Ovilla is one of southern DFW’s most charming and desirable communities, offering a peaceful small‑town feel with convenient access to the Metroplex. Learn why commuters, young families, and long‑term homeowners are all finding their place in Ovilla.
The city recognises twenty named additions, but Ovilla is a large-lot town rather than a subdivision town. Most of it is one-acre estate zoning platted in the seventies and eighties. What actually varies from one street to the next is the school district, who delivers your water, and whether you are on sewer or septic.
1 to 5 acre lots
148 lots developed from 1971 through 2007, and the one with genuine range. Lariat, Buckboard, Georgetown and Silver Spur are one-acre estate zoning, while the Westmoreland Road frontage is zoned R-C at five acres, the largest minimum in the city.
Ask for current pricing
157 lots platted in 2004 by Shaw Development, and the closest thing Ovilla has to a modern custom community. A lot of John Houston homes on near-half-acre lots, with an active HOA that put the stone monument sign at the Shiloh and Claremont entrance.
Ask for current pricing
59 lots with 30 more pending and roughly 27 still available, which makes it the most active place to buy new in Ovilla. Shaw Development again, on 15,000 square foot minimums.
1 acre lots
112 one-acre lots from 1984 and 1985, and one of the larger established estate additions. Mature trees, city water, septic, and the space to keep horses if the lot suits.
Ask for current pricing
138 lots built out in the mid-nineties by Ken Pritchett Properties on 22,000 square foot minimums, with a small park inside it. One of the few Ovilla neighbourhoods on full city water and wastewater, so no septic to inspect.
1 acre lots
The Dallas County sliver, and the surprise on this list. Woodbridge has 28 lots from 1998 and Split Rock Terrace 14 from 1984. Both are one-acre estate zoning, both sit in Ovilla, and both feed DeSoto ISD rather than Red Oak or Midlothian.
Mostly 1 acre lots
Brookwood, Willow Creek, Shadow Wood, Thorntree, Hollywood Estates, Green Meadows, Woodlawn Acres, Suburban Estates, Westmoreland Acres, Meadow Glen, Highland Meadows, Ovilla Creek Estates and Cumberland Forest. Mostly one-acre lots on city water and septic, platted between 1971 and 2006.
Swipe or drag sideways to see them all.
School district. Most of Ovilla is Red Oak ISD, but the west side is Midlothian ISD and the Dallas County sliver is DeSoto ISD. Woodlawn Acres is split between two districts within one neighbourhood. Water. Four different providers serve this town: the City of Ovilla, Sardis-Lone Elm Water Supply Corporation, the City of Glenn Heights and Rockett Special Utility District, plus private wells on unplatted acreage. Sewer. Some additions have city wastewater and many acreage lots are on septic, which is a real inspection item and a real cost.
Ovilla is genuinely horse-friendly, but only on the right lot. Private stables are permitted by right in R-C at five acres and R-E at one acre, allowed by special use permit in R-22, and prohibited outright in R-15, which rules out Ovilla Parc, Bryson Manor and Ovilla Creek Estates. The city caps animals at two horses per acre and requires any barn or stable to sit 150 feet from the property line. Confirm the parcel's zoning district before you write, because the neighbourhood name will not tell you.
Lot counts, plat years, developers, zoning districts and utility assignments come from the City of Ovilla and its zoning and subdivision ordinances. Price ranges are deliberately sparse because Ovilla sells too few homes in any given month for neighbourhood-level pricing to be meaningful; ask for a current comparative market analysis instead. HOA dues are not published for any Ovilla addition. Almost every home here carries a Red Oak, Texas 75154 mailing address because Red Oak operates the only post office in the ZIP, which means the envelope tells you nothing about the city, the county or the school district. No Public Improvement District and no Municipal Utility District exists in Ovilla or its extraterritorial jurisdiction, verified against the city, both appraisal districts, the Texas Comptroller special district directory and state water district records; the city does operate an Economic Development Corporation and a Municipal Development District, but those are governance bodies and do not levy assessments on homeowners. Septic minimums are set by lot size: conventional leach line systems require a full acre and aerobic systems 0.60 acre. Confirm zoning, school district, water provider and septic status for any specific address before acting on it. Bobby Franklin, REALTOR®, TREC #0805459, Legacy Realty Group – Leslie Majors Team.
Ovilla has four independent businesses inside its city limits, all within two blocks of each other on West Main Street, and one of them has been written up in Texas Monthly. Everything else is a two mile drive into Red Oak. Both are on this list, and every card tells you which town it is actually in, because ZIP 75154 covers both and the directory sites get it wrong constantly.
705 W Main St, Ovilla · 972-515-8898
The anchor of this town and the reason people drive here from Dallas. Abraham Franks grew up in Lockhart, the barbecue capital of Texas, worked his way through Vegas and Cedar Hill, opened in a converted car wash in 2011, and moved up the hill into a former general store in 2017. Post-oak offset smoker.
Order the chopped brisket sandwich, or the jumbo baked potato buried under butter, cheese, sour cream and a mountain of chopped beef. The house sauce simmers six hours and comes in three versions. Texas Monthly covered it in 2018 and the Dallas Observer in 2023.
702 W Main St, Ovilla
Gift items, resale designer clothing, purses and shoes, plus handmade crochet and knit goods. Two doors from the barbecue.
700 W Main St #2, Ovilla · 469-952-4917
A traditional downtown barbershop with about a hundred reviews and a 4.7 average, which for a town this size means most of the men in it have sat in that chair.
108 S Cockrell Hill Rd, Bldg B, Ovilla
Full-service hair studio doing colour, balayage, extensions and braiding, around the corner from the Main Street row.
251 E Ovilla Rd, Red Oak · 972-617-5362
Red Oak's institution, going since 1978. Tiffany and Ryan took over her father's place in 2017. Brisket, ribs, stuffed baked potatoes and banana pudding, and they will smoke your holiday turkey.
