Places
Look up a place. See what's good — and what to check.
Each page starts with what gives a place its character, then the common buyer checks: appraisal district, tax office, school district, city limits, flood, windstorm, MUD/PID, HOA, permits, and local rules.
This is a growing directory — not yet every Texas town, but now spanning dozens of cities across the state's regions.
Brazos Valley
Central Texas
Austin
Travis County
Austin has served as the Texas state capital since 1839, platted on Congress Avenue running north from the Colorado River to Capitol Square — and today that same street ends at the dome of the Texas State Capitol while 1.5 million Mexican free-tailed bats roost under its bridge each summer, making it the largest urban bat colony in the world. Buyers here navigate Travis Central Appraisal District notices, a patchwork of city-limit boundaries, MUD and PID districts in the outer ring, and some of the state's stricter lot-level rules on floodplain, impervious cover, and tree removal.
Georgetown
Williamson County
Georgetown is the Red Poppy Capital of Texas, home to one of the most beautifully restored courthouse squares in the state and to Southwestern University, whose roots reach back to 1840 — and its Victorian downtown was the first in Texas named a national Main Street City. For buyers, the practical work is confirming MUD district layers on newer-development parcels, getting a foundation assessment on any clay-soil lot, and checking flood zones along the San Gabriel River.
Killeen
Bell County
Killeen is Fort Hood's city — one of the largest Army posts in the world anchors its economy, shapes its demographics, and sets the tempo of its housing market — and it's also home to a university and a large community college, with a median home price well below Texas norms. Buyers should run the full parcel check: flood-zone status along Nolan Creek, foundation condition on expansive clay soils, school district assignment, and the multi-unit tax stack that puts effective rates near 2%.
Round Rock
Williamson County
Round Rock takes its name from a literal round rock in Brushy Creek that marked the Chisholm Trail crossing in the 1870s — the same crossing where outlaw Sam Bass was shot in 1878, and the rock is still visible in Brushy Creek today. Dell Technologies has anchored the local economy since moving its world headquarters here in 1994, and buyers should verify county line, school district, and MUD/PID layers before closing.
Waco
McLennan County
Waco is the birthplace of Dr Pepper, home to Baylor University and the Texas Ranger Hall of Fame, and the city that put Chip and Joanna Gaines' Magnolia Silos on the map — a genuine Central Texas hub with a population near 150,000 straddling the Brazos River. Buyers should pay close attention to expansive Blackland Prairie clay soil, a contested FEMA flood map along the Brazos, multiple overlapping taxing units that vary the effective rate by zip code, and school district boundaries that do not follow city limits.
Coastal Bend
East Texas
Longview
Gregg County
Longview is the hub of deep East Texas — the city the 1930 East Texas oil boom put on the map, the starting point of the WWII Big Inch pipeline, home to LeTourneau University, and now anchored by a major Eastman Chemical complex. For buyers, the practical work is confirming which county (Gregg or Harrison) a parcel falls in, verifying the school district, and budgeting for foundation inspections on East Texas clay.
Tyler
Smith County
Tyler is the Rose Capital of America — home to the nation's largest municipal rose garden, the commercial center of the East Texas oil boom, and a regional medical hub anchored by CHRISTUS Trinity Mother Frances Health System — and for buyers the practical work is confirming school district (Tyler ISD, Chapel Hill, or Lindale), checking flood-zone status near creek corridors, and budgeting for foundation inspection on East Texas's highly expansive clay soils.
Gulf Coast
Galveston
Galveston County
Once the largest city in Texas and "Queen City of the Gulf," Galveston sits on a 27-mile barrier island where The Strand National Historic Landmark District still holds roughly 1,500 buildings on the National Register — the same blocks that were the Wall Street of the Southwest in the cotton and shipping era. Buyers here navigate real coastal logistics: elevation certificates, TWIA windstorm coverage, and historic-district review all come with the territory.
Houston
Harris County
Houston is where Mission Control first heard "the Eagle has landed," where the Ship Channel has moved Gulf Coast oil and Midwestern grain since 1914, and where the Texas Medical Center — the largest in the world — sits alongside a food scene shaped by more than 145 languages. For buyers, that scale means city limits, ETJ boundaries, MUD tax rates, flood history, and Harris County appraisal records all carry real weight.
Hill Country
New Braunfels
Comal County
New Braunfels was founded in 1845 by German colonists who chose the spot where the Comal Springs — the largest freshwater springs in Texas — meet the Guadalupe River, and that same geography still defines the city: tubing on the Comal, Gruene Hall (the oldest dance hall in Texas), Wurstfest every November, and one of the fastest growth rates in the country. For buyers, the essential work is confirming flood-zone exposure near either river, checking whether the address falls in a MUD, and verifying which of the city's two school districts — Comal ISD or New Braunfels ISD — serves the parcel.
