The Short Answer
Across 1,262 closed single-family leases in McKinney, the median rent was $2,500 a month and the median house took 22 days to lease. Sixty-three percent of those homes leased at or above the rent their owner first asked for; the other 37% had to cut. Those two groups had very different outcomes, and the gap between them is worth more money than most owners realize.
Everything in this report comes from NTREIS closed transactions, Mar 21–Sep 17, 2026 — a 180-day window of leases and sales that actually closed, with active, pending, withdrawn and expired listings filtered out. A closed lease is a signed contract. An asking rent is a guess. We only count the first one.
Rent by Bedroom Count
The average closed rent was $2,633, a little above the median because the top of the market pulls it up. The middle half of all McKinney leases landed between $2,265 and $2,895. The median leased house was 2,073 square feet, built in 2010, and rented at $1.21 per square foot.
| Bedrooms | Closed leases | Median rent | Average rent | Median days to lease | Median $/sq ft |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2 | 29 | $2,150 | $2,106 | 35 | $1.57 |
| 3 | 614 | $2,300 | $2,400 | 22 | $1.31 |
| 4 | 529 | $2,699 | $2,794 | 22 | $1.13 |
| 5+ | 90 | $3,225 | $3,445 | 26 | $0.99 |
Three-bedrooms made up 49% of closed leases and four-bedrooms 42%, so more than nine out of ten McKinney rental houses that leased this period were one of those two. The most common floor plans were 3 bed / 2 bath (575 leases), 4 bed / 2 bath (279) and 4 bed / 3 bath (228). Two-bedroom figures rest on only 29 leases, so read them as directional.
Notice what happens to price per square foot as houses get bigger. A two-bedroom earns $1.57 a foot; a five-bedroom earns $0.99. Square footage does not scale into rent one-for-one. An owner who paid a premium for 3,200 feet collects about 63 cents on the dollar per foot compared with a small house, and waits four extra days to do it.
Rent bands tell the same story from the other direction: 6% of leases closed under $2,000, 44% between $2,000 and $2,499, 31% between $2,500 and $2,999, 18% between $3,000 and $3,999, and 2% at $4,000 and up. Three-quarters of the McKinney rental market lives between $2,000 and $3,000.
Rent by ZIP Code
McKinney’s four residential ZIPs behave differently enough that a citywide average will mislead you about your own street.
| ZIP | Area | Closed leases | Median rent | Median days to lease | $/sq ft | Median year built |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 75069 | Historic core and east McKinney | 96 | $2,295 | 32 | $1.30 | 2014 |
| 75070 | South McKinney, SH 121, Craig Ranch | 346 | $2,593 | 20 | $1.16 | 2006 |
| 75071 | North and northwest, Stonebridge, Trinity Falls, US 380 | 540 | $2,495 | 23 | $1.23 | 2018 |
| 75072 | West McKinney, Stonebridge Ranch | 278 | $2,500 | 21 | $1.21 | 2005 |
75070 is the south side along SH 121 and the Craig Ranch district, with SRS Distribution, Independent Financial and Costco on the corridor. It leased fastest and highest — 20 days at a $2,593 median. It is also the shortest drive to Plano’s Legacy West and to Frisco, and a straight run to DFW Airport on the Sam Rayburn Tollway. Proximity to jobs shows up in leasing speed before it shows up in rent.
75071 covers north and northwest McKinney — Stonebridge, Trinity Falls, the US 380 corridor. It carried 43% of every closed lease in the city and holds the newest housing stock, with a median build year of 2018. Volume and new supply live in the same ZIP, which matters for the next section.
75072 is west McKinney and much of Stonebridge Ranch, a community of 9,400-plus homes across 70-plus villages. Median rent $2,500, 21 days. Older stock, larger lots, and HOA lease rules that owners need to read before they advertise.
75069 is the historic core and east side. It leased at $2,295 and took 32 days, the slowest in the city, but it earns $1.30 per square foot — second only to small homes. Houses near the downtown square rent well per foot and take longer to fill.
The At-Ask Group versus the Price-Cut Group
This is the number we would put on the wall if we could put only one there.
| Group | Share of leases | Median days to lease | Average days |
|---|---|---|---|
| Leased at or above original asking rent | 63% | 15 | 23 |
| Leased after a price reduction | 37% | 46 | 57 |
Homes that got their price right the first time leased in 15 days. Homes that had to reduce took 46 — 31 additional days — and after all that waiting they still gave up an average of $197 a month, or 6.8%, off the original ask.
Add it up on a twelve-month lease. The rent concession alone is about $2,360. The extra month-plus of vacancy on a $2,500 house is another $2,500 or so, and utilities, lawn service and insurance keep running the whole time. Call it $4,800 or more in owner cost, produced by a number typed into a listing on day one.