125 W Ovilla Rd · 972-230-8500
The best-rated restaurant on this whole stretch of Ovilla Road, and quietly the answer to where you go for an anniversary without driving to Dallas. Brick-oven and gluten-free pizza, pasta, sandwiches.
Near 3708 Ovilla Rd, Red Oak
Set in a converted church, and the local answer when someone asks where to take a date without leaving Ellis County.
523 TX-342, Red Oak · 972-617-3616
Family-owned since 1993 and the nearest full bar with a real kitchen behind it. Margaritas, daily lunch and happy hour specials, and Mr. Amaya still works the room.
103 Harris Ave, Red Oak · 972-848-4840
Family-owned, originally started in Cleburne in 1980. The birria quesadilla is what people order. Drive-thru, and open to 11pm Friday and Saturday.
300 Sharaf Ave, Red Oak · 469-820-9177
Ramen and sushi in Ellis County, which is not a sentence you get to write often. The tonkotsu is the one people mention.
301 S I-35E, Red Oak · 214-612-0104
Gumbo and seafood boils. Fills up on a Friday with no marketing at all.
110 W Ovilla Rd, Red Oak · 972-576-3999
Build-your-own burgers and a bar, with banana pudding worth ordering. On the same strip as Moni's.
107 S State Hwy 342, Red Oak · 469-820-5107
Doors open at four in the morning. Donuts, kolaches and apple fritters, and the chocolate ones are gone early on Saturdays.
600 Methodist St, Red Oak · 972-576-5582
Pies and ice cream on Methodist Street. The one to order from at Thanksgiving, and order early.
129 E Ovilla Rd, Red Oak
Listed because Ovilla has had no coffee shop since Cup of Alaska closed, and this is genuinely the nearest option. A chain, and labelled as one.
3321 Ovilla Rd, Red Oak
Worth knowing about despite the name. It is a Shell-branded convenience store with a Mediterranean market slant rather than a grocery, run by Moses Ovilla for about twenty-five years. Locals go for the breakfast tacos and homemade salsa.
105 E Ovilla Rd, Red Oak
The actual grocery run for most of Ovilla, about two miles out. Walmart on Ryan Drive is the other option. A chain, and labelled as one.
138 E Ovilla Rd, Red Oak · 972-515-8500
Locally operated, and the closest thing to a garden center on this side of the county. Useful when you are keeping up an acre.
138 N 8th St, Midlothian · 469-672-6124
Thirty-two rotating craft taps, and the nearest real beer destination. About eight miles west, and worth the drive over anything closer.
There is no feed store, tack shop or farm and ranch supply inside Ovilla, which is a genuine inconvenience in a town zoned for horses. You will be buying hay and feed in Red Oak or Waxahachie. And there is no large-animal or equine veterinarian in town either. If you are moving horses here, line up a vet in Ellis County before you close rather than after, because that is not a call you want to be making for the first time in an emergency.
Verified as of September 2026. Four confirmed operating independent storefronts sit inside Ovilla city limits, all in the two-block historic core at West Main and South Cockrell Hill, which is the same core the city protects with its historical overlay and celebrates every September at Heritage Day. Everything else on this list is badged with the town it is genuinely in, which matters because ZIP 75154 covers both Ovilla and Red Oak and directory sites mislabel constantly in both directions. If an address reads East Ovilla Road, it is in Red Oak. National and regional chains are excluded except where a category has no independent option nearby, in which case the chain is listed and labelled. Cup of Alaska at 696 W Main Street in Ovilla has closed, as has Bear Creek Barbecue. Tiverton Bakeshop and Cassaro Winery appear in area searches but their city limits status could not be confirmed, so they are left off rather than guessed at. Independent barbecue frequently closes when it sells out rather than when the sign says, so call before you drive. Businesses listed are for general local reference and are not endorsements, and I receive no compensation from any business named. Bobby Franklin, REALTOR®, TREC #0805459, Legacy Realty Group – Leslie Majors Team.
The Oldest Town in Ellis County
The Tonkawa were the earliest inhabitants, with Wacos, Bidais, Anadarkos and Kickapoos hunting the region along upper Red Oak Creek.
James McNamara arrived in 1843 with his new wife Joanna as the first Peters Colony settlers here, taking 640 acres. The 1844 fortified settlement was known simply as McNamara's.
They came with the Billingsleys, Joanna's family the McCommases, and James Sterrett, her brother-in-law, who went on to found Sterrett, Texas. Sterrett's marriage to Clarinda Hale Squires on July 7, 1844 was the first marriage performed anywhere within what would become Ellis County, which was still part of old Robertson County at the time.
McNamara served as a sergeant in Smith's Company of Texas Mounted Volunteers in the War with Mexico. He died in New Orleans on May 5, 1852, and his widow sold everything and left for the California gold fields.
Settlers gathered for brush arbor meetings of the Shiloh Cumberland Presbyterian Church, chartered with twenty members on July 25, 1847. It was the first organized church in Ellis County, and the settlement took its name.
Services moved from the brush arbor into a cedar log tabernacle built by Matt McElroy and his eight sons. Rev. Finis E. King served from the founding until his death in 1859.
The Shiloh Cemetery began with the Peters Colony pioneers. The earliest marked grave is Mary C. Patton, who died August 14, 1851. Both the church and the cemetery carry Texas Historical Commission markers today.
The name Ovilla was coined by Mrs. M.M. Molloy, wife of Rev. D.G. Molloy, from the Spanish word villa. Locals say it Oh-VILL-uh, with the double L as in village.
Worth being precise here, because the internet is not. Every reliable source credits Mrs. Molloy and the Spanish villa, but none documents the year she named it or why she chose that word.
