Ennis blends small‑town charm with quick big‑city access, sitting just south of Dallas along I‑45 with a fairly easy commute into Downtown. It’s known as the “Bluebonnet City” of Texas, with established neighborhoods, extensive acreage, new construction options, and even seasonal festivals that draw visitors from across North Texas. Families and first‑time buyers are drawn to Ennis for its walkable historic downtown, parks and lake recreation, small-town country feel and perhaps most of all for its attainable home prices compared to many nearby Dallas suburbs.
Ennis is the third largest city in Ellis County and it gives you something the newer towns cannot: a National Register historic district of 1890s homes, and a new-build pipeline starting around $220,000. The tax rate looks high until you see what the bill actually comes to.
Historic core
The reason to buy in Ennis rather than a newer town. Listed on the National Register in 1986 with more than 100 contributing structures — Folk Victorian, Queen Anne, Neoclassical, Colonial Revival and Craftsman, built during the cotton and railroad boom.
Live above the shops
A genuine historic downtown, not a revived one. The 1986 listing recognised 44 private homes and 94 commercial buildings. The Alexander and Allen Buildings on West Ennis Avenue, the 1904 John Rowe Building and the 1910 Knights of Pythias still stand.
$360K–$398K
On Iron Rail, minutes from downtown. Fifteen floor plans from about 1,645 square feet, three to five bedrooms. One of the more established active communities and close enough to actually use the historic square.
From ~$274K
The entry point into new construction here, and it is a genuinely low one for a city this size. Three and four bedroom plans from around 1,836 square feet, with a focus on move-in ready inventory.
Amenity community
The amenity play, including a Cottage Collection of smaller single-family homes. A swimming pool with an aquatic play feature, a playground and hike-and-bike trails — the package buyers usually drive to Midlothian for.
$220K–$910K
The pipeline is deep. Listing services show upwards of 35 builders across dozens of Ennis communities, with homes running roughly 1,082 to 5,389 square feet. Legend Homes is also active here.
Wide range
Between the Victorians and the new slabs sits decades of ordinary Ennis — post-war and mid-century housing across the older grid, plus substantial acreage on the farm-to-market roads where lots run into the hundreds of thousands of square feet.
Swipe or drag sideways to see them all.
Ennis combines at about 2.17 percent — Ennis ISD at 1.2308, the City of Ennis at 0.6807 and Ellis County at 0.2558. That is the highest headline rate of the Ellis County cities on this site, above Midlothian at roughly 2.07 and Waxahachie at about 2.05.
Now the part that matters. Ennis home values are far lower, with a median near $268,000 against roughly $400,000 in Midlothian. Run the arithmetic and the typical Ennis owner pays the smallest actual tax bill of the major Ellis County cities — somewhere near $5,800 a year against roughly $7,800 to $8,000 in Waxahachie and Midlothian.
Before exemptions: about $6,502 on a $300,000 home and $8,669 on a $400,000 one. The state homestead exemption, raised to $140,000 in November 2025, takes a large bite out of the school portion.
Two absences worth knowing, because both are lines other cities carry.
There is no hospital district and no community college levy. Ellis County sits in the Navarro College service area, but Navarro draws property tax only from Navarro County — so an Ennis homeowner pays no college district at all, unlike Johnson County residents who fund Hill College.
And no Public Improvement District or Municipal Utility District was confirmed on any named Ennis subdivision. That is not a guarantee, so get it in writing for your phase, but the standard Ennis bill is genuinely three lines.
First, the one that costs money. The city lists active public improvement districts on new communities including Prairieview and The Hollow. A PID assessment sits on top of your ordinary tax bill and funds the developer's infrastructure.
It is not always raised at the sales office. Get the assessment amount and the remaining term in writing before you commit to a new build. Resale homes outside those districts are unaffected.
Second, a correction worth making because it circulates wrongly: Ennis runs its own water, sewer and rubbish service, but not electricity. Power here is deregulated like everywhere else in the metro — you choose a retailer, and the delivery utility restores outages.
Also confirm the school district, since Ennis ISD reaches beyond the city into Alma, Bardwell and Garrett — and into Navarro County.
Neighborhood names, historic district details, builder information and price ranges come from National Register listings, the City of Ennis and its economic development corporation, the Ellis Appraisal District and listing portals as observed; price ranges, plan sizes and community status move constantly, so treat them as indicative and ask for a current comparative market analysis. Tax figures use the 2025 tax year rates published by the City of Ennis and its economic development corporation — Ennis ISD at 1.230800, City of Ennis at 0.680708 and Ellis County at 0.255778, totalling 2.167286 per $100 — are shown before exemptions, and are illustrations rather than quotes; rates reset annually. One genuine source conflict is noted rather than resolved: the Ellis County component is published as 0.255778 by the city's economic development corporation and as 0.273992 in a county notice, which may reflect proposed against adopted figures or differing tax years. A second discrepancy is worth flagging for anyone comparing sources: a widely circulated regional tax guide lists the Ennis ISD rate as 0.6192, which is the maintenance and operations portion only and omits the debt service component; the full district rate is 1.2308, and using the lower figure understates the combined rate by more than half a percentage point. Comparisons of actual dollar bills against other cities rely on published median home values and are illustrative of the relationship between rate and value rather than precise for any individual property. The state school homestead exemption rose to $140,000 in November 2025 and materially reduces owner-occupant bills; local optional homestead, over-65 and disabled exemption amounts adopted by the City of Ennis and Ellis County were not confirmed from a primary source and should be verified with the Ellis Appraisal District. The City of Ennis lists active residential public improvement districts including Prairieview and The Hollow; a PID assessment sits on top of the ordinary property tax bill and can add materially to annual cost, so the assessment amount and remaining term should be obtained in writing before purchasing in an affected community. A correction is also made here: the City of Ennis operates its own water, wastewater and sanitation services but does not operate a municipal electric utility; electricity is supplied through the deregulated retail market with delivery and outage restoration by the transmission utility. Named established subdivisions with price and lot detail, total planned lot counts and full builder rosters could not be verified in a citable form and should be confirmed per community. Of the builders checked by name, activity in Ennis was confirmed for a limited number and could not be confirmed for many others. Ennis Independent School District extends beyond the city limits and some outlying addresses fall in neighbouring districts, so school district, floodplain status and utility service must be verified by address. Bobby Franklin, REALTOR®, TREC #0805459, Legacy Realty Group – Leslie Majors Team.
This is the deepest independent scene of any city on this site — around sixty local businesses, anchored by a genuine Czech heritage, a downtown full of old buildings still in use, and a drag strip that changed the sport.
111 W Knox St · 972-875-7341
The oldest business on this entire site. Opened around 1919 by Frank Felcman Sr and still run by his daughter Juliana — a Czech family name over a Texas main street door for more than a century.
Ladies apparel, gifts and gourmet food, plus tuxedo rental and dry cleaning, because a shop that survives a hundred years does so by being useful. A Texas Treasure Award nominee.
1103-B E Ennis Ave · 972-875-8364
The heritage food stop, and it is inside a petrol station, which is very Texas. More than two dozen kolache flavours plus klobasniky, open from about five in the morning.
Honest note: reviewers split on it, some finding the dough closer to coffee cake than a traditional yeast kolache. They also sell polka shirts.
213 W Ennis Ave, Ste 300 · 469-881-1144
Opened in 2023 by an owner with Polish and Croatian roots, and the menu is the real article: Texas-size pierogi, stuffed cabbage, kielbasa, Czech goulash with knedliky and dill pickle soup.
7500 US-287
Genuinely historic, not just local colour. Built by Billy Meyer and opened in 1986, it was the first all-concrete stadium-style drag racing facility ever constructed — the original NHRA super track.
Capacity around 50,000. It hosts the NHRA Texas FallNationals and the Stampede of Speed, which means national television and a packed town for a week.
3701 I-45 · 469-218-6280
The night-out room. Lodge-style, wagyu and ribeye, and a curated single-barrel bourbon programme that is unusual for a town this size. Live music.
210 S I-45 · 972-875-0036
Running since 1988 and still the neighbourhood answer. Brisket, ribs, prime rib and chicken-fried steak — the full Texas roadhouse menu done properly.
219 W Ennis Ave · 972-875-9008
Widely called the best Mexican in Ennis. Fajitas, enchiladas and margaritas with an enclosed patio right on the downtown strip. Owner Gabriel Huerta.
211 W Knox St · 972-878-6868
A coffee shop, a restaurant, a boutique and a speakeasy upstairs, all in one downtown building. One of the wave of new openings that has genuinely changed the square.
119 S Dallas St & 115 SW Main St
Ashleigh's Downtown Kitchen brings hand-tossed pizza and craft cocktails to South Dallas Street. Around the corner, The Backyard is a food truck park with a bar. Both recent, both local.
5710 FM 660 · 972-666-2400
The one locals send visitors to just to watch their face. Genuinely well-regarded sushi out of a country general store in Bristol, just outside the city. Open early to late, seven days.
353 Sugar Ridge Rd · 469-716-8961
Opened April 2011 by Michele and Don Andrews, with around twenty wines made in house including an award-winning Gewürztraminer. Saturday live music on a covered patio.
5301 N I-45 · 972-875-5505
One of the last drive-in cinemas left in Texas, and independently run. Multiple screens, double features, audio through your car radio. Worth living near.
105 NE Main St · 972-875-1901
The Railroad and Cultural Heritage Museum sits in the 1915 Van Noy Restaurant building with rail memorabilia and vintage Czech dolls, for three dollars.
Separately, the Czech Museum at Sokol Hall holds costumes and books, and anchors the National Polka Festival each Memorial Day weekend.
