shore thing

Charming Texas Gulf Coast community named one of the most affordable beach towns in U.S.

Rockport is one of the best beach town values in the U.S.

Photo by Cissy Beasley via Visit Rockport Fulton

Here's some welcome news for Dallasites in search of a beach house that won't break the bank: A new report from Realtor.com says a popular Texas coastal town is among the most affordable in the country.

Rockport, Texas, a coastal community about a six-hour drive from Dallas, lands at No. 7 on Realtor.com’s new list of most affordable beach towns in the country. The charming Gulf Coast town’s average home list price is $435,112.

Rockport is popular for its “clean beaches, fantastic fishing, and world-class birdwatching,” the report says.

Rockport offers 10 different sites on the Great Texas Coastal Birding Trail, which boasts the planet’s sole migrating flock of over 265 whooping cranes, which passes through the Aransas Wildlife Refuge every winter.

In Rockport, waterfront homes start in the mid $400,000s, the report notes, with standouts including a $449,000 two-bedroom townhouse with lovely views of the Aransas Bay and a three-story, two-bedroom house on Mustang Island on the market for $599,900.

To generate the list, Realtor.com’s team surveyed the median home list prices of more than 1,300 towns located across America’s coastlines from May 2021 through April 2022. These areas had at least 30 homes for sale in April (not including pending transactions), the report adds.

Properties must actually be on the water and not just nearby to qualify for the list, and be “more than just a strip of sand and surf” and have diverse entertainment. Rockport is 18 miles from Port Aransas and 30 miles from Corpus Christi.

“The U.S. has over 95,000 miles of shorelines,” George Ratiu, manager of economic research at Realtor.com, noted in the list. “But most people, when they think of beach towns, they focus on a few dozen destinations. However, there are a lot of hidden gems, which offer all the benefits of seaside living at a much lower price.”

America’s cheapest beach town, according to Realtor.com, is Atlantic City, New Jersey, with a median list price of $161,754. Tiverton, Rhode Island is the priciest of the cheap deals, with a median home price of $480,262.

Here’s the full list, per Realtor.com.

1. Atlantic City, New Jersey
Median list price: $161,754

2. Deerfield Beach, Florida
Median list price: $230,071

3. New London, Connecticut
Median list price: $242,392

4. Mastic Beach, New York
Median list price: $334,907

5. Myrtle Beach, South Carolina
Median list price: $347,875

6. Seal Beach, California
Median list price: $400,338

7. Rockport, Texas
Median list price: $435,112

8. Lynn, Massachusetts
Median list price: $449,626

9. Morehead City, North Carolina
Median list price: $464,842

10. Tiverton, Rhode Island
Median list price: $480,262

lists reports home-for-sale rankings

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Dallas-Fort Worth ranks among top 25 most livable U.S. metros in 2026

Photo by Max Fray on Unsplash

Dallas-Fort Worth is the most livable metro in Texas for 2026.

Americans looking for the right place to live with a good balance between location, community, and quality of life can find that right here in Dallas-Fort Worth, according to a national study from RentCafe.

The North Texas region stood out as the No. 1 most livable metro area in Texas, and the 24th most livable U.S. metro for 2026.

RentCafe's report analyzed 149 U.S. metro areas across 17 key indicators, including cost of living, income growth rates, "social association" rates, a food index, and others.

The top three most livable American metros are Washington, D.C. (No. 1); Portland, Maine (No. 2); and Kansas City, Missouri (No. 3).

Here's how Dallas-Fort Worth performed in the study's three main rankings compared to the rest of the U.S.:

No. 28 – Socioeconomics
No. 38 – Quality of life
No. 52 – Location and community

According to the findings, more than a third (34.4 percent) of Dallas-Fort Worth's 8.25 million residents are renters, and less than a tenth (9.7 percent) of residents are living in poverty. The city has an unemployment rate of 4.5 percent, and less than half (45.7 percent) of DFW workers report having a "long commute."

The cost of living in Dallas-Fort Worth is 2 percent lower than the national average, the report said, and residents' income has grown 6 percent over the last five years, though the report doesn't elaborate on what those income figures are.

Based on a survey from CountyHealthRankings.com, RentCafe says Dallas residents experience about three "physically unhealthy" days on average, and an average of five "mentally unhealthy" days. Only 17.4 percent of DFW residents are reportedly "physically inactive" and 10.6 percent report they are uninsured.

Overall, 10 more Texas metros earned spots in the report, but they surprisingly all landed outside the top 100 most livable U.S. metros.

Those other Texas metro areas are:

No. 117 – Killeen
No. 125 – Corpus Christi
No. 127 – Houston
No. 130 – Austin
No. 134 – Beaumont
No. 138 – El Paso
No. 145 – Lubbock
No. 147 – San Antonio
No. 148 – Brownsville
No. 149 – McAllen

rentcafe most livable metros dallas fort worth