And the story that circulates locally about the post office forcing a change away from Shiloh is undocumented folklore. It may well be true, but nobody has ever written it down, so it does not belong on a page that claims to be accurate.
The first schoolhouse went up in 1849, replaced by a log cabin in 1853 that served as both church and school. A frame sanctuary was completed in 1872 by J.P. Laughlin using Cherokee County lumber.
By the early 1900s Ovilla had a post office, a bank, a cotton gin, a pharmacy, a blacksmith and several dry goods stores, serving farmers across the area.
Shiloh church carried influence well beyond the town. It helped move Trinity University to Waxahachie in 1902 and established a girls' school in Milford.
Then the post office closed in 1906. Two nineteenth-century Ovilla postmasters are buried in the Shiloh Cemetery.
The state historical marker puts it plainly: Ovilla was bypassed by railroads and major highways. Fires in 1918 and again in 1926 destroyed most of the downtown.
This is the whole explanation for why Ovilla stayed small while Red Oak and Waxahachie grew. Both of those towns got the railroad. Ovilla did not, and then lost its downtown twice in eight years.
What actually burned, what it cost and how the town rebuilt are not in the public record. The Ovilla Historical Society published a 396-page town history in 1996 that likely answers it, but that book is not online.
After the war, Dallas grew south and people wanted rural land within commuting distance. Ovilla incorporated in 1963 specifically to escape annexation by a neighbouring city.
The same story played out in Glenn Heights six years later. Small towns down here incorporated defensively, not ambitiously.
In the first census after incorporation, in 1970, Ovilla had 339 residents. The identity of the first mayor and council is not documented anywhere accessible.
1,067 residents in 1980, 2,027 in 1990, 3,405 in 2000. Growth came, but on Ovilla's terms: one-acre and five-acre minimum lots written into the zoning code.
The city's R-C Residential Conservation district exists, in the ordinance's own words, "for the purpose of conserving agrarian residential development" and "to aid in the protection of certain lands suitable for producing and supplying food and related agricultural farm and ranch products from more intense urbanization."
That is not accidental language. It is a town writing down that it does not want to become a subdivision, and it is why Ovilla still looks the way it does.
By decree of Mayor A.C. Phillips in October 1985, Ovilla Heritage Day became an annual celebration of the town's history. Forty years later it is still the biggest day of the year here.
The Library of Congress documented it in the Local Legacies project for the 2000 Bicentennial, describing Ovilla as "a place of fertile land, towering trees, and rolling terrain" with "a mayor and five-member city council, all serving without pay."
Several episodes of Walker, Texas Ranger were shot partly in Ovilla, with the downtown standing in for an old western town.
Which episodes and which years are not documented anywhere, so the specifics stay off this page. But the two-block core on West Main was chosen precisely because it still looks like what it is.
3,492 residents in 2010 and 4,304 at the 2020 Census. Mayor Richard A. Dormier leads a general law city with a five-member council that meets the second Monday of each month.
The city is midway through a Comprehensive Plan update funded by a $300,000 grant, described as a long-range blueprint for growth, infrastructure, parks and community vision, with public town halls along the way.
Meanwhile the council approved a preliminary plat for Hidden Valley Estates, 149 lots at Red Oak Creek and Westmoreland Road, a piece of land that has been brought to the city repeatedly over the years. Whether Ovilla stays a large-lot town is being decided right now, not in hindsight.
Compiled from the Texas State Historical Association, the Texas Historical Commission marker atlas, the City of Ovilla, the Ovilla zoning ordinance, the Library of Congress Local Legacies project, the Texas Almanac, the US Census Bureau, the Texas Municipal League and Best Southwest Guide. Where the record is silent it is said so rather than filled in: the year the town was named, the specifics of the 1918 and 1926 fires, the first mayor and council, and which Walker episodes filmed here are all undocumented in accessible sources. The claim that the post office forced a name change from Shiloh is folklore and is presented as such. One further conflict worth noting: country performer Boxcar Willie is tied to this area, but the Texas State Historical Association places his birth in Sterrett while Wikipedia cites his birth record as Ovilla. The Ovilla Historical Society published a 396-page town history in 1996 that likely resolves several of these questions and is not available online.
Five City Events, One of Them Forty Years Old
The annual city cleanup, run with Community Waste Disposal. Worth putting on the calendar if you have been meaning to clear out a garage or a barn.
Bring a lawn chair or a blanket. The city provides free water and there is usually a snow cone vendor on site.
The biggest day of the year here, running since 1985. A 9:00 parade from Ovilla Road Baptist Church, a car show, ninety or more vendors, food trucks, live music, a petting zoo and bounce houses at 105 S Cockrell Hill Road.
Instituted by decree of Mayor A.C. Phillips in October 1985, and the Library of Congress documented it in the Local Legacies project for the 2000 Bicentennial, which is not something most towns of four thousand people can say.
Opening ceremonies at 9:30 include a plane flyover during the National Anthem. The fire department runs a Jaws of Life extrication demonstration and a CareFlite helicopter lands and takes off. Show & Shine car show awards go out at 1:30 across categories like Best Muscle Car and Best Rat Rod.
The 2025 edition marked forty years, carried the theme "Ovilla, Small Town Texas," and named Paige Greenberg grand marshal, a four-time Texas Special Olympics state powerlifting champion with sixteen gold medals.
Hosted jointly by the Ovilla Police Department and the Ovilla Fire Department. Texas runs it the first Tuesday in October rather than August. Check the police department's page for the date and location.
The community tree lighting, with Christmas music, a visit from Santa, and cookies and hot chocolate provided by the Ovilla Service League. The fire department turns out for it.
The main park and the Heritage Day grounds. Two playgrounds, the Weldon O'Dell baseball and softball fields, two batting cages, two pickleball courts, a soccer area, a ten-foot trail, a large pavilion with power, and restrooms.
