Cedar Hill is home to Joe Pool Lake and Cedar Hill State Park, with both located inside city limits and offering nearly 2,000 acres of trails and 7,500 acres of lake access. Cedar Hill attracts buyers who want outdoor recreation, diverse community atmosphere, and convenient access to Metroplex jobs while maintaining direct access to hiking, biking, boating, and natural scenery most suburbs can’t provide.
Cedar Hill has more than fifty named subdivisions, so this is a selection rather than a directory. The thing worth understanding first is the land. This city sits on the Balcones Escarpment with real elevation change, which in a metro this flat is a genuinely rare thing to be buying.
Half-acre to 1+ acre lots
The flagship, and not a small one. Roughly 3,400 acres with over a thousand custom homes on half-acre to acre-plus lots running from about 2,200 up past 9,800 square feet. Built around Tangle Ridge Golf Club with five neighbourhood parks, including 165-acre Valley Ridge.
Estates past $1M
Seven gated neighbourhoods inside Lake Ridge: The Views, The Bluffs, The Hills, The Fountains, The Sanctuary, The Timbers and The Summit. This is where the acre-plus wooded and hilltop lots are, and where listings advertise lake views and skyline sightlines rather than square footage.
Ask for current pricing
The east side's master-planned area and Cedar Hill's first Public Improvement District, created in 1998. Four parks inside it, and a set of sub-neighbourhoods that come up constantly in listings: Braeglen, Sweetbriar, Creekside, the Reserve and the Meadows.
Ask for current pricing
The far south end, on a wooded ridge between South Cedar Hill Road and Red Oak Creek. Homes sit on the crest with creek tributaries running below, which is about as close as this metro gets to hill country topography. The city's newest PID, from 2020.
$425K to $610K
The most active new construction in the city, with Bloomfield Homes and Lennar both building on a planned development approved for up to 246 lots. Bloomfield runs two series split by lot width, from roughly 2,100 to 4,200 square feet.
From about $415K
First Texas Homes on Spring Hill Drive, from roughly 1,900 to 4,300 square feet across three to five bedrooms. Cedar Hill ISD, with an HOA running about $528 a year.
Pricing not released
The one to watch. Meritage Homes won unanimous council approval in July 2024 for a five-phase master plan on the west side of Lake Ridge Parkway, with 238 lots in phase one and roughly 840 at full build-out, plus a community centre, resort pool and pickleball.
Wide range
Waterford Oaks, Winding Hollow and Windsor Park all carry PIDs of their own. Then Bent Creek, Hidden Lakes, Kingswood, The Promontory, Shenandoah, Sleepy Hollow, Stony Creek Estates, Wooded Creek Estates, Woodridge and a long list beyond that.
Swipe or drag sideways to see them all.
Cedar Hill sits on the Balcones Escarpment, the easternmost reach of the Texas Hill Country, and the city describes itself as rising above 880 feet, which it calls the highest point between the Red River and the Gulf Coast. Other sources cite 830 feet in an older planning document and 791 feet as a general city marker, so treat the exact number carefully, but the relief is real and you can feel it driving FM 1382. More than twenty percent of the city is permanently preserved green space. One practical consequence: hillside building inside the Escarpment Zone is regulated by city ordinance for slope safety, so a steep lot is not automatically a buildable lot.
Five Public Improvement Districts operate in Cedar Hill: High Pointe from 1998, Waterford Oaks from 2002, Winding Hollow from 2015, Windsor Park from 2017 and Cedar Crest from 2020. Each assesses ten cents per $100 of value, so a $400,000 home inside one pays about $400 a year on top of its taxes. A new PID is also tied to Balcones Ranch. Separately, Cedar Hill straddles two counties, mostly Dallas with a portion in Ellis, which decides your appraisal district and your voter registration. There is no Municipal Utility District anywhere in the city.
Neighborhood names, PID dates and assessment rates come from the City of Cedar Hill; lot sizes, price ranges and square footages come from builder marketing and listing data and move constantly, so treat them as indicative and ask for a current comparative market analysis. Verify the school district on any Addison Hills lot, because Bloomfield markets the community as Cedar Hill ISD while Lennar's section is listed elsewhere as Duncanville ISD, and the site has appeared under two different ZIP codes. Balcones Ranch figures also conflict: the project engineer and the city economic development corporation describe 126 acres with 238 phase-one lots and roughly 840 homes at build-out, while an opposition petition referenced 856 homes on 299 acres. Elevation figures vary across city and third-party sources as noted above. No fee-simple lakefront residential lots were confirmed inside the city limits; the Joe Pool shoreline is largely state park and federal land, so a listing described as lakefront deserves a look at the appraisal district record before you believe it. The city provides water and sewer citywide, purchasing water from the City of Dallas with wastewater treated by the Trinity River Authority, and electricity is deregulated so you choose a retail provider. Cedar Hill also operates a Tax Increment Financing zone established in 2017 covering the City Center area. Confirm zoning, school district, PID status and county for any specific address before acting on it. Bobby Franklin, REALTOR®, TREC #0805459, Legacy Realty Group – Leslie Majors Team.
Hillside Village handles the chains, so this list skips them entirely. What follows is the independent side: a barbecue joint that made Texas Monthly's Top 50, a two-block historic downtown that has been there since 1846, and a dining scene with more range than a city this size usually gets.
261 S Highway 67 · 972-923-0040
Kelvin and Angie Harris opened in Waxahachie in April 2013 and moved the whole operation to Cedar Hill in November 2019. In between, Texas Monthly put them on the Top 50 BBQ Joints list in 2017, then named them again among the Next 50 honourable mentions in 2021.
Also covered by D Magazine, the Dallas Observer and Wild Sam, and they turned up on The Drew Barrymore Show in 2022. Order brisket, ribs and the smoked sausage, and ask for the hot sauce. Closed Sunday and Monday, which is worth checking before you drive.
610 Uptown Blvd, Ste 100 · 972-293-9944
Opened February 2009 by Dick and Teril Woodward, Cedar Hill residents since 1997, with Dick having run restaurants since the seventies. Family-owned and the closest thing this city has to a default breakfast. Order a Mess, or Mom's French Toast.
200 S Main St · 469-272-4500
Family-style fried chicken served in bowls that keep coming, in a downtown building on Main. A small Texas chain rather than a single location, listed because it anchors the downtown corner and everyone here treats it as local.
305 W FM 1382, Ste 502 · 972-637-3145
A Chicago transplant that landed well. Soul rolls, oxtails and jerk Cornish hens, plus a peach cobbler martini that gets ordered more for the idea than the drink. One of the more talked-about openings on this side of the county.
305 FM-1382 W
Happy hour four to seven, live music Wednesday and Friday, and a weekend brunch that fills up. Braised oxtails, lamb chops and BBQ bourbon shrimp. Where people go when the occasion warrants leaving the house properly.
406 W Belt Line Rd
Craft barbecue with a Tex-Mex lean, outdoor seating and a playground, which makes it the rare barbecue stop that works with small children. The chicken nachos are the order.
Cedar Hill
Ten years and counting serving breakfast, and the name that comes up first when you ask a local where to eat in the morning. Small, consistent, no fuss.
642 Uptown Blvd
Another Chicago import. Menu items named after family members, turkey, salmon and veggie patties swapped onto anything, and shakes worth the calories.
213 W Belt Line Rd · 972-291-1053
A Dallas name with a downtown Cedar Hill outpost, and the default answer for Tex-Mex in this part of town.
601 Cedar St · 972-293-0013
New York style pizza on Cedar Street, and the place East Coast transplants point to when they say they finally found a decent slice down here.
Cedar Hill
Consistently among the highest-rated restaurants in the city. Green papaya salad and Thai fried rice are what regulars order.
Cedar Hill
Rodizio service with picanha carved at the table and live piano. Not what most people expect to find in Cedar Hill, which is exactly why it is on this list.
610 Cedar St · 469-454-6124
Named for the year Cedar Hill was founded, which tells you how seriously downtown takes its own history. The local coffee shop of record.
230 W Belt Line Rd · 972-293-7361
The other local coffee house, on Belt Line. Between this and 1846, Cedar Hill has a real coffee culture rather than a drive-thru one.