113 N Dallas St & 3118 FM 85
A community theatre staging a new show roughly every other month, plus Big O Speedway, a dirt oval and the oldest racing facility in Ellis County, running March through October.
Ennis
In business since 1954 — seventy years of Ennis weddings and funerals. Ennis Flower Shop on West Ennis Avenue, Cooper's and Petals Plus round out a town that genuinely still supports independent florists.
113 NW Main St and around the square
The Village Shops is a vendor mall of local merchants on Northwest Main. Nearby sit The Velvet Angel, Dove's Nest, Chic Boutique and The Corner Shop.
The city counted nine new retail businesses opening downtown across 2022 and 2023 — a square on the way up rather than down.
Downtown & off I-45
What a hundred-year-old town accumulates. All In The Family, Grave Creek Mercantile, Cowboy Trading Company, Bohemian Railway and the family-run Red Barn Flea Market off the interstate.
N Dallas St · 972-878-4748
The Downtown Ennis Bluebonnet Market is a Texas-certified farmers market running Saturday mornings from April to October — produce, baking, pottery and crafts.
For the rural side, Ennis Feed Store on East Ennis Avenue and Roach Feed & Seed, plus Tom's Food Market for groceries.
Most towns on this site send you elsewhere for dinner. Ennis does not. Around sixty independent businesses, a historic square people actually walk, two museums, a live theatre, a drive-in, a dirt track and a nationally significant drag strip.
The Czech thread runs through all of it — a dress shop from 1919, a pierogi kitchen, a kolache bakery, and the National Polka Festival every Memorial Day weekend, plus the bluebonnet trails each April that the Legislature made official in 1997.
Waxahachie is about fifteen minutes west for more shopping and Corsicana lies south, but you can live in Ennis without treating it as a place you leave every evening. For a buyer weighing it against the newer towns, that is the difference the tax comparison never shows.
Verified September 2026. Around sixty independent businesses were documented in and immediately around Ennis, a substantially deeper base than the smaller towns covered on this site, and national and regional chains are deliberately excluded. "Ennis" collides heavily with Ennis in County Clare, Ireland, which dominates generic results, with Ennis, Montana, with the surname, and with a business forms company of the same name that has a genuine historical connection to the town but is a separate entity from the city; every entry here was verified against Ennis, Ellis County, Texas. A second hazard: results for Waxahachie, Palmer, Ferris, Alma, Italy and Corsicana surface readily and were excluded, while some businesses listed here carry Ennis mailing addresses but sit in Bristol, an unincorporated part of Ellis County just outside the city limits. Business details including addresses, phone numbers, founding years and operating status were drawn from official sites, chamber listings and review platforms and reflect existence and category rather than an audited count; several founding years could not be confirmed, exact current operating status could not be independently verified for every small shop and bar, and a florist described in one directory as operating since 1939 could not be matched to a named business. Reviews of the kolache bakery genuinely divide on authenticity, and that is reported rather than smoothed over. No independent brewery was confirmed within the city limits, and while local meat markets exist, specific in-city addresses could not all be confirmed. Categories, price tiers and descriptions are for general local reference and are not endorsements; I receive no compensation from any business named. Bobby Franklin, REALTOR®, TREC #0805459, Legacy Realty Group – Leslie Majors Team.
A Houston Mayor's Name, a Railroad's Water Bargain, Thirty-One Moravian Families, and the Most Cotton Ginned in America
Unusually for a Texas town, Ennis has a real founder with a documented life. Colonel Cornelius Ennis was mayor of Houston from 1856 to 1857 and a director of the Houston and Texas Central Railway — the line that created this town.
Born in New Jersey in 1813, he opened a Houston drugstore in 1839, moved into cotton export, and shipped his first cotton from Galveston to Boston in 1841. When his business partner drowned off Florida in 1842, he turned to railroads.
He was an incorporator of the H&TC in 1853 alongside William Marsh Rice. During the Civil War he ran Union blockades, reportedly buying an ironclad steamer and presenting it loaded with English rifles and gunpowder to the Confederacy. He later promoted the Houston Ship Channel.
He died in 1899 and is buried in Houston. No record could be found that he ever actually visited the town that carries his name.
In 1871 the railroad, building north toward Dallas, purchased 647 acres in Ellis County at five dollars an acre for its northern terminus. Captain W. G. Veale picked the site in May 1872 and Theo Kosse mapped the streets that August.
You will see three founding dates and all three are right for what they mark. 1871 is the railroad's arrival, 8 June 1872 the platting of the townsite, and November 1873 the legal incorporation, with the first election in April 1874 making Charles Pannil mayor.
Two details worth keeping. The railroad offered free town lots to any Christian denomination that would build a church, which is how a town fills up fast.
And it was not welcomed everywhere. Citizens of nearby Burnham, bypassed by the line, attacked the new community — one man was killed and several wounded. The Cumberland Presbyterian Church simply picked up and moved from Burnham to Ennis in 1872.
The deal that made Ennis. On 6 December 1890 the town signed a contract bringing the railroad's division headquarters, machine shops and roundhouse here — employing several hundred men.
The price: $25,000 from citizens, ninety acres of land, and a forty-three acre lake.
The clause that mattered most was about water. So long as Ennis could furnish water, the shops could not be moved from the community. The town built lakes to keep its side of it — one in 1891, another in 1895, and Lake Clark in 1940.
It was tested. When the railroad later tried to shift the division headquarters to Mexia, the City of Ennis sued to enforce the 1890 contract and won a temporary injunction. A small town holding a railroad to its word.
A second line arrived in 1894: the Texas Midland, bought in 1892 by the financier Hetty Green and extended into Ennis. An electric interurban to Dallas and Corsicana followed in 1913. Union Pacific named Ennis to its Train Town USA registry in 2013.
The thread that still defines Ennis. The first Czech family arrived in 1873, but the wave came in the 1880s from Vizovice in Moravia, and the village of Provodov in particular — thirty-one families in 1889 alone.
Between 1874 and 1890 the town grew roughly tenfold, from about 300 people to 3,000.
They built institutions that still stand. Sokol Karel Havlíček Borovský was founded in April 1908 by twenty-five charter members — the first Sokol in Texas, accepted into the national union the following year, with a gymnasium by 1912. Its museum holds Czech books no longer found in the Czech Republic itself.
The Catholic story is harder. A tornado destroyed the first church in 1887; fire took its replacement in 1901. The Czech members then built their own parish, consecrated to St John Nepomuk on his feast day in May 1904.
The present church was consecrated in 1938, built through the Depression partly on pledges paid in bales of cotton, ginned free by the local gin. A Czech sermon was preached at the consecration — the language was still alive here in 1938.
Not a figure of speech. In 1920, Ellis County ginned 152,601 bales of cotton — more than any county in the United States. Ennis sat at the centre of it, where the railroads met the blackland.
By 1890 the town already had two banks, a cotton compress, three cottonseed depositories, a gin, a fruit cannery, a brickyard, an opera house and two weekly newspapers. The chamber's slogan was "Where Railroads and Cotton Fields Meet."
A small Jewish merchant community — around fifty people in ten families by 1879 — ran many of the early dry goods stores, and two of its members helped secure the railroad division point.
This roughly thirty-year boom is what built the houses and buildings that make up today's historic districts. Everything you admire downtown was paid for by cotton.
One man shaped how Ennis looks. Hix McCanless came here as a boy, studied at Texas A&M, and by 1902 was the most respected architect in town — later becoming city engineer and brick-paving the downtown streets.
He mixed Georgian Revival, Neoclassical, late Victorian and American Bungalow, and was described as something of an artist. He built the house at 402 West Tyler for himself. His work includes the 1904 John Rowe Building, the 1910 Knights of Pythias Building, and Ennis City Hall.
A correction worth making, because it circulates wrongly: the landmark City Hall dates to 1915, not 1950. It still contains the original jail, and carries both a Recorded Texas Historic Landmark designation from 1985 and a National Register listing from 1986.
Citizens formed the Ennis Heritage Society in 1981, and in September 1986 the National Register listed two districts here — recognising 44 private homes and 94 commercial buildings. A boundary increase followed in 2019.
Unlike most towns in this project, the record here is clear rather than missing. George Washington Carver High School served Ennis's Black students for more than forty years, until the schools integrated in 1967.
It closed a month after that final graduation and students moved to Ennis High. The original building was razed in 2007, and a new early learning centre on the site again carries Carver's name.
Its alumni include the jazz saxophonist Marchel Ivery and the footballer William Stell of the Texas Black Sports Hall of Fame.
Wayman Chapel African Methodist Episcopal Church, organised in 1880, carries a state historical marker and remains the clearest documented anchor of the town's Black community.
Ennis is properly marked, which sets it apart from most towns covered here. Roughly nineteen state historical markers stand in the city, against none at all in Venus.
Among them: Myrtle Cemetery, established 1875, the Old Lake Dam of 1891, the railroads, City Hall, the Ennis National Bank, the Barkley and Matthews-Atwood homes, Wayman Chapel AME, and — added as recently as 2024 — the Sokol.
Personal markers honour Katie Daffan, an author and educator, and Jack Lummus, a New York Giants footballer who received the Medal of Honor posthumously at Iwo Jima.
St Joseph's Catholic Cemetery serves the Czech parish.
On 6 May 1930 tornadoes tore through Ellis County, killing 41 people across Bynum, Irene, Mertens, Frost and Ennis and doing two million dollars of damage. Frost was left in ruins.
The second came at half past midnight on 15 May 2013, when a tornado struck the historic downtown and damaged five century-old buildings in the seven-block district. One person was slightly hurt.
