McAllen jumped 26 spots to land at No. 50 overall on U.S. News & World Report's 2027 Best Places to Retire ranking, while neighboring Edinburg climbed more than 50 spots to No. 90. Both Rio Grande Valley cities landed among the top 25 midsized U.S. cities for retirees in the new rankings, a notable leap driven largely by affordability.
U.S. News released its 2027 rankings this week, evaluating 859 cities on quality of life, affordability, health care quality, senior population and migration, retiree taxes, and job market strength, each scored on a 10-point scale, according to MySA. McAllen rose from 76th in 2026 to No. 50 this year, while Edinburg jumped from 143rd to No. 90, per the same report. McAllen and Edinburg ranked high on affordability, with lower costs of living and more affordable home prices than similarly sized cities elsewhere in the country, the outlet reported.
Affordability carried extra weight in this year's methodology. Megan Wood said affordability is top of mind for Americans this year, and that U.S. News updated its weighting criteria to better align with retirees' priorities, according to the MySA report. Nationally, the shift was confirmed by a separate analysis from dallasnews.com, which noted that affordability slightly edged out quality of life this year. In a press release, U.S. News & World Report said the rankings were based on how well cities meet American retirees' expectations against measures including quality of life, affordability, healthcare, retiree taxes, job market, and population and migration for retirees aged 55 and older.
Home Prices Tell the Story
McAllen's median home value sits at just over $192,000, about 46.5% below the national average of $360,000, per the MySA report. Edinburg's median home value runs close behind at about $189,000, and both cities report median rents below $850 per month, the outlet noted. A separate dataset from mcallenmetroauthority.com puts McAllen's median home value at $190,400 and its median rent at $1,049 per month — figures that differ from the MySA report but similarly show McAllen well under the statewide Texas median home value of $277,800 and median rent of $1,361.
That same housing data shows McAllen's home value runs about 3.1 times annual household income, compared with 3.9 times in Texas and 4.0 times nationally. The city's homeownership rate stands at 59.5%, below the roughly 65% rate nationwide, and buying at the median home value would take an estimated 15.1 years to break even compared with renting at the median, according to mcallenmetroauthority.com. McAllen's housing vacancy rate is 11.4%, with new construction accounting for 18.0% of the city's housing stock, the site reports.
McAllen and Edinburg also offer mild, sunny, warm weather nearly year-round, per the MySA report. McAllen is the largest city in Hidalgo County and sits in the Rio Grande Valley just a few miles from the Rio Grande, the outlet noted. Housing figures for the McAllen metro area draw on listing data from more than 50 Texas MLS systems covering single-family homes, condominiums and townhouses, both new and existing construction, according to the Texas Real Estate Research Center.
South Texas Neighbors Also Make the List
McAllen and Edinburg weren't the only South Texas cities to crack the rankings. Pharr came in at 61st, Harlingen at 72nd, Laredo at 93rd, Mission at 95th, Brownsville at 100th, Eagle Pass at 109th and Corpus Christi at 245th overall, according to the MySA report. Pharr's strong showing lines up with a separate Investopedia analysis naming it one of the top 100 places to retire in America, citing a subtropical climate with mild winters in the Rio Grande Valley.
Investopedia also reported that Pharr's median home price runs about $165,000, well below the national average of $370,000 cited in that analysis, with average rents around $1,200 compared with a $2,000 national average figure used in the same report. U.S. News noted that Florida and Texas dominate the top 250 best places to retire overall, offering affordable and retiree-tax-friendly locations, as both states continue to see an influx of seniors moving in, according to dallasnews.com.
How McAllen Stacks Up Against Other Texas Cities
McAllen's climb to No. 50 puts it ahead of several fast-growing North Texas suburbs but behind others. Flower Mound ranked 43rd overall, while McKinney came in at 131st, Allen at 174th, Little Elm at 190th and Frisco at 203rd, per dallasnews.com. That outlet attributed some of North Texas' relatively weaker showing to the region losing part of its cost-of-living advantage as it has grown.
Greater Houston suburbs fared especially well in the 2027 rankings. The Woodlands took fourth place overall, followed by Spring at fifth, Pearland at 13th, Conroe at 14th, League City at 25th and Sugar Land at 45th, according to dallasnews.com. Those rankings place several Houston-area communities ahead of both McAllen and Edinburg nationally, even as the two Rio Grande Valley cities posted some of the steepest gains in this year's rankings.
The MySA article on the 2027 rankings was reported by South Texas reporter Dina Arévalo and published in the outlet's San Antonio News section.