516 Belt Line Rd, Ste 300 · 817-661-2015
Specialty coffee with a pastry case worth the trip. Dubai mosaic cake and pistachio pastries. Open until nine, which almost nothing else here is.
316 Cooper St · 972-908-0013
A winery and tasting room in the historic downtown. Between this and Lavishing Teas around the corner, Cooper Street has quietly become the interesting block.
109 S Main St · 469-243-1481
Proper New Orleans style snowballs on Main Street, which are a different thing entirely from a Texas snow cone. Summer downtown belongs to this place.
515 Cedar St · 972-293-2200
The best building story in town. This is the 1932 Citizens Bank, robbed by Raymond Hamilton, a Bonnie and Clyde associate, and designated a historic resource in 2008. Now you get a haircut in it.
702 Cedar St · 972-293-0088
A quilting and fabric shop on Cedar Street, and the kind of specialist store that draws people in from across the metro. Downtown anchors like this are why the district still works.
316 W Belt Line Rd · 972-754-5096
A working fashion designer with a storefront in Cedar Hill, which is not something most suburbs this size can claim.
206 S Broad St · 469-323-2682
An art gallery in the historic district, a block off the main downtown row. Worth a look on a Saturday when everything else on Cedar Street is open.
202 N Main St · 972-291-7774
Still here, still on Main Street, still full on a Friday night. In a metro that has lost most of its roller rinks, a town keeping one is a statement about itself.
216 Houston St · 972-291-1639
A genuine old-style drive-in grocery on Houston Street, the sort of business that survives on knowing its customers by name rather than on foot traffic.
Cedar St & Houston St
Decor on the Hill at 608 Cedar, Jessica's Flowers and Gifts at 612, K&D Designs at 411, Cedar Hill Market on Houston, The Purple Farmhouse on North Main and Lavishing Teas on Texas Street. Park once and walk the whole thing.
The town was founded in 1846, land for the square was set aside by William C. Hart in 1847, and the Santa Fe Railroad arrived in 1871. Most North Texas downtowns of that vintage did not survive the arrival of a regional mall four miles away. This one did.
The district runs from West Belt Line Road to Highway 67 and holds roughly twenty member businesses under the Historic Downtown Association, with Country Day on the Hill as its annual festival. The city is actively rebuilding it: the Downtown Complete Streets plan was adopted in January 2020, phase one rebuilt Broad and Cedar Streets, and phase 2A is under construction now with completion expected in autumn 2026. A separate mixed-use redevelopment is bringing the historic buildings at Belt Line and Broad back into use.
Verified September 2026, and deliberately a selection rather than a directory. Cedar Hill has far more independent businesses than fit here; these were chosen for press coverage, longevity, downtown location or the kind of specific detail worth knowing. Hillside Village, formerly Uptown Village, is a 615,000 square foot open-air mall with more than sixty-five stores at FM 1382 and Highway 67; it is excluded from this list as chain retail rather than overlooked. Babe's Chicken and Campuzano are small Texas concepts rather than single-location independents and are labelled accordingly. A handful of entries carry a general Cedar Hill address because no street number is published; confirm the location before you drive. Restaurant hours and operating status change frequently in a market this active, and at least one entry has shown conflicting status across reservation platforms, so call ahead. Founding years for several downtown shops could not be established from available sources and are described only where documented. Businesses listed are for general local reference and are not endorsements, and I receive no compensation from any business named. Bobby Franklin, REALTOR®, TREC #0805459, Legacy Realty Group – Leslie Majors Team.
A Tornado, a Bank Robbery, and Fourteen Towers
The hills here were thick with eastern red cedar, and that is where the name comes from. The limestone underneath holds fossils, mother-of-pearl and shark teeth, because this was all underwater once.
Shortly after 1835 Texas Rangers reported no sign of civilized humans south of the Trinity River. Native tribes wintered in these hills before settlers arrived.
The escarpment is the reason for everything that follows. It is the high ground, and high ground eventually attracts people who need it.
Founded around 1846 by Peters Colony settlers out of Kentucky and Alabama. William C. Hart donated the land for the town square in 1847, and Abraham Hart held the original 1841 grant.
By 1844 the area held 197 families and 184 single men. The museum calls it the second-largest settlement in the region and Wikipedia calls it the largest, so take your pick. Founding names: Hart, Penn, Rape, Anderson, Stewart, White.
Two claims get repeated constantly and neither is documented. That Cedar Hill was Dallas County's temporary county seat, and that it lost the permanent seat by one vote. Lovely story. No primary record supports it, and the Texas State Historical Association does not carry it.
A post office opened in 1852 and the first school took sixteen students. Major Penn had already imported a schoolteacher and built her a cabin, which still exists inside a barn at Penn Farm.
At about four in the afternoon a tornado formed a mile southwest, cut a hundred-yard path straight through the square, and left nine dead and twelve injured in a town of four hundred. Nearly every building was gone.
The dead were James and America Berry and their infant, John and Nancy Hart and their infant, John Dickson, Martha Allen, and an unnamed Black woman. Debris reportedly landed as far away as the present Dallas Zoo. Sources differ on whether one or two buildings were left standing.
More than three hundred people from surrounding communities came to help rebuild. On August 13, 1856, survivor and pastor Robert Crawford deeded four acres for a graveyard open "to the public indiscriminately," making it likely one of the oldest integrated cemeteries in Dallas County.
It was then lost for nearly a century. Resident Wanda Pitt rediscovered it, the state certified it in 2006, it was reconsecrated in 2011, and a historical marker went up on April 29, 2012, the 156th anniversary.
The town square plat was filed in 1871 by J.M. Williams of the Santa Fe. In 1881 the Chicago, Texas and Mexican Central extended a line through town, with the first trial run in 1882.
Dr. R.A. Roberts secured the right of way, which is why his house still stands on Broad Street. The wooden depot served passengers and freight for over fifty years until it closed in the late 1940s.
Then the good part. Facing demolition, the depot was cut in half and sold. Claude Potter moved his half to 126 North Potter Street, where it survives today as The Depot House.
Worth noting the plat date is disputed: the city says 1871, while the Handbook of Texas and a 1985 National Register filing say 1874.
Five hundred people by 1890, three churches and two banks by 1915, and about 5,000 bales of cotton ginned a year through the twenties and thirties.
An 1892 directory lists two druggists, two blacksmiths and two confectioners, and there were two competing cotton gins. The first telephone sat at Well's General Store around 1900.
In the twenties the Dynamo Electric Plant supplied power and blinked the lights at 10:30 every night as a warning before shutting down at eleven. Some farms had no electricity at all until the forties.
Raymond Hamilton, a Bonnie and Clyde associate, robbed the bank at 515 Cedar Street, locked the employees in the vault, and then came back and robbed it again after learning cash had been hidden the first time.
The consecutive robberies contributed to the bank's ruin and closure. The gang reputedly kept a hideout on the south edge of town. Hamilton was broken out of Eastham Prison by Bonnie and Clyde in January 1934 and recaptured that April.
The building, put up around 1904, was designated a historic resource in March 2008 and carries a medallion. It has housed a gallery since 2001 and now also a barbershop. You can get a haircut in it.
The elevation made Cedar Hill the one place that could cover Dallas and Fort Worth equally. In 1955 two rival stations who both wanted the same hilltop did something nobody had done: they built a tower together.
WFAA and KRLD formed the Hill Tower Corporation and built the first single tower owned and operated by two television stations at once, topped by an eighty-foot triangular candelabra carrying one antenna per station at equal height. Construction began in May 1955 and finished that October.
WBAP joined the candelabra in 1957, reportedly only after NBC threatened its affiliation, and over the objections of Fort Worth publisher Amon Carter, who did not want a unified Dallas-Fort Worth market. He lost that one.
Today fourteen towers stand on the escarpment, the highest concentration in the county, used as navigational landmarks by pilots. The weather radar that tracks tornadoes across North Texas is mounted up there too, which given 1856 is a reasonable place for it.
476 people in 1940. 1,848 by 1960. 6,849 by 1980. Then 19,976 by 1990, a jump of nearly 192 percent in a single decade, timed almost exactly to the lake filling.
