Robertson County

Robertson County sits at a median home price of $259,047, up just 0.51% year-over-year, which tells you immediately that appreciation is not the engine here. The market scores 55 out of 100 on appreciation and lands at the 39th percentile nationally across 1,000 counties, ranking 93rd out of 243 Texas counties. The cash-flow score is 0, meaning the numbers do not pencil for a standard buy-and-hold at current financing costs, a direct consequence of running a 6.85% mortgage against a median price near $260,000 in a county where median household income is $59,410. The affordability index of 65 signals that homes are not cheap relative to what local tenants earn, which constrains how much rent the market can realistically support and compresses the rent-to-price ratio accordingly.

Given the cash-flow score of 0 and appreciation score of 55, Robertson fits neither the pure cash-flow buyer nor the appreciation play particularly well. The stability score of 50 is middling, and the overall score of 56 puts this county solidly in average territory with no standout attribute pulling it toward a specific investor profile. If there is a use case here, it is the value-add or repositioning operator who can acquire below the median, force equity through renovation, and either refinance into a better debt-service ratio or sell. At the county median of $259,047 that opportunity is narrow, but pockets of the county almost certainly carry lower price points where the math begins to move. An appreciation buyer with a long time horizon might find the 0.51% annual growth rate too thin to justify the capital tie-up at 6.85% financing, unless they are expecting a mean reversion upward that the current data does not yet support.

The tax and insurance carry in Robertson County is a real underwriting consideration and deserves its own line on your model. Using Texas state-average effective rates (Tax Foundation 2024), the estimated annual property tax on a $259,047 purchase runs $4,663, or $389 per month. Annual insurance adds another $1,295, roughly $108 per month. Combined, that is $497 per month in tax and insurance before you service your mortgage, pay property management, or set aside reserves. At a 1.8% state-average effective property tax rate, this is a high-tax environment by national standards, and that rate is what makes an already marginal cash-flow picture worse. Texas has no state income tax, which benefits you as an investor on the income side, but the property tax regime offsets a meaningful portion of that advantage. Note that actual Robertson County or township-level rates may differ from the state average used here, so pull the county appraisal district's current levy before finalizing any underwrite.

The neighboring county comparison sharpens the picture. Duval County to the south carries a median home price of just $75,098 with an overall score of 55, essentially the same score as Robertson at roughly one-third the capital outlay. If cash flow is anywhere in the picture for your strategy, Duval's entry point gives you far more room to make the numbers work at current interest rates. Karnes, De Witt, and Uvalde counties all score the same 55 overall at median prices between $193,000 and $212,000, each offering a lower purchase price for an identical composite rating. Bosque County at $242,716 is the closest to Robertson in price while still coming in $16,000 cheaper. Robertson's $259,047 median is the highest of this peer group, and since every neighbor scores the same or equivalent overall, the raw capital efficiency argument favors the lower-priced alternatives for most investors. You would choose Robertson specifically if you identified a sub-market or asset class within the county that is priced materially below the median and has a defensible rent basis, or if you have a specific operational or geographic reason to be in this corridor rather than the surrounding counties.

The population of 16,912 is the most significant structural risk in this market. A county this small has thin transaction volume, limited rental liquidity, and concentrated exposure to any single employer contraction or population shift. Diversification within the county is difficult because the tenant pool itself is small. There is no economic anchor or employer data provided for Robertson, so no specific demand driver can be cited, but at 16,912 residents you are operating in a market where vacancy at even a handful of units represents a meaningful percentage of active supply. Any investor underwriting here should stress-test for longer vacancy periods than a larger MSA would require, and should assume a thinner buyer pool when it comes time to exit.