CTXMLS lease records · Bell County, TXn=2,804 leases · September 2026
Average Rent in Temple, Texas and Bell County
Portals publish an estimate. This publishes the record: what 2,341 signed leases actually cleared, the spread around the median, and which direction they moved.
Temple · 3 bed · single-family n=237
$1,700per month, median
Bar spans the middle 50% of signed leases · marker is the median · ▼ 2.6% county-wide year over year
What is the average rent in Temple, TX?
The median single-family rent in Temple is $1,700 per month for a 3-bedroom home, from 237 MLS lease records. Two-bedroom homes run $1,195, four-bedroom homes $2,022. Duplex and apartment units are a separate market at $1,395 per unit for a 3-bedroom. Across Bell County, three-bedroom houses run from $1,500 in Killeen to $2,500 in Salado (13 leases).
Verdict: Bell County rents are lower than a year ago, not climbing — single-family medians are down 2.6% from Aug 2025 to Aug 2026. Temple’s own sample is too thin to call separately (17 leases in Aug 2025, 23 in Aug 2026). Underwrite flat rent and treat growth as upside.
- Temple 3-bed range: $1,550–$1,800 (middle 50%)
- Median lease-up: 33 days in Temple, 44 in Killeen
- Built 2020+ rents 33% above pre-2000 stock
- Killeen house rents: down 10.0% year over year
- Based on 2,341 executed leases, not estimates
- Updated September 2026; CTXMLS lease export observed through Sep 23, 2026
What does rent cost in each Bell County city?
Three-bedroom single-family homes, every city on one scale. The bar is the middle 50% of signed leases and the marker is the median — the spread matters as much as the midpoint, because that is the range your property will actually land in.
Executed lease prices preferred over asking. Cells under 8 records are suppressed rather than published thin.
Every bedroom count, houses and units
Single-family and multifamily never blend here. A duplex unit rents about $305 below a comparable Temple house — blending the two, which most rent estimates do, understates house rents by roughly 9%. Multifamily figures are per unit.
| City | Beds | SFH median | Middle 50% | Leases | MFH /unit | Leases |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Temple | 2 | $1,195 | $1,000–$1,375 | 32 | $950 | 32 |
| Temple | 3 | $1,700 | $1,550–$1,800 | 237 | $1,395 | 119 |
| Temple | 4 | $2,022 | $1,875–$2,295 | 126 | — | — |
| Belton | 3 | $1,798 | $1,645–$1,950 | 72 | $1,495 | 12 |
| Belton | 4 | $2,100 | $1,850–$2,350 | 69 | — | — |
| Killeen | 2 | $925 | $875–$1,095 | 71 | $800 | 240 |
| Killeen | 3 | $1,500 | $1,300–$1,695 | 596 | $1,250 | 286 |
| Killeen | 4 | $1,750 | $1,595–$1,900 | 401 | — | — |
| Harker Heights | 2 | — | — | — | $850 | 35 |
| Harker Heights | 3 | $1,750 | $1,595–$1,895 | 58 | $1,250 | 57 |
| Harker Heights | 4 | $2,050 | $1,900–$2,300 | 77 | — | — |
| Salado | 3 | $2,500 | $2,000–$3,100 | 13 | — | — |
| Salado | 4 | $2,900 | $2,700–$3,000 | 11 | — | — |
Source: CTXMLS residential lease records, Bell County TX — 2,804 records, 2,341 executed. Aggregates only. Export observed through Sep 23, 2026. Updated September 2026.
Are rents going up or down in Temple right now?
▼ 2.6% Aug 2025 → Aug 2026, county single-family
Down county-wide: $1,745 to $1,700, with Killeen off 10.0%. Temple’s own sample is too thin to call a direction: 17 closed single-family leases in Aug 2025 and 23 in Aug 2026, with medians of $1,700 and $1,800. A county median below last year’s runs against the growth assumption baked into most rental pro-formas, and it is the single most useful thing on this page if you are underwriting a purchase this quarter.
Median of closed single-family leases by month, May 2025–Sep 2026. Single-family only — a blended series would move on composition instead of price. Hollow final point is a partial export period. Months under 15 closed leases omitted.
How long does it take to rent out a house here?
