What’s for sale in 77982
A large share of active listings in this zip code are vacant lots and acreage, not built homes, a pattern visible across every property-search site that lets you filter by type (house, condo, land, mobile) for this zip. That split matters here more than in most zip codes, because Port O’Connor’s gated subdivisions were platted in phases and are still selling off lot inventory years after infrastructure went in. The Sanctuary at Costa Grande alone was platted for 767 single-family lots on 450 acres, and local newspaper reporting found only a fraction had been built out. Buyers searching “homes for sale in 77982” and expecting a grid of finished houses should expect land listings mixed in, often the majority of results.
The gated communities that actually differ
Not all of Port O’Connor’s named subdivisions offer the same thing for the same money. The differences are structural: marina size, HOA cost, lot size floor, and construction standard, not just brand names.
| Community | Gated | Marina / boat access | Typical lot size | HOA dues | Notes |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| The Sanctuary at Costa Grande | Yes | 150-acre private marina, boat ramp, 8 miles of bulkheaded lakes | 0.24 to 0.5+ acre | About $2,400/year on a current listing ($200/month); reported around $2,000/year historically | 767 platted lots; roughly 600 owners as of local reporting |
| Caracol | Yes | Private community day docks, canal frontage | Small canal lots (well under 0.1 acre common) to larger waterfront tracts | Not independently published; verify with HOA | Premium pricing: one lot with approved plans listed at $625,000 |
| Matagorda Bayview | Yes | Waterfront on Matagorda Bay/Powderhorn area, no marina | Limited to 17 total lots | $800/year | Hardi-plank homes and barn-style boat garages are the required standard, not an option |
| Coastal Oaks | Not confirmed gated | In-town, near-water location | Small in-town lots | Not independently published; verify with HOA | Existence and general location confirmed; HOA and rental terms are not publicly documented and should be requested directly |
The trade-off that actually decides which community fits a buyer is scale versus cost: Matagorda Bayview trades a much smaller HOA bill for a hard cap of 17 lots and stricter construction rules, while the Sanctuary’s larger dues buy full marina and clubhouse infrastructure built for hundreds of owners, sourced from the community’s own amenity documentation.
What it costs to own here
Two cost lines rarely show up in a standard listing search: windstorm insurance and flood insurance, and both are close to mandatory in this zip code, not optional extras. Calhoun County is one of the 14 Texas counties designated a windstorm catastrophe area by the state, per TWIA’s own overview, meaning private wind and hail coverage is often unavailable and buyers fall back on the Texas Windstorm Insurance Association. TWIA reports an average annual premium of $2,480 across its policies statewide. Getting that coverage requires a WPI-8 certificate of compliance from the Texas Department of Insurance, and any structure built or substantially altered after September 1, 2009 in a V-zone must also carry NFIP flood insurance to remain TWIA-eligible.
| Requirement | What it means for a buyer | Source |
|---|---|---|
| County-level TWIA catastrophe-area designation | Private wind/hail coverage is frequently unavailable; TWIA is the fallback | TWIA |
| WPI-8 certificate of compliance | Required before TWIA will write or renew a policy on the structure | Texas Department of Insurance |
| NFIP flood-insurance proof for V-zone construction after 9/1/2009 | A second mandatory policy, stacked on top of windstorm coverage | Texas Department of Insurance |
| Reported average TWIA premium | About $2,480/year, before any separate flood policy | TWIA, via Insurify |
None of that is disclosed in a typical listing search, and it changes the real annual carrying cost of anything bought here before a mortgage payment even enters the picture.
Why do different real estate sites show different average prices for 77982? The gap is mostly methodology, not disagreement about the market. Some figures are medians, some are means; some blend vacant-land listings into the same average as finished houses; and each site’s snapshot is dated differently. Calhoun County’s own median sale price, tracked independently by Redfin, was $248,000 over the three months ending May 2026, lower than most zip-specific “average” figures, because it includes inland, non-waterfront housing stock across the whole county rather than Port O’Connor’s land-and-waterfront-heavy mix alone.
Is homeowners insurance harder to get here than inland Texas? Yes, structurally. Calhoun County sits inside TWIA’s designated catastrophe area, and First Street’s risk modeling reported via Redfin rates 100% of county properties at extreme wind risk, with a 1-in-3,000-year event capable of producing gusts near 233 mph. Inland Texas buyers rarely encounter a mandatory windstorm-association fallback policy at all.
Land and lots: what the price per acre buys
Land pricing here spans a wide range depending on frontage and community, not lot size alone. A canal-view interior lot in the Sanctuary listed in 2026 at $15,000 for 0.29 acres works out to roughly $52,000 per acre, with a $200 monthly HOA payment attached. Across the wider Port O’Connor waterfront market, the 54 currently listed waterfront parcels average $259,351 per acre. At the very top of the range, a small canal-front Caracol lot with approved architectural plans and a dual boat barn was listed at $625,000 for 0.058 acres, well over $10 million per acre once the value of the engineered plans and utilities is folded in.
| Location / type | Price per acre (approx.) | Basis |
|---|---|---|
| Sanctuary interior canal lot | ~$52,000/acre | $15,000 listing, 0.29 acres |
| Port O’Connor waterfront market average | ~$259,351/acre | LandSearch, 54 active waterfront listings |
| Caracol canal lot with approved plans | ~$10,800,000/acre | $625,000 listing, 0.058 acres; includes engineered plans, not raw land alone |
A buyer comparing two listed prices per acre without checking what’s bundled into each one, plans, utilities, boat barns, will draw the wrong conclusion about which lot is actually cheaper.
Renting it out
Texas has no statewide short-term rental license, and regulation happens entirely at the city and county level. Port O’Connor complicates that further: it is unincorporated, so there is no city government to pass a municipal STR ordinance the way nearby coastal towns have. That leaves two layers of control for a buyer to check individually: whatever Calhoun County itself has adopted, and each subdivision’s own HOA covenants, several of which restrict or ban short-term rentals outright regardless of what the county allows.
Can I legally rent out a house or condo I buy in Port O’Connor? It depends entirely on the HOA, not the county alone. Because Port O’Connor is unincorporated, there is no city-level short-term rental ordinance to check; any restriction comes from the subdivision’s own deed covenants. Confirm this lot by lot with each HOA before assuming rental income is possible.
Who lives here now
The zip code is small and skews older. A 2019 to 2023 American Community Survey estimate, compiled by Point2Homes from Census Bureau data, put the population at 579 residents with a median household income of $81,917. That is a tiny year-round base relative to the volume of listings on the market.
Who this market suits – and who it doesn’t
- Primary-residence buyer: Workable, but the school pipeline is limited to a single elementary campus locally, with secondary students bused to nearby towns; anyone needing on-site schooling through high school should factor in that commute before buying.
- Second-home or vacation buyer: The best fit for current inventory; boat-slip access and gated-community infrastructure are built around exactly this use case.
- Investor targeting rental income: Confirm HOA rental rules before anything else, see the section above; some named communities restrict short-term rentals outright.
- Builder or land buyer: The land-per-acre spread is wide enough that a buyer needs a specific comparison, not a single “price per acre” headline figure, before making an offer.
Is Port O’Connor mainly a second-home/vacation market or a primary-residence market? Second-home and vacation-use dominant. The 579-resident year-round population, the volume of vacant-lot inventory in gated waterfront subdivisions, and the marina-and-boat-slip orientation of nearly every named community all point the same direction.
Comparable sales data for a town this size is thin. A handful of transactions can swing a monthly average noticeably.
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