Congress approved the reservoir in 1965. The dam finished in December 1985, and the lake filled by June 1989. Cedar Hill State Park opened on its northeast shore in May 1991.
It is named for Congressman Joe R. Pool, who championed the project and co-authored the 1955 bill creating the Trinity River Authority. He died in 1968, more than twenty years before the lake he fought for held water.
The park runs 1,826 acres with 335 campsites, and in 2025 it logged 375,769 visitors, making it the third most visited state park in Texas. Twenty miles from downtown Dallas.
Inside the state park sits the farmstead the John Wesley Penn family worked for over a hundred years starting in the 1850s, with many original structures still standing.
The reason it matters beyond nostalgia: the ground was too rocky and hilly to plough, so remnants of native tallgrass prairie survived here when nearly all of Dallas County's was lost. Less than one percent of it remains statewide.
Early settler Andrew Penn, a Northern sympathiser, left during the Civil War. One of his sons died fighting for the South.
A private business university opened a Texas campus here in 1966 on 350 acres above Joe Pool Lake, enrolling 1,282 students by 1999. It ceased residential operations in June 2014.
At closure it still had about 1,100 students including roughly 400 traditional undergraduates. Northwood moved its remaining Texas programmes to the former Cedar Valley College facility on Cannady Drive in 2018, continuing adult and graduate work. The original campus is listed as closed.
An economic development corporation founded in 1994 on a $150,000 budget, now $3.5 million, drove a wave of shopping centres culminating in Uptown Village opening in March 2008 at 615,000 square feet.
The Plaza at Cedar Hill came in 2000, Pleasant Run Towne Crossing in 2003 and Cedar Hill Pointe in 2005. Uptown Village landed three anchors, sixty-five stores and a slate of restaurants.
Trademark Property bought it in 2015 and renamed it Hillside Village during a multimillion-dollar renovation, choosing a garden-themed name meant to reflect the surrounding hills.
49,148 residents at the 2020 Census. A city that spent twenty years building retail on the highway has spent the last decade putting money back into the two blocks it started from.
A City Center plan in 2014, a Tax Increment Financing zone in 2017, and a 2017 bond authorising $45 million for parks, streets, an outdoor aquatics facility and a new library. The Downtown Complete Streets plan was adopted in January 2020, with phase one burying the overhead utilities on Broad and Cedar.
The Balcones Trail, three miles connecting more than 3,000 acres of preserves, was dedicated in November 2022. The Traphene Hickman Library, the Cedar Hill Museum of History and Signature Park all opened on April 27, 2024.
Stephen Mason is mayor. Melissa Valadez-Cummings, a twenty-year city employee, became the first female city manager in August 2024. The city motto is "Where Opportunities Grow Naturally," and it markets itself as the Natural Heart of the Metroplex.
Compiled from the Cedar Hill Museum of History, the Texas State Historical Association, the City of Cedar Hill and its historic walking tour, Visit Cedar Hill, the Bullock Texas State History Museum, the Dallas Morning News, the Dallas County Pioneer Association, the Texas Historical Commission, Texas Parks and Wildlife, the US Census Bureau and Focus Daily News. Where the record is disputed it is said so: the town square plat date is given as 1871 by the city and 1874 by the Handbook of Texas and a National Register filing; sources differ on whether one or two buildings survived the 1856 tornado; the Joe Pool renaming is dated to both 1982 and 1983; lake acreage varies by measurement basis; and elevation is cited variously at 791, 830 and above 880 feet. The claims that Cedar Hill served as temporary county seat and lost the permanent seat by a single vote are widely repeated but undocumented in any primary source, and are presented here as folklore. Detailed biographical information on William C. Hart could not be verified. Cedar Hill holds five homes on the National Register, four Recorded Texas Historic Landmarks and two Historic Texas Cemeteries.
A Festival Running Since 1937, and a Lot Built Around It
The region's signature ride, put on by the Rotary Club of Cedar Hill. Routes of 22, 42 and 62 miles with five stocked rest stops and support, finishing with burgers and beer. The escarpment is what makes it worth riding.
Saturdays on Cedar Street behind the Chamber building at 300 Houston. Produce, baked goods, art and apparel, run by the Cedar Hill Chamber of Commerce.
A standing Parks and Recreation tradition. Confirm the date on the city calendar each year, since it moves with the holiday.
The Cedar Hill Museum of History's annual charity golf tournament, named for the towers on the escarpment. Now in its seventh year.
A recent addition and already a good one. Seventy-plus vintage, handmade and artisan vendors filling the downtown blocks after dark, with food trucks, live music and beer and wine from the local bars.
Cedar Hill co-hosts the Best Southwest Juneteenth Celebration with Duncanville, DeSoto and Lancaster, and the four cities rotate which one hosts each year. The Museum of History adds its own programming.
The outdoor aquatics facility built with the 2017 bond, plus camps and youth programming out of the Alan E. Sims Recreation Center.
The big one, and it has been running since 1937. Parade at ten, three stages, craft vendors, food trucks on Texas Street, a princess pageant and the Cook Off Games. About 10,000 people.
It began as the Old Settlers Reunion, an informal post-harvest gathering on the town square, and grew into a street fair. The 2025 edition was the 88th and 2026 the 89th.
The Old Settlers Reunion still opens the weekend on Friday evening with a beans and cornbread supper, free bingo, and the crowning of the King and Queen of the Hill.
Run by Friends of Country Day, a volunteer nonprofit since 2002 that sends proceeds to the Cedar Hill Food Pantry and Bridges Safehouse. Free admission, free parking and a shuttle from the high school.
Trunk or treat, a costume parade, live entertainment and craft tents across the downtown blocks, with a shuttle from the JCPenney lot. Presented by the Traphene Hickman Library.
Run through the police department. Texas observes it the first Tuesday in October rather than August, so check the date.
An annual civic gathering for neighbourhood leaders and HOA boards, alongside free neighbourhood seminars the city runs through the year. Worth attending if you buy into an association here.
The official tree lighting plus photos with Santa, two stages of live performance, bounce houses, a Ferris wheel and a trackless train, and in some years an ice rink and a snow maze.
Photo ops, hot cocoa and vendors on selected Fridays, plus pet photos with Santa benefiting the Tri-City Animal Shelter.
Gift making, DIY ornaments, Letters to Santa, a Kwanzaa celebration, and a Noon Year's Eve programme on December 31 for families who are not making it to midnight.
1,826 acres and 335 campsites on Joe Pool Lake. The DORBA mountain bike trail is considered among the best in Texas, and the park logged 375,769 visitors in 2025, third most in the state.
Guided bird walk at 8:30, beginner's yoga at ten, bird bingo at 11:30, all free. Plus a Young Birders Club, the Stars and S'mores fundraiser, a nature art show and a native plant sale.
Three miles connecting more than 3,000 acres of preserves, dedicated in November 2022. The city runs 32 park properties and over 45 miles of trail, on terrain that actually has hills in it.
The Cedar Hill Museum of History runs lectures, heritage programmes and cemetery birding walks. The library opened alongside it in April 2024 with storytimes, maker programmes and clubs.
Cedar Hill does not appear to run a large municipal Fourth of July fireworks show on the scale of its neighbours. The city has hosted a pre-holiday concert in the park, and Trinity Church puts on a July 5 fireworks celebration, but residents have historically also driven to nearby Best Southwest cities for the big display.
A few other things could not be confirmed and are listed rather than invented: a standalone city Martin Luther King Day march, a standalone Veterans Day ceremony, a recurring car show, an on-trail mountain bike race at the state park, and any organised fishing tournament on Joe Pool Lake. All are plausible in a city this size. None is documented.
Dates shift annually. The authoritative sources are the tourism calendar at visitcedarhilltx.com and the municipal calendar at cedarhilltx.com, with Country Day carrying its own site at cdoth.com. Country Day falls on the second Saturday of October and Head for the Hills in May, but themes, routes and venues change each year. Aquatics, camps and library series are ongoing programmes rather than fixed-date events and are presented as such. The Juneteenth celebration rotates among the four Best Southwest cities, so confirm which one hosts before making plans. Attendance figures come from the organising nonprofit. Event details were compiled from the City of Cedar Hill, Visit Cedar Hill, the Cedar Hill Chamber of Commerce, the Cedar Hill Museum of History, Texas Parks and Wildlife, Audubon Texas, Focus Daily News and Hoodline.