That is the whole argument for pricing off closed leases instead of active listings. Active listings are what other owners hope to get, and in a market where 37% of them end up cutting, hopeful asking rents are a bad comparison set.
New Construction is Not Leasing Better
Here is the finding most McKinney owners have not seen.
| Group | Closed leases | Median rent | Median days | Share that cut price |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Built 2024 or later | 165 | $2,425 | 34 | 46% |
| Built before 2010 | 619 | $2,395 | 21 | 37% |
Newly built rental houses took 13 more days to lease and were nine points more likely to need a price cut — and they earned a median rent only $30 above homes built before 2010. New construction did not command a premium this period.
The reason is concentration. Investor-bought and builder-leased houses come to market in clusters, several at a time on the same few streets in the same phase, often with nearly identical floor plans. When four homes compete for one applicant pool with no meaningful difference between them, the only lever left is price. Across the city, 43% of leased homes were built in 2015 or later and 25% in 2020 or later, so this is a quarter of the market, not a niche.
If your house was built before 2010, that is a competitive position, not a liability. An established home with mature trees, a fenced yard and no model-home traffic next door has the market largely to itself. Price it accordingly.
Supply: 420 Actives and Two Months
As of Sept 17, 2026, McKinney had 420 active single-family rental listings, asking a median of $2,500 — the same as the median that actually closed. Active listings had been sitting a median of 32 days, ten days longer than the median closed lease took, which is what you expect when the slower-moving listings pile up at the top of the pool.
At a leasing pace of roughly 210 homes a month, 420 actives works out to 2.0 months of rental supply. That is not a landlord’s market and not a renter’s market. It is a market that rewards accuracy. Two months of supply means an applicant looking at your house has roughly two months of alternatives, and no more than that.
For context on where the supply comes from: the City of McKinney recorded 1,640 single-family permits year to date in 2025 against 2,308 in the prior year-to-date period — a real pullback in new building — while the Census Bureau put the city at 236,001 residents as of July 1, 2025, up 3.7% in a single year and 20.8% since 2020. Fewer new houses, more new people. That ratio is the reason two months of supply has stayed two months.
It also helps to remember what McKinney is. A county seat 30 miles north of downtown Dallas on US 75, with a more industrial employment base than Frisco or Plano: Raytheon Intelligence & Space, Encore Wire, Independent Financial, SRS Distribution, plus Baylor Scott & White and Medical City. Demand here is spread across many employers rather than one campus, which is part of why the lease numbers are steady rather than volatile.
The For-Sale Side, and What it Means for Rent vs. Sell
Over the same 180 days, 1,672 single-family homes sold in McKinney.
| Metric | Value |
|---|---|
| Median sale price | $522,000 |
| Median price per sq ft | $210 |
| Median days on market | 31 |
| Median sale price as % of original list | 96.4% |
| Sold below original list price | 78% |
| Active for-sale listings | 1,028 |
| Months of for-sale supply | 3.7 |
| Active listings that have already cut price | 60% |
Read those last three rows together. The for-sale market carries 3.7 months of supply against the rental market’s 2.0, and 60% of the houses currently for sale have already reduced their price. Of homes that sold, 78% closed below their original list and the typical seller netted 96.4% of it. On a $522,000 house, that missing 3.6% is about $18,800 — before commission, before repairs, before the concessions that do not show up in the sale price at all.
Now put the two sides next to each other. A median three-bedroom sells for $419,000 and rents for $2,300, a gross yield of 6.6% and a gross rent multiplier of 15.2. A median four-bedroom sells for $560,000 and rents for $2,699 — 5.8% gross, 17.3 multiplier. Those are before taxes, insurance, HOA dues, management and maintenance, so treat them as a directional check, not a pro forma.
The practical read: the lease side clears in 22 days with 63% of owners getting their full number. The sale side takes 31 days, and nearly four out of five sellers take less than they asked. If you do not need the proceeds this year, holding through a soft price cycle in a county NCTCOG projects to grow from about 1.06 million people in 2020 to 1.56 million by 2040 is a defensible position. If you do need the money, price the sale honestly on day one — the same discipline that separates the 15-day leases from the 46-day ones. Our rent vs. sell calculator will run your specific numbers.
What We’d Do with a McKinney House Right Now
We manage rental homes across more than 50 DFW cities, and here is how we would handle a McKinney house this quarter.
We would price it off closed leases in its own ZIP, its own bedroom count and its own square-footage band — not off the four active listings down the street, because 37% of those are going to end up cutting. We would set the number we actually believe and then hold it through the first ten days.
