Two sets of figures, and two sets of obligations
Downsizing into The Royalton from a Memorial House
Updated September 2026
What changes, in money and in obligations, when a Memorial Villages house is sold and a home at The Royalton is bought?
The median monthly association fee on homes sold at The Royalton in 2026 was $1,377, on a series computed 31 August 2026, against $50 on the Memorial Villages series computed 17 August 2026.
Paige Martin, Houston Properties Team, The Royalton
Source: The Royalton market data, August 2026.
What are the two properties, in figures?
The Memorial Villages market figures published as of 11 August 2026 gives a median sale price of $2,600,000 across detached houses on their own land in six incorporated cities inside Houston, while the same provider's series for The Royalton gives a median sale price of $661,500 across homes sold in one 33-story tower on one site, as of September 2026.
Alongside those, the villages figures report $512 average per square foot, 188 homes sold in the trailing twelve months, a median of 58 days on market and closings at 97.6 percent of asking. The tower's series reports $375 average per square foot, 10 homes sold in the trailing twelve months, 26 days to contract, closings at 94.6 percent of asking and about 4.8 months of inventory. Neither median prices a particular property.
Inside the tower, 27 floor plans across 253 homes means an average describes no home in it. Two published figures for this building's floor area count different space, so neither is a divisor, and dividing either by 253 produces a number that describes nothing. The same caution runs on both sides: a median sale price and a median price per square foot come from different sets of homes, so dividing one by the other implies a size nobody measured.
What does the monthly cost look like on each side?
Start with the association fee, because it is the pair that compares most directly. The median monthly association fee reported on the homes sold at The Royalton in 2026 was $1,377, on a series computed 31 August 2026. On the Memorial Villages series computed 17 August 2026, the median monthly fee reported on homes sold in 2026 was $50.
The larger figure buys a list. At the tower the fee covers a concierge, an on-site guard, a porter, valet parking and the private garage, the gym, the lounge, insurance on the common areas, water, sewer, trash removal, cable television and partial utilities. That list is published in a listing field rather than stated by the association, which makes it a good indication of what is bundled rather than an authority on it. Part of what a tower owner pays monthly, a house owner pays separately and often does not count.
The tax rates sit closer together than most readers expect. The median combined property tax rate on the homes sold at The Royalton in 2026 was about 2.09 percent, on the series computed 31 August 2026, against about 1.96 percent on the homes sold in the Memorial Villages, on the series computed 17 August 2026. Both are medians across sold homes, so each reflects exemptions the previous owners held, and those do not travel with the property.
On the house side the taxing unit that varies most is the city. For tax year 2025 the adopted city rates per $100 of taxable value run from 0.2051640 in Hunters Creek Village, 0.2551400 in Piney Point Village, 0.2710000 in Bunker Hill Village, 0.3363340 in Hedwig Village and 0.3950000 in Spring Valley Village to 0.5292260 in Hilshire Village. The full set of units taxing a parcel is listed on its Harris Central Appraisal District account.
One structural fact sits under the condominium figure. After an initial assessment by an association, assessments must be made at least annually and must be based on a budget the association adopts at least annually, so the monthly number at the tower is a yearly decision rather than a price.
That leaves the monthly comparison filled in on one side. The association fee and the combined tax rate are what the Memorial Villages series carries. Upkeep, insurance and utilities on a detached house there are figures from one parcel's own bills, and an estimate of them would be a guess dressed as a figure.
Who maintains what, after the move?
The default is one line of statute: except as provided by the declaration and by the two exceptions below, the association is responsible for maintenance, repair and replacement of the common elements, and each unit owner is responsible for maintenance, repair and replacement of the owner's unit.
Three things surprise an owner arriving from a house, and the declaration can displace each of them. One, each owner still pays for the maintenance, repair and replacement of any utility installation or equipment serving only their own home, without regard to whether it sits wholly or partially outside the unit boundaries, and the statute's own list names electricity, water, sewage, gas, water heaters, heating and air conditioning equipment and television antennas. Two, each owner still pays for the windows and doors serving only their own home. Three, unless the declaration provides otherwise, the association may enter a home, after giving notice to the owner and occupant, to prevent or terminate waste of water it buys as a common expense, or to perform repairs that would otherwise result in increased water damage to components it maintains. That third one has no equivalent on a lot.
Insurance divides on the same line. The association maintains, to the extent reasonably available, property insurance on the insurable common elements in a total amount of at least 80 percent of replacement cost or actual cash value, and where a building contains units having horizontal boundaries that policy must include the units, again to the extent reasonably available, though it need not include improvements and betterments installed by unit owners. Deductibles are commercially reasonable amounts the board determines appropriate or necessary, and a claim for a covered loss must be submitted by and adjusted with the association. An insurance policy issued to the association does not prevent a unit owner from obtaining insurance for the owner's own benefit.