Donated to the city in 1996 by the Ovilla Gin Cooperative Association and bordered by Red Oak Creek. Holds the Veterans Memorial with a WWII anti-tank gun, a Blue Star Memorial, the historic cotton gin scales, a trail and a gazebo.
Pritchett Park sits inside Ashburne Glen, dedicated in 2009, reached on foot from Ashburne Glen Lane and Forest Edge Lane. Silver Spur Park serves the Silver Spur and Buckboard area.
Open to the public, and worth attending right now. The city is midway through a Comprehensive Plan update with public town hall meetings that will shape what Ovilla allows to be built.
No Fourth of July fireworks, no city Easter egg hunt, no fall festival or trunk-or-treat, no farmers market, no movies in the park, no standalone car show outside Heritage Day, and no 5K. Red Oak is about five miles, Midlothian about eight, Waxahachie about twelve, and all three run full calendars. Ovilla also has no library of its own; residents use the Red Oak Public Library at 200 Lakeview Parkway, roughly four to five miles out, with DeSoto and Cedar Hill as alternatives.
That is a short list for a town of four thousand three hundred, and it is the honest one. Ovilla puts nearly everything it has into one Saturday in September, and that Saturday is genuinely worth showing up for.
Dates shift annually. Confirm against the City of Ovilla calendar and the Heritage Day page, which are the authoritative sources, and check the Ovilla Police Department page for National Night Out. Heritage Day falls on the last Saturday of September by the city's own rule, which places the 41st annual on September 26, 2026, though no dated official listing confirming that had been posted at the time of writing; parade, vendor and food truck applications for 2026 are already up. Christmas in the Park and Music in the Park are confirmed recurring events but the city does not publish fixed dates for either, and the Music in the Park listing carries an internal address inconsistency. Silver Spur Park is an official city park but its page could not be retrieved, so its acreage and amenities are unconfirmed. A city-run youth sports league, camps or senior programming could not be verified; the ball fields appear to be rentable facilities rather than the base of a league. Church-hosted community events, including anything at Ovilla Road Baptist Church, could not be confirmed either way.
What sets Ovilla schools apart:
Want the complete breakdown? Read our full Ovilla schools guide →
Ovilla has no school district of its own. It has four. Most of town is Red Oak ISD, the west side is Midlothian ISD, and the small Dallas County sliver splits between DeSoto ISD and Cedar Hill ISD. Meanwhile the mailing address on nearly every home here says Red Oak, which tells you nothing at all.
Showing all campuses
340 S Westmoreland Rd · Opened January 2026
Fed by Shields, Schupmann
A brand new middle school, physically in Ovilla, that took students for the first time in January 2026. Named for Dr. Joy Cockerham Shaw, a 1956 graduate who then served the district thirty-five years.
Funded by the $97.5 million bond voters approved in 2023, and it came in under budget with only $80 million of those bonds actually sold. The grand opening on November 16, 2025 drew six to seven hundred people.
Built on a central hallway with separate academic wings for sixth, seventh and eighth grade on the north side, and the cafeteria, learning commons library, fine arts and athletics on the south. Principal Lanoria Washington. Red Oak Middle keeps the Black Hawks; this one took the Grey Hawks.
6631 Shiloh Rd · West side, Ellis County
Feeds Walnut Grove Middle
The Midlothian ISD elementary, and it also sits inside Ovilla. This is the campus for Bryson Manor, Highland Meadows, Ovilla Parc, Ovilla Oaks and Cumberland Forest.
223 W Ovilla Rd, Glenn Heights · On the Ovilla edge
Feeds Dr. Joy Shaw Middle
Built with the 2007 bond and sitting right on the Ovilla line. Earned distinctions for Academic Growth and Closing the Gaps in 2024-25.
401 E Ovilla Rd, Glenn Heights · On the Ovilla edge
Feeds Dr. Joy Shaw Middle
The largest elementary in Red Oak ISD. Along with Shields, it is where most Ovilla children in Red Oak ISD start.
220 SH-342, Red Oak · Class 6A
Fed by Both Red Oak middle schools
Where every Red Oak ISD student from Ovilla finishes. Ninety-four percent four-year graduation rate, dual credit through TSTC and a full CTE programme.
Midlothian · Ellis County
Fed by McClatchey Elementary
The middle school for Ovilla's Midlothian ISD side. Note that Midlothian also operates Dieterich Middle nearby, so confirm the specific lot rather than assuming.
4000 FM 1387, Midlothian · Opened 2014
Fed by Walnut Grove Middle
The high school for Ovilla's Midlothian ISD students. Heritage's boundary deliberately reaches into both Cedar Hill and Ovilla, and it earned an A in the most recent ratings.
Midlothian students also use The MILE, a standalone career and technical centre that more than 850 students attend daily for industry-certified programmes in construction, healthcare, welding, automotive and technology. Ovilla families on this side get access to it.
Split Rock Terrace & Woodbridge Addition
The path Cockrell Hill → Moates → McCowan → DeSoto High
DeSoto runs grade bands rather than K-5 campuses. Cockrell Hill covers kindergarten through second at 425 S Cockrell Hill Road, Moates covers third through fifth, then McCowan Middle and DeSoto High School at 600 Eagle Drive.
One thing a buyer on this side should know and weigh for themselves. DeSoto ISD has been under a Texas Education Agency conservatorship since September 2020, imposed after an audit found financial mismanagement and roughly a $21 million deficit.
The academic recovery has been real, from a D rating in 2018 to a B in 2022 and a C most recently. But renewed fiscal pressure and superintendent turnover have followed, and whether formal oversight has fully ended is not clear from public sources. Read the district's own board coverage before deciding how much weight to give it.
Part of the Dallas County portion
High school Cedar Hill High School
The fourth district, and the one almost nobody mentions. The Dallas appraisal district carries a distinct Ovilla and Cedar Hill ISD taxing combination, and Cedar Hill ISD's own documents say it serves portions of Ovilla.
