To assess land value in Texas you start with the regional median price per acre, then adjust hard for the four things that actually move a specific tract: road frontage, water, floodplain, and drive time to an urban center. Regional medians are a starting point and nothing more. In the first quarter of 2026, rural land in Northeast Texas ran a median of $8,960 per acre, up 0.98% year over year, against a statewide Texas median of $5,246 per acre, up 6.02% (Texas Real Estate Research Center, Texas Rural Land Markets, First Quarter 2026, published May 26, 2026).
Those are medians across large tracts in a broad region. Your forty acres are not the median. When we assess land value in Texas for a client at The Agency Dallas, the regional figure is where the conversation opens, not where it lands.
What is the current price per acre for rural land in North Texas?
The Texas Real Estate Research Center at Texas A&M publishes the authoritative series, broken into seven regions and reported quarterly as a four-quarter moving average. For the first quarter of 2026:
- Northeast Texas (Region 4): $8,960 per acre, +0.98% year over year, on 844 sales totaling 28,658 acres. Typical tract size 119 acres.
- Statewide Texas: $5,246 per acre, +6.02% year over year. Five-year annualized growth 9.73%, the lowest since the first quarter of 2022.
- For context across the state: Gulf Coast-Brazos Bottom $11,698, Austin-Waco-Hill Country $8,028, South Texas $6,277, West Texas $2,947, Panhandle-South Plains $1,828, Far West Texas $630.
Two things in that data are worth reading carefully. First, Northeast Texas is moderating — the Center noted in its Summer 2026 rural land commentary that the annualized median has slipped from its third-quarter 2025 peak in each of the last two quarters, even while showing a positive year-over-year number. Second, the 844 sales recorded in the region were the lowest sales count since 2013, even as total acres sold rose 8%. Fewer, larger transactions.
A methodology caveat the Center states plainly and we will repeat: these figures are medians for large rural tracts with region-specific minimum sizes, exclude sales above $50,000 per acre, and do not represent the price or value of any particular farm or ranch. They are not a substitute for an appraisal.
What raises or lowers the price of a specific tract?
A 2026 study from the Texas A&M Agricultural and Food Policy Center ran a regression on 136 comparable county sales around a 250-acre property and quantified the effects. The study was conducted in Washington County, in the Blackland Prairies — not North Texas — so read these as directional rather than as local coefficients:
- Public road frontage was the single most significant quality affecting price. Not size, not shape — frontage.
- Every five-minute increase in drive time to the urban center reduced land value by about 12%.
- Each half-percent increase in surface water coverage raised value by about 5%. Ponds, creeks, and tanks pay.
- Each five-percent increase in floodplain coverage reduced value by about 4%.
- Plot size was statistically insignificant. In recreational markets, amenities and access matter more than raw acreage.
That last finding is the one that surprises sellers most. The instinct is to price off the acre count. The market prices off what the acres let you do and how long it takes to get there.
How do severed mineral rights affect surface value?
Texas follows the dominant estate rule. The mineral estate is dominant and the surface estate is servient, which means a mineral owner has an implied right to use as much of the surface as is reasonably necessary to explore, develop, drill, produce, transport, and store minerals. That includes building roads, siting wells and pipelines at a location of the mineral owner's choosing, digging waste pits, and using groundwater — without the surface owner's permission and without payment, unless something was negotiated.
Four limits apply: the use must be reasonable, it must not be negligent, the accommodation doctrine may require the mineral owner to accommodate an existing surface use where reasonable alternatives exist, and the so-called Common Courtesy Act requires fifteen days' written notice before entering to drill (Texas A&M AgriLife, Texas Agriculture Law Blog).
What that does to price is real but not quantifiable from any published source we could find. Brokers assert that surface-only tracts trade at a discount; nobody publishes a defensible percentage. The honest answer is that severed minerals introduce a risk whose size depends on whether the formation underneath is economically interesting right now, and that the title commitment and a mineral status report — not a rule of thumb — tell you what you are exposed to.
What documents actually establish value?
- A current survey. Acreage on the deed is frequently wrong. Frontage, easements, and encroachments live here.
- The title commitment, Schedule B. Easements, mineral reservations, access rights, restrictions.
- The appraisal district record. Shows the current use valuation and whether an agricultural valuation is in place, which matters enormously to the buyer's carrying cost.
- A floodplain determination. FEMA mapping against the survey, not against a general area map.
- Well and septic records, where improvements exist.
- Comparable sales pulled by someone who works the submarket, because the regional median is a four-quarter moving average across a very large area.
Why regional medians mislead on a single tract
A four-quarter moving average across a region absorbs an enormous amount of variation. Two neighboring 100-acre tracts can differ by a multiple: one with paved frontage, a stock pond, no floodplain, and thirty minutes to a job center; the other landlocked behind an easement, half in the flood fringe, an hour out. The published median describes the region. It does not describe either tract.
This is why we treat the number as an opening position. To assess land value in Texas properly, The Agency Dallas starts from the Texas Real Estate Research Center regional series and then works the specific attributes — frontage, water, floodplain, access, minerals, and current tax valuation — because those are what a buyer will underwrite.
FAQ
What is rural land selling for in North Texas right now?
Northeast Texas rural land ran a median of $8,960 per acre in the first quarter of 2026, up 0.98% year over year, against a Texas statewide median of $5,246 per acre, up 6.02%. Both figures come from the Texas Real Estate Research Center's quarterly rural land survey published May 26, 2026, and are four-quarter moving averages for large tracts.
Does more acreage mean a higher price per acre?
Generally the opposite, and in at least one Texas regression study plot size was not statistically significant at all. Larger tracts often trade at a lower per-acre figure than small ones because the buyer pool narrows. Amenities, road frontage, and drive time drive per-acre price more than size does.
How much does road frontage matter?
More than anything else measured. In the Texas A&M study of 136 comparable sales, public road frontage was the single most significant quality affecting price. Landlocked tracts dependent on an easement carry both a discount and a financing problem.
Does a pond or creek add value?
Yes, measurably. The same study found each half-percent increase in surface water coverage associated with roughly a 5% increase in value. Floodplain works the other way — about a 4% reduction for each five-percent increase in floodplain coverage.
What happens if the minerals were severed?
The mineral estate is dominant in Texas. Whoever owns the minerals can use as much surface as reasonably necessary to develop them, including siting roads and wells where they choose, generally without payment to the surface owner. A mineral status report and the title commitment tell you what has actually been reserved and whether anything is active.
Is a regional median good enough to price my land?
No. It is a starting point across a large area and a four-quarter average, and the publishing Center states directly that it does not represent the value of any particular property. Pricing a specific tract requires a survey, the title commitment, a floodplain determination, and comparable sales worked in the actual submarket.
