Austin and Round Rock rank among fastest-growing affordable U.S. cities

A new national study has declared Texas home to the most affordable, fast-growing cities in the country, and Austin and Round Rock both made the list.Round Rock ranked 10th while Austin ranked 35th on GoBankingRates.com's new list of "50 Most Affordable, Fastest-Growing Cities in 2025."The Dallas suburb Frisco tops the national rankings at No. 1, and four more North Texas cities appear on the top 10: McKinney (No. 2), Allen (No. 5), and Lewisville (No. 8); and the Houston-area suburb League City (No. 7).The personal finance website's experts narrowed the study down to U.S. cities of at least 100,000 people, with one-year and five-year population growth rates that were higher than the national average, and with housing costs that were lower than average. The 50 cities were then sorted with additional consideration to how "affordable" their home prices were when compared to their median household income.GoBankingRates says Round Rock's population grew 3.4 percent over the last five years, based on the U.S. Census Bureau's American Community surveys from 2018, 2022, and 2023. The study also found the average Round Rock home is valued at $433,767, which at first glance isn't as affordable as other Austin-area cities. However, GoBankingRates deems this "affordable" since the median Round Rock household income is $97,187.The study also determined the total cost of living for a Round Rock homeowner comes out to $52,364 annually. Renters have a cheaper cost of living, totaling $42,390 per year.No. 35-ranked Austin had a five-year population growth rate of 3.4 percent, the study says, and residents make a median household income of $91,461 annually. The average home value within the city limits is about $543,000.Six more Texas cities earned spots in the report: the Houston suburbs of League City (No. 7) and Pearland (No. 11); North Texas cities Denton (No. 19) and Fort Worth (No. 26); the Rio Grande Valley city of Edinburg (No. 43); and Central Texas city Killeen (No. 49).!function(g,b,r){var o=b.getElementById(r);if(o){var i=b.createElement("script");i.src="https://www.gobankingrates.com/wp-content/mu-plugins/interactive-modules/dist/bundle.js?v=1.3.0",i.async=!0,i.onload=function(){g.gbrInteractiveModule.init(r)},o.parentNode.insertBefore(i,o)}else console.error("Module div with id "+r+" not found.")}(window,document,"gbr-interactive-module-2761021")

View more