Higher-priced homes linger on the market across the Rio Grande Valley as inventory rises

Inside a subdivision in McAllen with many new single-family homes for sale, two houses have been on the market for at least 90 days. 

The homes in this neighborhood, near the intersection of Nolana Avenue and Ware Road, were advertised for $300,000 or more — that’s above the median sale price of $251,000 in January. 

One of the homes, a four-bedroom with 2.5 baths spanning 2,116 square feet, built in 2021, is priced at $340,000. That’s $14,000 less than when it was listed in November 2025. 

The other home is a 4-bedroom, 2.5-bath, 1,845-square-foot home built in 2025, offered for sale at $329,000 with a pending sale. That’s $18,000 less than when it was listed in September 2025. 

There are more than 3,200 single-family homes on the market in the McAllen-Edinburg-Mission metro area as of January, according to MLS realtor data compiled by the Texas Real Estate Research Center. 

That means it would take more than 9 months to sell all the homes available in the McAllen metro, placing the metro firmly in buyer’s market territory. 

Traditionally, a six-month inventory is considered a stable market. Less than that is a seller’s market, and more is a buyer’s market. 

Price cuts, seller concessions, and buyer incentives are common in a buyer’s market when there’s more supply than demand for homes. 

As such, 301 homes were sold in McAllen in January, amounting to a 21% increase over the year. 

“In 2026, I do think it will shift, not drastically, but inventory is obviously up, prices have kind of cooled, and rates have gotten significantly lower than last year by about a whole [percentage point], so affordability is hoped to be improving this year,” said Brian Reed, CEO and broker at Ryan & Brian Real Estate Team in McAllen.

Builder incentives are also reshaping the market. 

Developers are offering rate buy-downs, appliance packages, and extended warranties to compete with resale homes — in some cases pricing new construction below existing inventory.

“[That] was unheard of prior to COVID, but that’s the case because they can offer a lot of incentives,” Reed said. “They can do interest rate buy-downs, they’re offering appliance packages and warranties.”

High inventory levels have intensified competition in new construction, he said.

Price matters too. 

Homes that cost $350,000 or more are sitting on the market for “a tremendous amount of time,” he said. 

“I think people are missing the boat if they’re just sitting there waiting for the interest rate to drop,” Reed said. 

Lower Valley

The housing market in the Brownsville-Harlingen metro area is similar, but there are fewer homes for sale. 

In the Brownsville metro area, there were 157 single-family homes sold in January 2026, up 7.5% over the year. 

The median sale price for a single-family home in the Brownsville metro in January was $267,000, and there were more than 1,600 active listings, with 7.2 months of inventory. 

“It’s definitely a buyer’s market. Anything over $300,000 is basically sitting right now,” said Craig Grove, CEO and broker at GRT Realty in Brownsville. “Most buyers in the market are looking at smaller new construction homes.” 

For example, there’s a subdivision in Brownsville just north of Military Highway near the Veterans Memorial Stadium with a single-family home that’s been on the market for more than a year. 

It was built in late 2024 and listed for sale in January 2025 for $340,000. The four-bedroom home with three bathrooms spans 1,943 square feet and is now listed at $338,000 – or a $2,000 drop. 

Grove said that’s because of years of property tax increases and higher insurance premiums on existing homes. Builders, meanwhile, are incentivized to move inventory and are offering concessions such as interest-rate buy-downs.

“A lot of people who are moving, trying to sell right now, don’t really have great equity,” he said, because many of those purchased during the high home prices of 2021 and 2022. 

For a 30-year fixed-rate mortgage, the average interest rate on a single-family home in 2026 so far is 5.9%.

In 2020, during a record low, the interest rate on the same mortgage product was closer to 3%. 

In 2023, that jumped up to 7% but has since been steadily falling. 

“I don’t think it’s interest rates that’s keeping people off the market. I think it’s more just the overall high expense. What used to be a reasonable home payment is no longer reasonable,” he said, adding has seen several deals fall apart because buyers get sticker shock when principal, interest, tax, and insurance are considered.

“When they see that monthly note, they’re like ‘woah’ and that’s when they back out of the deal because the payment is $2,800 a month for an almost above entry-level house,” Grove said.  

But in the coming year, Grove expects there to be more homes available for sale and the deals will become more enticing, and that’s when, “buyers are going to have to jump off the fence,” he said.