Household incomes slipped in Dallas-Fort Worth last year even as the Texas median edged up to $82,625, census figures show

The typical Texas household earned $82,625 in 2025, a small increase from the year before, but incomes dropped in the Dallas-Fort Worth region, according to new U.S. Census Bureau survey figures released Thursday and reported by The Texas Tribune.

The Tribune's analysis of the data found that household incomes grew last year in the Houston and San Antonio areas while falling in the Dallas-Fort Worth and McAllen regions. Statewide, the median remained below the national figure of $84,780, even though Texas incomes have mostly risen since 2021.

Renters and homeowners

Housing costs were a heavy load. More than half of Texas' 4.3 million renter households were "cost-burdened," with about three of every 10 dollars they earn going to housing, the Tribune reported. Rents themselves were mostly flat.

Homeowners with a mortgage spent somewhat more on housing than a year earlier, and the share of them counted as cost-burdened edged up to roughly 32%. The median property tax bill for owners who have paid off their mortgage fell about 4.2% from 2024 to 2025, while the bill for owners with a mortgage held about steady.

Nationally, the typical property tax bill rose but stayed below the typical Texas bill.

Who gained

Hispanic households had the largest income gains, with a median of $70,348, followed by Black households at $64,664, according to the figures. White households had a median of $92,479. Households of Asian descent had the highest median, $122,370, though that figure fell 2.3% from the previous year.

The gap between white and Hispanic household income is wider in Texas than across the country, the Tribune found.

Fewer Texans, children included, were living in poverty, and the state's poverty rate declined. The number of older Texans and of families in poverty rose slightly. Income inequality in Texas remains high but is below the rest of the nation, according to the report.

Insurance, solar and electric cars

The bureau changed its survey questions on health insurance, but Texas still had the highest share of uninsured residents of any state, a position it has held for more than a decade.

The survey also asked for the first time about solar panels and electric vehicles. Travis County households were about twice as likely as Texas households overall to own an electric vehicle, and urban households reported solar panels at higher rates than rural ones, although more than 80,000 of 2.3 million rural households said they had them.

Texas' share of homes with solar panels trailed the national rate of 5.2%.

Sources

The Texas Tribune