What happens to the travel and the outdoor space?
Both sets of drive times come from the same market data, which is the only reason they can sit beside each other, and both describe typical weekday drives rather than promises. The Royalton market data as of 31 August 2026 gives 10 minutes to downtown, 15 minutes to the Texas Medical Center, 20 minutes to the Energy Corridor and 20 minutes to the Galleria. The Memorial Villages market data as of 17 August 2026 gives 20 minutes to downtown, 30 minutes to the Texas Medical Center, 15 minutes to the Energy Corridor, 20 minutes to the Galleria and 45 minutes to the Exxon campus.
The pattern is a trade. Two of the four shared destinations get materially shorter, downtown and the Texas Medical Center. One gets longer, the Energy Corridor. The Galleria stays where it was.
Outdoor space changes in kind. A house in the Memorial Villages sits on its own lot with its own trees and lawn, kept up by the owner. Across Allen Parkway from the tower is a 160-acre park with a ten-foot-wide concrete trail and a separate walking path, kept up by somebody else.
The same market data returns a walk score of 69 for the tower's address in ZIP code 77019, and returns no walk score for the Memorial Villages area. That difference is itself a fact about the two places: one address is indexed for walking, and the other area is described by its drives.
What happens to the gain on the house?
IRS Publication 523 explains the tax rules that apply when you sell a home. If you meet certain conditions, you may exclude the first $250,000 of gain from the sale of your home from your income, and the exclusion is increased to $500,000 for a married couple filing jointly, where the Eligibility Test is met.
Three of the test's parts decide most sales, and they test different things. Ownership: if you owned the home for at least 24 months out of the last 5 years leading up to the date of the closing, you meet the ownership requirement. Residence: if you owned the home and used it as your residence for at least 24 months of the previous 5 years, you meet the residence requirement, and those 24 months can fall anywhere within the 5-year period rather than in a single block of time. Look-back: if you did not sell another home during the 2-year period before the date of sale, or you did sell one and took no exclusion of the gain from it, you meet the look-back requirement, and the exclusion may be taken only once during a 2-year period. For a married couple filing jointly, only one spouse has to meet the ownership requirement, while each spouse must meet the residence requirement individually for the full exclusion.
A partial exclusion has its own route. You can meet the requirements for one if the main reason for your home sale was a change in workplace location, a health issue or an unforeseeable event. And where a property was used partly as a home and partly for business or to produce rental income, with the nonresidential portion separate from the dwelling unit, only the gain allocable to the residential portion is excludable.
Publication 523 carries the rule and names the tests. Your number comes from a tax professional, because the gain on one house is a calculation done from that property's basis, its improvements and its closing figures. Treat the figures above as the published rule rather than as advice on your sale.
What happens to the homestead exemption?
The exemption follows occupancy. A residence homestead is a structure owned by one or more individuals, designed or adapted for human residence, used as a residence, and occupied as the individual's principal residence by an owner.
There is one of them per person per year. A person may not receive the exemption for more than one residence homestead in the same year, and joint, community or successive owners may not each receive the same exemption for the same residence homestead in the same year.
The size comes in two parts. The school-district portion removes $140,000 of the appraised value of an adult's residence homestead. A taxing unit may also adopt a percentage exemption of up to 20 percent of appraised value, and where that percentage produces an exemption of less than $5,000 on a particular homestead, the individual is entitled to $5,000.
The calendar belongs to the appraisal district. The Harris Central Appraisal District appraises at January 1 market value, applications go in between January 1 and April 30, taxing units adopt rates each fall, and the protest deadline is May 15 or 30 days after the appraisal notice is mailed, whichever is later.
One consequence is worth holding in view while you set dates. A move that straddles a January 1 falls in a different tax year from one that does not, which is a planning point to settle with your tax adviser and the appraisal district account in front of you.
What should you ask for about a specific home here?
Everything above describes two markets. The document that describes one home is the resale certificate. Not later than the 10th day after receiving a written request from a unit owner, the association must furnish it, and the copy delivered to a purchaser must have been prepared not earlier than three months before the date of delivery.
Four of its statements answer the questions this comparison raises. The amount of the periodic common expense assessment on that home. The capital expenditures, if any, approved by the association for the next 12 months. The amount of reserves, if any, for capital expenditures and the portions of those reserves designated by the association for a specified project. And the insurance coverage provided for the benefit of unit owners. The certificate must also contain the association's current operating budget and balance sheet.