What sets Cedar Hill schools apart:
Three districts, not one: Cedar Hill ISD covers most of the city, but part of Lake Ridge is Midlothian ISD and the north edge is Duncanville ISD. DeSoto ISD does not serve any Cedar Hill address
The Lake Ridge double advantage: a Midlothian ISD parcel pays $1.0708 against Cedar Hill ISD’s $1.1279 and gets a 10 percent local homestead exemption that Cedar Hill ISD does not offer
An associate degree with the diploma: the Collegiate Academy partners with Dallas College, and students can finish with up to 60 hours of college credit
Choice programs across the district: Montessori at Lake Ridge, a Fine Arts Academy at High Pointe, bilingual at Highlands, and an Early College Academy at the high school
The honest part: enrollment has fallen from nearly 10,000 before 2020 to under 6,000, and the district is in an active optimization process with a deficit budget approved for 2026-27
Want the complete breakdown? Read our full Cedar Hill ISD guide →
Cedar Hill ISD covers most of the city across 36 square miles, and it is a district with genuine choice programmes inside it. But two parts of town are served by other districts entirely, and one of those is Lake Ridge, which makes this the first question rather than the last.
1 Longhorn Blvd
Fed by Bessie Coleman & Permenter
The district's only comprehensive high school, and the centre of civic life here. Houses an Early College Academy with Dallas College, a STEAM programme, Project Lead the Way and gifted and talented.
Four-year graduation rate around 87 percent, average SAT near 1020 with 99 percent participation, and about 37 percent AP participation.
Three football state championships, in 2006, 2013 and 2014, with a runner-up finish in 2012. Joey McGuire coached here from 2003 to 2016 and went 141 and 42 before leaving for Baylor and then Texas Tech. Carlos Lynn, defensive coordinator on the 2006 title team, has led the programme since 2017 and took it back to a state final.
With the Dr. Peggy M. Wilson STEM Center
Partner Dallas College
The strongest academic offer in the district. Students can leave with up to 60 hours of college credit or an associate degree alongside the diploma, attending Cedar Valley College full-time in the junior and senior years.
District-reported outcomes: 100 percent acceptance to four-year universities, more than $3.2 million in scholarships and grants, roughly a quarter of students earning at least one full ride, and over half making the Dallas College Dean's List.
Entry is by application and lottery. It is built for students ready for dual credit rigour early, and it is worth asking about in sixth grade rather than ninth.
Cedar Hill
Feeds Cedar Hill High School
One of two middle schools, named for the first African American woman to hold a pilot licence. Takes students from Waterford Oaks and the surrounding elementary zones.
1208 E Pleasant Run Rd
Feeds Cedar Hill High School
The district's other middle school, on East Pleasant Run. Both middle schools feed the same high school, so the split matters less here than in a two-high-school district.
975 Pickard Dr
Feeds Collegiate Academy pathway
The front end of the collegiate pathway, running accelerated instruction, AVID and classroom ambassadors. The district cites recognition as one of the top fifteen elementary schools in Texas. A choice campus, not a neighbourhood zone.
1351 High Pointe Ln
The district's Fine Arts Academy, with a new fine arts wing under construction from the 2024 bond and completion expected in summer 2026.
1020 Lakeridge Pkwy
Home to the district's Montessori programme. One naming caution: Midlothian ISD also operates a Lake Ridge Elementary serving its portion of the same neighbourhood. Two different schools, same name.
131 Sims Dr
Home to the district's only elementary bilingual programme, Spanish into English. Worth knowing if that matters to your household, because it is not offered at the other campuses.
401 N Waterford Oaks Dr
Feeds Bessie Coleman Middle
The largest elementary, serving the Waterford Oaks neighbourhood and offering gifted and talented. Renovations from the 2024 bond begin summer 2026.
1203 S Clark Rd
Opened in 1972 as the second elementary in Cedar Hill, named for teacher Rose Plummer after forty-five years of service to the district.
1231 E Pleasant Run Rd
Founded 1981 at Trinity Church, and the school where Shedeur Sanders quarterbacked TAPPS state title teams in 2018 and 2019, with Shilo Sanders also attending and Deion Sanders coaching.
Eight football state championships across 1991, 1993, 1994 and 2014 through 2020. NFL safety Lewis Cine is also an alumnus.
One thing to know before you assume the athletic pathway: TAPPS terminated the school's membership in December 2019 following alleged violations. It became part of Trinity Leadership Public Schools in 2021. Current enrollment and tuition are not published, so ask directly.
129 W Wintergreen Rd
Life School Cedar Hill is a free open-enrollment public charter serving Cedar Hill and Duncanville families. Dallas College Cedar Valley is the community college presence and the dual credit partner for the whole district.
No Uplift, IDEA or Harmony campus operates inside Cedar Hill. Northwood University closed its residential campus in 2014 and moved remaining programmes to the former Cedar Valley College facility on Cannady Drive in 2018; confirm current operations directly.
Note that Dallas County residents are zoned to Dallas College while the small Ellis County portion of the city is zoned to Navarro College, which changes in-district tuition.
Three districts serve this city. Cedar Hill ISD covers most of it. Part of Lake Ridge is Midlothian ISD, particularly the western and gated sections along Joe Pool Lake, where students attend Midlothian schools rather than Cedar Hill High. The north and northeast edge is Duncanville ISD, feeding Duncanville High School. One correction worth making, because it circulates: DeSoto ISD does not serve any Cedar Hill address. Run the exact street address through the district's school finder, then confirm the taxing unit on the parcel at the appraisal district. New construction is the highest-risk case, because a new plat can land in a different district than the houses across the street.
For 2025, Cedar Hill ISD adopted $1.1279 per $100, being $0.7869 for operations and $0.3410 for debt. Midlothian ISD adopted $1.0708. On a $400,000 home that is about $228 a year, and on a $600,000 home about $343.
Here is the part that compounds it. Cedar Hill ISD offers no local optional homestead exemption beyond the state minimum. Midlothian ISD offers ten percent. So a Lake Ridge parcel in Midlothian ISD pays a lower rate on a smaller taxable base. If two otherwise similar Lake Ridge homes are in different districts, that gap is worth knowing before you write.
Enrollment is falling. The district had nearly 10,000 students before 2020 and expected to open 2025-26 with just under 6,000. It attributes that to charter, private and homeschool competition. The district is running a formal optimization process, has made repeated budget cuts, and approved a deficit budget for 2026-27. It is also offering free breakfast and lunch to every student that year to retain families.
And five PIDs stack on top. High Pointe, Waterford Oaks, Winding Hollow, Windsor Park and Cedar Crest each assess ten cents per $100. Inside one of those, the school and PID together run about $1.23 per $100, roughly $4,900 a year on a $400,000 home before city and county. Agents are required to disclose PID status in the listing, so ask.
Accountability ratings are intentionally not shown on the campus cards. State letter grades change annually and a single year rarely reflects what a campus is actually like. For current ratings go to TXschools.gov, or GreatSchools and Niche for third-party scores. For context only, Cedar Hill ISD was rated C in the 2025 release. Several items could not be verified and are flagged rather than guessed: principal names conflict across the district site, individual campus sites and third-party sources and turn over frequently, so confirm on the current campus page; enrollment figures vary by source and year, with Waterford Oaks reported between 437 and 521 and the high school between 2,075 and 2,277; the stadium name and capacity, Trinity Christian's current enrollment and tuition, Northwood University's present operating status on Cannady Drive, and the year several campuses opened could not be confirmed. The Cedar Hill ISD rate of $1.1279 is confirmed by Dallas appraisal district documents; the district's own FAQ page still displays an outdated $1.1906, which should not be used. Tax comparisons are school district taxes only, before exemptions, and exclude city, county, college and hospital levies. Attendance zones change; the district is in an active optimization process and a $282.4 million bond passed in May 2024 is funding renovations across campuses, so re-verify zoning annually and confirm any specific address with the district and the appraisal district before acting on it. This information is provided for general reference only and is not a recommendation regarding any school, campus, district, neighbourhood or property. Bobby Franklin, REALTOR®, TREC #0805459, Legacy Realty Group – Leslie Majors Team.