The rebuild turned out to matter. It became a catalyst for the downtown revitalisation that has since brought a run of new independent businesses onto the square.
An earlier fire had its own consequence: a 1909 blaze destroyed the local newspaper plant, and out of it came Ennis Inc, the business forms company that still carries the town's name nationally.
Two things put Ennis on the state map. The Ennis Garden Club mapped its first bluebonnet trail in 1951 — the oldest such trails known in Texas — and in June 1997 the Legislature made Ennis the official Bluebonnet City of Texas.
The second is louder. Billy Meyer broke ground in January 1986 on the Texas Motorplex — having signed the agreement to host a national event the previous November, before a shovel went in.
What he built was the world's first single-pour, post-tension, all-concrete quarter mile, the original drag racing super track. It made its national debut that September, and Darrell Gwynn ran a 5.280 on the first pass.
One footnote for the history books: Meyer's original business plan assumed the land would eventually become too valuable to race on, partly because the Superconducting Super Collider was being dug nearby — thirteen of a planned fifty-two miles before the project was killed in 1993.
Ennis went from railroad to cotton to industry without ever emptying out. Population climbed from 16,045 in 2000 to 20,159 in 2020 and an estimated 23,686 by 2023 — the third largest city in Ellis County.
The interstate did what the railroad once did. Manufacturers along I-45 now include Sterilite, Leggett & Platt, GAF, CertainTeed and Ennis Steel, across three industrial parks — one of them 460 acres with 4,500 feet of rail frontage.
The headline arrival is Freshpet, announced in 2020 as a $264 million plant with 427 jobs, aided by a state grant. The first phase of roughly 400,000 square feet opened in 2022, with a second following. It is the company's largest plant.
And the town produced a genuinely national figure: Edward Whitacre Jr, born in Ennis in 1941, went on to run AT&T and then General Motors — with an engineering college at Texas Tech now named for him.
Compiled from the Texas State Historical Association Handbook of Texas, the City of Ennis and its railroad museum materials, National Register of Historic Places listings, the Texas Historical Commission marker record and the Historical Marker Database, court records, Ennis Independent School District, United States Census counts and estimates, and regional reporting. "Ennis" collides heavily with Ennis in County Clare, Ireland, which has centuries of documented history and dominates generic historical searches, as well as with Ennis, Montana, the surname, and a business forms company of the same name that originated here but is a separate entity from the city; every item was verified against Ennis, Ellis County, Texas. Where sources conflict both versions are reported rather than resolved. The three founding dates are not contradictory but mark different events: 1871 the railroad's arrival and land purchase, 8 June 1872 the platting of the townsite as cited by the city, and November 1873 the legal incorporation followed by the first election in April 1874. One correction is made deliberately: the landmark City Hall carrying a Recorded Texas Historic Landmark designation and a National Register listing dates to 1915, not 1950 as sometimes stated; the 1950 date could not be substantiated in any primary record. Sources also differ on which corporate entity established the 1890 division point, describing it variously as the Houston and Texas Central or the Texas and New Orleans, which reflects the same railroad at different stages of a corporate evolution running through Southern Pacific to Union Pacific. Lake construction dates vary slightly between sources. Individual erection years for most of the city's historical markers are not displayed in the marker index and were not separately confirmed, and no distinct, separately named historically Black cemetery could be confirmed beyond the association with Wayman Chapel African Methodist Episcopal Church. No record could be found confirming that Colonel Cornelius Ennis ever personally visited the town named for him. Population figures are Census counts and estimates. Industrial investment and employment figures reflect announcements and may differ from outcomes. Bobby Franklin, REALTOR®, TREC #0805459, Legacy Realty Group – Leslie Majors Team.
Fifty Thousand People for Polka, Forty Miles of Bluebonnets, and Ten Days of Drag Racing
Not a local fair. The largest Czech polka festival in the United States, drawing around 50,000 people to a town of 23,000 for three days every Memorial Day weekend.
Founded in 1967 by three Ennis residents working with the chamber. It reached 30,000 attendees within three years.
It runs across three fraternal halls — KJT, the Knights of Columbus and Sokol — connected by free shuttle buses, each with a large dance floor, live polka and Czech food: klobase, sauerkraut and kolache.
Bands have included the Grammy-winning Brave Combo, the Jodie Mikula Orchestra, Czech and Then Some, the Dujka Brothers and the Ennis Czech Boys. Around it run one of the region's biggest parades, 5K and 10K races, a horseshoe tournament, a kolache eating contest and a parade in traditional Czech kroj.
Ennis is the Official Bluebonnet City of Texas, designated by the Legislature in June 1997. The Garden Club maps more than forty miles of driving trails every April.
The trails are older than the designation by a long way. The Garden Club mapped its first in 1951, making these the oldest known bluebonnet trails in Texas — 46 years of stewardship before the state made it official.
They still drive the routes weekly through April to report bloom status. Peak is usually the third week of the month, and free trail maps are at the Welcome Center all April.
The festival itself takes over historic downtown for a weekend — live music, food and vendors. Five dollars for adults, free under twelve, and cashless. A Garden Club guide will ride along on your trail drive for fifty dollars if you book it.
A ten-day festival built around one of the sport's championship playoff races, at the track that invented the all-concrete drag strip. National television, and the town full for a week and a half.
The 2025 edition ran the first two weeks of October and marked the Motorplex's fortieth anniversary, with the FallNationals themselves across the second weekend.
Around the racing sit a music festival, a divisional race, an all-star event and a fan festival — though that last one is held in downtown Waxahachie rather than Ennis.
The 2026 dates run roughly the second and third weeks of October. Book accommodation early, and expect traffic on Highway 287.
Held the Saturday after the Super Bowl. Five polka bands, doors at noon, music until eleven, with a fried catfish dinner in the late afternoon and a Czech costume parade.
A Texas-certified farmers and craft market on North Dallas Street, Saturday mornings from April through October. Started in 2014 and renamed in 2020, with children's programming at the park gazebo in summer.
An afternoon children's bike parade downtown followed by fireworks the city bills, with some confidence, as the most beautiful in Texas.
Two days of live blues downtown with food vendors, games and raffles. The clearest event anchored in the town's Black community, and worth knowing about.
Autumn Daze brings carnival rides, pumpkin carving and live music. In December the Lighted Christmas Parade and tree lighting take the square, with cookies with Mrs Claus and a train display at the Welcome Center.
Not a small-town formality. Ennis has won five state football championships — 1975, 2000, 2001, 2004 and 2014 — putting it among a short list of Texas programmes. The marching band has earned Superior ratings more than sixty times.
The Railroad and Cultural Heritage Museum opened in 1993 in the 1915 Van Noy railroad restaurant building. The Ennis Public Theatre has staged over a hundred productions since 2004. And the Galaxy Drive-In runs year round.
A quarter-mile clay dirt oval east of town, running weekly Saturday night racing through the season — late models and factory stock, with touring series visiting. The oldest racing facility in Ellis County.
Waxahachie, fifteen minutes west, runs the Scarborough Renaissance Festival each spring plus the Gingerbread Trail tour of historic homes. Corsicana to the south has Derrick Days.
Thirty-five miles north at Fair Park, straight up Interstate 45. It overlaps with the Stampede of Speed, which makes early October a genuinely busy month around here.
Most towns on this site have two or three real events and a lot of gaps. Ennis has a nationally significant festival, a state-designated April, a championship motorsport weekend and a working calendar in between.
Two absences are worth naming honestly. No dedicated rodeo, Juneteenth observance, Martin Luther King Day event or standalone car show could be individually confirmed as a major recurring event, though smaller observances almost certainly take place. The Unity in the Community festival is the clearest documented Black community event.
And a practical note for anyone house-hunting. Memorial Day weekend and early October fill this town — worth experiencing before you buy, and worth planning around once you have.
Dates, times, prices and attendance shift annually and should be confirmed with the organisers before you plan around them; the City of Ennis, the Ennis Convention and Visitors Bureau, the Greater Ennis Chamber of Commerce, the National Polka Festival, the Ennis Garden Club and the Texas Motorplex publish current schedules. Recent editions are cited for guidance only. Attendance of approximately 50,000 for the National Polka Festival and its standing as the largest Czech polka festival in the United States are drawn from the Texas State Historical Association; festival attendance figures generally are organiser or historical estimates rather than audited counts. Sources differ slightly on some particulars and both versions are noted rather than resolved, including the precise 2026 Polka Festival dates, the closing time and exact street address of the Saturday market, and the screen count at the drive-in. The festival was cancelled in 2020, and event programmes can change without notice. Admission prices quoted for the Bluebonnet Trails Festival reflect a recent year and the event has operated as cashless. The fan festival associated with the October motorsport weekend is held in downtown Waxahachie rather than in Ennis, and is listed here because visitors frequently assume otherwise. Bloom timing for the bluebonnet trails varies considerably with weather and cannot be predicted in advance; the Ennis Garden Club reports current conditions through the Welcome Center each April. Statements that an event does not exist mean no reliable source could be found confirming it as a major recurring event rather than that no observance takes place; specifically, no dedicated rodeo, Juneteenth observance, Martin Luther King Day event, standalone Easter event or standalone car show could be individually confirmed. "Ennis" collides heavily with Ennis in County Clare, Ireland, with Ennis, Montana, with the surname and with a business forms company of the same name, so every event here was verified against Ennis, Ellis County, Texas, and events in neighbouring Waxahachie, Palmer, Ferris, Alma, Italy and Corsicana were excluded unless explicitly labelled as being outside Ennis. Events listed under other cities are included so a buyer understands a realistic regional calendar and should be confirmed with the relevant organiser. Bobby Franklin, REALTOR®, TREC #0805459, Legacy Realty Group – Leslie Majors Team.
