Faro Labs / Markets / Abilene, TX
Abilene real estate investment market
What a typical rental in Abilene, Texas costs, rents for, and returns: underwritten by Faro's own engine, not a scraped summary.
Returns assume 20% down at 6.75% over 30 years, 7% vacancy, and standard operating costs: Faro's default assumptions, the same ones every report starts from. Home value and rent trends as of 2026-05-31.
Appreciation market
A typical Abilene rental runs $340 short each month at market rent, so the case for buying rests on values rising: they moved 6.6% over the last year. That is a bet on the market rather than on the building, and it needs reserves deep enough to fund the shortfall.
The price a deal actually works at
Faro models five price points for Abilene, from a weak buy to a strong one. The market-rate deal is $219,057; a good buy is $197,151 and a great one $175,246 roughly 20% below market value. Those are the bars a specific listing gets measured against when you run it.
How Abilene compares
Of the 210 markets Faro publishes, Abilene is the 185th most expensive to buy into: 45% below the median covered market, and the 38th strongest on rent-to-price. Within Texas it's the 23rd priciest of 27 markets we cover. On the last year of home-value change it ranks 5th.
To break even at the default financing, a typical Abilene property would need about $1,786 a month in rent: $419 more than the $1,367 the market currently supports.
What each tier costs in Abilene
Faro models five price points per market. A listing gets measured against these bars, not against a national average.
| Tier | Purchase price | Market rent | vs. market rate |
|---|---|---|---|
| Weak buy | $240,963 | $1,299/mo | +10% |
| Fair buy | $230,010 | $1,340/mo | +5% |
| Market rate | $219,057 | $1,367/mo | — |
| Good buy | $197,151 | $1,435/mo | -10% |
| Great buy | $175,246 | $1,504/mo | -20% |
A typical Abilene deal, underwritten
The market-rate property above, run through the same engine every Faro report uses.
| Purchase price | $219,057 |
|---|---|
| Monthly rent | $1,367 |
| Cash required (20% down + 3% closing) | $50,383 |
| Net operating income | $9,563/yr |
| Monthly cash flow | -$340 |
| Cap rate | 4.4% |
| Cash-on-cash return | −8.1% |
| DSCR | 0.70 |
Rents are climbing faster than prices
Rents rose 44.6% over the last year while home values moved up 6.6%: a 38.0-point gap. When rent growth outruns price growth, yields improve without you doing anything: the same $219,057 property collects more each year against a price that hasn't moved to match. It's the rarer of the two directions and it's what turns a marginal market into a workable one over a hold.
One of the cheapest ways in
At $219,057, a typical Abilene property costs 44.8% less than the median market Faro covers: 185th most expensive of 210. Cash required at 20% down plus closing is about $50,383, which is what makes markets like this the usual starting point for a first rental. The trade is management: a cheap property is not a cheap property to run, and the fixed costs, a roof, a furnace, a turnover, are the same dollars against a much smaller rent.
What it would take to break even
A typical Abilene property would need about $1,786 a month to cover itself at the default financing: 31% above the $1,367 the market currently supports. That gap is the honest size of the problem: it isn't closed by trimming an expense line, it's closed by buying meaningfully below market, putting more down, or finding a property that rents well above its market's median.
Abilene investor questions
Is Abilene a good place to buy rental property?
A typical Abilene rental at $219,057 renting for $1,367 a month returns 4.4% on a cap-rate basis and runs short by $340 a month at 20% down. Individual deals vary far more than markets do, which is the whole reason to underwrite a specific address.
Can you cash-flow a rental in Abilene?
Not at the market's own price and rent. A typical property runs $340 short each month. It would need about $1,786 in rent to break even. Deals that work here are bought below market rather than at it, which is what the price ladder above is for.
Are Abilene home prices still rising?
Values rose 6.6% over the last year across 5 covered ZIP codes. Faro underwrites deals on cash flow and treats appreciation as upside rather than a plan, so a rising market improves a deal that already works: it doesn't rescue one that doesn't.
How much do you need to buy a rental in Abilene?
About $50,383 at 20% down plus 3% closing on a typical $219,057 property: one of the lower entry points among the 210 markets covered here.
Other Texas markets
Run the numbers yourself
A market average is not a deal.
Paste a real Abilene listing and Faro underwrites that specific property from its own comps, with a target price you can actually offer.
Estimates for analysis and educational use only: not financial, investment, tax, or legal advice. Verify every number independently before making a purchase decision.