Essential Insights on DFW Property Tax Rates 2021

With so many DFW suburbs to choose from, deciding where to plant your roots can feel overwhelming — and property taxes deserve a real seat at that table. Two houses at the same price, fifteen minutes apart, can carry tax bills that differ by thousands of dollars a year.

We first published this comparison in 2021, and a lot has changed since then — almost all of it in your favor. Below are the five lowest and five highest total property tax rates among the DFW suburbs we tracked in the original post, refreshed with the adopted 2025 tax-year rates (the bills that arrived in late 2025 and are payable in 2026), plus what changed and how the new homestead exemption rules affect the math.

How Texas Property Taxes Actually Work

Texas has no state property tax. Your total bill is a stack of local rates — city, school district, county, and in some counties a hospital district and community college district — applied to your home's appraised value. Each taxing unit adopts its rate fresh every fall after appraisal season wraps up.

When we wrote the original version of this post, rates barely moved year to year. That's no longer true. The state has been compressing school district tax rates as property values rise — Northwest ISD's total rate, for example, came in below the prior year's even after voters approved an operations increase, because the state automatically buys down school rates as values climb. Every suburb in this comparison has a meaningfully lower total rate today than it did in 2021.

One structural note before the tables: the county you're in matters more than most people realize. Dallas County homeowners also pay Parkland Hospital ($0.2120 per $100) and Dallas College ($0.106575 per $100) on top of the county's $0.2155 rate. Denton County has no comparable countywide hospital or college line on these suburbs' bills. That gap — roughly half a percent before a city or school district collects a dime — is a big part of why the Dallas County suburbs dominate the "highest" list.

The Exemption Rules Just Changed in a Big Way

The homestead exemption is the single most valuable break available, and it just got bigger. In November 2025, Texas voters approved Proposition 13, raising the school district homestead exemption from $100,000 to $140,000 of your home's value — and it applies retroactively to the 2025 tax year. For context, when this post first ran, that exemption was just $25,000.

Homeowners who are 65 or older or disabled did even better: Proposition 11 raised their additional school exemption from $10,000 to $60,000, also effective for the 2025 tax year. Stacked with the general exemption, that shields up to $200,000 of a qualifying senior's home value from school taxes.

Some cities layer their own optional exemptions on top. Flower Mound, for example, raised its town homestead exemption from 12.5% to 20% — the maximum Texas allows — starting with the 2025–2026 fiscal year.

If you haven't filed your homestead exemption, do it before you read another word — it's free and takes minutes. Our guide walks through it: How to Save Money on Your Property Taxes With the Homestead Exemption.

And remember: the rate is only half your bill. The other half is your appraised value, and you have the right to protest it every year. Appraisal districts work at volume, and the details they miss — age, condition, actual square footage — are your money. Here's our playbook: Protest Your Property Taxes and Save Big.

The Five Lowest Property Tax Rates in DFW (2025 Tax Year)

Here are the five lowest total rates among the suburbs from our original comparison, low to high. Totals combine the adopted city, school district, county, and (where applicable) college district rates, before any exemptions.

Sources: Dallas County Tax Office, City of Frisco, Town of Flower Mound, and Community Impact / Star Local Media reporting (linked below).

A few stories inside those numbers:

• Roanoke takes the crown. Its city rate of $0.326182 is the lowest city rate on either list — even after a rate increase adopted in September 2025. Northwest ISD's $1.0841 rate reflects a voter-approved 3-cent operations increase that passed narrowly in November 2025.
• Lewisville's city rate is its lowest in more than 30 years at $0.419009, down from $0.422435 the year before. What we said in 2021 still holds: a lower tax rate here doesn't mean a lesser quality of life. Old Town Lewisville keeps getting better.
• Plano raised its city rate for the first time in 16 years — from 41.76 to 43.76 cents — and still lands on the lowest-five list, because Plano ISD's rate came down to $1.03955.

Thinking about Flower Mound or Lewisville? Our neighborhood guides cover the trade-offs beyond the tax line.

The Five Highest Property Tax Rates in DFW (2025 Tax Year)

Same suburbs as our original "highest" list — but the order has shuffled, high to low.

Source: all rates in this table are the 2025 tax-year rates published by the Dallas County Tax Office.