What to know about Ennis schools:
Said plainly: Ennis ISD’s rate of 1.2308 is the second highest of the districts a buyer here compares, behind only Venus. On a $400,000 home that is about $640 a year more than Midlothian ISD. And while the high school rates a B, the junior high and two other campuses currently rate a D, with the superintendent running a districtwide improvement plan.
The finding almost nobody checks: Ennis ISD crosses the county line into Navarro County. A home on that side is appraised by Navarro’s district, pays Navarro County rather than Ellis County — and can owe a Navarro College levy that an Ellis County neighbour never pays.
So verify the county first, then the district, then the campus. Never rely on the ZIP code or the mailing city.
Want the full breakdown? Read our complete Ennis schools guide →
Ennis ISD runs an unusual grade ladder — including a school for sixth grade and nothing else — across 253 square miles. And it reaches into a second county, which changes what some homeowners pay.
E MLK Dr & W Lampasas
Every Ennis child starts at one of two centres. The Carver name carries forward from the segregation-era high school that served the town's Black students for more than forty years — the original building was razed in 2007 and the centre built on the site.
Austin · Bowie · Sam Houston · Travis
Four small neighbourhood schools rather than two large ones — Stephen F. Austin, James Bowie, Sam Houston and William B. Travis, ranging from about 284 to 509 pupils each. Zones matter here, so check yours.
N Clay St & W Lampasas
Both named for genuine heroes. Jack Lummus was an Ennis Marine and New York Giants footballer awarded the Medal of Honor at Iwo Jima; Doris Miller was the Waco-born Navy cook decorated for Pearl Harbor.
Dorie Miller has earned a state distinction for mathematics. The two campuses do not currently rate the same, so if this band matters to you, check the zone before you offer.
Ennis
Worth knowing because almost no district does this. Alamo serves sixth grade and nothing else — one year, one campus, before students move on to the junior high.
The argument for it is that eleven-year-olds get a transition year without being thrown in with fourteen-year-olds. The argument against is one more school change in an already finely split ladder — five campuses before high school rather than the usual three.
Either way, know it is coming so it is not a surprise.
3101 Ensign Rd
Designated a STEM campus, and where the district's AVID college readiness programme begins, running from seventh grade through to graduation.
Being straight with you: this is currently the weakest-rated campus in the district, and the superintendent has publicly presented a districtwide improvement plan in response to the latest accountability results.
That is a real thing to weigh, but it is also a district that has said so openly rather than quietly. Check current ratings before you decide.
2301 Ensign Rd
The strong end of the district by a distance. A 95.7 percent four-year graduation rate against a state figure of 90.3, and the only Ennis campus rating above the district average.
Behind it: a dedicated career centre with sixteen career and technical programme areas, AVID, and dual credit through Navarro College. Average SAT around 1027 and ACT around 19.
Maroon and white, mascots Samson and Delilah, and the school motto is simply "Believe."
One gap to note for ambitious families: Ennis ISD has no early college high school and no P-TECH. Waxahachie's Global High is the nearest such option.
Lion Memorial Stadium
Not a small-town boast. Five state championships — 1975, 2000, 2001, 2004 and 2014 — placing Ennis among roughly twenty Texas programmes to reach that mark.
Three came under Sam Harrell, then the 2014 title under Jack Alvarez, 38 to 35 over Cedar Park at AT&T Stadium. Lion Memorial Stadium seats 10,000 and was completed in 2001, with turf added in 2020.
The alumnus to know: Graham Harrell threw for Texas high school career records of 12,532 yards and 167 touchdowns, starred at Texas Tech, won a Super Bowl with Green Bay, and entered the College Football Hall of Fame in 2025.
For 2026 through 2028 the Lions sit in 5A Division II alongside Corsicana, Midlothian Heritage and Mansfield Timberview.
Ennis High School
An underrated reason to buy here. The Ennis band has earned Superior ratings at its annual marching competition 66 times since the 1950s — a run of consistency most districts never approach.
It has reached the state marching contest, and the district also fields choir and theatre programmes.
For a family whose child is more likely to carry an instrument than a football, this matters as much as the five state titles — and it is the kind of thing a rating letter never shows.
Corsicana & Waxahachie campuses
A notable loss for a town with this Czech Catholic heritage. St John Catholic School, founded in 1912 with a high school added in 1939, closed in 2008 — 138 students registered and a deficit past a quarter of a million dollars.
Since then there has been no Catholic or other private day school in Ennis, and no charter campus either. Families looking outside the public system drive.
Dual credit runs through Navarro College, whose nearest campuses are Corsicana and Waxahachie, under a signed district agreement.
This is the finding almost nobody checks, and it can cost money. Ennis ISD does not stop at the Ellis County line — it reaches into northern Navarro County.
A home on that side is appraised by the Navarro appraisal district, pays Navarro County rather than Ellis County, and — critically — can owe a Navarro College district levy that an Ellis County neighbour in the same school district never pays at all.
Ellis County residents pay no community college tax whatsoever. Cross that line and you might. It affects a small number of addresses, which is exactly why it gets missed.
So the order is: find the county first, then the district, then the campus. If a parcel does not appear on the Ellis appraisal district site, check Navarro's.
School tax is the biggest line on an Ennis bill, and Ennis ISD at 1.2308 is the second highest of the districts a buyer here realistically compares — behind only Venus ISD at 1.2484.
On a $300,000 home before exemptions: about $3,692 in Ennis ISD, against $3,504 in Waxahachie, $3,441 in Mansfield and $3,212 in Midlothian.
On a $400,000 home the gap widens: roughly $4,923 here against $4,283 in Midlothian — about $640 a year.
The state homestead exemption, raised to $140,000 in November 2025, narrows all of these considerably. And remember the Ennis paradox: the highest headline rate in the county still produces the lowest actual bills, because the homes cost less.
You deserve the unflattering half. Ennis ISD currently rates a C overall. Ennis High rates a B — but the junior high and two other campuses rate a D.
The district has not hidden from it. The superintendent presented a districtwide improvement plan publicly, saying the results were being taken seriously, which is more than some districts manage.
Context matters too: around seventy percent of students are economically disadvantaged and about a fifth are in bilingual or English learner programmes. Set against that, a 95.7 percent graduation rate is a real achievement.
Judge it on the trajectory and on the campus your address actually feeds, not on a district letter.
Named plainly rather than glossed. I could not verify Ennis ISD's recent bond history or total debt from an authoritative source — and worse, the figures that surface in a search are wrong. A widely repeated bond total actually belongs to a district near Austin, and another belongs to Ennis, Montana.
Campus capacity and portable building counts could not be confirmed either. With new construction arriving, that is a fair question to put to the district directly about your specific zoned campus.
What is confirmed: the district has adopted a rate raising more maintenance and operations revenue than the prior year.
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 like; district and campus results are described above for context, including weak ones, because a buyer deserves the real picture. For current ratings use TXschools.gov. Ratings referenced are a district grade of C for 2024-25, with Ennis High rated B, Dorie Miller Intermediate rated C with a mathematics distinction, and Ennis Junior High, Jack Lummus Intermediate and James Bowie Elementary each rated D; the district publicly presented an improvement plan in response. Ennis Independent School District extends beyond the City of Ennis to serve Alma, Bardwell, Garrett and part of the Bristol community across roughly 253.8 square miles, and critically its territory extends into northern Navarro County, so a property in that portion is appraised by the Navarro appraisal district, pays Navarro County rather than Ellis County, and may owe a Navarro College district levy that Ellis County residents in the same school district do not pay; county, appraisal district, school district and campus must all be verified by address rather than assumed from the city or ZIP code. Tax figures use published school district rates of 1.2308 for Ennis ISD, 1.2484 for Venus ISD, 1.1681 for Waxahachie ISD, 1.1469 for Mansfield ISD and 1.0708 for Midlothian ISD, are shown before exemptions and are illustrations rather than quotes; the state homestead exemption raised to $140,000 in November 2025 reduces all of them, and rates reset annually. The maintenance and operations versus debt service split of the Ennis ISD rate could not be confirmed from an official district notice, only the total. Several items are flagged rather than guessed: recent bond history and total district debt could not be verified from an authoritative source, and search results on this point are actively misleading, with one widely cited bond total belonging to a district in the Austin area and another to Ennis, Montana; campus capacity figures and portable building counts were not available; and a full multi-year accountability trend could not be independently verified, though no evidence of state intervention, conservatorship, monitoring or a district-wide failing rating was found. Enrollment figures vary between sources and reporting years and are given as approximations. No Catholic or other private day school currently operates in Ennis following the closure of St John Catholic School in 2008, and no open-enrollment charter campus was confirmed within the city; Ennis ISD has no early college high school and no P-TECH programme. Athletic and fine arts achievements reflect published records; district alignment reflects the current realignment cycle and changes biennially. School information is provided for general reference only and is not a recommendation regarding any school, district, neighbourhood or property. Bobby Franklin, REALTOR®, TREC #0805459, Legacy Realty Group – Leslie Majors Team.
Median Sales Price
What Ennis homes sold for each month. Unlike the smaller towns nearby, this city transacts enough volume that the line actually means something.
Worth saying, because it is rare on this site. Ennis closes enough homes each month for its median to be statistically meaningful — several times the volume of Venus, Rendon or Kennedale.
And price per square foot has been moving with the median rather than against it, which is what an honest market looks like.
The market flattened in 2025 after a 41 percent run to 2022. Price to today's comparables, not to what your neighbour got two years ago — that is the single most common mistake being made here right now.
