By Jessica Martinez · Contributing Writer, Business & FinanceEstimated proceeds and how it works in Texas.
By Jessica Martinez · Contributing Writer, Business & FinanceTexas median home values are around $310,000. A 72-year-old with no remaining mortgage could draw roughly $137,900 from a HECM after costs. Texas carries no state income tax, which many borrowers note approvingly, though it makes up for that partly through property taxes that rank among the highest effective rates in the country.
Texas's proceeds table below runs off the statewide median home value; property tax bills there run high enough that some borrowers weigh them directly against what the loan can offer. Model your own scenario for a number tied to your actual home rather than the state figure shown here.
| Borrower age | Illustrative proceeds |
|---|---|
| 62 | $110,000 |
| 70 | $137,900 |
| 80 | $172,000 |
Those three ages, 62, 70, and 80, already net out the origination fee, mortgage insurance premium, and closing costs assumed uniformly across every state page on this site, so the figures reflect proceeds a borrower could actually use rather than a raw gross limit. None of that changes based on which Texas county the home sits in; only the appraised value driving the calculation moves from one address to the next. A homeowner near Austin and one in a smaller Panhandle town are working from the identical age factor and cost assumptions; only their appraisals set them apart.
Two follow-up tools are useful once this table gives a general sense of scale. Track the balance year by year to see how the compounding adds up, or line it up next to a HELOC to compare the two paths side by side before settling on either one. Given the property tax load many Texas homeowners already carry, some find it useful to run both tools against their monthly budget rather than looking at proceeds in isolation.
No, and this matters more in Texas than in most states given how high local property tax bills tend to run. Insurance premiums and any HOA dues also stay on the borrower's plate; only the monthly principal-and-interest payment disappears once the loan closes. Underwriting now includes a financial assessment specifically meant to check whether a borrower can absorb those costs over the long term, and in some cases a lender will set aside part of the proceeds specifically for future tax and insurance bills rather than releasing everything up front. Homeowners applying for or already receiving a homestead exemption should factor that reduced tax bill into their planning, since it changes the ongoing carrying cost of the home even though it has no bearing on the HECM calculation itself.
Selling the home triggers repayment of the full balance out of the sale proceeds, with any remaining equity going to the seller afterward. There's no penalty for selling early, and the non-recourse structure caps what's owed at the home's sale price, no matter how large the accrued balance has become by that point. This matters in Texas particularly because strong homestead protections already shield the property from most creditors, and the HECM's non-recourse feature works alongside those protections rather than against them.
Texas has no state income tax, a fact many retirees weigh favorably, but its property tax rates are among the highest in the country on an effective basis, which changes the household math for some HECM borrowers more than it would in a low-tax state. None of that changes how the loan itself gets calculated; it only affects what a borrower's monthly finances look like afterward, which is a distinction worth keeping straight before comparing this page's figures to a neighbor's experience in another state. Check the 2026 figures in full for the national assumptions behind this page's estimate.