Alton, Texas.
Typical home $187,600 (-2.9% in a year), asking rent $1,022 (+3.2%). McAllen-Edinburg-Mission, TX metro.
to buy the typical home at today's mortgage rate — +$559 (+132%) since Jan 2020.
- 1 year
- Down $5,543 -3%
- $193,143$187,600 since Sep 2025
- 5 years
- Up $41,750 +29%
- $145,851$187,600 since Sep 2021
Monthly payment to buy the typical home
Home value × that month's 30-year mortgage rate, 20% down, principal and interest. This is the line households feel: prices and rates compound each other.
- Alton$985
- Texas$1,556
- United States$1,922
At the last five years' pace, a typical home here doubles in price every 14 years.
Typical home values in Alton, TX fell 2.9% over the past year — slower than the nation's +1.2%.
Asking rents in Alton, TX rose 3.2% over the past year — faster than the nation's +2.7%.
Owning the typical home in Alton runs $417/mo more than renting one. The gap peaked at $495 in Jan 2025.
That is $1,438 a month against $1,022 rent: a $985 mortgage payment, plus $253 property tax and $201 insurance & upkeep.
Owning vs renting — Alton
The owning line is the typical home's monthly payment at that month's rate, plus property tax and insurance & upkeep; the renting line is the typical asking rent; the grey line is the mortgage payment on its own. Same homes, same months, both ways of paying for a roof.
- Owning all in$1,438
- Renting$1,022
- Mortgage only$985
Property tax · $253/mo 1.62% of value a year — the ACS 2020-2024 median bill over the median home value for Hidalgo County, TX
Insurance & upkeep · $201/mo insurance, maintenance and repairs together, from the BLS Consumer Expenditure Survey — the national figure for mortgaged homeowners, scaled to this market's home value. BLS publishes the three bundled and they cannot be split.
Both are priced off the same month's home value, so they rise with the market. Neither is a quote — a specific home's bill depends on its assessment, its age and its insurer.
Living in Alton, Hidalgo County, Texas
Alton is a city of 18,198 people in Hidalgo County. Half its households earn more than $52,715 a year and half less, against $54,338 across Hidalgo County; 28% of its people live below the poverty line. 55% of its homes are lived in by their owners and 45% are rented. Unemployment in Hidalgo County was 6.3% in August 2026, and the county had 1.6% more jobs in 2025 than the year before. The most residents work in schools and health care, then construction.
Written by AI Claude Sonnet 5.5 wrote this on 23 October 2026 from the figures here, a list of nearby places and what it knows. It can be wrong or out of date.
What it’s like
The place. Alton is a city in Hidalgo County whose residents are young on the whole, with a median age well below what many older homeowners might expect. Household incomes run a little below the county's, and more people live below the poverty line than most would assume. More households own their homes than rent them, and typical rents are modest next to the cost of buying. Winters are mild and brief, with little or no snow, while summers are hot, and the year brings only moderate rainfall.
Work. Residents work mostly in schools, hospitals and social care, the building trades, professional and business services, and shops. Across Hidalgo County, some of the largest workplaces are Idea Public Schools, The University of Texas Rio Grande Valley and Doctors Hospital at Renaissance. Few adults hold a four-year degree, a fair number work from home, and a typical commute is a moderate one.
Things to do. For time outdoors, the National Butterfly Center and Bentsen-Rio Grande Valley State Park are both protected areas a short drive away. The McAllen Botanical Gardens, also a short drive away, make for a quieter walk. The Museum of South Texas History is another short drive away and covers the region's past.
Report a mistake
- 5,349households
- 14%of adults have a degree
- 28%below the poverty line
- 24 mintypical commute
- 12%work from home
What residents work in
Employed residents by industry, from the Census survey. Hidalgo County had 296,499 jobs in 2025, 1.6% more than the year before (Bureau of Labor Statistics).
Weather through the year
Coldest in January, with highs near 69° and lows near 47°; warmest in August, with highs near 97° and lows near 75°. About 20 inches of rain a year, and little or no snow.
Average daily high and low, 1991–2020, at the La Joya weather station, 2 miles away (NOAA).
Largest workplaces in Hidalgo County
- Idea Public SchoolsSchool district8,946FTE
- Edinburg CisdSchool district4,877FTE
- Pharr-san Juan-alamo ISDSchool district4,635FTE
- The University of Texas Rio Grande ValleyUniversity or college4,454
- Doctors Hospital at RenaissanceGeneral hospital4,426FTE
- La Joya ISDSchool district3,870FTE
- Mcallen ISDSchool district3,426FTE
- South Texas Health SystemGeneral hospital2,703FTE
School districts come from the Common Core of Data (NCES, 2023–24), colleges from IPEDS (NCES, 2023–24) and hospitals from their Medicare cost reports (CMS, 2023); FTE marks full-time equivalent staff. Not listed: many offices and banks, which need not report to OSHA; military bases, whose staff OPM withholds; and, in about half the states, city and county governments.
Natural hazards
- Cold wavesVery high
- HurricanesRelatively high
- Heat wavesRelatively high
- Hailrelatively high in parts of AltonRelatively moderate
- Ice stormsRelatively moderate
- Winter weatherRelatively moderate
FEMA’s National Risk Index (December 2025) rates the risk each natural hazard poses to the people, buildings and farms in Alton’s census tracts, against the rest of the country; all of them together, relatively moderate. It is meant for planning, not a substitute for a local risk assessment or a flood map: FEMA’s index.
From the U.S. Census Bureau’s 2020 census and its American Community Survey (2020–2024 five-year estimates), and the Bureau of Labor Statistics. A survey, so each figure has a margin of error, and figures it is not sure of are left out. More on Hidalgo County and the McAllen-Edinburg-Mission, TX metro.
Alton home values
Zillow measures a city over its municipal boundary. Against the state and national figures, mid-tier homes, smoothed and seasonally adjusted.
- Alton$187,600
- Texas$296,424
- United States$366,157
Sellers are cutting prices on about 1 in 5 Alton listings — the market is cooling.
When this market ran hot
Each cell is that month's year-on-year home-value growth. Read left to right, top row is the latest year — the 2021–22 band is the boom.
Market heat, inside the city limits
Share of listings with a price cut
The early-warning dial: sellers cut when buyers stop reaching. Rising cuts cool a market months before prices notice.
- Alton21.61%
- United States26.90%
Homes for sale
Active for-sale inventory. More supply hands power to buyers.
- Alton85
New listings per month
Sellers arriving at the market.
- Alton15
Zip codes with a Alton address
A different geography, not a breakdown. The figure above covers the municipality; these zips cover everywhere the Post Office calls Alton — often including townships beyond the city limits. Both come straight from Zillow, and they are not expected to average out.