Ennis sits near $267,000 against roughly $400,000 in Midlothian. That gap is why the highest tax rate in the county still produces the smallest bill. Run the payment, not the percentage.
Days on market moves before price does. Recent readings have run roughly 40 to 55 days, and the direction matters more than the number.
Watch it alongside closed sales — when both move the same way, that is a real shift rather than a quiet month.
Ennis is not a list-it-Friday market. Plan for a genuine marketing window and price it right at the start, because the first two weeks carry most of your buyer traffic and you do not get them back.
Anything well past the median has watched buyers walk. Those sellers are usually the most negotiable in town, particularly on an older home competing with new construction.
Ennis sells both century-old houses in the historic districts and new builds off a model home. Those two attract completely different showing patterns, and this chart blends them.
Read it as a trend line rather than a verdict on your own house.
Showings without offers is nearly always price. Few showings is presentation, photography or reach. Different problems with different fixes, and worth diagnosing before you cut the price.
Read it with days on market. High on both and you have leverage. Low on both and the good ones are moving — which in the historic districts is often the case.
Ennis has been closing roughly 30 to 80 homes a month — enough that the price line above is reliable, which cannot be said of the smaller towns nearby.
Be straight about it. A recent month recorded 72 closings against 115 a year earlier — down around 38 percent. Fewer people are moving at these rates.
That is a transaction slowdown, not a price collapse. Prices flattened; activity dropped much harder.
Fewer competing buyers is your window. The same house that drew four offers in 2022 may now draw one — and that one can be yours, with terms.
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. Unlike the smaller communities covered on this site, Ennis transacts at roughly 30 to 80 closings a month, which is sufficient volume for its median to be statistically meaningful; median days on market has recently run about 40 to 55 days, and median price per square foot around $154, having eased from $161 and moving in the same direction as the median price rather than diverging from it, which indicates a market not distorted by builder incentives. Transaction volume has nonetheless fallen sharply, with a recent month recording 72 closings against 115 a year earlier, a decline of roughly 38 percent; this reflects reduced turnover at current mortgage rates rather than a deterioration in price, and the county house price index recorded only a marginal decline in 2025 after rising about 140 percent since 2009. Published value figures for Ennis cluster around $260,000 to $272,000 on current measures, while a five-year Census survey average of about $225,900 lags the market by two to three years. A note on one chart: the Days on Market panel currently loads the same chart identifier at both display sizes, because the small and large addresses supplied for that metric did not match one another and the small address also lacked the file suffix present on every other small address; this will be corrected once the matching address is confirmed, and the chart shown is the one supplied for that metric at the larger size. Ennis carries a combined property tax rate of approximately 2.17 percent, the highest headline rate of the Ellis County cities on this site, though the lowest actual dollar bills because values are lower; separately, the school district extends into northern Navarro County where a different county tax and a college levy may apply, and active public improvement districts exist on some newer subdivisions — none of which is reflected in these charts but all of which affects what a buyer pays. These charts do not separate historic and new-construction inventory, and that breakdown is not published. Market statistics describe the area as a whole and are no 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. Bobby Franklin, REALTOR®, TREC #0805459, Legacy Realty Group – Leslie Majors Team.
Pick a purchase year and the price fills in. If you own here, type over it with what you actually paid. Ennis is the first smaller city on this site whose own sale median is reliable enough to trust — the note below explains why that matters.
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.
Worth saying, because it is the first time on this site. Ennis closes roughly 30 to 80 homes a month — several times the volume of Kennedale, Rendon, Venus or Lancaster, all of which were judged too thin for their medians to mean much.
The stock helps too. The median Ennis home was built around 1985 to 1990, so this is an established resale market rather than a builder's showroom. Where Venus sees prices rise while value per foot falls — the signature of incentives — Ennis sees both move together, which is what an honest market looks like.
The calculator still runs on the county index, because a repeat-sales index tracks the same houses over time. But here the local median and the index agree, and that is a genuinely better position than most towns around here.
No spin on this one. The Ellis County index posted its first annual dip in 2025, slipping about a quarter of a percent below 2024 — after rising 140 percent since 2009.
Two other readings agree: the leading value index shows Ennis down about 0.3 percent year over year, and closings fell sharply, from 115 to 72 in a recent month.
That is a flattening, not a fall. But anyone using 2021 or 2022 gains to project forward is using the wrong window. Prices rose 41 percent in the two years to 2022. They have moved sideways since.
One more thing to know: the core of Ennis is generally not USDA eligible, unlike Venus or Rendon, because it is mapped as urban. Rural addresses on the fringe still qualify, so check the specific parcel.
Growth rates are the FHFA All-Transactions House Price Index, annual values 2009 through 2025: Ellis County, Texas (FRED series ATNHPIUS48139A), the State of Texas (TXSTHPI) and the United States (USSTHPI). State and national figures are annual averages of published quarters. The Ellis County series recorded 121.01 in 2009 and 290.36 in 2025, a rise of about 140 percent, and 2025 sits marginally below the 2024 reading of 291.13 — the first annual decline in the recent series, corroborated independently by a leading value index showing Ennis down about 0.3 percent year over year. The prefilled dollar figures are derived, not published: they apply the Ellis County index to an anchor of $267,000, taken from a current value index and sitting within a defensible cluster of roughly $260,000 to $272,000 that also includes recent sold medians. Entering your own purchase price replaces the estimate entirely. Published Ennis figures range more widely — a five-year Census survey average of about $225,900 lags the market by two to three years and understates it, while one modelled estimate reads about $285,000 — and the anchor used here sits deliberately in the middle of the current transaction evidence. Unlike the smaller towns covered on this site, Ennis transacts at roughly 30 to 80 closings a month, which is sufficient volume for its own median to be statistically meaningful; median days on market has recently run about 40 to 55 days, and median price per square foot around $154, having eased from $161, moving in the same direction as the median price rather than diverging from it. The median Ennis home dates from roughly 1985 to 1990 and the city retains substantial pre-war and mid-century stock alongside active new construction, so historical medians here are more meaningful than in towns whose housing stock changed entirely. The index is built from conforming loans and excludes jumbo lending and all-cash purchases; with a 2026 conforming limit of $832,750 and almost no Ennis inventory approaching it, that limitation is immaterial. 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, and exclude closing costs, property taxes, insurance, maintenance, improvements and selling costs. Ennis carries a combined property tax rate of approximately 2.17 percent, the highest headline rate of the Ellis County cities on this site, though the lowest actual dollar bills because values are lower; none of that is reflected in these figures. USDA Rural Development financing is generally not available in the incorporated core of Ennis, which is mapped as an urbanised area, in contrast to Venus and Rendon; rural addresses on the city's fringe and in surrounding communities may still qualify, so verify the exact parcel on the official USDA map and confirm income limits with an approved lender. 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.
Ennis breaks the pattern. It sits further out than any town on this site, yet its residents average 27.6 minutes to work — shorter than every bedroom community here and shorter than the metro itself. Two reasons: Interstate 45 frontage, and thousands of jobs inside the city.
Typical Off-Peak Drive Time
Nearby
Minutes off-peak from downtown Ennis.
This is the structural advantage and it is worth understanding properly. Ennis sits directly on Interstate 45, with three exits serving the city and a business route running through downtown.
Compare that with the rest of this site. In Venus, US 67 is a divided surface road with traffic lights. Rendon has no freeway at all and sits six to eight miles from the nearest interstate access.
What it buys you is predictability. A grade-separated, high-capacity run straight into Dallas in about 35 minutes off-peak, rather than a stop-start arterial. Add US 287 northwest to Waxahachie, Midlothian and Mansfield, and State Highway 34 across to I-35E, and Ennis is genuinely well connected for a town this far out.
The number that should surprise you. Ennis residents average 27.6 minutes to work, against a metro figure of 27.9 and a national 27.2.
Set that against the rest of this site: Venus 32.5, Kennedale 32.4, Rendon 31.9, DeSoto 30.8, Lancaster 28.7, Mansfield 28.6. Ennis is further from Dallas than any of them and has a shorter commute than all of them.
The reason is not the interstate. It is that roughly 4,991 residents — about 42 percent of Ennis workers — both live and work in the city. Most people here are not commuting to Dallas at all.
Every other place covered on this site is a bedroom community. Ennis is not. Its daytime population rises by about 607 people — more workers drive in each morning than drive out.
The industrial base is real and diversified. Sterilite employs around 650, Leggett & Platt about 350, Schirm 300, GAF 270, a CVS distribution centre 233, and Ennis Steel 120, among others — roughly 3,858 across the major employers alone.
Plus the newest arrival: the Freshpet plant, announced with 427 jobs and $264 million of investment. Three industrial parks serve them, including 460 acres at Highway 287 and I-45 with 4,500 feet of rail frontage.
For a buyer that means two things. A genuine chance of working where you live, and a local economy not resting on one employer.
Worth saying clearly, because it gets oversold locally. The proposed Dallas to Houston high speed rail line runs through Ellis County, roughly paralleling Interstate 45.
But the route has only three stations — Dallas, one midway stop in Grimes County, and Houston. Ennis would not have a stop. Trains would pass through the county without stopping.
It is also planned but unfunded, with the earliest opening in the early 2030s and sustained opposition over land acquisition. Do not pay a premium for a station that is not coming.
The honest limits. Ennis has no fixed-route public transit — no DART, no city bus, no rail. What exists is a demand-response service booked in advance, covering Ellis and Navarro counties, which is useful for appointments and no help for commuting.
