Counties / Texas / Williamson County

Williamson County, TX

FIPS 48491 · population 672,688 · part of Austin, TX

$405k
Zillow home value · 2026-06
The numbers

What this county costs and earns

Everything here joins on the county FIPS code, so each figure comes from the agency that publishes it with no name matching in between.

Zillow home value
$405k
▼ 6.2% year over year
Zillow ZHVI · direct
Median asking rent
$1,685
▼ 1.3% year over year
Zillow ZORI · direct
Gross yield
5.0%
annual rent ÷ price, before costs
derived: rent × 12 ÷ price ✓
HUD 2-bed standard
$1,852
market rent is 0.91x the standard
HUD Fair Market Rent · direct
Independent price check

Do two methods point the same way?

Zillow estimates a current home value. FHFA tracks repeat mortgage transactions. Their growth rates should be read side by side, not averaged.

Both annual signals move in the same direction
FHFA five-year cumulative+43.3%not annualized · through 2025
0%ZILLOW ZHVI2026-06−6.2%FHFA HPI2025−1.0%
Annual changes use different methods and may use different periods. The comparison checks direction and magnitude; it does not create a blended estimate. Zillow county ZHVI pulled 2026-07-26; FHFA annual county HPI pulled 2026-07-28.
Owner-reported value$447k
Surveyed gross rent$1,796
Rent burden 30%+48.0%
Median year built2006
Housing composition

Who occupies the stock—and what it is

ACS 2024 5-year
3.9%vacant
262,644estimated housing units
Occupied tenure33.6% renter
owner 66.4%renter 33.6%
Structure mix74.9% single-family
Single-family 74.9%20+ units 10.5%Mobile home 1.9%Other 12.7%
ACS estimates describe the standing housing stock and occupied tenure. They do not measure current listings, transaction prices or asking rents.

Survey source: Census ACS 5-year — county housing value, tenure and stock · ACS 2024 5-year · pulled 2026-07-30. These values describe different housing universes and are not combined into gross yield.

Annual average covered jobs238,248▲ 2.6% from the prior annual release
Covered establishments15,920annual average reporting locations
Average weekly wage$1,588▲ 2.8% from the prior annual release
Largest private supersectorTrade, transportation, and utilities22.6% of disclosed private covered jobs
Local labor base

Jobs, pay and private-sector concentration

2025
0%COVERED JOBS+2.6%WEEKLY WAGE+2.8%Trade, transportation, and utilities22.6%
Annual QCEW counts cover jobs located at reporting establishments. The industry share uses disclosed private covered employment; it is not a resident-employment measure or a forecast.

Workplace source: BLS QCEW — county employment and wages · annual county employment and wages 2025 vs 2024 · pulled 2026-07-31. QCEW counts covered jobs located in the county, not employed residents or the metro score’s CES/LAUS series.

County brief

What the local evidence says

01Decision frame

Williamson County presents a reset-versus-income case: falling values and rents leave a published pre-cost yield that must carry taxes and flood exposure. At Zillow’s 2026-06 county observation, median home value was $404,512, down 6.2% year over year, while median asking rent was $1,685, down 1.27%. Published gross yield was 5% before costs. Investors seeking cash flow should investigate expenses and lease evidence; buyers relying on appreciation or operating margins should be cautious.

02Housing economics

HUD’s $1,852 two-bedroom FMR is a payment standard, not an estimate of asking rent, so it cannot replace the measured market rent or create another yield. The $7,205 median annual property tax and 1.61% effective property-tax rate are material carrying-cost inputs against the stated pre-cost yield. Inland flood is the dominant hazard; the modeled annual building-value loss ratio is 0.10%. That modeled county-level loss measure aligns with the hazard but does not identify a parcel’s inundation, insurance premium, or deductible.

03Demand & competition

Demand evidence is constructive but mixed. QCEW records 238,248 annual-average covered jobs at county workplaces, up 2.56%, and identifies Trade, transportation, and utilities as the largest disclosed private supersector; these are not resident employment or a forecast. Net tax-return migration was positive, and incoming movers had higher average AGI than outgoing movers, supporting an income-quality screen rather than proving tenancy demand. Realtor.com’s MLS listing evidence shows lower asking prices, slightly fewer active listings, longer marketing time, and a sizable price-reduced share; it is not closed-sale evidence or proof of buyer demand. Investor purchase mortgages represented 9.21% of 12,528 purchases, indicating a visible but non-dominant buyer cohort.

04Risk & next checks

FHFA’s 2025 repeat-transaction HPI declined 1.04%, directionally consistent with Zillow’s decline but from a different vintage and measure; the index is not a dollar home value. The record does not publish insurance quotes, flood-zone or parcel-elevation data, vacancy, lease concessions, operating costs, closed-sale comps, or debt terms. Those gaps prevent underwriting net yield, insured flood exposure, sale-price support, and debt coverage. Next checks are address-level flood and insurance review, tax assessment and appeal status, executed-rent and vacancy comps, and closed-sale/pending-contract verification.