Median Sales Price
What Cedar Hill homes actually sold for each month, not what sellers hoped to get. Read it knowing that one median is covering two very different markets in this city.
An entry and move-up market around $305,000 to $600,000 sits alongside Lake Ridge, where acreage and custom homes run past $2 million. The median lands between them and describes neither precisely.
Price against your actual tier, not the city median. A three-bedroom near Belt Line and an acre in The Timbers share a city and almost nothing else.
Watch this line rather than a portal estimate. Texas is a non-disclosure state, so sale prices are not public record, which is why the portals currently disagree by nearly fifty percent on this city.
The general market has been running in the twenties to low thirties. The luxury and acreage tier sits far longer, often past sixty days, because the buyer pool for an acre with a view is smaller by design.
The first two weeks carry the most traffic a listing will ever get. If it comes and goes without an offer, that is pricing information, and acting on it in week three beats acting in week ten.
Anything sitting well past the city median is worth a closer look. Sometimes there is a real reason. Sometimes it was simply priced wrong in month one and the seller is finally ready to talk.
Under 10 showings means buyers are deciding quickly. Rising counts mean people are looking and passing, which is a different problem from nobody looking at all.
This separates a pricing problem from a presentation problem. Plenty of showings and no offer usually means something specific is putting people off, and that is fixable before you lose more market time.
High showings-to-pending means you can be selective without losing homes. Read it against days on market: low on both is a hot market, high on both means the leverage is yours.
Cedar Hill turns over roughly thirty to fifty homes a month, several hundred a year. That volume is what makes the medians on the other tabs meaningful rather than noise.
Rising prices with rising volume is a genuine seller's market. Rising prices with falling volume means momentum is weakening, and that turn usually shows up here before it shows up in price.
Volume is your friend. At this pace you get real choice and real comparables, and you are not waiting months for the right house to appear the way you would further south.
Charts supplied by NTREIS via 10K Research and Marketing and update automatically. Data reflects residential activity reported to the MLS and may be revised as late-reported sales come in. The single most important caveat on this page is that Cedar Hill is two markets sharing one median. An entry and move-up market roughly between $305,000 and $600,000 sits alongside the Lake Ridge custom and acreage tier, where half-acre to acre-plus lots and homes past $2 million behave on a different cycle with different buyers and much longer market times. These charts blend both. They also do not separate new construction from resale, which matters while Addison Hills and Bear Creek are actively delivering. Part of the Lake Ridge area falls in Midlothian ISD rather than Cedar Hill ISD, and a small portion of the city sits in Ellis County rather than Dallas County, neither of which these charts distinguish. Market statistics describe the area as a whole and are not a substitute for a comparative market analysis on a specific property. Texas is a non-disclosure state, so publicly available sale prices elsewhere are estimates rather than recorded figures, which is why portal values for this city currently range from roughly $302,000 to $750,000 depending on what is being measured. Bobby Franklin, REALTOR®, TREC #0805459, Legacy Realty Group – Leslie Majors Team.
Pick a purchase year and the price fills in with what a typical Cedar Hill home cost that year. If you own here, type over it with what you actually paid. One thing to read before you trust the output: this city has two very different housing markets inside it, and a single median covers both.
Bought here? Tap the number and enter what you paid.
Federal house price index growth, indexed to the purchase year, where the purchase year equals 100.
There is an entry and move-up market running roughly $305,000 to $600,000, and there is Lake Ridge, where custom homes on half-acre to acre-plus lots run from about $450,000 well past $2 million. One median across both is why the portals currently disagree by nearly fifty percent on this city, with figures ranging from about $302,000 to $750,000 depending on what is being counted.
This calculator tracks the broad market. If you are buying or selling in Lake Ridge, treat the county index as a floor rather than a mirror, because a countywide number dominated by Dallas proper does not follow acreage and view property closely.
The federal index is built from repeat sales financed with conforming conventional mortgages. In a rural acreage market that methodology misses most of what happens. Cedar Hill is a conventional suburban market with real transaction volume, roughly thirty to forty-seven closings a month, so the index does the job it was designed for here.
Two geographic footnotes. Part of Lake Ridge sits in Midlothian ISD, and a sliver of the city sits in Ellis County rather than Dallas County, where the Ellis index would track more faithfully. Neither moves the citywide number.
Growth rates are the FHFA All-Transactions House Price Index, annual values 2009 through 2024: Dallas County, Texas (FRED series ATNHPIUS48113A), the State of Texas (TXSTHPI) and the United States (USSTHPI). State and national figures are annual averages of the four published quarters. The slider ends at 2024 because that is the most recent year the county series has published. Note that this is the Dallas County index, not the Ellis County index used on other city pages on this site, because Cedar Hill sits primarily in Dallas County. The prefilled dollar figures are derived, not published: they are calculated by applying the Dallas County index to the Zillow Home Value Index for Cedar Hill of $315,424, observed July 31, 2026 and down 1.3 percent year over year. Entering your own purchase price replaces the estimate entirely. Current value estimates for Cedar Hill span roughly $302,000 to $750,000 across sources, because they measure different things: Zillow's typical value, Redfin's recent median sale price and the Census five-year median owner-occupied value all cluster near $302,000 to $335,000, while list-price aggregates run far higher because the Lake Ridge custom segment pulls them up. Movoto reported a median list price of $750,000 within Lake Ridge alone. Equity figures assume a 30-year fixed mortgage at that year's Freddie Mac annual average rate, held to today, with no refinancing, no extra principal and no additional borrowing. They exclude closing costs, property taxes, insurance, maintenance, improvements, HOA dues and selling costs. Cedar Hill ISD adopted a 2025 rate of $1.1279 with no local optional homestead exemption, and five Public Improvement Districts each add ten cents per $100, so a home inside one carries costs this calculator does not model. Cedar Hill is not USDA Rural Development eligible, unlike several smaller cities covered on this site. This is an illustration for general reference, not an appraisal, a comparative market analysis, a valuation or investment advice. Past appreciation does not predict future appreciation. Bobby Franklin, REALTOR®, TREC #0805459, Legacy Realty Group – Leslie Majors Team.
Cedar Hill sits about seventeen miles from downtown Dallas with real freeway frontage on US 67, which puts it closer to the city than most people assume. What it has that the rest of the metro does not is elevation, a state park inside the city limits, and a lake on its western edge.
TxDOT is rebuilding the US 67 and Lake Ridge Parkway interchange as a grade-separated six-lane crossing, the western tie-in for Loop 9 Segment A, a roughly nine-mile link from US 67 to I-35E through Cedar Hill, Ovilla, Glenn Heights and Red Oak. Phase one runs about $342 million. Expect construction on your commute for a while, and expect it to pay off: a direct US 67 to I-35E connection reshapes east-west travel across the whole southern tier. The overpass is getting bird murals, a nod to the city's Bird City Texas designation.
Cedar Hill State Park runs 1,826 acres with 335 campsites on Joe Pool Lake, ten minutes from the middle of town. In 2025 it logged 375,769 visitors, the third most of any state park in Texas. The DORBA mountain bike trail inside it is considered among the best in the state.
The Balcones Escarpment gives Cedar Hill something almost nothing else in this metro has: hills, views and grade change. More than twenty percent of the city is permanently preserved green space, and the Balcones Trail links over 3,000 acres of preserves. It is also why fourteen broadcast towers stand here.
Hillside Village, the former Uptown Village, is a 615,000 square foot open-air centre with more than sixty-five stores at US 67 and FM 1382. Most suburbs this distance from Dallas send you somewhere else to shop. This one does not.
Cedar Hill is not a DART member city and has never held a membership election. STAR Transit runs on-demand service, both Dial-A-Ride and the same-day STARNow app, connecting to the regional network. The nearest DART park and ride is Red Bird Transit Center, with Glenn Heights offering an express bus downtown.
The daytime population drops about eighteen percent, and only around a quarter of working residents both live and work in the city. Mean travel time is 31.4 minutes against a national 26.4. Seventeen percent work from home, which is high, and transit use is effectively zero.
US 67 is the spine and downtown Dallas is the nearest major employment centre at seventeen miles, so the commute leans that way. Fort Worth is reachable on I-20 in about thirty-six minutes, and Arlington and the stadiums sit closer than either downtown.