And the interstate is not magic at eight in the morning. Downtown Dallas runs roughly 50 to 70 minutes inbound and 50 to 65 coming home, with the squeeze at the I-20 interchange and the downtown merge rather than near Ennis.
Fort Worth is the genuinely hard one. Around 75 to 90 minutes at peak, because it means crossing the metro on I-20. If you work in Fort Worth, Ennis is the wrong town.
Nothing transformational, but useful. A state project is adding roadway lanes on US 287 from the business route in Ennis south toward Highway 34, at about $28.5 million, with pavement and shoulder work on FM 879 between I-45 and FM 813.
Longer term, a feasibility study is examining continuous frontage roads and grade separations along 32 miles of US 287, running from Mansfield all the way to West Lampasas Street in Ennis.
What is not happening: no funded widening of Interstate 45 through Ennis is currently programmed. Most larger Ellis County mobility projects remain unfunded in the state plan.
Drive times are off-peak estimates measured from central Ennis and consolidated from mapping and distance services rather than a single live traffic source, and should be treated as accurate to within about five minutes; several destinations were derived from verified mileage and route data combined with typical highway speeds rather than individually captured, so verify against a live map before relying on any single figure. Times vary with traffic, weather, construction and your exact starting point. Rush hour figures are estimates extrapolated from off-peak baselines and known corridor congestion rather than individually timed observations, and are presented as ranges accordingly. Commuting statistics are Census American Community Survey estimates for Ennis city, compared against a Dallas Fort Worth Arlington metro mean of 27.9 minutes and a national mean of 27.2; note that earlier pages on this site cite a national figure of 26.4 from an older release, and both are given here so the comparison is transparent. The finding that Ennis is a net importer of workers rests on a reported daytime population increase of about 607 and a figure of roughly 4,991 residents who both live and work in the city, drawn from an older tabulation that predates recent industrial expansion; precise current inflow and outflow figures require a live query of the federal employment mapping tool and were not independently captured. Major employer headcounts are drawn from an economic development listing of roughly 2021 to 2022 vintage and should be reconfirmed before being relied upon; the Freshpet figure of 427 jobs and $264 million of investment is the documented state announcement, while a higher figure circulating locally appears to be a projection rather than a confirmed headcount. Regarding high speed rail: the proposed Dallas to Houston alignment passes through Ellis County but the route provides only three stations, at Dallas, a midway point in Grimes County and Houston, so Ennis would not have a station; the project remains planned but unfunded with an earliest opening in the early 2030s and has faced sustained opposition, and no station benefit should be assumed for Ennis. Transit status reflects that Ennis has no fixed-route service; the demand-response services operating in Ellis and Navarro counties require advance booking and are not a commuting solution. Highway project details reflect approved and studied works at the time of writing; scope, cost and schedule may change, and no funded widening of Interstate 45 through Ennis was identified. "Ennis" collides heavily with Ennis in County Clare, Ireland, with Ennis, Montana — which has its own real estate and commuting data — with the surname and with a business forms company of the same name, so every figure here was verified against Ennis, Ellis County, Texas, and results for neighbouring Waxahachie, Palmer, Ferris, Alma, Bardwell, Garrett, Italy and Corsicana were excluded unless explicitly labelled. This information is provided for general reference and is not a representation about any specific property, commute, employer or future infrastructure outcome. Bobby Franklin, REALTOR®, TREC #0805459, Legacy Realty Group – Leslie Majors Team.
Ennis is a full city rather than a bedroom town — its own water, sewer and rubbish service, its own police and career fire department, and its own hospital. But one thing it does not run is your electricity, and a lot of people get that wrong.
No — and this gets repeated wrongly often enough that it is worth being blunt. Ennis does not operate a municipal electric utility. The city's own utilities department covers water, wastewater treatment and collection, and nothing else.
Electricity here is deregulated, exactly as in the rest of the metro. You choose a retail provider, and Oncor delivers the power and restores it after an outage — report those to Oncor directly, not to the city or to your retailer.
One consequence worth understanding: because Ennis sits in the deregulated market, its residents carried the same exposure during the February 2021 winter storm as everyone else in the region. Fixed-rate customers were largely protected; those on variable or wholesale-indexed plans were not. Anyone telling you Ennis was shielded from that is mistaken.
Genuinely quite a lot, and more than most towns on this site. The City of Ennis runs its own water, wastewater and sanitation services across a service area of about 28 square miles.
The water is surface water drawn from Lake Bardwell, sold to the city on a cost basis by the river authority, which also built the treatment plant. Two things worth knowing: the drinking water holds a Superior Quality Rating from the state, and the city has won federal awards for its wastewater treatment.
Start service at utility billing, 107 North Sherman Street, open weekdays eight to five. One safety note the city publishes itself: it does not take payment over the phone and never rings to ask for it. Treat any such call as fraud.
Collection is city-run. The part most residents never discover is the bulk arrangement.
Bulk pickup is scheduled rather than automatic — ring public works and they collect within 48 hours. Up to two cubic yards costs $25. An extra container runs $5 a month, and a bin left in the wrong place adds a $10 fee to your next bill.
The genuinely useful one: the landfill on North Interstate 45 gives Ennis residents two free disposal days every month — the first and third Saturday, seven to eleven in the morning, up to two cubic yards.
Bring a current city water bill and photo identification. And note the requirement people turn up without: a hard hat and safety vest are required to enter.
Combined, about 2.17 percent — the highest headline rate of the Ellis County cities covered here.
| Entity | Rate |
|---|---|
| Ennis ISD | 1.2308 |
| City of Ennis | 0.6807 |
| Ellis County | 0.2558 |
Before exemptions that is roughly $5,418 a year on a $250,000 home and $7,585 on a $350,000 one.
A warning for anyone comparing sources: a widely circulated regional tax guide lists the Ennis school rate as about 0.62, which is the maintenance and operations portion only. The full rate including debt service is 1.2308, and using the lower figure understates your bill by roughly half.
Because a rate is only half the sum. The other half is what your house is worth, and Ennis homes cost markedly less.
The average Ennis home sits near $267,000, against roughly $400,000 in Midlothian. Run both through their own rates and the result inverts: a typical Ennis owner pays somewhere near $5,800 a year, while the Waxahachie and Midlothian equivalents pay closer to $7,800 and $8,000.
So Ennis has the highest percentage and the smallest cheque. A buyer who compares only the rate will draw exactly the wrong conclusion — which is worth remembering when someone tells you Ennis is the expensive option.
The state ones changed significantly in November 2025. The school homestead exemption rose to $140,000, and for over-65 or disabled owners the combined figure is now $200,000, both retroactive to that tax year. These apply to the school district portion only — which here is the largest line by far.
Over-65 owners also get the part that compounds: a ceiling that freezes the school district portion at that year's dollar amount, and which transfers to a new Texas home.
Locally the city grants a homestead exemption of one percent or $5,000, whichever is greater, plus $4,000 for over-65 applied after the homestead.
One practical note: the city does not collect its own taxes — the Ellis County tax office does it under contract, with statements out in October and delinquency after 31 January.
No, and it is worth knowing why. Ellis County sits in the Navarro College service area, but Navarro College levies property tax only in Navarro County.
So an Ennis homeowner pays no community college district tax at all — unlike Johnson County residents, who fund Hill College, or Tarrant County residents funding Tarrant County College.
There is no hospital district levy either. The Ennis bill is genuinely three lines: school, city, county.
Yes, and this is the question to ask before you sign anything. The city lists active residential public improvement districts including Prairieview and The Hollow — two of the newest communities.
A PID assessment sits on top of the ordinary tax bill and pays for the infrastructure the developer installed. It can add materially to what you pay each year and is not always mentioned at the sales office.
Ask for the assessment amount and the remaining term in writing before you commit to a new-build here. On resale homes outside those districts it does not apply.
The Ennis Police Department, at 1700 Lake Bardwell Drive, open around the clock. Non-emergency is 972-875-4455. Chief Dustin Munn has led it since 2021.
Two things set it apart from the small towns on this site. Ennis runs its own 911 communications centre with its own telecommunicators rather than contracting dispatch to a county sheriff, which is what Venus and the unincorporated areas do.
And it operates a victim advocate programme, which is unusual for a department this size.
Fully paid, and that matters for both safety and insurance. The Ennis Fire Department is a career department of 42 firefighters plus administrative staff, with no volunteers, operating from three stations.
Compare that with the surrounding area, where volunteer and emergency services district arrangements are the norm. Chief Bill Evans leads it, with administration at the same Lake Bardwell Drive complex as the police.
One thing to request yourself: the department's current fire insurance rating could not be confirmed from published sources. Your insurer will want it, so ask the department directly.
Yes — and this is one of the strongest arguments for Ennis over the smaller towns. Ennis Regional Medical Center sits at 2201 West Lampasas Street, a 60-bed acute care hospital on a 25-acre campus.
It runs a Level IV trauma emergency department and holds accreditation as a chest pain centre from the American College of Cardiology.
Set that against Venus, Rendon and Kennedale, none of which has a hospital or even a freestanding emergency room. Larger facilities sit in Waxahachie about fifteen miles away, Corsicana about seventeen, and Midlothian about twenty-three.
There is, at 501 West Ennis Avenue — another thing most towns on this site lack entirely. Open six days, with a late evening on Thursday.
Worth knowing for adult learners: Navarro College runs its high school equivalency classes at the library, so the nearest route back into education is in town rather than a drive away.
Ennis ISD serves the city plus Alma, Bardwell, Garrett and part of Bristol — about 6,447 students across 11 campuses, rated C, with a 95.7 percent graduation rate against a state figure of 90.3.
The honest part: three campuses rated D in the most recent release, and the district has published an improvement plan in response.