Vacancy is where rental math usually breaks, and it is measurable — every lease record carries days on market before signing. The bar runs from the median to the slow quarter of the market. Underwrite against the right end of it, not the left.
Bar spans median to 75th-percentile days on market, single-family. At a two-year tenancy, Temple’s 33 days is about 4.3% vacancy drag; on annual turnover it is 8.3%. Killeen on annual turnover runs 10.8% — well above the 8% most pro-formas assume.
Do newer homes rent for more?
Substantially — and this is the number that decides whether new construction pencils as a rental.
| City | Built 2020+ | Built pre-2000 | Premium | Leases new / old |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Temple | $1,850 | $1,395 | +$455 (33%) | 145 / 112 |
| Belton | $1,950 | $1,698 | +$252 (15%) | 75 / 28 |
| Killeen | $1,750 | $1,300 | +$450 (35%) | 158 / 459 |
| Harker Heights | $2,000 | $1,648 | +$352 (21%) | 29 / 46 |
| Salado | $2,900 | $2,350 | +$550 (23%) | 11 / 11 |
Single-family lease records carrying a year built. Cities under 8 records in either era are omitted.
What should an investor do with this?
Four things. Screen asking prices: a Temple 3-bed at $1,700 median rent against a $250,000 purchase is a 8.2% gross yield before expenses — start there, not from a listing agent’s pro-forma. Sanity-check the rent line: if a seller’s package assumes rent above $1,800, it is betting on the top quarter of the market and has to justify why. Set vacancy from the lease-up table instead of a rule of thumb. Then pick the lane: mid-term versus long-term strategy changes which column you underwrite from, and HOA rental restrictions can remove a property from the rental pool entirely. Already own one? Here is what your Temple rental would sell for.
Two things most rent pages get wrong, worth naming plainly. First, they blend houses and duplex units into one median, which flatters unit rents and understates house rents by around 9%. Second, they quote Killeen’s median without its spread — Killeen splits between older stock near Fort Hood and newer builds, so the median describes almost nobody. Read the bar, not the point.
Want the underwriting behind these numbers?
I’ll send the Bell County Underwriting Template — the spreadsheet I use to pre-screen rentals here, with PM at 5%, vacancy set from the lease-up table above, maintenance reserve at 10%, and Bell non-homestead tax at 2.366%. Tell me what you’re looking at and I’ll include current comps for that submarket.
Taylor Dasch · EG Realty · 254-718-4249 · dealswithdasch@gmail.com
Frequently asked questions
The median single-family rent in Temple is $1,700 per month for a 3-bedroom home, based on 237 MLS lease records. Two-bedroom homes run $1,195 and four-bedroom homes run $2,022. Duplex and apartment units rent lower — $1,395 per unit for a 3-bedroom unit.
Down county-wide. Bell County single-family rents fell 2.6% from Aug 2025 to Aug 2026 ($1,745 to $1,700). Killeen fell 10.0% over the same window. Temple’s own sample is too thin to call a direction: 17 closed single-family leases in Aug 2025 and 23 in Aug 2026, with medians of $1,700 and $1,800. Underwriting a Bell County rental on automatic rent growth right now is not supported by the lease record.
A Temple single-family home takes a median of 33 days on market before a lease is signed, and one in four takes 68 days or longer (403 lease records). Killeen runs slower at 44 days. On a two-year tenancy, 33 days of lease-up is roughly 4.3% annual vacancy drag.
Yes, and the gap is large. Temple homes built 2020 or later lease at a $1,850 median versus $1,395 for pre-2000 stock — a $455 per month premium, or 33%, across 145 newer and 112 older leases.
Belton runs slightly higher for single-family homes: $1,798 median for a 3-bedroom versus $1,700 in Temple. Killeen is the value end of the county at $1,500 for a 3-bedroom single-family home.
A 3-bedroom duplex or apartment unit in Temple has a median rent of $1,395 per unit (119 lease records) — about $305 less than a comparable single-family home. That gap is why this page never blends the two property types.
Every number is an aggregate of 2,804 CTXMLS residential lease records across Bell County, 2,341 of them executed leases with a recorded close price. I use executed lease prices over asking prices whenever available, and I suppress any city/bedroom cell with fewer than 8 comps instead of publishing a thin number.