Browsing, or actually moving? Either is fine. Send me an address and I will tell you which school district it lands in, whether it sits inside one of the five PIDs, and what the Loop 9 work means for that specific street.
Browse Cedar Hill homes →Drive times are approximate off-peak estimates measured from central Cedar Hill near US 67 and FM 1382, compiled from routing and distance sources rather than a single live measurement, so confirm your own route before relying on any of them. The downtown Dallas, Fort Worth, DFW and Arlington figures are the best corroborated; Love Field, Duncanville, DeSoto, Mansfield and Bishop Arts are lighter-sourced and worth spot-checking. Rush hour is a different picture: plan on roughly 35 to 45 minutes into downtown Dallas in the morning peak on US 67, which has no HOV lanes, and a comparable return in the evening; precise evening and Fort Worth peak figures are informed estimates rather than measured samples. Commute statistics are American Community Survey figures for Cedar Hill. No hard census figure exists for the exact Dallas versus Fort Worth commute split, so that orientation is inferred from highway geography rather than measured. Loop 9 Segment A has completed its environmental process with a Record of Decision, and cost, timeline and right-of-way figures come from TxDOT; Segment B between I-35E and I-45 opened in early 2025. Construction schedules change, so check TxDOT for current status. Cedar Hill is not USDA Rural Development eligible. The city provides water and sewer citywide, buying water from the City of Dallas with wastewater treated by the Trinity River Authority, and electricity is deregulated so you choose a retail provider. Five Public Improvement Districts each assess ten cents per $100 and agents are required to disclose them in the listing. School district, PID status and county all vary parcel by parcel and must be verified by address. Bobby Franklin, REALTOR®, TREC #0805459, Legacy Realty Group – Leslie Majors Team.
Cedar Hill is the largest city covered on this site, which means a full municipal service stack and a correspondingly full tax bill. Several answers below depend on which county, which school district and whether the property sits inside a Public Improvement District, so those come first.
For a Dallas County address the 2025 stack runs about $2.30 per $100, which is on the higher side for the region. The pieces: the City of Cedar Hill at $0.6364, Cedar Hill ISD at $1.1279, Dallas County at $0.2155, the Parkland Hospital District at $0.2120 and Dallas College at $0.1056.
Those last two surprise people moving from Ellis County, which has neither. On a $300,000 home with homestead exemptions the bill lands near $5,445, and on a $400,000 home near $7,635. Inside a PID, add roughly $300 and $400 respectively.
One bright spot coming: Texas voters approved raising the school homestead exemption from $100,000 to $140,000 for the 2026 tax year, which will pull those figures down.
A Public Improvement District is an extra assessment on top of your regular taxes, and Cedar Hill has five of them, each charging ten cents per $100: High Pointe from 1998, Waterford Oaks from 2002, Winding Hollow from 2015, Windsor Park from 2017 and Cedar Crest from 2020.
On a $400,000 home that is about $400 a year on top of everything else. Agents are required to disclose PID status in the MLS listing, so it should be there, but confirm it on the parcel rather than assuming.
Less than you might hope from the city, more than you might expect from the county.
City of Cedar Hill: no general homestead exemption at all, though it does offer $30,000 for over-65 and $30,000 for disabled.
Dallas County, Parkland and Dallas College: each offers a 20 percent homestead exemption plus $100,000 for over-65 and disabled, which is genuinely generous.
Cedar Hill ISD: no local optional homestead exemption beyond the state amount, plus $10,000 for over-65 and disabled. If your property is in the Lake Ridge portion served by Midlothian ISD, you get a 10 percent local exemption Cedar Hill ISD does not offer, on top of a lower rate.
The honest answer is that the sources genuinely disagree, and anyone giving you one confident number is picking a favourite.
Working from the same 2024 FBI data, HomeSnacks puts the total crime rate about 8 percent below the national rate and 20 percent below the Texas rate. NeighborhoodScout calls it considerably higher than the national average. City-Data lands in between with an index about a third below the US average but higher than two thirds of American cities.
They conflict because each uses a different denominator and index method. A fair read: overall crime sits at or modestly below national norms with real year-to-year movement in violent crime. The city posts its own monthly Report of Major Offenses, which is the most useful thing to read.
The Cedar Hill Police Department, at 285 Uptown Boulevard, Building 200. Chief Matt Stogner took over in August 2025, having previously been chief in Duncanville and having started his career there in 1998.
The department reports 71 sworn officers and 23 civilian employees, though FBI-derived data lists 66 for 2024, so treat that as a range. Non-emergency calls go to 972-223-6111, a shared tri-city dispatch centre physically located in DeSoto.
This is the best-kept good news about Cedar Hill. The fire department is career staffed across four stations, and it holds an ISO Public Protection Classification of Class 1, the top rating.
To put that in context, the city notes that ISO rates more than 30,000 departments nationally and only about half of one percent earn a Class 1. It can affect your homeowners insurance premium, so tell your agent.
Ambulance is in-house too. The department has run its own advanced life support transport since 1964, and EMS makes up over seventy percent of its call volume. No third-party contract, no waiting on a county provider.
The city provides water and sewer citywide, buying wholesale water from Dallas and sending wastewater to the Trinity River Authority. No wells, no rural water corporations, no septic to inspect.
Residential sewer runs a $22.75 monthly base including the first thousand gallons, then $11.60 per additional thousand, calculated on winter averaging recalculated each spring. New accounts start at a higher assumed rate until you build a usage history, then you can request a recalculation after four months.
Starting service takes a $90 residential deposit and about two business days. Utility billing is 469-272-2931, with an after-hours emergency line at 972-780-6643.
Yes. Cedar Hill is in deregulated territory with Oncor as the delivery utility, so you shop for a retail provider through Power to Choose, the official state comparison site. Oncor handles outages at 888-313-4747 regardless of who you buy from.
Natural gas is Atmos Energy. Unlike the rural cities covered on this site, there is no co-op territory here and no propane question.
WM handles it under city contract. Each single-family home gets two 96-gallon carts, green lid for trash and yellow for recycling, collected once weekly and out by 7am.
Two things worth knowing. Bulk and brush are collected together once a month in a single pile, so plan your cleanouts around it. And residents can haul up to three cubic yards once a quarter at no cost to the WM landfill in Ferris.
Household hazardous waste and electronics go through WM's At Your Door service at $1.60 a month, which collects from your house rather than making you drive to a county event.
There is no full-service hospital inside Cedar Hill. The nearest is Methodist Southwest Medical Center at 3500 W Wheatland Road in Dallas, 214-947-7777, a short drive north.
It was called Methodist Charlton until August 2026, so older listings and directions still use that name. It is a 314-bed acute care teaching hospital and the region's only Level III Trauma Center, expressly serving Cedar Hill, DeSoto, Duncanville and Lancaster.
Texas Health Resources has bought property in Cedar Hill for a planned medical facility. That is announced, not open, so do not count on it yet.
More than most buyers expect, and this is the question that separates Cedar Hill from every flat suburb around it.
The Balcones Escarpment is regulated by city ordinance as an environmentally fragile bluff. An Escarpment Development Plan requires sealed geotechnical reports including a slope stability analysis and calculations for each new structure. Any lot with more than a ten percent slope triggers topographical detail requirements at permit time.
Practically: on a slope lot, budget for engineered foundations, a geotechnical study, and possible limits on grading and tree removal. The terrain here is limestone and chalk shale rather than the expansive Blackland clay to the east, so slope stability and drainage drive the engineering rather than clay movement. If you are buying a hillside lot, get that answered before the option period ends.
Cedar Hill's defining weather event is the April 29, 1856 tornado, which killed nine people and destroyed nearly the entire town. In modern records the most severe event was an F2 tornado in 1981.
North Texas sits in a heavy hail corridor, so expect a separate wind and hail deductible on your policy and treat roof age as a serious inspection item.
On water, the city's creek corridors carry FEMA floodplain and double as trail and habitat greenways. Check the specific address at the FEMA Flood Map Service Center before you write, because a creek-adjacent lot can look lovely and carry a flood insurance requirement.