Those parcels attend Cedar Hill High School at 1 Longhorn Boulevard, the district's single comprehensive high school. Cedar Hill also runs a Collegiate Academy for early college.
The specific elementary and middle school could not be pinned down from a published boundary map, so any buyer on this sliver needs to run the address through the Cedar Hill School Finder rather than assume.
3251 Ovilla Rd · 54-acre shared campus
A private Christian school physically in Ovilla, run as a ministry of Ovilla Road Baptist Church on the same fifty-four acre campus. Accredited by ACSI and Cognia, competing in TAPPS athletics across roughly a dozen sports.
Founded around 1990 with nine kindergarten students, now serving pre-kindergarten through twelfth grade with capacity for 578. Tuition is reported around $12,000. Texas House member Brian Harrison is an alumnus.
For families who want a private option without leaving town, this is the only one inside Ovilla.
Here is the neighbourhood map as the city publishes it. Midlothian ISD: Bryson Manor, Highland Meadows, Ovilla Parc, Ovilla Oaks and Cumberland Forest. Red Oak ISD: Ashburne Glen, Brookwood, Green Meadows, Hollywood Estates, Meadow Glen, Ovilla Creek Estates, Shadow Wood, Suburban Estates, Thorntree, Westmoreland Acres, Westmoreland Road Estates and Willow Creek. DeSoto ISD: Split Rock Terrace and Woodbridge Addition. And Woodlawn Acres is genuinely split between Red Oak and Midlothian depending on the individual address, with no published line showing where the split falls.
For 2025: Red Oak ISD $1.0633, Midlothian ISD $1.0708, Cedar Hill ISD around $1.1279 and DeSoto ISD $1.2252 per $100. Ovilla's median sale price sits near $570,000, well above its neighbours, which makes the spread matter more here than anywhere else in the county. On a $570,000 home that is roughly $6,061 a year in Red Oak ISD against $6,984 in DeSoto ISD, a difference of about $920 every year you own it. Midlothian also grants a ten percent local homestead exemption that lowers taxable value further.
This is the trap on the west side. Midlothian ISD assigns campuses by the individual lot rather than by subdivision or ZIP, and because the district runs two high schools, two houses on the same street can genuinely feed different schools. Run the exact address through the district tool, then confirm the taxing unit on the parcel at the Ellis or Dallas appraisal district, which is the legal source of truth for which district taxes the home.
Accountability ratings are intentionally not shown on the campus cards. TEA letter grades and third-party scores change annually and a single year rarely reflects what a campus is actually like. For current ratings go to TXschools.gov, or GreatSchools and Niche for third-party scores. For context, Midlothian ISD's most recent district rating is a B at 85 with both high schools earning an A, Red Oak ISD is a C with a score that rose from 77 to 78, and DeSoto ISD is a C. Several things could not be verified and are flagged rather than guessed: the exact line splitting Woodlawn Acres between two districts, the specific Cedar Hill ISD elementary and middle school serving the Dallas County sliver, whether Red Oak ISD's 2025 bond passed, and the current status of DeSoto ISD's conservatorship. Enrollment figures are recent snapshots and vary by source. Attendance zones change; both Red Oak and Midlothian have new elementary schools funded that will trigger rezones when they open. Confirm any specific address with the relevant district and appraisal district before acting on it. This information is provided for general reference only and is not a recommendation regarding any school, campus, district, neighbourhood or property. Bobby Franklin, REALTOR®, TREC #0805459, Legacy Realty Group – Leslie Majors Team.
Median Sales Price
What Ovilla homes actually sold for each month, not what sellers hoped to get. Read it alongside the closed sales tab, because in a town this small the volume explains the price.
Ovilla closes roughly five to seven homes in a typical month. At that volume a single acreage sale or a single Broadmoor closing moves the median by tens of thousands. Read the six and twelve month trend, never a single point.
You are competing against First Texas Homes selling Broadmoor from $630,000 to $910,000. Price against comparable acreage resale, not against a new build with an incentive package attached.
Watch this line rather than a portal estimate. Texas is a non-disclosure state, so Zillow, Redfin and Movoto are all modelling different things and currently disagree by nearly $190,000 on what a typical Ovilla home is worth.
Acreage takes longer than tract housing almost everywhere, because the buyer pool is smaller and more specific. Expect Ovilla to run longer than Red Oak or Glenn Heights, and do not read that as weakness.
This sets expectations before you list. A property with a barn, a well or five acres is not competing against every buyer in the county; it is competing for a narrow group who want exactly that.
Longer market time here often means room to negotiate, and it means you have time to do the septic inspection, the well test and the zoning check properly rather than in a panic.
Under 10 showings means buyers are deciding quickly. Over 20 means they are touring a lot of properties first, which is common with acreage because every tract is genuinely different.
This separates a pricing problem from a presentation problem. If the average is 12 showings and you are at 25 with no offer, something is fixable before you lose more market time.
High showings-to-pending means you can be selective without losing homes. Read it alongside days on market: low on both is a hot market, high on both means you have the advantage.
This is the most important chart on the page. Ovilla closes somewhere near sixty to eighty-five homes in an entire year. Every other metric here is calculated from that handful, which is why one month tells you almost nothing.
Rising prices with rising volume is a genuine seller's market. Rising prices with falling volume means momentum is weakening, and in a town this size that distinction gets missed constantly.
Low volume is not a warning sign here, it is the normal condition of a town of 4,300 people on one-acre lots. It does mean the right property may only come up once or twice a year.