Cities & communities

Where people live within Williamson County

Census-recognized incorporated places and CDPs that intersect this county. The list does not pretend to include every neighborhood or informal community.

Population scale

Largest Census places

ACS 2024 5-year
Austin city*979.5KRound Rock city*127.8KGeorgetown city86KCedar Park city*78.3KLeander city*74.1KPflugerville city*66KHutto city35.5KBrushy Creek CDP19.6K
Bars use total place population, not a county-share estimate. An asterisk marks a place that crosses a county line.
Official directory

21 Census places

Population
  1. 01
    Austin cityIncorporated place · spans 4 counties
    979,539
  2. 02
    Round Rock cityIncorporated place · spans 2 counties
    127,786
  3. 03
    Georgetown cityIncorporated place
    85,999
  4. 04
    Cedar Park cityIncorporated place · spans 2 counties
    78,301
  5. 05
    Leander cityIncorporated place · spans 2 counties
    74,067
  6. 06
    Pflugerville cityIncorporated place · spans 2 counties
    65,971
  7. 07
    Hutto cityIncorporated place
    35,483
  8. 08
    Brushy Creek CDPCensus-designated place
    19,576
  9. 09
    Taylor cityIncorporated place
    17,136
  10. 10
    Sonterra CDPCensus-designated place
    10,563
  11. 11
    Liberty Hill cityIncorporated place
    8,371
  12. 12
    Santa Rita Ranch CDPCensus-designated place
    6,586
Show 9 more places
  1. 13
    Jarrell cityIncorporated place
    3,295
  2. 14
    Bartlett cityIncorporated place · spans 2 counties
    1,941
  3. 15
    Serenada CDPCensus-designated place
    1,444
  4. 16
    Thorndale cityIncorporated place · spans 2 counties
    1,113
  5. 17
    Florence cityIncorporated place
    1,061
  6. 18
    Granger cityIncorporated place
    1,046
  7. 19
    Thrall cityIncorporated place
    861
  8. 20
    Coupland cityIncorporated place
    491
  9. 21
    Weir cityIncorporated place
    434

Population is the total place-wide ACS estimate, not an allocated county share. A place crossing a county line is labelled explicitly. Source: Census ACS 5-year — cities and communities · ACS 2024 5-year · pulled 2026-07-30.

Risk, demand and competition

The three things a price does not tell you

01
Risk & carrying costFEMA NRI + Census ACS
Dominant hazardinland flooding

0.105% of building value expected lost per year

Effective property tax1.61%

$7,205 median annual bill

02
DemandIRS SOI household flows
Net migration+7,519

32,492 in · 24,973 out

Arriving vs leaving income+$10,273

$97,300 arriving · $87,027 leaving

03
CompetitionHMDA financed purchases
Purchases by investors9.2%

1,154 of 12,528 mortgages

investorother financed
Current listing pressure

What sellers and visible supply are doing

Realtor.com® Economic Research · county inventory 2026-06 · pulled 2026-07-28
Active listings3,420▼ 0.9% year over year
Median days on market58▲ 5.5% year over year
Listings price-reduced29.9%seller-concession signal
Median listing pricen/a▼ 7.5% year over year

Listing price is an asking price, not a closed sale. Quality-flagged county rows are withheld instead of displayed.

Same metro

The other counties in Austin, TX

A metro is an average of these. Which side of a county line a property sits on can change the tax bill, the hazard profile and the tenant pool.

CountyPopulationPriceRentYieldHazard
Williamson County672,688$405k$1,6855.0%inland flooding
Travis County1,330,015$476k$1,6494.2%inland flooding
Hays County268,638$373k$1,5715.1%inland flooding
Bastrop County106,582$361k$1,8316.1%inland flooding
Caldwell County48,669$288k$1,6636.9%inland flooding
Bear case

What can break the county thesis

  1. Parcel-specific flood exposure, insurance costs, and deductibles may differ materially from the county modeled loss measure.
  2. Unpublished vacancy, concessions, operating costs, and debt terms could prevent gross yield from becoming net cash flow.
  3. Listing-market and migration indicators may not translate into closed-sale support or rental demand in a target submarket.
Underwriting questions

Before pricing a property

Can HUD FMR be used as market rent?

No. The record identifies FMR as a two-bedroom payment standard and separately publishes median asking rent.

Does QCEW describe resident employment?

No. It reports annual covered jobs at workplaces in the county, not resident employment or an unemployment measure.

What do the Realtor.com measures establish?

They show MLS asking-price, active-listing, marketing-time, and price-reduction conditions, not closed-sale prices or buyer demand by themselves.