And the detail nobody checks: the district extends into northern Navarro County. A home on that side is appraised by a different district, pays Navarro County rather than Ellis, and can owe a Navarro College levy that an Ellis County neighbour never pays. Verify the county before the district.
Yes, in the ordinary Ellis County way. Ennis sits on the Blackland Prairie — deep, fertile, alkaline clay that cracks and swells with moisture, and that movement is what damages slabs.
The city even holds a surviving remnant of the original prairie within its limits, which tells you how completely this ground was once covered by it.
It is manageable but not ignorable. Consistent watering around the slab, proper drainage and grading, and a foundation-aware inspection all matter here more than they would west of the county.
The waterways to know are Waxahachie Creek, which flows into Lake Bardwell near town, and Chambers Creek. Flood status is an address question, so run the parcel through the federal flood map before you offer. Standard homeowners insurance does not cover flood.
On tornadoes, Ennis has a recent and specific history. On 15 May 2013 a tornado struck the historic downtown at about half past midnight, damaging five century-old buildings and as many as 55 businesses along Ennis Avenue. One person was slightly hurt.
The aftermath turned out well. The rebuild became the catalyst for the downtown revitalisation that has since filled the square with independent businesses. Hail and severe wind remain the routine risks that shape your premium.
Real, and you should test it rather than take anyone's word. An active Union Pacific main line runs through downtown Ennis with trains passing several times a day.
This is not incidental to the town — Ennis exists because of that railway, and was a division point with roundhouse and machine shops for decades.
Practically: proximity to the line varies enormously by street, and so does the noise. If you are looking near downtown or the historic districts, stand on the lot at different times of day before you decide. Some people stop hearing it within a fortnight. Others never do.
Yes, genuinely — and whether that is a positive depends entirely on you.
The employer list is substantial: Sterilite at around 650, Leggett & Platt at 350, Schirm at 300, GAF at 270, a CVS distribution centre at 233, plus the Freshpet plant announced with 427 jobs. Three industrial parks serve them, one of 460 acres with rail frontage.
The upside is a diversified local economy and a real chance of working where you live, which is why the commute here is shorter than in the bedroom suburbs.
The other side: this is a working town with lorry traffic, shift patterns and industrial land near residential areas. Drive the area you are considering at seven in the morning.
Generally not, and this is a real difference from the smaller towns. The incorporated core of Ennis is mapped as urban and is therefore not USDA eligible, unlike Venus at roughly 98.7 percent eligible or Rendon.
Rural addresses on the fringe and in surrounding communities such as Alma, Bardwell and Bristol may still qualify.
Verify the exact parcel on the official USDA map before assuming either way, and confirm income limits with a lender who writes these loans.
Shorter than you would guess, and shorter than the suburbs closer in. Ennis residents average 27.6 minutes — against Venus at 32.5, Kennedale at 32.4 and Rendon at 31.9.
Two reasons. Ennis sits directly on Interstate 45, giving a roughly 35-minute off-peak run into downtown Dallas on a proper freeway rather than a signalled arterial. And about 42 percent of Ennis workers both live and work in the city.
At peak it is a different story — 50 to 70 minutes into Dallas. Fort Worth is the hard one at 75 to 90 minutes, because it means crossing the metro. If you work in Fort Worth, this is the wrong town.
No. This gets oversold locally and it is worth being precise.
The proposed Dallas to Houston high speed rail line runs through Ellis County, roughly paralleling Interstate 45. But the route has only three stations — Dallas, one midway stop in Grimes County, and Houston.
Trains would pass through the county without stopping. The project is also planned but unfunded, with the earliest opening in the early 2030s and sustained opposition over land acquisition.
Do not pay a premium for a station that is not coming.
No fixed-route transit. No city bus, no rail, no metro service reaching Ennis.
What exists is demand-response service covering Ellis and Navarro counties, booked in advance, which works for appointments and errands and is no use for commuting.
Plan on a vehicle per driver. On the other hand, the interstate makes that vehicle considerably more useful than it is in towns with no freeway frontage.
Seven things, stated plainly.
Thirty-five miles from Dallas — closer towns exist if that is your priority. The highest headline tax rate in the county, even though the bill is smallest. Three school campuses rated D in the latest release. A genuinely industrial character, with the traffic and land use that implies. Train noise on an active main line through downtown. Blackland clay under your slab. And full deregulated electricity exposure, with no municipal utility to shelter behind.
Against that: the lowest actual tax bills in the county, a hospital, a career fire department, a library, a historic downtown that is filling rather than emptying, a shorter commute than the suburbs, and around sixty independent businesses.
Ennis suits a buyer who wants a real town rather than a subdivision, and who has weighed the drive honestly.
Question not answered here? Send me an address and I will tell you which county it is in, whether it carries a PID assessment, what the tax bill actually looks like, and how close it sits to the railway line.
Call 214-228-0003Answers observed September 2026. A correction is made here deliberately, because the opposite is often stated: the City of Ennis does not operate a municipal electric utility. Its utilities department provides water, wastewater treatment and wastewater collection only, and electricity is supplied through the deregulated retail market with delivery and outage restoration by the transmission utility. Any claim that Ennis residents were sheltered from the February 2021 winter storm pricing by a municipal electric utility is incorrect. Tax figures are computed from published 2025 rates and are illustrations rather than quotes, shown before exemptions; a specific bill varies with appraised value, exemption status and the taxing units on the parcel, and rates reset annually. One genuine source conflict is reported rather than resolved: the Ellis County component is published as 0.255778 by the city's economic development corporation and as 0.273992 in a county notice. A second discrepancy matters for anyone comparing sources: a widely circulated regional tax guide lists the Ennis school district rate at approximately 0.62, which is the maintenance and operations portion only; the full rate including debt service is 1.2308. Comparisons of actual dollar bills against other cities rely on published median home values and illustrate the relationship between rate and value rather than being precise for any individual property. The state school homestead exemption rose to $140,000 in November 2025, with a combined $200,000 for over-65 and disabled owners, applying to the school district portion only. Active residential public improvement districts are listed by the city, including Prairieview and The Hollow, and a PID assessment sits on top of the ordinary tax bill; the amount and remaining term should be obtained in writing before purchasing in any affected community. Several items are flagged rather than guessed: the fire department's current insurance rating could not be confirmed from published sources and should be requested directly, as your insurer will use it; the justice of the peace and constable precinct serving a specific Ennis address was not individually confirmed; and internet provider availability varies by address. Ennis Independent School District extends into northern Navarro County, so a property in that portion is appraised by a different district, pays Navarro County rather than Ellis County, and may owe a Navarro College levy that Ellis County residents do not; county, appraisal district and school district must all be verified by address. USDA eligibility is parcel-specific and the incorporated core of Ennis is generally not eligible; verify the exact address on the official map. High speed rail details reflect a project that remains planned but unfunded, and no station is proposed for Ennis. Because "Ennis" collides with Ennis in County Clare, Ireland, with Ennis, Montana, with the surname and with a business forms company that originated in this town but is a separate entity, every item here was verified against Ennis, Ellis County, Texas. Nothing here is legal, tax, insurance, environmental or lending advice. Bobby Franklin, REALTOR®, TREC #0805459, Legacy Realty Group – Leslie Majors Team.
Ennis is a proper city, so most of this starts at city hall rather than a county office an hour away. Its own water, sewer and rubbish service, its own police and career fire department, its own hospital and library. One thing it does not run is your electricity.
All three from one city office. 107 North Sherman Street, weekdays eight to five. Water comes from Lake Bardwell and holds a state Superior Quality Rating.
972-875-1234 The city never phones asking for payment — that is fraud Do this firstOften misunderstood. Ennis does not run a municipal electric utility — power here is deregulated, so you pick a retailer. Oncor delivers it and restores outages regardless of who bills you.
Oncor outages 1-888-313-4747 Gas is Atmos · 1-888-286-6700 Do this firstFree, and worth more than ever. The school exemption rose to $140,000 in November 2025, and $200,000 combined for over-65, who also get a freeze on the school portion. 400 Ferris Avenue, Waxahachie.
972-937-3552 Deadline generally 30 April Nobody tells you thisGenuinely useful when unpacking. The landfill on North I-45 takes up to two cubic yards free on the first and third Saturday, 7 to 11am. Bring a current water bill and photo ID.
Hard hat & safety vest required Bulk pickup: call 972-875-1906 · $25 up to 2 cu yd City of Ennis107 North Sherman Street. The main number reaches most departments, and the staff directory covers parks, library, museum, health and tourism.
972-875-1234 City of Ennis1700 Lake Bardwell Drive, open around the clock under Chief Dustin Munn. Ennis runs its own 911 communications centre rather than contracting dispatch out, and operates a victim advocate programme.
972-875-4455 Non-emergency · communications 972-875-4462 · 911 urgent City of EnnisFully paid rather than volunteer — 42 career firefighters across three stations under Chief Bill Evans, sharing the Lake Bardwell Drive complex with police. Ask them for the current insurance rating; your insurer will want it.
972-875-1234 ext 2244 City of Ennis108 West Knox Street for building permits, inspections and code enforcement. Unlike the unincorporated areas nearby, Ennis permits and inspects residential construction — a genuine advantage.
972-875-6442 Municipal court 972-875-4457 City of Ennis501 West Ennis Avenue, open six days with a late Thursday. Most towns on this site have no library at all. Navarro College runs its high school equivalency classes here, so that pathway is in town.
972-875-5360 City of Ennis201 Northwest Main Street. Where to get the bluebonnet trail maps each April, plus information on the National Polka Festival and the December parade.