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. Ovilla is the thinnest market covered on this site, typically five to seven closings a month, so treat every monthly figure as directional and rely on six and twelve month trends. New construction sold directly through a builder does not always appear in MLS counts, which matters here because First Texas Homes is actively selling Broadmoor Estates well above the resale median. These charts cover Ovilla as a whole and do not separate the Ellis County and Dallas County portions, which carry different school districts and tax stacks differing by roughly two thousand dollars a year on a $500,000 home. They also do not separate acreage from platted subdivision product, which are effectively two different markets inside one small city. Market statistics describe the city as a whole and are not a substitute for a comparative market analysis on a specific property. Texas is a non-disclosure state, so publicly available sale prices elsewhere are estimates rather than recorded figures. Bobby Franklin, REALTOR®, TREC #0805459, Legacy Realty Group – Leslie Majors Team.
Pick a purchase year and the price fills in with what a typical Ovilla home cost that year. If you own here, type over it with what you actually paid. Fair warning up front: Ovilla closes about five to seven homes a month, which makes this the thinnest market on this site and the one where a single number deserves the most scepticism.
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.
Ovilla is a town of about 4,300 people that records roughly five to seven closings in a typical month, or somewhere near sixty to eighty-five a year. At that volume one closing moves the median by tens of thousands of dollars. First Texas Homes is selling Broadmoor Estates from about $630,000 to $910,000, well above the resale median, so a month with two builder closings and a month without look like two different towns. Trust six and twelve month trends here, never a single month.
Zillow says $506,671, Redfin's recent median sale says $534,709, the Census puts median owner-occupied value at $446,700, and Movoto's median list price is near $694,000. Those are not errors. They measure different things: a modelled typical value, actual closings, what owners report, and what sellers are asking. This tool uses the Zillow figure because it is smoothed across the whole housing stock rather than whichever handful of homes happened to close.
On the federal index, Ellis County fell about 6 percent and Dallas County about 5 percent peak to trough across the entire housing crash. Over the same period Las Vegas fell roughly 62 percent, Phoenix 56 percent and Miami 48 percent on Case-Shiller. Note those are two different indexes: the federal series excludes foreclosures and reads milder everywhere, so the gap is real but not quite as wide as the raw numbers suggest.
Growth rates are the FHFA All-Transactions House Price Index, annual values 2009 through 2024: Ellis County, Texas (FRED series ATNHPIUS48139A), Dallas County, Texas (ATNHPIUS48113A), the State of Texas (TXSTHPI) and the United States (USSTHPI). State and national figures are annual averages of the four published quarters. The county series publishes only through 2024, which is why the slider ends there; the 2025 values are expected in early 2027. The prefilled dollar figures are derived, not published. They are calculated by applying the Ellis County index to Ovilla's Zillow Home Value Index of $506,671, observed June 30, 2026 and down 0.2 percent year over year. Ellis County is used because Ovilla sits overwhelmingly in it, and because the two county indexes tracked within about a point over the full period; the Dallas County line is plotted so you can see that. Entering your own purchase price replaces the estimate entirely. One honest limitation specific to Ovilla. The FHFA index tracks repeat sales financed with conforming Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac mortgages, which excludes cash purchases, jumbo loans, and land-and-construction financing, and requires two arm's length sales of the same property. Ovilla's product is acreage, custom homes and horse property at a median approaching $570,000, where cash and jumbo financing are more common and custom homes on acreage rarely resell twice. That means this index mostly reflects conventional suburban resales elsewhere in Ellis County and may understate both the price level and the volatility of Ovilla specifically. It is the best available repeat-sales measure, not a measure of Ovilla itself. The county indexes are labeled developmental and subject to revision. Equity figures assume a 30-year fixed mortgage at that year's Freddie Mac annual average rate, held to today, with no refinancing, no extra principal and no additional borrowing. They exclude closing costs, property taxes, insurance, HOA dues, maintenance, improvements and selling costs. Worth knowing at this price point: the 2026 conforming loan limit is $832,750 in both Ellis and Dallas counties, and anything above that requires jumbo financing. 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.
Ovilla is a large-lot town of about 4,300 people sitting between I-35E and US 67, with no interstate frontage of its own. That is the whole appeal. You get an acre, room for horses, and a two-block downtown, and Cedar Hill, Midlothian and Waxahachie are each a quarter hour away.
TxDOT is rebuilding the I-35E interchange at Ovilla Road and replacing the Ovilla Road bridge as part of Loop 9, with lanes closed and traffic detoured through late 2026. If you drive this route today you are driving a detour, not the finished commute. Loop 9 Segment A, running from US 67 to I-35E straight through Ovilla, is still in design with construction expected around 2027.
Ovilla zoned itself this way on purpose. R-E requires a full acre and R-C requires five, and the ordinance says out loud that it exists to conserve agrarian residential development. Horses are allowed by right on those lots, two per acre, with barns set back 150 feet.
No Municipal Utility District and no Public Improvement District exists anywhere in Ovilla or its extraterritorial jurisdiction. In a metro where Princeton, Celina and Forney buyers inherit special district debt on top of the tax rate, that absence is worth real money.
Cedar Hill and Midlothian sit about eight miles out and Waxahachie thirteen. Ovilla has four independent businesses of its own, which means the grocery run, the restaurants and the retail all happen in a neighbouring town. For most people here that trade is the point.
Ovilla is not a DART member city, unlike Glenn Heights four miles east. STAR Transit covers Ellis County for demand-response and medical trips but runs no fixed route here. The nearest option is DART's Glenn Heights Park and Ride at 1200 E Bear Creek Road, about eight to ten minutes away, where non-member-city riders may owe parking fees.
Mean travel time to work here is 31.7 minutes against a national 26.4, and about 6 percent are super commuters over ninety minutes. But 27.1 percent work from home, far above normal, and households average roughly three cars. Rush hour into Dallas runs 40 to 55 minutes and Fort Worth 55 to 70.
Four different utilities serve this town depending on the address, and many acreage lots are on septic rather than city sewer. A conventional leach line system needs a full acre and an aerobic system 0.60 acre, which is part of why the lots are the size they are.
