Real County, Texas · Leakey
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Pipes freeze in Real County on about 2 nights a year, mostly midwinter. Older homes, 15% of the stock here, are most at risk.
Basements flood here mostly in May. Real County averages 6.3 days a year with an inch of rain or more.
Sewage backups in Real County spike on heavy-rain days, about 6.3 a year, when sewer mains fill up and water finds the lowest drain.
Roof leaks here come from summer downpours and, with about 23 freeze-thaw days a year, from winter ice dams. Most show up as ceiling stains in the room below.
15% of occupied homes in Real County heat mainly with wood or propane, above the Texas county median of 6.5%.
Muggy summer nights, lows of 65°F or more, come about 133 times a year in Real County. Mold after a leak spreads fastest from June through August.
Local risk profile
Real County covers 699 square miles of central Texas, with about 2,802 residents and 1,951 homes. Leakey is the county seat; Camp Wood is the next largest community. Much of its housing is recent, with a median build year of 1989.
39/100 Water Damage Risk Index: Moderate Real County ranks 200 of 232 Texas counties. See the statewide ranking and method.The three factors where Real County ranks highest compared with other Texas counties.
Pipe-freeze risk in Real County sits near the middle of the state. From 2015–2024 it averaged 2 nights a year at 20°F or colder, the range where pipes in exterior walls, crawl spaces and unheated garages freeze, and 24 nights at or below 32°F. That ranks 126th of 232 counties.
The longest cold spell was straight 5 days without the temperature rising above freezing, ending in February 2021. The coldest night reached about 8°F on February 15, 2021. Burst pipes usually show up when a spell like that breaks and the ice thaws.
Hard freezes are uncommon here, about 24 nights a year at or below 32°F, and that's exactly why they do damage: pipes in attics, exterior walls and slab-edge plumbing are rarely insulated. The coldest night in the record was about 8°F on February 15, 2021.
Rainfall is about average for Texas. Of roughly 24.8 inches of yearly precipitation, the damage comes from the 6.3 days a year with an inch or more, ranked 138th of 232. April, May and October see the most. The single wettest day in the record: 2.55 inches, October 24, 2015. The worst three-day stretch dropped 4.93 inches, ending October 10, 2018, the kind of soaking that overwhelms sump pumps and storm sewers.
The temperature crosses 32°F in both directions on roughly 23 days a year. Each cycle melts and refreezes water at roof edges and in foundation cracks, which is how ice dams and basement seepage get started.
Housing
Roughly 34% of the county's housing was built before 1980. That puts Real among the newer housing stocks of Texas's 232 counties.
Growth since 2000 added 35% of today's homes. In houses that new, the weak points are washing machine hoses, ice maker lines, water heaters and sump pumps rather than the pipes in the walls.
31% date from 1980 to 1999, the window when polybutylene, a gray flexible plastic supply pipe, was used in some homes. It's prone to leaks at the fittings, so it's worth checking for in a house from those years.
Here 36% of housing is manufactured homes. Check the skirting and the heat tape on the main water line every fall, because that one exposed line is what freezes.
42% of homes were vacant at survey time. A leak in an empty rental or seasonal house can run for days before anyone notices, which is why those losses tend to be larger.
Beyond water
Real County averages 133 warm, muggy nights a year (lows of 65°F or more) and gets the most rain in May. Keep indoor humidity under 60%, as the EPA advises, and dry any leak within 24 to 48 hours; in a humid month a wet basement left alone won't dry by itself.
Mold remediation: what to expectHeating fuel matters for fire risk. In Real County it's 0% utility gas, 84% electric, 12% propane and 4% wood. Wood and propane heat are more common here than the state median. Have chimneys swept and fuel-burning appliances serviced each fall, and keep three feet clear around stoves and space heaters.
Fire and smoke cleanup: first stepsCoverage
Calls connect to restoration companies that work across Real County. The largest communities by population:
Population from ACS 2020-2024 5-year estimates. Townships and unincorporated areas are covered too.
Nearby
Real gets more pipe-freeze nights than any of its neighbors. Uvalde County has the oldest housing nearby, with 44% of homes built before 1980.
By the numbers
| Factor | Real | Texas median | Rank |
|---|---|---|---|
| Homes built before 1960 | 15% | 20% | 159 of 232 |
| Homes built before 1980 | 34% | 46% | 174 of 232 |
| Homes built 2000 or later | 35% | 26% | 58 of 232 |
| Manufactured or mobile homes | 36% | 13% | 4 of 232 |
| Vacant homes | 42% | 17% | 2 of 232 |
| Wood or propane heat | 15% | 6.5% | 32 of 232 |
| Nights at 20°F or colder | 2/yr | 3/yr | 126 of 232 |
| Days with 1 inch+ of rain | 6.3/yr | 7.8/yr | 138 of 232 |
| Freeze-thaw days | 23/yr | 27/yr | 129 of 232 |
| Muggy nights (65°F+) | 133/yr | 129/yr | 107 of 232 |
Rank 1 is the highest value. Bars run from the lowest to the highest Texas county; the tick marks the median; orange means higher water damage risk than the median, green means lower.
Questions
Peak risk months in Real County: freezing from midwinter, heavy rain in April, May and October.
Sources: U.S. Census Bureau, ACS 2024 5-year estimates (2020-2024); weather from NOAA nClimGrid-Daily county averages (EpiNOAA), 2015–2024, averaged across the county; county boundaries from Census TIGER. Reviewed 2026-10-21. Methodology