Waco, Texas · The Baylor Bubble
The single most reliable force in Baylor-area real estate isn't a trend or a headline — it's the number of students who show up every fall. More students, the same finite ring of homes near campus. Here's how that number has moved.
David A. Harris, Sr. · Campus, Realtors, Kelly, Realtors · Over $60 Million Sold in the Baylor Area
Baylor houses most of its first-year students on campus. Every year after that, sophomores, juniors, and seniors move out into the neighborhoods around the university — and a new wave ages out of the dorms each fall while the oldest wave graduates each spring. That conveyor belt of demand is why homes in the Bubble hold their value the way they do, and it is powered by one thing: enrollment.
Baylor University total enrollment (undergraduate + graduate), by fall, from Baylor's official census.
Fall total enrollment (undergraduate + graduate).
| Fall | Total enrollment |
|---|
† Third-party estimate; all other figures are Baylor's official counts. Fall 2024 reached a recent high of 20,626 before easing to 19,858 in Fall 2025.
Housing demand in the Baylor Bubble does not really rise and fall with interest rates or the national market the way it does most places. It rises and falls with how many students Baylor enrolls — and that number has climbed by roughly six thousand in a generation, against a fixed ring of homes close to campus. Supply near campus barely moves; demand keeps growing. You don't need a real estate license to know what that does to prices over time.
The best way to stay ahead of a market this steady — and this thin on inventory — is to hear about the right property the moment it lists. That's exactly what the First to Know Program does, especially for the many families and investors who buy here from out of state.
Source: Baylor University Office of Institutional Research, with historical figures from Baylor news releases and cross-checks against U.S. Department of Education IPEDS data. Figures are fall total enrollment (undergraduate + graduate); the 2016 and 2020 points are third-party estimates pending confirmation against Baylor's official records. Nothing here is legal, tax, or financial advice. Compiled by David A. Harris, Sr., Campus, Realtors, Kelly, Realtors · Updated Fall 2025.