Browsing, or actually moving? Either is fine. Send me an address and I will tell you which school district it is in, who delivers its water, whether it is on septic, and whether the zoning would let you keep a horse, before you are anywhere near ready to write.
Browse Ovilla homes →Drive times are approximate off-peak estimates measured from central Ovilla near Ovilla Road and Cockrell Hill Road, synthesised from routing and distance sources rather than a single live measurement. Treat every figure as an estimate and confirm your own route before relying on it, particularly while the I-35E interchange work is under way. The DFW figure varies from 34 to 43 miles across sources depending on whether you route via SH 360 or Belt Line. Rush hour figures are informed estimates rather than measured samples; TxDOT describes this stretch of I-35E as carrying 180,000 vehicles a day and among the most congested roadways in Texas per the Texas A&M Transportation Institute. Commute statistics are American Community Survey figures for Ovilla. Loop 9 Segment B including the I-35E interchange is under construction with the detour in place through late 2026 and full completion expected in 2028; Segment A from US 67 to I-35E remains in design with construction start around 2027 subject to funding. FM 664 widening from two and four lanes to six is in TxDOT's Ellis County design list with let dates around 2028. DART fare and parking policy for non-member-city riders should be confirmed directly with DART. Zoning, water provider, septic status and school district all vary by parcel and must be verified by address. Bobby Franklin, REALTOR®, TREC #0805459, Legacy Realty Group – Leslie Majors Team.
These are the questions that actually come up, in roughly the order people ask them. Most of them have a different answer depending on the specific parcel, because in a town of 4,300 people spread across two counties, four school districts and four water utilities, almost nothing here is uniform.
Because Red Oak runs the only post office in ZIP 75154. Nearly every home in Ovilla carries a Red Oak, Texas mailing address while sitting entirely inside the City of Ovilla.
The envelope tells you nothing about which city governs the property, which county taxes it, which school district serves it or who delivers its water. It also means directory sites mislabel Ovilla and Red Oak businesses in both directions constantly. Verify the parcel itself, never the mail.
There is no single answer, and the spread is about two thousand dollars a year.
The city rate is $0.626213 per $100 for 2025, with $0.612219 proposed for the coming year. Everything after that depends on your county and district.
Ellis County side: add Ellis County with lateral roads at $0.293662 and then Red Oak ISD at $1.0633 or Midlothian ISD at $1.0708. Totals land near $1.98 to $1.99 per $100, or roughly $9,900 to $9,950 a year on a $500,000 home before exemptions.
Dallas County side: add Dallas County at $0.2155, Parkland Hospital at $0.2120 and Dallas College at $0.106575, then Cedar Hill ISD at $1.1279 or DeSoto ISD at $1.2252. Totals run $2.29 to $2.39, or roughly $11,400 to $11,900 a year.
Worth noting that exemptions narrow it somewhat, since Dallas County offers a twenty percent homestead exemption and $100,000 over-65 and disabled exemptions that Ellis County does not.
This is the single most important question in Ovilla, and there are four possible answers plus a fifth.
The City of Ovilla serves most of the older estate additions. Sardis-Lone Elm Water Supply Corporation, a member-owned nonprofit in Midlothian with over 4,800 members, serves the west side including Bryson Manor, Highland Meadows and Ovilla Parc. The City of Glenn Heights serves Ovilla Creek Estates with both water and wastewater. Rockett Special Utility District serves surrounding areas and parts of the extraterritorial jurisdiction. And unplatted acreage may be on a private well.
Sardis-Lone Elm and Rockett are member-owned, which means new service involves a membership or meter cost separate from the monthly bill. Call the city at 972-617-7262 with the specific address, then confirm directly with whichever provider they name, before you write.
Probably, if it sits on acreage. Ovilla's lot sizes and its septic rules are directly connected: a conventional leach line system requires a full acre and an aerobic system requires 0.60 acre. That is part of why the minimum lots are the size they are.
Get the septic system inspected during your option period as a separate line item, not as part of a general home inspection. If it is aerobic, ask for the maintenance contract, because those systems require ongoing scheduled inspections and that is a recurring annual cost most buyers do not budget for. A failed system has to be repaired or replaced to code, which is a major expense.
On a private well, test water quality for bacteria and nitrates at minimum, and confirm the well depth, the pump condition and whether it is properly registered.
Yes, on the right lot, and the rules are specific.
Private stables are permitted by right in R-C, the five-acre conservation district, and in R-E, the one-acre estate district. They require a special use permit in R-22. They are prohibited outright in R-15, which rules out Ovilla Parc, Bryson Manor and Ovilla Creek Estates.
The city allows a maximum of two horses per acre, and any barn or stable must sit 150 feet from the property line. Confirm the zoning district on the specific parcel before you write, because the neighbourhood name will not tell you and neither will the listing.
Ag valuation is common on Ovilla acreage and it is not technically an exemption. It taxes land on its agricultural productivity value rather than market value, which can cut the taxable base dramatically.
It does not transfer automatically when you buy. You must reapply to the Ellis Central Appraisal District on Texas Comptroller Form 50-129, generally before April 30, and the land must have been in qualifying use for five of the preceding seven years.
Here is the part that costs people money. When land comes out of qualifying use, the county recaptures the tax difference for the prior three years plus five percent annual interest under HB 1743, which lowered it from the previous five years at seven percent. On a tract carrying market value in the hundreds of thousands against an ag value of a few thousand, that can reach well into five figures. Building a homesite or fencing a yard can trigger it. Get a written rollback estimate from Ellis CAD before you change anything.
One of four. Most of Ovilla is Red Oak ISD. The west side is Midlothian ISD. The Dallas County sliver splits between DeSoto ISD and Cedar Hill ISD.