San Marcos
Hays County
San Marcos is where the Texas Hill Country meets the I-35 corridor — home to the spring-fed San Marcos River, Texas State University, and two of the largest outlet malls in Texas — and for buyers the essential homework is flood-zone status (the 2015 Memorial Day flood was devastating), soil type on either side of the Balcones Escarpment, and confirming whether a property sits in one of the city's active PIDs.
Houston Area
Pearland
Brazoria County
Pearland is the largest city in Brazoria County — named for the flowering pear trees that a Polish nobleman found here in the 1880s, now a fast-growing suburb of roughly 130,000 stitched across three counties just south of Houston. For buyers, the practical work is checking the address against both the FEMA flood map and the school district boundary, then reading the MUD disclosure carefully before comparing tax rates.
Sugar Land
Fort Bend County
Sugar Land grew up around an Imperial Sugar refinery that operated for over a century until 2003, and the company-town bones of that history now sit alongside one of the most ethnically diverse populations in Texas, with large Asian-American communities anchoring its restaurant corridors and international groceries. For buyers, the practical work is sorting out which MUD or PID districts apply to the specific parcel, confirming the flood zone along Oyster Creek or the Brazos corridor, and verifying whether the address falls in Fort Bend ISD or Lamar CISD.
The Woodlands
Montgomery County
Developer George Mitchell opened The Woodlands in 1974 with a deliberate plan to preserve much of the native East Texas pine forest — a standard the township still upholds — and today the community anchors a major corporate corridor built around energy, healthcare, and chemical firms. Township governance, village associations, MUDs, HOAs, and county lines all layer on top of each other here, so buyers need to confirm the full governance stack before closing.
North Texas
Arlington
Tarrant County
Arlington is the entertainment anchor of the DFW mid-cities — home to the Cowboys' AT&T Stadium, the Rangers' Globe Life Field, Six Flags Over Texas, the National Medal of Honor Museum, and a GM assembly plant that has built SUVs here since 1954 — and for buyers the practical work is confirming school district boundaries (Arlington ISD vs. Mansfield ISD), checking FEMA flood maps for Trinity-watershed properties, and pricing in a wind/hail deductible and a foundation inspection in a city built on expansive clay.
Dallas
Dallas County
Dallas anchors the nation's fourth-largest metro with real landmarks — the largest contiguous urban arts district in the U.S. (118 acres, buildings designed by Renzo Piano, I.M. Pei, and Norman Foster), Klyde Warren Park built over a sunken freeway, and a tech economy rooted in Texas Instruments that earned the city the "Silicon Prairie" nickname decades before Austin got one. Buying here means navigating city boundaries, school district lines that don't follow neighborhood names, appraisal notices from DCAD, and the expansive black clay soil that stresses nearly every foundation in the county.
Denton
Denton County
Denton is a genuine college town anchored by UNT and Texas Woman's University, known for a nationally recognized live-music scene, the 1896 Courthouse-on-the-Square, and a Peterbilt truck plant that keeps blue-collar jobs alongside the campus economy. Buyers here should sort through the taxing-unit stack early — MUD or FWSD districts on newer streets can add a full percentage point — and budget for a foundation evaluation given the area's expansive Houston Black clay soils.
Fort Worth
Tarrant County
Fort Worth was platted as a U.S. Army outpost in 1849, grew into the cattle-drive hub that earned it "Cowtown" and "Where the West Begins," and today assembles the F-35 Lightning II at Lockheed Martin while hosting three major art museums — the Kimbell, Amon Carter, and Modern — all within the same Cultural District. Buyers should confirm Tarrant Appraisal District records, city-limit status, school district, floodplain designation, and any special districts before closing.
Frisco
Collin County
Frisco earned its name from the St. Louis, San Francisco and Texas Railway in 1902, and its growth instinct never quit — it's now home to the Dallas Cowboys' world headquarters at The Star and the PGA of America's national headquarters on a 600-acre campus with two championship courses. For buyers, that growth story means MUD/PID districts, dual-county parcels, and fast-moving appraisal values are all worth running down before closing.
Garland
Dallas County
Garland is Dallas County's third-largest city — a real manufacturing and arts town where the 1901 Santa Fe Depot still anchors a walkable downtown and more than 300 manufacturers line the I-30 corridor near Lake Ray Hubbard. Buyers should confirm which of three school districts covers a specific address, check Duck Creek and Rowlett Creek floodplain status, and inspect for the expansive-clay foundation movement that is common across this part of the Blackland Prairie.
Grand Prairie
Dallas County
Grand Prairie is a 195,000-person city anchored by one of Texas's oldest aerospace corridors — the same plant that built P-51 Mustangs in WWII now hosts Lockheed Martin and Airbus Helicopters — plus Lone Star Park horse racing and one of the nation's top-ranked indoor waterparks. For buyers, the practical work starts early: the city spans four counties with different appraisal districts and six-plus school districts, and flood zone, foundation, and hail risk all vary by address.