972-878-4748 Ellis CountyYou do not have to drive to Waxahachie. There is a branch at 207 South Sonoma Trail, right in Ennis, for property tax and vehicle registration. The county collects city taxes under contract.
972-825-5390 Main office Waxahachie · 972-825-5150 Ellis CountyWaxahachie, about twenty minutes west. County clerk, elections, sheriff and road department. Confirm which justice of the peace and constable precinct serves your address rather than assuming.
elliscountytx.gov Navarro CountyThe one almost nobody checks. Ennis ISD extends into northern Navarro County, and a home there is appraised here instead — paying Navarro County and possibly a Navarro College levy Ellis County residents never pay.
903-872-6161 1250 N 45th St, Corsicana In townThe reason Ennis beats the smaller towns on this measure. A 60-bed acute care hospital at 2201 West Lampasas Street with a Level IV trauma emergency department, on a 25-acre campus, accredited as a chest pain centre.
972-875-0900 Poison control 1-800-222-1222 Larger facilitiesFor anything beyond Level IV trauma. Baylor Scott & White in Waxahachie about fifteen miles, Navarro Regional in Corsicana about seventeen, and Methodist Midlothian about twenty-three.
Know your route in advance Before you buyAn address question, particularly near Waxahachie Creek, which flows into Lake Bardwell, and Chambers Creek. Standard homeowners insurance does not cover flood.
msc.fema.gov Check, do not assumeDifferent from the smaller towns. The core of Ennis is mapped as urban and generally not eligible, unlike Venus or Rendon. Rural addresses on the fringe and in Alma, Bardwell and Bristol may still qualify.
Verify the exact parcel SchoolsAbout 6,447 students across 11 campuses, reaching out to Alma, Bardwell, Garrett and part of Bristol. Verify the campus by address — the grade ladder splits finely and zones matter.
ennis.k12.tx.us Navarro College for dual credit · Corsicana campus Genuinely activeUnlike several towns on this site, this one is working. 207 Northwest Main Street. It runs the National Polka Festival parade and a real programme of business events.
972-878-2625 Community105 Northeast Main Street, in the 1915 Van Noy railway restaurant building. Rail artefacts and Czech collections. The Sokol Hall Czech museum is separate and viewable by appointment.
972-875-1901 CommunityThe Ennis Garden Club has mapped the trails since 1951 — the oldest in Texas — and drives them weekly each April to report bloom status through the Welcome Center.
Peak is usually mid-to-late April Local newsThe Ennis Daily News covers the city directly — rarer than you would think for a town this size — with the Waxahachie Sun covering the wider county.
ennisdailynews.comLinks, phone numbers and addresses verified September 2026 and subject to change; if something has moved, tell me and I will correct it. A correction is made here deliberately because the opposite is often stated: the City of Ennis operates its own water, wastewater and sanitation services but does not operate a municipal electric utility. Electricity is supplied through the deregulated retail market, so residents select a retail provider while the transmission utility delivers power and restores outages; outages should be reported to that utility rather than to the city or the retailer. Ennis Independent School District extends into northern Navarro County, so a property in that portion is appraised by a different appraisal district, pays Navarro County rather than Ellis County, and may owe a Navarro College levy that Ellis County residents do not pay; county, appraisal district and school district must all be verified by address rather than assumed from the mailing city. The city does not collect its own property taxes; collection is contracted to the Ellis County tax office, which maintains a branch in Ennis. Tax and exemption figures change annually and should be confirmed with the appraisal district; the state school homestead exemption rose to $140,000 in November 2025, with a combined $200,000 for over-65 and disabled owners plus a ceiling on the school district portion. Active residential public improvement districts are listed by the city on newer communities, and a PID assessment sits on top of the ordinary tax bill; obtain the amount and remaining term in writing before purchasing in an affected community. Several items are flagged rather than guessed: the fire department's current insurance rating could not be confirmed from published sources and should be requested directly; the justice of the peace and constable precinct serving a specific Ennis address was not individually confirmed; one official source gives the Ellis County tax office main address as South Jackson Street and another as North Monroe Street, so confirm before travelling; and internet provider availability was not verified by address. USDA eligibility is parcel-specific and the incorporated core of Ennis is generally not eligible, unlike several smaller communities nearby. Flood status, school campus assignment and utility service must all be verified by address. Because "Ennis" collides with Ennis in County Clare, Ireland, with Ennis, Montana, with the surname and with a business forms company that originated in this town but is a separate entity, every entry here was verified against Ennis, Ellis County, Texas, and results for neighbouring Waxahachie, Palmer, Ferris, Alma, Bardwell, Garrett, Italy and Corsicana were excluded unless explicitly labelled. Listings are provided for general reference and are not endorsements; I receive no compensation from any organisation named. Bobby Franklin, REALTOR®, TREC #0805459, Legacy Realty Group – Leslie Majors Team.
Everything on this page was researched, verified and written here. The PID on the new subdivisions is named rather than skipped. The county line inside the school district is explained. And where a widely repeated claim turned out to be wrong, it was corrected rather than repeated.
The single most expensive thing a new-build buyer misses here. The city lists active public improvement districts on newer communities including Prairieview and The Hollow — an assessment that sits on top of your ordinary tax bill and funds the developer's infrastructure. It does not always come up at the sales office. I get the amount and the remaining term in writing before you commit, because a number you discover at closing is a number you cannot negotiate.
People hear Ennis has the highest tax rate in the county and stop listening. The rate is 2.17 percent. The bill is the smallest of the major Ellis County cities, near $5,800 a year against roughly $7,800 in Waxahachie, because Ennis homes cost far less. A buyer comparing only rates reaches exactly the wrong conclusion, and I would rather show you the arithmetic than let a competitor's soundbite decide it for you.
Almost nobody checks this. Ennis ISD reaches beyond Ellis County into northern Navarro County, and a home on that side is appraised elsewhere, pays a different county, and can owe a Navarro College levy that an Ellis County neighbour never pays at all. I verify the county before the district and the district before the campus — in that order, on every address.
Ennis asks for an honest trade — thirty-five miles from Dallas, three school campuses currently rated D, an active railway through downtown and a genuinely industrial character. If the train will bother you, if the drive will wear you down, or if the clay under that particular lot worries me, you will hear it from me before you hear it from an inspector. I would rather lose the commission than sell you the wrong life.
Ask for the PID assessment in writing on any new build — Prairieview and The Hollow both carry one. Second, confirm the county, because the school district crosses into Navarro and the tax consequences follow. Third, stand on the lot and listen: an active main line runs through downtown with trains several times a day, and proximity varies enormously street to street. Fourth, budget for Blackland clay — drainage, consistent watering and a foundation-aware inspection matter more here than west of the county. Fifth, do not assume USDA, because the city core is mapped urban and generally ineligible, unlike the smaller towns nearby. And sixth, know that electricity here is deregulated; the city supplies your water, sewer and rubbish, but you choose your own power retailer.
Two things to raise with all three. Tell them if the home carries a PID assessment, because it belongs in the escrow figure and is routinely left out of an early estimate. And confirm which county the parcel sits in, since an Ennis ISD address in Navarro County carries a different tax stack. 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 county it is in, whether it carries a PID, what the tax bill actually looks like, and how close it sits to the railway line.
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, environmental or lending advice. Tax comparisons use published 2025 rates, are shown before exemptions and are illustrations rather than quotes; the combined Ennis figure of approximately 2.17 percent comprises Ennis ISD at 1.2308, the City of Ennis at 0.680708 and Ellis County, and rates reset annually. One genuine source conflict is noted rather than resolved: the Ellis County component is published as 0.255778 by the city's economic development corporation and as 0.273992 in a county notice. A separate discrepancy matters for anyone comparing sources, as a widely circulated regional tax guide lists the Ennis school district rate at approximately 0.62, which is the maintenance and operations portion only; the full rate including debt service is 1.2308. Comparisons of actual dollar bills against other cities rely on published median home values and illustrate the relationship between rate and value rather than being precise for any individual property. The state school homestead exemption rose to $140,000 in November 2025, with a combined $200,000 for over-65 and disabled owners plus a ceiling on the school district portion, materially reducing owner-occupant bills. The City of Ennis lists active residential public improvement districts including Prairieview and The Hollow; a PID assessment sits on top of the ordinary property tax bill and can add materially to annual cost, so the amount and remaining term should be obtained in writing before purchasing in an affected community. Ennis Independent School District extends into northern Navarro County, so a property in that portion is appraised by a different appraisal district, pays Navarro County rather than Ellis County, and may owe a Navarro College levy that Ellis County residents do not pay; county, appraisal district, school district and campus must all be verified by address rather than assumed from the mailing city. A correction is also made here because the opposite is often stated: the City of Ennis operates its own water, wastewater and sanitation services but does not operate a municipal electric utility, and electricity is supplied through the deregulated retail market with delivery and outage restoration by the transmission utility. Ennis sits on Blackland Prairie expansive clay and soil varies by parcel, so no general description substitutes for a foundation inspection on a specific property. An active railway main line runs through Ennis and proximity and noise vary considerably by location, which buyers should assess in person. USDA Rural Development eligibility is parcel-specific and the incorporated core of Ennis is generally not eligible. Several items were flagged rather than guessed in the research behind this page, including the fire department's current insurance rating, the justice of the peace and constable precinct serving a specific address, and conflicting published addresses for the county tax office. School accountability ratings change annually and current ratings should be checked on the state portal; school information is not a recommendation regarding any school, district, neighbourhood or property. Flood status, school assignment, utility service and internet availability must all be verified by address. All real estate services are provided through Legacy Realty Group. Equal Housing Opportunity.
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