Palacios, Texas.
Typical home $190,149 (-1.2% in a year). Bay City, TX metro.
to buy the typical home at today's mortgage rate — +$386 (+63%) since Jan 2020.
- 1 year
- Down $2,259 -1%
- $192,408$190,149 since Sep 2025
- 5 years
- Down $3,035 -2%
- $193,184$190,149 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.
- Palacios$998
- Texas$1,556
- United States$1,922
At the last five years' pace, prices here aren't rising.
Typical home values in Palacios, TX fell 1.2% over the past year — slower than the nation's +1.2%.
Living in Palacios, Matagorda County, Texas
Palacios is a city of 4,395 people in Matagorda County. Unemployment in Matagorda County was 6.0% in August 2026, and the county had 2.6% more jobs in 2025 than the year before. The most people in Matagorda County work in schools and health care, then manufacturing.
Written by AI Claude Sonnet 5.5 wrote this on 24 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 It can be wrong or out of date.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. Palacios is a small city on the Texas coast in Matagorda County, with a population that has stayed modest. A smaller share of adults hold a four-year degree here than is typical across the country, and the median household income across Matagorda County sits at a moderate level. The typical home is priced well below what buyers face in much of the country.
Work. Residents work mostly in schools, hospitals and social care, with manufacturing, the building trades and shops also employing many. Nobody here works from home. Across Matagorda County, the largest workplaces include the South Texas Project Nuclear Operating Company, Tenaris Bay City and Bay City ISD. Unemployment in the county is a little lower than it was a year ago, and the county has gained jobs over the past year.
Things to do. Turtle Creek runs in or beside town, and a number of other rivers and creeks lie a longer drive away. Lake Texana is a longer drive off, as is Big Boggy National Wildlife Refuge, a protected area for wildlife. History-minded visitors can make the longer drive to Fort Saint Louis. Winters are mild, with January the coolest month, and summers are hot, with August the warmest and a good deal of rain through the year.
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- 1,861households
- 23%of adults have a degree
- 0%work from home
What people in Matagorda County work in
Employed residents by industry, from the Census survey. Matagorda County had 11,495 jobs in 2025, 2.6% more than the year before (Bureau of Labor Statistics).
Weather through the year
Coldest in January, with highs near 65° and lows near 46°; warmest in August, with highs near 93° and lows near 78°. About 43 inches of rain and melted snow a year.
Average daily high and low, 1991–2020, at the Palacios Municipal Airport weather station, 2 miles away (NOAA).
Largest workplaces in Matagorda County
- South Texas Project Nuclear Operating CompanyElectric power generation, nuclear1,200
- Tenaris Bay CityPipe made from purchased iron or steel657
- Bay City ISDSchool district533FTE
- Matagorda Regional Medical CenterGeneral hospital293FTE
- WalmartWarehouse clubs and supercenters269
- H-E-BRetail259
- Performance Contractors, Inc. - Roehm-Bay CityConstruction management, oil refinery and petrochemical complex249
- Palacios ISDSchool district223FTE
Staff on average in 2025, as each workplace reported it to OSHA with its injury records: 21 workplaces with 20 or more staff, 3,938 people in all across the county; Palacios has two of its own. School districts come from the Common Core of Data (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
- HurricanesVery high
- Coastal floodingRelatively high
- LightningRelatively high
- Heat wavesRelatively high
- Cold wavesRelatively high
- DroughtRelatively moderate
FEMA’s National Risk Index (December 2025) rates the risk each natural hazard poses to the people, buildings and farms in Palacios’ 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 Matagorda County and the Bay City, TX metro.
Palacios home values
Zillow measures a city over its municipal boundary. Against the state and national figures, mid-tier homes, smoothed and seasonally adjusted.
- Palacios$190,149
- Texas$296,424
- United States$366,157
Sellers are cutting prices on about 1 in 5 Palacios listings — 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.
- Palacios22.00%
- United States26.90%
Homes for sale
Active for-sale inventory. More supply hands power to buyers.
- Palacios89
New listings per month
Sellers arriving at the market.
- Palacios10
Zip codes with a Palacios address
A different geography, not a breakdown. The figure above covers the municipality; these zips cover everywhere the Post Office calls Palacios — often including townships beyond the city limits. Both come straight from Zillow, and they are not expected to average out.