Should you buy a home now or wait in Plano or Richardson, TX? For many buyers with stable income and a 5–7+ year time horizon, current data suggest that buying now in these markets can be a smart move, while rate‑sensitive or short‑term buyers may benefit from waiting and strengthening their financing position. This post breaks down local prices, trends, and 2026 expectations so your readers can make a confident decision.
Plano & Richardson market snapshot
In November 2025, Plano’s median sale price was about $523,000, down roughly 2.5% year‑over‑year, with homes taking around 61 days to sell versus 39 days a year earlier. Realtor.com shows Plano’s median list price near $532,300 in late summer 2025, down about 3.2% year‑over‑year and reflecting a clear shift from peak‑frenzy pricing. Richardson’s median sale price in late 2025 sits near $450,000, down about 1.1% year‑over‑year, with average days on market in the high‑40s, indicating a cooler but still active environment.
Zillow estimates average home values around $499,500 in Plano (down about 4.7% over the past year) and roughly $432,000–$452,000 in Richardson (down 0.5–4% depending on segment), confirming a mild correction rather than a crash. Regionally, the Dallas–Plano–Irving metro’s house price index shows a modest 1–2% annual decline through mid‑2025, which lines up with local figures and supports the story of a market normalizing after rapid pandemic‑era gains.
Key numbers at a glance
Interest rates and affordability
As of December 2025, 30-year fixed mortgage rates nationally average in the low-to-mid 6% range, with many trackers showing roughly 6.2–6.4%, and Texas-specific averages around 6.5%. This is markedly higher than the sub-3 % pandemic lows but below the 7%+ peaks seen in 2023, early 2024, providing buyers with somewhat improved affordability compared to the recent high-rate environment. Forecasts for 2026 from major housing and mortgage analysts generally point to modest rate easing and improved affordability, not a dramatic return to ultra‑cheap money, which means waiting for “3% rates again” is unlikely to pay off.
For a typical Plano or Richardson purchase in the $450,000–$550,000 range, a 0.5–0.75 percentage-point rate shift can result in a monthly payment change of a few hundred dollars. However, large price resets are less likely given ongoing job growth, limited buildable land, and strong school districts. Builder and lender incentives, such as rate buydowns and closing‑cost credits, are also more available in this cooler market, partially offsetting today’s higher headline rates.
Reasons to buy now in Plano & Richardson
For many of your readers, local data suggest that buying now is preferable to waiting if they are financially ready and plan to stay at least 5–7 years.
- Prices have already corrected. After 2–7% year‑over‑year price adjustment depending on ZIP and segment, Plano and Richardson have given back some of their peak pricing while maintaining long‑term fundamentals, turning a frenzied seller’s market into a more balanced one.
- More inventory and negotiability. Redfin and local market reports show longer days on market, more active listings, and a high share of price reductions in Plano—over 50–90 weekly decreases in some recent updates—indicating that buyers can negotiate on price, repairs, and concessions.
- Strong underlying demand drivers. The Dallas–Plano–Irving area continues to add jobs and population, and statewide analyses see only a roughly 1% annual price dip alongside steady transaction volume, suggesting that demand in job‑rich corridors like Plano and Richardson will remain resilient.
Practically, this means a well‑qualified buyer today can often secure a home in a top Plano ISD or Richardson ISD zone without the 10–15‑offer bidding wars of 2021–2022, then refinance later if rates improve, all while benefiting from principal pay‑down and any modest appreciation.
Reasons to wait (and how to use the time)
Waiting can still be the right call for some buyers in your audience.
- Tight budgets or variable income. If a buyer’s debt‑to‑income ratio is marginal at current rates, the priority should be paying down other debts, increasing savings, and improving credit scores to unlock better loan terms, rather than forcing a purchase.
- Short time horizon. Buyers who may need to move again within 2–3 years risk transaction costs outweighing any modest price gains, especially in a market expected to post flat-to-low single-digit appreciation rather than explosive growth.
- Psychological risk tolerance. Some clients simply feel more comfortable waiting to see how 2026 shapes up, especially given headlines about national uncertainty; data‑driven forecasts suggest more transactions and somewhat better affordability next year, which can ease that anxiety.
For these clients, you can position “waiting” as an active strategy: getting pre‑approved, monitoring specific Plano and Richardson neighborhoods by ZIP code, and tracking list‑to‑sale price ratios so they are ready to move quickly when the right opportunity appears.