We would treat the first two weeks as the entire pricing experiment. Thirty-four percent of McKinney homes leased within 14 days and 60% within 30. If a house has real showing traffic and no applications by day ten, the price is wrong and waiting will not fix it — the price-cut group proved that, at $4,800 a house. A small correction on day twelve beats a large one on day forty.
We would look hard at timing. Houses coming available in late fall are competing into a thinner applicant pool than houses turning in May. That sometimes argues for a shorter or longer initial lease term to move the next renewal into a better window.
We would check the HOA and the school district before advertising. Stonebridge Ranch and several other McKinney communities carry minimum lease terms, lease caps and tenant-registration requirements in their CCRs, and finding that out after signing a lease is an expensive way to learn it. On the tax side, a McKinney address does not guarantee a McKinney ISD rate — parcels inside the city limits can fall into Prosper, Frisco, Allen, Melissa or Lovejoy ISD, so we pull the parcel at Collin CAD before anyone builds a budget on it.
And we would screen every applicant on the same written criteria — income, credit, rental history and background — applied identically to everyone, every time. That is both the law and the only version of screening that holds up when someone questions it.
Run Your Own Numbers
If you own a house in McKinney and want to know what it will actually lease for, we will pull the closed comps for your street and your floor plan and give you a straight answer. That is the free rental analysis, and there is no obligation attached to it.
We have managed North Texas rental homes since 2002 from our office in Keller, on a flat $175 per month per door charged on collected rent — not a percentage, so the fee does not grow when your rent does. Leasing is 75% of the first month’s rent, plus a per-lease admin fee.
- McKinney property management — full service details, fees and local rules
- Rent vs. sell calculator — hold or list, on your numbers
- Fee savings calculator — flat fee against a percentage, over a full year
Frequently Asked Questions
- What is the average rent for a house in McKinney, TX?
The median closed rent for a single-family home in McKinney was $2,500 a month. That’s based on 1,262 homes leased between March 21 and September 17, 2026 (NTREIS closed transactions). Half of all homes rented for between $2,265 and $2,895, which works out to about $1.21 per square foot. - How long does it take to rent a house in McKinney?
The median was 22 days on market. About one in three homes (34%) leased within two weeks, and 60% leased within 30 days. About 17% sat for more than 60 days, and most of those started out priced too high. - What happens if I price my McKinney rental too high?
It costs you time and money. Homes that leased at or above their first asking rent took a median of 15 days. Homes that needed a price cut took 46 days and still ended up about $197 a month below the original ask. Over a one-year lease, that can add up to $4,800 or more in lost rent and extra vacancy. - Which McKinney ZIP code has the highest rents?
75070 (south McKinney near SH 121 and Craig Ranch) had the highest median rent at $2,593 and leased the fastest at 20 days. 75071 on the north side had the most leases, about 43% of the city’s total. 75069 near the historic downtown had a $2,295 median and the slowest pace at 32 days. - How much rent can I get for a 3- or 4-bedroom house in McKinney?
The median was $2,300 for a 3-bedroom and $2,699 for a 4-bedroom. Homes with 5 or more bedrooms had a median of $3,225. Together, 3- and 4-bedroom homes made up about 91% of all leases. - Do new-construction rentals in McKinney rent for more?
Not in this period. Homes built in 2024 or later had a median rent of $2,425, which is about the same as older homes. They took 34 days to lease compared with 21 days for homes built before 2010, and 46% of them had to cut their price. Lots of new rentals on the same streets means more competition. - How many rental homes are available in McKinney right now?
On September 17, 2026, there were 420 single-family rentals listed. The median asking rent was $2,500. At the current pace of about 210 leases a month, that’s roughly two months of supply. - Is McKinney a good place to buy a rental property?
It depends on the price you pay. The median sale price was $522,000, and 78% of homes sold below their original list price. Using median rent and price, a typical 3-bedroom has a gross yield of about 6.6% and a 4-bedroom about 5.8%. That’s before property taxes, insurance, HOA dues, and repairs, so run your own numbers on the specific home. - How much does property management cost in McKinney?
McCaw Property Management charges a flat $175 a month per home, based on collected rent. Leasing a vacant home costs 75% of the first month’s rent. We don’t charge a percentage of rent for monthly management. - How often is this McKinney rental market report updated?
Every quarter. Each update uses closed NTREIS MLS transactions only (homes that actually leased or sold), not asking prices or online estimates.
All lease, sale and inventory figures: NTREIS closed transactions, Mar 21–Sep 17, 2026. Population and permit figures: U.S. Census Bureau Population Estimates Program (Vintage 2025) and City of McKinney Residential Development Activity. This report is market information, not investment, tax or legal advice.