Irving
Dallas County
Irving sits at the crossroads of North Texas — home to Las Colinas's bronze Mustangs, a sliver of DFW Airport, and a Fortune 500 corporate corridor that now includes Caterpillar's global headquarters — and for buyers the key work is checking the DCAD account for DCURD special-district taxes in Las Colinas, confirming the flood zone along the Trinity's Elm Fork, and nailing down which of three school districts actually serves the address.
McKinney
Collin County
McKinney is the Collin County seat — named for the oldest signer of the Texas Declaration of Independence — with a genuine Victorian downtown, a performing arts center in the 1870s former county courthouse, and growth that took it from a small farm-market town to more than 200,000 people in two decades. For buyers, the practical work is confirming which school district and special financing district (MUD or PID) attach to the specific address, getting a foundation inspection on Blackland Prairie clay, and locking in solid hail and wind coverage before the first spring storm season.
Plano
Collin County
Plano sits on the flat North Texas prairie — the name is Spanish for "flat" — and parlayed that open land into one of the densest concentrations of corporate headquarters in Texas: Frito-Lay, JCPenney, Toyota Motor North America, and FedEx Office all base their headquarters here. Buyers here typically focus on confirming the actual school district assignment, understanding HOA rules in established subdivisions, and checking for the foundation and plumbing issues common in older Collin County homes.
Panhandle
Permian Basin
Midland
Midland County
Midland is the financial capital of the Permian Basin — the "Tall City" whose downtown skyline rises from flat West Texas hardpan, home to two U.S. presidents, a First Lady, and one of the world's largest collections of antique oilfield equipment. For buyers, the work is understanding the oil-economy cycle that has busted Midland before, confirming the full stack of taxing units on a parcel, and getting a foundation and roof inspection before closing.
Odessa
Ector County
Odessa is the Permian Basin city that Friday Night Lights put on the map — home to Permian High's six-time state champion Panthers, a Globe Theatre replica on the college campus, and an economy built on one of the world's great oil fields. For buyers, the practical work is confirming each taxing unit's rate (county levies jumped in 2025), checking flood zone status near the city's playa lakes, and lining up wind/hail coverage before you close.
Rio Grande Valley
Brownsville
Cameron County
Brownsville sits at the southern tip of Texas — a border city on the Rio Grande with Civil War battlefields, an 1840s-era downtown on the National Register of Historic Places, one of the nation's premier ship-recycling ports, and SpaceX's Starbase launch facility a few miles east on Boca Chica Beach; for buyers, the essential work is flood-zone status on a resaca-threaded landscape, TWIA windstorm coverage, and a foundation inspection on South Texas clay.
McAllen
Hidalgo County
McAllen is the commercial and cultural anchor of the Rio Grande Valley — home to the World Birding Center's Quinta Mazatlan, a Smithsonian Affiliate art museum, and an outsized border retail economy fed by cross-border shoppers. Buyers should come prepared with flood-zone verification on every parcel, a structural inspection for expansive-clay foundations, and a close read of the multi-unit property tax stack before committing.
South Central Texas
South Plains
South Texas
Southeast Texas
West Texas
Abilene
Taylor County
Abilene is the Key City of the Big Country — a West Texas hub built on cattle, the T&P Railroad, Dyess Air Force Base's B-1B bombers, and three private universities that keep the city unusually anchored for its size. For buyers, the practical work is checking Elm Creek flood maps, getting a foundation inspection for the area's expansive clay soils, understanding Dyess noise contours if you're buying southwest, and confirming the full taxing-unit stack on your specific parcel.
El Paso
El Paso County
El Paso is "Sun City" — more than 300 sunny days a year, the Franklin Mountains cutting straight through the city limits, and a binational metro tied to Ciudad Juárez where roughly 50,000 local jobs run through US-Mexico trade. Buyers here also navigate desert drainage, Fort Bliss military relocation timing, and appraisal notices from EPCAD.
San Angelo
Tom Green County
San Angelo is West Texas's Concho Valley hub — home to Fort Concho National Historic Landmark, long the country's largest wool and mohair market, Angelo State University, and Goodfellow AFB — a city with genuine frontier roots and a more diversified economy than most of its Permian Basin neighbors. Buyers should confirm flood zone status (the July 2025 storms caused catastrophic flash flooding near the Concho River), verify the full taxing-unit stack with Tom Green CAD, and account for frequent hail when shopping insurance.
Not sure where to start?
Property tax estimator
Use local rates and exemption assumptions for a parcel.
Open estimator ->Homebuyer timeline
Track the deadline cycle after closing.
Build timeline ->Local Notes
Read practical Texas notes tied to local quirks.
Browse notes ->Questions
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