What will a home in Montgomery County, TX really cost each year?
The listing price is only half the story. Depending on the street, the same $400,000 home can owe about $5,255 or $13,915 a year in property tax. Look up any development in The Woodlands, Conroe, Spring, Magnolia, Montgomery, and the rest of the county.
2,924 developments (6,119 plat sections) · 187 utility districts · rates from the county tax office and Texas Comptroller
Why listing prices hide the real cost
Every Texas home pays property tax to several local governments at once: the county, the hospital district, a school district, often a city or The Woodlands Township, an emergency services district (ESD), and in much of this county a municipal utility district (MUD). Their rates add up to one combined rate per $100 of value.
A MUD is a small district created to build water, sewer, and drainage for new development. It borrows by selling bonds and repays them with a property tax on homes inside it. Montgomery County has about 178 MUDs and similar districts, and their rates range from nothing to more than $1.30 per $100. Newer developments tend to have higher MUD rates while bonds are paid off. Read more in what is a MUD tax? and how to find a home's MUD.
That is why combined rates across fully verified developments run from 1.31% (Cedar Hills Forest Trails) to 3.48% (Enclave at Willis), with a median of 1.91%. In The Woodlands Township they run 1.64%–2.50%. Listing sites rarely show the MUD rate, and a mortgage payment quote often uses a generic tax estimate.
True monthly cost calculator
Pick a development above to fill in its tax rate, or type your own.
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| Property tax | |
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| True monthly cost |
How it's calculated: loan = price − down payment; standard amortizing payment. Yearly tax = price × combined rate − (school exemption × school rate, if homestead). The school exemption is the mandatory $140,000 residence homestead exemption required by Texas Tax Code §11.13(b) (raised from $100,000 by Proposition 13, Nov. 2025). Optional local homestead exemptions (up to 20% for some units), over-65/disabled exemptions, and the 10% homestead appraisal cap are not included, so a homestead's real bill can be lower. Price is used as taxable value; the appraisal district's value can differ. The insurance default, $3,489/year, is the Texas statewide average homeowners premium (2025, preliminary) from the Texas Department of Insurance. It is an estimate only: Montgomery County premiums vary, and your quote will differ.
How to use this for a specific home
- Search the development above to see its taxing units, combined rate, and how its sections differ.
- Look up the exact address on the MCAD property search; its record lists every unit that taxes that lot (including any PID assessment, which is billed per lot).
- Put the price, rate, HOA, and an insurance quote in the calculator to compare homes on true monthly cost, not price.
Browse by area, see every MUD rate and county, school, and city rates, or read the data notes.
Get rate updates
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Informational only. This site is not tax, legal, financial, or real estate advice, and it is not affiliated with Montgomery County, the Montgomery Central Appraisal District, the Montgomery County Tax Office, or any other government body. Rates are nominal (before exemptions) and come from public sources that can be wrong or out of date. District boundaries here are approximate. Always verify a specific property on the MCAD property search and confirm current rates with the Montgomery County Tax Office.