The most expensive places to rent in Texas are suburbs as none of the big cities makes the top 20

The highest typical rent among Texas cities with at least 50,000 residents is in Flower Mound, north of Dallas-Fort Worth International Airport, at $2,410 a month in August 2026, according to RentDataNow data built on the Zillow Observed Rent Index. Next is Little Elm at $2,307. All 10 of the most expensive are suburbs, nine of them around Dallas or Houston, and none of the state's five biggest cities makes the top 20.

The common thread is houses. In every city on the list, about two-thirds or more of households own their homes, so most rentals there are single-family houses with more space than a typical apartment. Flower Mound's median household earned $161,235 in the Census Bureau's 2020-2024 survey, the highest in the top 10.

Half of the top 10 are getting cheaper. Typical rent fell over the past year in DeSoto, Missouri City, Sugar Land, Wylie, and Frisco, and every city on the list sits below where its own rent history would predict, by 1.7% in League City up to 11.9% in Leander. DeSoto is the surprise in the group: a southern Dallas suburb with a median household income of $82,782, well below the $94,000 to $161,000 in the others, and the third-highest typical rent in the state.

Renting a house in these suburbs takes a big share of what renters there earn. Flower Mound's median renter household earned $90,637 in the 2020-2024 survey, so a year of typical rent equals about 32% of it, and in Sugar Land, where renters earned $80,163, it's about 30%. DeSoto is the hardest case. Its renters earned a median $48,864, so typical rent would take about 52% of that, and 69.5% of DeSoto's renter households already spent 30% or more of their income on housing. Over the past 11 years, Flower Mound rent has usually been lowest in January and highest in July, a swing of about 2.4%.

Texas' biggest cities are much cheaper. Typical rent is $1,615 in Fort Worth, $1,591 in Dallas, $1,586 in Austin, $1,542 in Houston, and $1,386 in San Antonio. We left Abilene out of the ranking. Its index shows a 36% jump in a year, to $2,016, far out of line with any other Texas city, and we're reviewing it before treating it as real.

For the other end of the scale, see the cheapest cities to rent in Texas, and for how far a budget stretches in the suburbs north of Dallas, northern Dallas suburbs rent prices.

Sources

• RentDataNow city rent data, anchored to the Zillow Observed Rent Index, August 2026, for the 72 Texas cities with at least 50,000 residents, with Rent Reality Score trend comparisons

• US Census Bureau, American Community Survey 5-year estimates, 2020-2024, for household income and the share of households that rent, plus renter income, median gross rent, and the share of renters spending 30% or more on housing