This is not a Wall Street report. This is what we are seeing on the ground in Texas right now: what buyers are paying, what sellers are asking, where inventory is thin, and where we think the second half of 2026 is headed.
Buyers are cautious but not absent. In East Texas, rural acreage under fifteen hundred dollars per acre still moves if the access is good and the title is clean. In the Permian Basin adjacency counties, buyer interest is tied to oilfield work and surface lease conversations. Demand there is not always rational, but it is real.
We are not in a land rush. Off-market inventory is still available for buyers who run county records and mail owners directly. On-market inventory is thinner in counties inside the Texas Triangle, which keeps prices firmer. Outside the triangle, there are more deals and less competition. The work is in finding them.
East Texas remains the most consistent entry point. Upshur, Gregg, and Harrison counties still offer well-located rural tracts at prices that make sense for wholesaling or buy-and-hold. Bell County and Hunt County are seeing more competition from buyers who want residential land. Those markets are slower and require stronger offers.
The buyers we speak with are not speculators. They are builders, investors who buy monthly, and people who want land for long-term agricultural or estate use. That mix means demand is narrower but more durable. Prices will not spike on emotion the way they did in 2021. That is a good thing for operators who buy on math.
We expect the gap between on-market and off-market pricing to widen. Listings will tighten. Sellers who test the market with inflated asking prices will wait. Buyers who use county records and direct mail will get contracts signed. That is where we are spending our time.
If you want to model a specific Texas deal fast, use the land calculator at shotgunwholesaling.com for underwriting. For Texas-market deal flow, see texaslandkings.com.