunfels (94.7) .
Housing
House prices in Texas rose 0.4% over the year to 2026 Q2, against a median across all states of +2.7%. Over ten years the index is +80.9%. Prices are at or near their record level.
Metro areas tracked here: El Paso (+6.2%) , Houston-Pasadena-The Woodlands (+0.2%) , Austin-Round Rock-San Marcos (-0.4%) , San Antonio-New Braunfels (-3.0%) .
Who supplies the power
132 utilities report residential service in Texas, together serving 12 million customers. Retail choice statewide.
Texas: common questions
What does it cost to live in Texas?
Prices overall run at 97.1 against a national average of 100, with rents at 96.5. The typical home is worth $260,400 and carries $4,111 a year in property tax, an effective rate of 1.58% against a national 0.98%. Electricity averages $173 a month at 16.44¢ per kilowatt-hour. Against that, the median wage is $47,500.
What is the property tax rate in Texas?
The effective rate is 1.58% of home value, from a median bill of $4,111. It is set locally rather than by the state, so the figure is a weighted outcome across 202 counties. County by county rates.
Does a salary go further in Texas?
The median wage of $47,500 buys what $48,919 buys nationally, once local prices are taken out. A state paying above the national median while charging above it for housing can leave a household no better off, and this is the arithmetic that shows which side of that line Texas falls on.
Is Texas expensive for electricity?
It ranks #25 of 51 jurisdictions on price at 16.44¢ per kilowatt-hour, -10.8% against the U.S. average. On the actual bill it ranks 6 of 51, because households there use 1,093 kWh a month against a national 871.
What is the median salary in Texas?
$47,500 across all occupations, about $22.84 an hour, covering 13,846,880 wage and salary workers as of 2024.
Who supplies electricity in Texas?
132 utilities report residential service, the largest being Reliant Energy Retail Services with 1.5 million customers. Retail choice statewide.
Electricity May 2026, gas 2024, utilities 2024, wages 2024. All figures from federal statistical agencies. Methodology · Sources