Dayton, Texas.
Typical home $302,188 (-1.3% in a year), asking rent $1,553 . Houston-The Woodlands-Sugar Land, TX metro.
to buy the typical home at today's mortgage rate — +$768 (+94%) since Jan 2020.
- 1 year
- Down $4,047 -1%
- $306,234$302,188 since Sep 2025
- 5 years
- Up $38,133 +14%
- $264,054$302,188 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.
- Dayton$1,586
- Texas$1,556
- United States$1,922
At the last five years' pace, a typical home here doubles in price every 26 years.
Typical home values in Dayton, TX fell 1.3% over the past year — slower than the nation's +1.2%.
Living in Dayton, Liberty County, Texas
Dayton is a city of 8,777 people in Liberty County. 66% of its homes are lived in by their owners and 34% are rented. Unemployment in Liberty County was 6.0% in August 2026, and the county had 1.1% more jobs in 2025 than the year before. The most residents work in manufacturing, then schools and health care.
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 It can be wrong or out of date.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. Dayton is a small Texas city in Liberty County, with a young population: the typical resident is younger than in most American towns. More homes are lived in by their owners than rented, though the share of people living below the poverty line is higher than the national average, and a four-year degree is less common among adults here than across the country. Winters are mild and almost free of snow, summers are hot, and the year brings plenty of rain.
Work. Many residents work in manufacturing, in schools, hospitals and social care, and in restaurants, hotels and entertainment, with professional and business services close behind. Some of the largest workplaces in Dayton are makers of steel tubing and wire, such as Forum US, Insteel Wire Products TXW and Sumiden Wire Products. The typical commute is a long one, and unemployment across Liberty County is unchanged from a year ago.
Things to do. Water and green space are the main draw nearby. Lake Houston is a reservoir, and Buffalo Bayou and the San Jacinto River are rivers, all a longer drive away. Sheldon Lake State Park and Environmental Learning Center, also a longer drive away, is a protected area for walking and watching wildlife.
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- 3,110households
- 18%of adults have a degree
- 21%below the poverty line
- 32 mintypical commute
- 10%work from home
What residents work in
Employed residents by industry, from the Census survey. Liberty County had 20,335 jobs in 2025, 1.1% more than the year before (Bureau of Labor Statistics).
Weather through the year
Coldest in January, with highs near 63° and lows near 41°; warmest in August, with highs near 92° and lows near 74°. About 65 inches of rain a year, and little or no snow.
Average daily high and low, 1991–2020, at the Baytown weather station, 8 miles away (NOAA).
Largest workplaces in Dayton
- Forum USTubing, mechanical and hypodermic sizes, cold-drawn stainless steel, made from purchased steel138
- Insteel Wire Products TXWMesh, wire, made in wire drawing mills97
- Cowboy's Ready MixReady-mix concrete manufacturing and distributing91
- Brookshire BrothersGrocery stores76
- DT DaytonSkilled nursing facilities50
- Sumiden Wire ProductsDrawing iron or steel wire from purchased iron or steel48
- 112_DaytonBuilding materials supply dealers39
- DaytonMail and parcel delivery39
Staff on average in 2025, as each workplace reported it to OSHA with its injury records: 11 workplaces with 20 or more staff, 669 people in all. 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
- LightningVery high
- TornadoesVery high
- Cold wavesRelatively high
- DroughtRelatively moderate
- Hurricanesrelatively high in parts of DaytonRelatively moderate
- Ice stormsRelatively moderate
FEMA’s National Risk Index (December 2025) rates the risk each natural hazard poses to the people, buildings and farms in Dayton’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 Liberty County and the Houston-The Woodlands-Sugar Land, TX metro.
Dayton home values
Zillow measures a city over its municipal boundary. Against the state and national figures, mid-tier homes, smoothed and seasonally adjusted.
- Dayton$302,188
- Texas$296,424
- United States$366,157
Sellers are cutting prices on about 1 in 4 Dayton listings, and the typical home goes pending in 83 days — the market is roughly in balance.
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.
- Dayton22.34%
- United States26.90%
Days to pending
How long the typical listing takes to go under contract.
- Dayton83
- United States24
Homes for sale
Active for-sale inventory. More supply hands power to buyers.
- Dayton177
New listings per month
Sellers arriving at the market.
- Dayton32
Median sale price
What buyers actually paid — closed sales, not asking prices.
- Dayton$315,933
- United States$371,407
Sale-to-list ratio
Above 100%, homes sell over asking; below, buyers negotiate wins.
Not enough data to draw this yet.
Zip codes with a Dayton address
A different geography, not a breakdown. The figure above covers the municipality; these zips cover everywhere the Post Office calls Dayton — often including townships beyond the city limits. Both come straight from Zillow, and they are not expected to average out.