Your mortgage payment is the most visible part of what you'll pay each month. But in Texas, the mortgage is often the second-biggest line item. Property taxes, MUD district fees, HOA dues, insurance, and maintenance can add 30–50% on top of your principal and interest. Understanding all of these before you make an offer is how you avoid payment shock — and in 2026, with Texas appraisals finally catching up to 2021–2022 market values, that shock is hitting buyers harder than ever.
Principal and Interest: The Number Everyone Knows
Let's start with the anchor. On a $400,000 loan at 6.75% interest on a 30-year fixed mortgage, your monthly principal and interest (P&I) payment is approximately $2,594. This number is fixed and predictable — it will not change over the life of a conventional loan. Everything else on this list will fluctuate, and most of it will go up. Use P&I as your floor, not your budget.
Property Taxes: Texas's Biggest Surprise
Texas has no state income tax. That revenue has to come from somewhere, and it comes from property taxes — among the highest effective rates in the nation. In DFW, effective tax rates range from 1.8% to 2.8% depending on the county, city, school district, and any special district overlays layered on top.
Here's what that looks like in practice: a $450,000 home in Collin County at a 2.1% effective rate carries $9,450 per year in property taxes — or $787.50 per month. That alone dwarfs what buyers in low-tax states pay.
The homestead exemption can reduce your taxable value, but you must apply directly with your county CAD (Central Appraisal District) in the year you move in. In 2023, Texas passed HB 2, raising the homestead exemption to $100,000 off your appraised value. On a $450,000 home, that reduces your taxable value to $350,000 — a meaningful but not transformational savings.
One important first-year caveat: many new homeowners pay taxes based on the prior owner's exemption status until the appraisal district resets the account. Budget accordingly. Look up your property's full tax rate on HCAD.net (Harris County), DCAD.org (Dallas County), or CCAD.net (Collin County) before you close. The Texas Comptroller's website also publishes a full breakdown of exemption eligibility at comptroller.texas.gov.
Homeowner's Insurance: Higher Than Most Markets
Texas homeowner's insurance is some of the most expensive in the country, driven by hail, wind, severe thunderstorms, and an active claims environment. Annual premiums in DFW for a $400,000 home typically range from $2,000 to $4,500 per year — or $167 to $375 per month — depending on the age of the roof, construction type, prior claims history, and whether wind and hail coverage is included on the base policy or excluded as a separate endorsement.
Flood insurance is a separate policy entirely. It is not included in a standard homeowner's policy and is not required by lenders unless the property sits in a FEMA-designated flood zone. That said, many DFW properties that do not sit in a mapped flood zone still experience flooding from localized drainage events. It's worth discussing with your agent before you skip it.
HOA Dues: Wide Range, Mandatory Payment
Homeowners association (HOA) dues in DFW range from $35 per month for a basic neighborhood maintaining common landscaping and a few deed restrictions, to $350 or more per month in gated or amenity-heavy communities with pools, gyms, and security. Some associations levy special assessments for major capital expenditures — roof replacements on shared structures, pool resurfacing, gate systems — that can run hundreds to thousands of dollars per unit with little notice.
HOA dues are not optional. Non-payment can result in a lien on the property. Before closing, request the HOA's full financial disclosure, current budget, reserve fund balance, and any pending assessments. A financially underfunded HOA is a future liability.
Maintenance and Repairs: The Line Nobody Budgets For
The standard rule of thumb is to budget 1–1.5% of your home's value per year for maintenance and repairs. On a $450,000 home, that's $4,500–$6,750 per year, or $375–$562 per month set aside — money that won't necessarily get spent every month, but will be needed eventually.
In Texas, the categories that hit hardest are predictable: HVAC systems running at full capacity through brutal summers, foundations on DFW's expansive clay soil that shrinks and swells with every drought-and-rain cycle, and roofs that face hail damage on a roughly 5–7 year cycle in many parts of North Texas. New construction homes carry builder warranty protections — typically 1 year on workmanship, 2 years on systems, and 10 years on structural defects — but once those expire, maintenance responsibility falls entirely on the owner.
Total cost of ownership matters far more than the mortgage payment alone. Before you make an offer on any Texas home, ask your agent to pull the full property tax rate including all overlays, confirm HOA and MUD disclosures, and get an insurance quote specific to that address. That's the only way to know your real monthly number — and the only way to buy with confidence.