Then ask about the plan. With 27 plans across 253 homes, the floor, the exposure and the layout decide the home rather than the address, and two homes of the same stated size can differ in how much of that size is usable.
What can this page not tell you?
What either property is worth. Both headline figures are medians of markets, and the tower's is the middle of a handful of sales in a building of 253 homes. A number for one property comes from a comparable set drawn from its own plan and floor, or from an appraisal.
What a house in the Memorial Villages costs to run each month. Those figures live on one parcel's utility accounts, its insurance declarations and its maintenance records.
Which of the 27 plans suits you, and which floors and exposures see what. The plan set is not a public document, so that comparison comes from working knowledge of the building rather than from a listing field.
Flood risk at either end. A flood zone for the tower comes from the current federal map for that address, with an elevation certificate if one exists, and floodplain status in the villages is a fact about one parcel rather than about an area, read off the map for that parcel.
Which share of the common expenses a particular home carries. The schedule of allocated interests is an exhibit to the recorded declaration, and the assessment that comes out of it is reported on the resale certificate.
Whether the association's reserves are adequate, and what the 2022 repairs at this building cost. Those sit in the association's budgets, its minutes, its reserve study and its insurance file, and a buyer under contract can ask for all four.
Your own tax position at either end of the move. That is work for a tax professional, with the appraisal district account, the exemption applications and the closing figures in front of them.
Questions & answers
The Royalton questions, answered
How does the monthly cost of a home at The Royalton compare with a house in the Memorial Villages?
Two of the monthly lines compare directly. The median monthly fee reported on homes sold at the tower in 2026 was $1,377, on a series computed 31 August 2026, against $50 on the Memorial Villages series computed 17 August 2026. The median combined property tax rates on those same two series are about 2.09 percent and about 1.96 percent. Upkeep, insurance and utilities on a detached house sit outside both series.
The larger figure buys a list of services. At the tower the fee covers a concierge, an on-site guard, a porter, valet parking and the private garage, the gym, the lounge, insurance on the common areas, water, sewer, trash removal, cable television and partial utilities. Part of what a tower owner pays monthly, a house owner pays separately and often does not count. A condominium fee is a yearly decision. After an initial assessment, assessments are made at least annually, on a budget adopted at least annually, so the figure moves with what staff, insurance and contracts cost that year. The number binding one specific home appears on its resale certificate, which the association furnishes within ten days of a written request from the owner, and the copy handed to a buyer must have been prepared no earlier than three months before delivery.
What does the monthly fee at The Royalton cover that a house owner pays separately?
The fee at The Royalton covers a concierge, an on-site guard, a porter, valet parking and the private garage, the gym, the lounge, insurance on the common areas, water, sewer, trash removal, cable television and partial utilities. A house owner buys those item by item, or does without them. Comparing $1,377 with $50 without that list behind it compares two different things.
Two cautions belong with the list. Coverage is set by the association's own documents rather than by a listing field, so the resale certificate and the current rules are where a buyer confirms it. And the fee is funded by a budget the association adopts at least annually, which is why both the coverage and the number move over time. On the house side the same services arrive as separate contracts and separate bills: lawn and tree work, insurance on the whole structure, water and sewer accounts, trash service and television. Those figures sit on one parcel's own records rather than in a market series, which is why a monthly comparison between the two properties is complete on one side and open on the other.
Who maintains what in a Texas condominium?
The statute sets the default in one line: except as the declaration provides, the association is responsible for maintenance, repair and replacement of the common elements, and each unit owner is responsible for maintenance, repair and replacement of the owner's unit. Two exceptions catch an owner arriving from a house, and one entry right has no equivalent on a lot.
The first exception is utilities. Except as the declaration provides, each owner pays for the maintenance, repair and replacement of any utility installation or equipment serving only their own home, whether that equipment sits inside the unit boundaries or outside them, with water heaters and heating and air conditioning equipment among the examples the statute names. The second is openings: the owner pays for the windows and doors serving only their own home. The entry right runs the other way. Unless the declaration provides otherwise, the association may enter a home, after giving notice to the owner and occupant, to prevent or terminate waste of water it buys as a common expense, or to perform maintenance and repairs that would otherwise result in increased water damage to components the association maintains. Owners also afford the association access through the unit that is reasonably necessary for upkeep work.
Do I still need my own insurance if the association insures the building?
To the extent reasonably available, the association maintains property insurance on the insurable common elements to a floor of 80 percent of replacement cost or actual cash value, and where the units have horizontal boundaries that policy must include the units themselves. It need not include improvements and betterments installed by unit owners. A policy issued to the association does not prevent a unit owner from obtaining insurance for the owner's own benefit.
