Brenham, Texas.
Typical home $323,597 (-1.4% in a year), asking rent $1,596 (+3.2%). Brenham, TX metro.
to buy the typical home at today's mortgage rate — +$794 (+88%) since Jan 2020.
- 1 year
- Down $4,742 -1%
- $328,339$323,597 since Sep 2025
- 5 years
- Up $26,453 +9%
- $297,144$323,597 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.
- Brenham$1,698
- Texas$1,556
- United States$1,922
At the last five years' pace, a typical home here doubles in price every 41 years.
Typical home values in Brenham, TX fell 1.4% over the past year — slower than the nation's +1.2%.
Asking rents in Brenham, TX rose 3.2% over the past year — faster than the nation's +2.7%.
Owning the typical home in Brenham runs $743/mo more than renting one. The gap peaked at $808 in May 2025.
That is $2,339 a month against $1,596 rent: a $1,698 mortgage payment, plus $294 property tax and $346 insurance & upkeep.
Owning vs renting — Brenham
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$2,339
- Renting$1,596
- Mortgage only$1,698
Property tax · $294/mo 1.09% of value a year — the ACS 2020-2024 median bill over the median home value for Washington County, TX
Insurance & upkeep · $346/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 Brenham, Washington County, Texas
Brenham is a city of 17,369 people in Washington County. Half its households earn more than $65,112 a year and half less, against $77,825 across Washington County; 19% of its people live below the poverty line. 51% of its homes are lived in by their owners and 49% are rented. Unemployment in Washington County was 4.2% in August 2026, and the county had 0.4% more jobs in 2025 than the year before. The most residents work in schools and health care, then shops.
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. Brenham is the seat of Washington County, and its residents are younger than in most American towns. Incomes run below the county's, and more people here rent than across the county as a whole. A good number of adults hold a four-year degree. Winters are mild and short, with the coldest weather in January still staying above freezing by day, while summers are hot, especially in August, and the year brings a fair amount of rain.
Work. Many residents work in schools, hospitals and social care, with shops, restaurants and hotels, and manufacturing also employing a good many. Among the largest workplaces in Brenham are Blinn College District, Blue Bell Creameries and Brenham ISD. Most people have a short drive to work, and only a small number work from home.
Things to do. In or beside town, the Brenham Heritage Museum and the Simon Theatre are close at hand. A longer drive takes you to Washington-on-the-Brazos, a protected area tied to Texas history, and to Lake Somerville State Park and Trailway, a protected area built around a reservoir.
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- 7,659households
- 32%of adults have a degree
- 19%below the poverty line
- 18 mintypical commute
- 8%work from home
What residents work in
Employed residents by industry, from the Census survey. Washington County had 16,712 jobs in 2025, 0.4% more than the year before (Bureau of Labor Statistics).
Weather through the year
Coldest in January, with highs near 61° and lows near 40°; warmest in August, with highs near 95° and lows near 74°. About 48 inches of rain and melted snow a year.
Average daily high and low, 1991–2020, at the Brenham weather station, under a mile away (NOAA).
Largest workplaces in Brenham
- Blinn College DistrictTwo-year college1,094
- Blue Bell CreameriesIce cream specialties manufacturing859
- Brenham ISDSchool district769FTE
- H-E-BRetail596
- Germania Farm Mutual InsuranceProperty and casualty insurance carriers, direct450
- Valmont Industries318
- Stanpac USAFood containers, sanitary, made from purchased paper or paperboard296
- GSC EnterprisesGroceries, general-line, merchant wholesalers275
Staff on average in 2025, as each workplace reported it to OSHA with its injury records: 31 workplaces with 20 or more staff, 4,790 people in all. Colleges come from IPEDS (NCES, 2023–24) and school districts from the Common Core of Data (NCES, 2023–24); 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
- TornadoesVery high
- LightningRelatively high
- Inland floodingRelatively high
- Strong windRelatively high
- Winter weatherRelatively high
FEMA’s National Risk Index (December 2025) rates the risk each natural hazard poses to the people, buildings and farms in Brenham’s census tracts, against the rest of the country; all of them together, relatively high. 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 Washington County and the Brenham, TX metro.
Brenham home values
Zillow measures a city over its municipal boundary. Against the state and national figures, mid-tier homes, smoothed and seasonally adjusted.
- Brenham$323,597
- Texas$296,424
- United States$366,157
Sellers are cutting prices on about 1 in 4 Brenham listings, and the typical home goes pending in 55 days — the market is heating up.
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.
- Brenham23.78%
- United States26.90%
Days to pending
How long the typical listing takes to go under contract.
- Brenham55
- United States24
Homes for sale
Active for-sale inventory. More supply hands power to buyers.
- Brenham195
New listings per month
Sellers arriving at the market.
- Brenham30
Median sale price
What buyers actually paid — closed sales, not asking prices.
- Brenham$330,672
- United States$371,407
Sale-to-list ratio
Above 100%, homes sell over asking; below, buyers negotiate wins.
- Brenham95.78%
Zip codes with a Brenham address
A different geography, not a breakdown. The figure above covers the municipality; these zips cover everywhere the Post Office calls Brenham — often including townships beyond the city limits. Both come straight from Zillow, and they are not expected to average out.