Notice what these five have in common: they're all Dallas County suburbs, and the Parkland Hospital and Dallas College lines add about $0.32 per $100 that the Denton and Collin County suburbs simply don't pay.

Worth flagging for our hometown readers: Coppell was third-highest in our 2021 comparison at 2.71%. Today it sits at the bottom of this list at 1.96% — Coppell ISD's $0.9819 rate is now the lowest school district rate of any suburb in this entire comparison. The "highest" list isn't what it used to be: today's most expensive rate (Rowlett, 2.51%) is lower than 2021's median on the high side.

And as we said in the original post, a higher rate isn't automatically a bad deal. Depending on what your family needs — schools, commute, community — the extra tax can feel less like a cost and more like an investment in where you live. We live and work in Coppell; we get it.

What Changed Since Our 2021 Comparison

Side by side, original post vs. today:

Sources: 2021 figures from the original version of this post; 2025 figures from the tables above.

Three takeaways:

1. Every single suburb's rate fell — by roughly 0.4 to 0.75 percentage points. The bulk of that came from state compression of school district rates.
2. The rankings reshuffled. Grand Prairie was the highest in 2021; Rowlett holds that spot now. Roanoke went from third-lowest to lowest. Coppell had the biggest drop of all ten.
3. Rates fell, but values rose. A lower rate on a higher appraisal can still mean a bigger bill — which is exactly why the homestead exemption and the annual protest matter more than ever.

County Tax Rates Compared (2025 Tax Year)

If you're comparing across county lines, here are the four major counties' adopted rates:

Sources: City of Frisco (Collin, Denton); Texans for Fiscal Responsibility (Tarrant — down from $0.1875 in 2024); Dallas County Tax Office (Dallas).

Remember the asterisk on Dallas County: add Parkland Hospital and Dallas College and the effective county-level stack is $0.534075 per $100 — more than three and a half times Collin County's rate.

What the Difference Looks Like in Dollars

Take a $450,000 home with a homestead exemption, and compare the cheapest and most expensive suburbs on our lists. To keep the math simple, we'll apply only the $140,000 school-district homestead exemption (your city and county may offer optional exemptions that lower these further):

Roanoke (1.60% total)

• Northwest ISD: ($450,000 − $140,000) × 1.0841% = $3,361
• City of Roanoke: $450,000 × 0.326182% = $1,468
• Denton County: $450,000 × 0.185938% = $837
• Estimated total: ~$5,665/year

Rowlett (2.51% total)

• Garland ISD: ($450,000 − $140,000) × 1.1709% = $3,630
• City of Rowlett: $450,000 × 0.807891% = $3,636
• Dallas County + Parkland + Dallas College: $450,000 × 0.534075% = $2,403
• Estimated total: ~$9,669/year

Same house price, roughly $4,000 a year apart — about $334 a month, which is real money against a mortgage payment. These are simplified estimates for comparison, not quotes for your specific property; your appraised value, exemptions, and exact taxing units will set your actual bill. For anything tax-planning related, consult your tax professional.

A Few Honest Caveats

• Boundaries are messy. These totals use each suburb's predominant county and school district, same as our original post. Parts of Frisco sit in Denton County or feed Prosper, Lewisville, or Little Elm ISDs; parts of Grand Prairie reach into Tarrant and Ellis counties; Rowlett crosses into Rockwall County. Your specific address controls.
• Newer developments may add MUD or PID taxes on top of everything above — always pull the full tax breakdown on any home you're considering. We do this for our buyers as a matter of course.
• Rates reset every fall. These are the adopted 2025 tax-year rates; taxing units will adopt 2026 rates in September–October 2026.

Know What You're Really Buying — and What You're Really Worth

If you're choosing between suburbs, the tax rate is one input among many — schools, commute, resale strength, and what your money buys all matter. We're happy to walk through the real numbers for any home you're considering, and we'll tell you the honest math either way.

And if you're on the other side of the trade — wondering what rising values have done to your own home's worth — start with a real answer, not a Zestimate. After 440+ families served across DFW, we know what these neighborhoods actually trade for.

Let's Talk Numbers

📞 Call or text us at (972) 916-9646 for a free, no-pressure consultation.

• 🏡 Request your home valuation → Get a real number from people who know your neighborhood.
• 💬 Get in touch → Tell us the home you're weighing, and we'll run the full tax breakdown for you.

Consultations are free, and the math is honest either way.