Three mechanics follow from that split. Deductibles on the association's policies may be commercially reasonable amounts the board determines appropriate or necessary, so the size of one is a board decision rather than a figure an owner sets. A claim for a loss covered by the association's property insurance must be submitted by and adjusted with the association. And the statute leaves untouched the right of a holder of a mortgage on a unit to require an owner to carry insurance in addition to what the association provides. The document that states what is carried on one building is the resale certificate, which must give the insurance coverage provided for the benefit of unit owners. Read it alongside the association's own policy summary, and take the improvements and betterments question to your own agent, because finishes an owner installed are the part most often left out.
How do the property tax rates compare between The Royalton and the Memorial Villages?
The median combined property tax rate on homes sold at The Royalton in 2026 was about 2.09 percent, on a series computed 31 August 2026. On the Memorial Villages series computed 17 August 2026, the median on homes sold there was about 1.96 percent. Both are medians across sold homes, so each one reflects exemptions the previous owners held, and those exemptions do not travel with the property.
On the house side the city is the taxing unit that varies most, because the area is six incorporated cities inside Houston, each with its own government, and each adopted its own rate for tax year 2025. The Memorial Villages tax record lists all six per $100 of taxable value, and the full set of units taxing a parcel is listed on its Harris Central Appraisal District account. The number to underwrite against is the current rate on the specific account with your own exemptions applied. The appraisal district appraises at January 1 market value, taxing units adopt rates each fall, and exemptions come off taxable value once an application is filed. A lender will run the same calculation independently before closing, and the appraisal district account is where the inputs are public.
Does my homestead exemption move with me when I sell the house and buy a condo?
A residence homestead is a structure used as a residence and occupied as the individual's principal residence by an owner, so the exemption follows where a person lives rather than the property they left. There is only one of them: a person may not receive the exemption on more than one residence homestead in the same year, and joint, community or successive owners may not each receive the same exemption on the same homestead in the same year.
The size has two parts. The school-district portion of the exemption is $140,000 of appraised value. On top of that, a taxing unit may adopt a percentage exemption of up to 20 percent of appraised value, and where that percentage produces less than $5,000 on a particular homestead, the exemption is $5,000. The calendar belongs to the appraisal district. Values are set at January 1 market value, applications go in between January 1 and April 30, and the protest deadline is May 15 or 30 days after the appraisal notice is mailed, whichever is later. One timing point is worth raising early with your tax adviser: a move that straddles a January 1 falls in a different tax year from one that does not, and the two ends of the move can sit on opposite sides of that date.
How much of the gain on my house sale is excluded from income?
Publication 523 allows you to exclude the first $250,000 of gain from the sale of your home from your income, or $500,000 for a married couple filing jointly, where the Eligibility Test is met. A partial exclusion is available where the main reason for the sale was a change in workplace location, a health issue or an unforeseeable event.
Three of the test's parts decide most sales. Ownership: if you owned the home for at least 24 months out of the last 5 years leading up to the date of the closing, you meet the ownership requirement. Residence: if you owned the home and used it as your residence for at least 24 months of the previous 5 years, you meet the residence requirement, and those 24 months can fall anywhere within the 5-year period rather than in a single block of time. Look-back: if you did not sell another home during the 2-year period before the date of sale, or you did sell one and took no exclusion of the gain from it, you meet the look-back requirement, and the exclusion may be taken only once during a 2-year period. For a married couple filing jointly, only one spouse has to meet the ownership requirement, while each spouse must meet the residence requirement individually for the full exclusion. Where a property was used partly as a home and partly for business or to produce rental income, and the nonresidential portion is separate from the dwelling unit, only the gain allocable to the residential portion is excludable.
How do the drive times change if I move from the Memorial Villages to The Royalton?
The same market data reports both sets as typical weekday drives. From The Royalton, the market data as of 31 August 2026 gives 10 minutes to downtown, 15 to the Texas Medical Center, 20 to the Energy Corridor and 20 to the Galleria. From the Memorial Villages, the market data as of 17 August 2026 gives 20, 30, 15 and 20 minutes to those same four, plus 45 minutes to the Exxon campus.
Read that as a trade. Downtown and the Texas Medical Center get materially shorter, the Energy Corridor gets longer, and the Galleria stays where it was. Nothing in either set is a promise about a particular morning, and Allen Parkway does not behave the same way at eight in the morning as it does at eight at night. The same data returns a walk score of 69 for the tower's address in ZIP code 77019, and returns no walk score for the Memorial Villages area, which is itself a description of two different street patterns. Outdoor space changes in kind as well: a lot with its own trees and lawn on one side, and on the other a 160-acre park across the street with a ten-foot-wide concrete trail and a separate walking path, maintained by somebody else.