Three districts serve Cedar Hill addresses. Cedar Hill ISD covers most of the city. Part of Lake Ridge is Midlothian ISD, particularly the western and gated sections, where students attend Midlothian schools. The north and northeast edge is Duncanville ISD.
One correction worth making because it circulates: DeSoto ISD does not serve any Cedar Hill address.
Run the exact street address through Cedar Hill ISD's school finder, then confirm the taxing unit on the parcel at the appraisal district. New construction is the highest-risk case, because a new plat can land differently than the houses across the street.
Yes, and it matters enough to say plainly. In the district's own words, enrollment stood at almost 10,000 before 2020 and was expected to open 2025-26 with just under 6,000.
The district attributes it to charter, private and homeschool competition plus post-pandemic online options, and notes that state funding follows attendance while the state has not substantially increased per-student funding since 2019.
The consequences are real. A $7 million shortfall was addressed in early 2025 with measures including consolidating two middle school campuses and leaving positions unfilled, and the board has since approved a deficit budget for 2026-27.
The other side of the ledger: a $282.4 million bond passed in May 2024 and is funding renovations, the Collegiate Academy lets students finish with an associate degree, and the district is offering free breakfast and lunch to every student. Weigh both.
Effectively no. Cedar Hill is not a DART member city and has never held a membership election, so there is no fixed-route bus and no rail.
STAR Transit provides on-demand service, both advance-booked Dial-A-Ride and the same-day STARNow app, connecting to the regional network. The nearest DART park and ride is the Red Bird Transit Center, and Glenn Heights offers an express bus downtown.
Plan on driving. Mean travel time to work is 31.4 minutes against a national 26.4, and transit use here is statistically near zero.
A lot, in three directions.
Balcones Ranch, a Meritage master plan on 126 acres in five phases, with 238 lots approved in phase one and a community centre, resort pool and pickleball. Heritage on the Hill is a newer planned development district.
West Midtown, adopted in March 2023, envisions an urban district up to five stories connecting Hillside Village to Historic Downtown, building on the library, Signature Park and Government Center investments.
And Downtown Complete Streets continues, with phase one on Broad and Cedar completed in 2022 including buried utilities and wider sidewalks.
The Cedar Hill Economic Development Corporation is a Type A corporation funded by a three-eighths-cent sales tax that voters approved in 1994. Its annual revenue has grown from about $150,000 to nearly $4 million.
Incentives run case by case through a cost-benefit analysis and require council approval: property tax abatements, grants, infrastructure commitments and sales tax participation. Director Henry Florsheim, 972-291-5132.
Cedar Hill is a home rule council-manager city. Mayor Stephen Mason, first elected in 2019. City Manager Melissa Valadez-Cummings, appointed August 2024 and the city's first female city manager.
Council meets the first and third Tuesdays, with briefings around 6pm and the regular meeting at 7pm, at the Government Center at 285 Uptown Boulevard. Agendas post at least 72 hours ahead. General municipal elections are held in May.
Permits are generally required for structural work, additions, fences, larger sheds and decks, water heaters, HVAC, electrical and pools. On any lot over a ten percent slope, expect topographical requirements, and in the escarpment expect sealed geotechnical work.
On the historic question, something worth correcting. Cedar Hill markets a Historic Downtown district, but research found no adopted historic preservation ordinance, no landmark commission and no certificate of appropriateness requirement. So owning a building down there does not appear to carry the design review obligations that come with a designated district in some cities. Confirm with City Planning before relying on it either way.
The Tri-City Animal Shelter at 1150 E Pleasant Run Road is a joint operation of Cedar Hill, DeSoto and Duncanville, reachable at 972-293-7387 or online at luvpets.org. Adoption is $75 with mandatory spay and neuter. Animal services dispatch runs through 972-223-6111.
No. At roughly 49,000 people inside the Dallas metro, Cedar Hill is well over the rural population threshold for USDA Rural Development financing.
That differs from several smaller cities covered on this site where zero-down USDA loans are a real option. Here the path is conventional, FHA or VA, and your lender is the right first call.
Four things, said plainly.
The tax load is high. About $2.30 per $100 before any PID, with no city general homestead exemption and no school district local exemption.
The school district is shrinking and running a deficit budget, with campus consolidation already on the table.
There is no real transit, and no membership vote has ever been held.
Escarpment lots cost more to build on. Geotechnical studies and engineered foundations are a real line item that a flat lot in the next county does not carry.
Against all of that: a Class 1 fire department, a state park inside the city, seventeen miles to downtown Dallas, and topography nothing else in this metro has.
The truthful answer is that Cedar Hill is two markets sharing one median, so the question needs splitting before it can be answered.
There is an entry and move-up market running roughly $305,000 to $600,000, and there is Lake Ridge, where custom homes on half-acre to acre-plus lots run from about $450,000 well past $2 million.
That is why the portals currently disagree by nearly fifty percent, with figures from about $302,000 to $750,000 depending on what is being counted. Zillow's typical value sits near $315,000. Roughly thirty to fifty homes sell a month, which is real volume and makes the trend readable, unlike the small towns nearby.
Remember that Texas is a non-disclosure state, so none of the portal figures are records of what actually changed hands. I pull closed prices from the MLS.
Question not answered here? Ask it directly. Send me an address and I will tell you which school district and county it lands in, whether it sits inside a PID, and what the escarpment rules mean for that lot.
Call 214-228-0003Answers observed September 2026. Tax figures are computed from verified 2025 adopted rates with standard exemption assumptions and are illustrations rather than quotes; a specific bill varies with appraised value, exemption status, PID membership and county. The Ellis County portion of the city carries a different stack entirely, with no Parkland Hospital District and no Dallas College levy. Several items could not be verified and are flagged rather than guessed: the sworn officer count differs between the city's own figure of 71 and FBI-derived data showing 66; the new-account sewer starting figure appears at two different amounts across city pages; crime comparisons against DeSoto, Duncanville and Lancaster could not be assembled on an equivalent basis; citywide fibre availability, in-city urgent care and pharmacy specifics, Cedar Hill-specific hail and wildfire statistics, and Downtown Complete Streets phase 2A scope and budget were not confirmed. The absence of a historic preservation ordinance is based on the absence of an adopted ordinance in available records rather than on a statement from the city, so confirm with City Planning before relying on it. Methodist Charlton was renamed Methodist Southwest Medical Center in August 2026 and some listings still use the former name. Pending state exemption changes for 2026 will reduce school district bills once certified. Tax rates reset each autumn. School district, PID status, floodplain and county all vary parcel by parcel and must be verified by address. School information is provided for general reference and is not a recommendation regarding any school or district. Nothing here is legal, tax, insurance or investment advice. Bobby Franklin, REALTOR®, TREC #0805459, Legacy Realty Group – Leslie Majors Team.
Every official link a new resident needs, verified and searchable. Cedar Hill runs a full municipal service stack, so most of what you need comes from one city with one main number.
285 Uptown Boulevard. The Government Center houses council chambers, the municipal court and most departments. One number reaches nearly everything.
The city provides both citywide. Expect a $90 residential deposit and about two business days to connect. After-hours water emergencies go to 972-780-6643.
Sewer runs a $22.75 base plus $11.60 per thousand gallons, set on winter averaging recalculated each spring. New accounts start high until you build a history, then ask for a recalculation.
285 Uptown Boulevard, Building 200, under Chief Matt Stogner. Non-emergency dispatch is 972-223-6111, a shared tri-city centre. Administration is 972-291-5181.
Career staffed across four stations, holding an ISO Class 1 rating that only about half of one percent of departments nationally achieve. Tell your insurance agent. Runs its own ambulance service, in-house since 1964.
Required for structural work, additions, fences, larger sheds and decks, water heaters, HVAC, electrical and pools. Start here before you hire anyone.
Read this before you buy a slope lot. An Escarpment Development Plan requires sealed geotechnical reports with slope stability analysis, and any lot over a ten percent grade triggers topographical requirements at permit time.
Zoning ordinance, planned development districts and land use questions. Reachable at 972-291-5100 extension 1080 or [email protected].
Code compliance, potholes, missed collection and general city requests, all through one action request form.
285 Uptown Boulevard. Citations, fines and court dates.
Council meets the first and third Tuesdays, briefings around 6pm and the regular meeting at 7pm. Agendas post at least 72 hours ahead.
