Pull up Andrews on any national portal and you will see one number: a median list price hovering around $308,000 as of June 2026. That number is accurate. It is also misleading in a way that costs buyers real money.

The average sale price in the same window sits closer to $370,000. The gap is not a rounding error. It is the shape of the market.

The number the portals show you, and the one they don't

Here is the same market described three ways, all pulled from mid-2026 reporting:

The per-square-foot figure comes from the Federal Reserve's FRED database for the Andrews CBSA. The rest reflects mid-2026 MLS aggregations.

A $62,000 spread between median and average, in a market this small, tells you the listings are not clustered around a comfortable middle. They are barbelled. On one end, new tract product from a national builder is priced in the high $280s to mid $340s. On the other end, custom builds on acreage push well past $500,000 and pull the average up. What sits between those two poles is thin, older, and often waiting.

The 111-day median days on market is the tell. Statewide, Q1 2026 median days on market was 82 per the Texas Real Estate Research Center's spring reporting. Andrews is running roughly a month slower than the Texas average. In a market where the median price actually dropped about 15% year over year, that slowness is not a demand problem. It is a matching problem.

Why the middle sits

Andrews is an oil-and-gas town by paycheck. Local reporting from the Andrews Economic Development Corporation puts the oil industry at roughly 90% of jobs. That produces a specific buyer profile: field and service workers, teachers, hospital staff at Permian Regional Medical Center, and a smaller layer of engineers and operators earning more.

The entry tier of that profile has options. D.R. Horton is actively selling in Mustang Ridge, with plans priced roughly $284,990 to $347,990 on 1,474 to 2,299 square feet. When a national builder can deliver a new four-bedroom under $350,000 with a warranty, buyers stop chasing a 1978 three-bedroom that needs a roof.

The top tier also has options. C&S Custom Homes is developing Estates of Ezra for buyers who want acreage and a full custom scope. There is no shortage of land in Andrews County, and owner-financed 35 and 45-acre tracts are available on flexible terms for buyers who want to build on their own timeline.

What is missing is the move-up buyer in the $375,000 to $475,000 lane. That is the pool that clears the aging mid-tier inventory in bigger Permian markets like Midland and Odessa. In Andrews, that pool is smaller in absolute terms, and it is being courted directly by custom builders and new-construction incentives. The result shows up as 111 days on market for the resale homes that sit above the tract-builder ceiling and below the custom price point.

For a buyer, that friction is opportunity. For a seller in that same middle band, it is a pricing warning.

What is actually being built, and what isn't

Zabalist's project tracker counts roughly 88 active construction projects in Andrews County worth about $175.6 million. The named ones matter more than the total:

• United Supermarket #655 — a $10M grocery build, the kind of anchor that stabilizes nearby resale values
• Permian Regional Medical Center Memory Care Unit — $8.9M, expanding the hospital's service footprint
• Andrews ISD new science labs and administration offices — $18.4M through AISD
• ConocoPhillips Goldsmith field office and shop — $8.5M, an oil-services investment that signals continued operator commitment
• The Ranch at Andrews — a 123-unit apartment community completed in 2026, the largest single addition to local rental supply in years

Read that list again with a housing lens. A grocery store, a hospital wing, school buildings, an oil field office, and one apartment complex. Almost none of it is for-sale housing.

The 120-lot residential development the City has referenced in its own economic development coverage is being built ten lots at a time. That is a deliberate drip, and it is consistent with what the EDC's earlier housing study concluded: Andrews has been losing potential residents because there is nowhere for them to land. The city is not overbuilding. It is barely keeping up.

The takeaway for a buyer is not that prices are about to spike. It is that the supply pipeline is narrow and slow, which means the discount on the middle band is a timing arbitrage, not a permanent condition.

How to shop the gap

If the two-tier structure is real, the buyer's play is to shop the seam between the tiers on purpose. A few specifics:

1. Get a real number on a Mustang Ridge comp before you tour resale. If a new-build four-bedroom is $329,000 with a builder warranty and lower insurance on a newer roof, an early-2000s resale at $325,000 needs a reason to exist. That reason is usually lot size, location relative to town, or a workshop or barn. If it does not have one, offer accordingly.

2. Watch the price-per-square-foot, not the sticker. At $163 to $164 across the market, anything materially above that in the mid-tier band needs to justify itself through condition, land, or outbuildings, not through square footage alone.

3. Read the days-on-market like a negotiator. A home that has been sitting 90 to 150 days in a 111-day median market is not overpriced by a few thousand dollars. It is usually stuck against a specific tier ceiling. A written offer at the top of the tier below is often more productive than a small trim off the current ask.

4. Factor rent as a floor. With three-bedroom rents around $1,791 in mid-2026 and owner-financed structures available on both land and select homes, the buy-versus-rent math in Andrews is closer than it is in most Texas metros. If you are relocating for an oil-services role and unsure about tenure, the gap between a mortgage payment on a $310,000 home and prevailing rent is small enough that the flexibility premium may not be worth it.

5. Ask about lot phases on new construction. A 120-lot subdivision released ten at a time creates predictable pricing steps. The first ten lots often carry incentives the last ten will not.

A short FAQ

Is Andrews a buyer's market or a seller's market right now? By days-on-market, it favors buyers in the mid-tier resale band. By new-construction absorption, it favors well-priced sellers in the sub-$350,000 tier where the builder is setting the ceiling. Both are true at the same time, which is why the median alone is a bad tool for Andrews.

Why is Andrews slower than Midland and Odessa? Fewer transactions is not the same as weaker demand. Andrews is a smaller city with a narrower move-up buyer pool, so the middle of the market has fewer natural buyers even when the town's employment base is stable.

Does the oil cycle still drive prices here? It drives payrolls, which drives who can qualify for what tier. Business View Magazine's coverage of Andrews put oil-and-gas at roughly 90% of local jobs, and city leadership has been open about the effort to diversify. For a housing shopper, the practical read is that the entry and mid tiers are more rate-sensitive than they are oil-price-sensitive at these price points.

What about acreage and land? Owner-financed tracts of 35 to 45 acres just outside town are commonly available with modest down payments and monthly terms. If the goal is to build custom on your own timeline, land is where Andrews has the clearest supply advantage over Midland and Odessa.

Are new subdivisions likely to depress resale values? Not at the volumes being permitted. Ten lots at a time in a market absorbing a 123-unit apartment build and expanding hospital and grocery footprints is additive, not disruptive.

The one claim to leave with is this: in Andrews, the median price is a starting point, not a description. The market splits above and below it, and the best deals are the ones that live in the seam.

If you want a read on where a specific home sits in that seam, or on what your current home would actually clear at today, D.E. The Home Boss Group works these tiers every week across Andrews, Midland, Odessa, and Monahans. Get Your Home Value Now, or call us to price a target home against real comps before you write the offer.