1150 E Pleasant Run Road, shared with DeSoto and Duncanville. Adoption is $75 with spay and neuter included. Animal dispatch goes through 972-223-6111.
310 E Parkerville Road. Fitness, classes, youth programming and senior activities.
The outdoor aquatics facility at Virginia Weaver Park, 631 Somerset Drive, built with the 2017 bond. Note it is not at Crawford Park, which is a separate park on Straus Road.
2949 N Stemmons Freeway. Your value, your exemptions and your protest. Also where you read the taxing units on a parcel, which is the legal answer on school district and PID status.
Free to file with Dallas CAD, generally before April 30, and the single biggest thing new owners forget. Late filing is accepted up to two years after delinquency.
Pay property taxes and register vehicles. This office collects all Cedar Hill property taxes including the Ellis County portion, which trips people up.
County clerk for deeds and records, plus county services. Elections run through Dallas County Votes.
For the small Ellis County portion of the city. Worth knowing: that stack has no Parkland Hospital District and no Dallas College levy, which makes it meaningfully cheaper.
High Pointe, Waterford Oaks, Winding Hollow, Windsor Park and Cedar Crest each assess ten cents per $100, about $400 a year on a $400,000 home. Agents must disclose it in the listing.
Cedar Hill's creek corridors carry floodplain and double as trail greenways, so a beautiful lot can carry a flood insurance requirement. Check the address before you write.
Deregulated with Oncor as the delivery utility, so you shop for a retail provider through Power to Choose, the official state site. Oncor handles outages at 888-313-4747 whoever you buy from.
Natural gas citywide. If you smell gas, leave first and call 911, then Atmos.
Two 96-gallon carts per home, out by 7am. Bulk and brush together once a month. Household hazardous waste and electronics go through the At Your Door service at $1.60 monthly, collected from your house.
Serves most of the city across 36 square miles. Use the district's school finder to check a specific address, because a Cedar Hill address does not guarantee Cedar Hill ISD.
Part of Lake Ridge is Midlothian ISD, which charges less and offers a 10 percent local homestead exemption. The north edge is Duncanville ISD. DeSoto ISD serves no Cedar Hill address.
State accountability ratings direct from the Texas Education Agency, updated annually.
Dallas College Cedar Valley is the community college and the dual credit partner. Trinity Christian School is the main private option at 1231 E Pleasant Run, and Life School Cedar Hill is a free public charter on Wintergreen.
3500 W Wheatland Road, the nearest hospital and emergency room and the region's only Level III Trauma Center. Called Methodist Charlton until August 2026, so older directions use that name.
The Traphene Hickman Library and the Cedar Hill Museum of History opened together at 450 Pioneer Trail in April 2024, alongside Signature Park. The library also runs Scare on the Square each October.
1,826 acres and 335 campsites on Joe Pool Lake, inside the city limits. 375,769 visitors in 2025, third most of any state park in Texas. The DORBA trail is among the best mountain biking in the state.
1206 W FM 1382. Free first Saturday programming with a guided bird walk, yoga and bird bingo, plus a Young Birders Club and a native plant sale.
The city's tourism arm and the most complete events calendar, covering Country Day on the Hill, Holiday on the Hill, the Night Market and the historic downtown district.
Business networking and the member directory, useful for finding local trades and services when you arrive.
A Type A corporation funded by a three-eighths-cent sales tax since 1994, now running near $4 million a year. Handles incentives case by case. If you are bringing a business, start here.
Focus Daily News covers the Best Southwest cities closely, including council business and school district decisions the larger outlets skip.
Register and title a vehicle within 30 days of moving, filed through the Dallas County tax office.
Transfer an out-of-state license within 90 days. There is a DPS office on West Belt Line Road in Cedar Hill, though hours change, so check the official locator first.
Register to vote through Dallas County Elections. Registration closes 30 days before an election, and city elections are held in May.
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Which school district and which county? Three districts serve this city, and part of Lake Ridge sits in Midlothian ISD with a lower rate and a better exemption. The Ellis County portion also drops the Parkland and Dallas College levies. Is it inside a PID? Five of them each add ten cents per $100, and it must be disclosed in the listing. Is it on the escarpment? A slope lot carries geotechnical and engineered foundation costs a flat lot does not. All three are answered by pulling the parcel at the appraisal district and calling the city, and all three change the number you should be willing to pay.
Links verified September 2026. City Hall at 972-291-5100 reaches most departments; utility billing is 469-272-2931, police non-emergency is 972-223-6111 and the municipal court is 469-272-2930. Several items could not be fully verified and should be confirmed directly: the Cedar Hill DPS driver license office address and hours come from a third-party aggregator because the official locator is script-based; the Ellis County tax office page and phone; the exact deep links for some city sub-pages including parks and recreation, the city calendar and the individual PID pages; and whether a Historic Downtown Association exists as an organisation separate from the city. The city website blocks some automated checking, so confirm any link that does not resolve. Water and sewer rate figures appear at two different amounts across city pages for new-account starting charges, so call utility billing for the current number. Methodist Charlton was renamed Methodist Southwest Medical Center in August 2026. This directory is provided for general reference and is not an endorsement of any organisation or service. Bobby Franklin, REALTOR®, TREC #0805459, Legacy Realty Group – Leslie Majors Team.
Everything on this page was researched, verified and written here, not licensed from a national content service. The tax stack came from the appraisal district. The escarpment rules came from the city ordinance. The businesses were checked one at a time.
A Cedar Hill address tells you almost nothing on its own. Most of the city is Cedar Hill ISD, but part of Lake Ridge is Midlothian ISD, which charges less and offers a 10 percent homestead exemption Cedar Hill ISD does not. The north edge is Duncanville ISD. Five PIDs each add ten cents per $100. And a sliver of the city sits in Ellis County, which drops the Parkland and Dallas College levies entirely. I check all of it on every address before I say anything about a property here.
A slope lot in Cedar Hill is not a flat lot with a view. The city regulates escarpment development by ordinance, and an Escarpment Development Plan requires sealed geotechnical work with slope stability analysis. Anything over a ten percent grade triggers requirements at permit. That is real money, and it needs to be understood during the option period rather than after.
Texas is a non-disclosure state, so sale prices are not public record. Cedar Hill compounds that: an entry and move-up market around $305,000 to $600,000 sits next to Lake Ridge, where acreage and custom homes run past $2 million. That is why portal estimates for this city currently spread from about $302,000 to $750,000. I pull closed prices from the MLS and I can tell you which tier each one belongs to.
The tax load here runs about $2.30 per $100 before any PID. The school district has gone from nearly 10,000 students to under 6,000 and is running a deficit budget. If the honest answer is that the numbers do not work on a particular house, or that a different city fits your situation better, you will hear it from me before you hear it at the inspection.
Cedar Hill is not USDA eligible, unlike several smaller cities nearby, so zero-down financing here runs through VA if you qualify or a low-down conventional or FHA programme. Second, the fire department holds an ISO Class 1 rating, which only about half of one percent of departments in the country achieve and which can affect your homeowners premium. Almost nobody mentions it. Tell your insurance agent when you shop the policy, because it is worth real money over the life of a loan.
Ask them to run the numbers with the PID assessment included if the property is inside one, because it changes your monthly payment. I recommend these lenders based on their expertise and service. I do not receive compensation for referrals.
Either is fine. I answer my own phone, and there is no version of this where you get routed to a call centre or handed to a junior agent. Send me an address and I will tell you which school district and county it lands in, whether it sits in a PID, and what the escarpment rules mean for that lot.
Bobby Franklin, REALTOR® · Legacy Realty Group – Leslie Majors Team · 214-228-0003 · northtexasmarketinsider.com
Information on this page is provided for general reference and is not legal, tax, insurance or investment advice. Market data, tax rates, PID assessments, utility service areas and school boundaries change; confirm anything specific to an address before acting on it. ISO ratings are set by Verisk and affect insurance premiums at the carrier's discretion, so confirm the impact with your agent. School information is not a recommendation regarding any school, district, neighbourhood or property. All real estate services are provided through Legacy Realty Group. Equal Housing Opportunity.
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Waxahachie, TX 75165
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