Two campuses sit physically inside Ovilla and belong to different districts: Dr. Joy Shaw Middle School, Red Oak ISD, opened at 340 S Westmoreland Road in January 2026, and Dolores W. McClatchey Elementary, Midlothian ISD, at 6631 Shiloh Road.
Two warnings. Woodlawn Acres is genuinely split between Red Oak and Midlothian with no published line. And Midlothian assigns by individual lot rather than by subdivision, so two houses on the same street can feed different schools.
No. A PID is a Public Improvement District, a per-lot assessment funding neighbourhood infrastructure and collected with your property taxes for twenty to forty years. A MUD is its own governmental district financing water and sewer while levying a separate tax rate.
Neither exists anywhere in Ovilla or its extraterritorial jurisdiction, verified against the city, both appraisal districts, the Texas Comptroller special district directory and state water district records. Compare that with Princeton, Celina, Forney or parts of Waxahachie, where those assessments ride on top of the tax rate. Confirm on any specific lot, but the absence of that debt is worth real money at Ovilla's price point.
By the numbers, unusually so. AreaVibes, using 2023 FBI data, recorded three violent crimes and eighteen property crimes for the entire year, putting the overall rate roughly 79 percent below the national average. AdvisorSmith ranked Ovilla the fourth safest small city in Texas.
One honest caveat. In a town this small the raw counts are so low that percentage changes swing wildly and mean almost nothing. City-data recorded a 158 percent jump in its 2024 crime index, which sounds alarming and reflects a handful of incidents. Read the absolute numbers, not the percentages.
The city runs its own police department under Chief Joey Bennett with eleven full-time officers, and its own combination fire department under Chief Cory McLaurin with about 36 personnel including volunteers. Ambulance transport comes from Midlothian Fire Department.
Community Waste Disposal holds the contract, at 972-392-9300 option 2, and your day depends on which side of town you are on.
Thursday for the west side, meaning west of Cockrell Hill Road and south of Red Oak Creek Road. Friday for the east side, east of Cockrell Hill and north of Red Oak Creek. Recycling runs every other week on your trash day, and bulky waste and brush up to four cubic yards weekly on the recycle day. Set out by 7am.
Household hazardous waste is handled through one annual X-treme Green event paired with the May Trash-Off, rather than the monthly doorside pickup some neighbouring cities offer.
The area is deregulated. Oncor delivers the power and handles outages at 888-313-4747, while you separately choose a retail provider through Power to Choose, the official state marketplace.
Natural gas is Atmos Energy, with a 24-hour emergency line at 866-322-8667. But here is the acreage catch: not every part of Ovilla has a gas main, and propane is common on outlying and unplatted lots. Confirm gas availability at the specific address rather than assuming, because a propane tank changes both your monthly cost and your appliance options.
Maybe, and this genuinely varies more here than in a subdivision town. AT&T Fiber reaches roughly three quarters of Ovilla addresses and Spectrum offers cable, but on outlying acreage the line may simply stop short of the house.
Nextlink fixed wireless covers about 98 percent of the city and is often the practical answer on rural lots, alongside Rise Broadband, T-Mobile 5G Home Internet, Viasat, HughesNet and Starlink.
If you work from home, and 27 percent of Ovilla does, check the exact street address with each provider before you write rather than trusting a city-wide coverage number.
Not in Ovilla. The nearest emergency care is Medical City ER in Red Oak at 317 E Ovilla Road, a freestanding emergency room a few minutes away.
For a full-service hospital, Methodist Midlothian Medical Center at 1201 E US-287 is ten to fifteen minutes, and Baylor Scott & White in Waxahachie at 2400 N I-35E is fifteen to twenty, with 129 beds and a 35-bed emergency department. Methodist Southwest in Dallas, formerly Methodist Charlton, serves the Dallas County direction.
There is no urgent care or primary care physician inside Ovilla city limits. The nearest are in Red Oak and Midlothian.
Not inside Ovilla, which is a genuine gap in a town zoned for horses.
Hendricks Equine Veterinary Service in Waxahachie has run a mobile equine practice across Ellis and surrounding counties since 1999, at 972-935-3993, offering farm calls and after-hours emergency service. For small animals, Ellis County Veterinary Clinic in Waxahachie offers walk-in and weekend availability.
Establish the relationship before you move the horses, not during an emergency at ten at night. That is the single most practical piece of advice on this page for an equestrian buyer.
Neither. Residents use the Red Oak Public Library at 200 Lakeview Parkway, about ten minutes out; ask about the nonresident card policy, since terms vary.
On transit, Ovilla is not a DART member city, unlike Glenn Heights four miles east. STAR Transit covers Ellis County for demand-response and medical trips but runs no fixed route here. The nearest facility is DART's Glenn Heights Park and Ride at 1200 E Bear Creek Road, roughly four to five miles away, where riders from non-member cities may owe parking fees.
Households here average about three cars, which is the honest reflection of all this.
Ovilla has a specific and recent answer. On December 26, 2015, an EF-3 tornado tracked 8.5 miles from east of Midlothian directly through Ovilla and into Glenn Heights, with peak winds of 145 to 155 mph, a path up to 125 yards wide, 46 injuries and $9.73 million in damage. It was the first confirmed December EF-3 in Ellis County history.
Beyond that, North Texas carries heavy hail exposure, which raises homeowners premiums and makes roof age and condition a serious inspection item rather than a formality. Peak severe weather season runs roughly March through June.
Red Oak Creek runs along the edge of Heritage Park, and creeks and drainage cross parts of town. Check the specific address at the FEMA Flood Map Service Center and review the plat and survey for mapped floodplain and drainage easements before you make an offer.
On acreage this matters more than in a subdivision, because a low corner of a five-acre tract can be unusable without appearing anywhere in the listing. Clay soil also drains poorly, so yard ponding after heavy rain is normal here and does not by itself indicate a flood problem.
Ovilla sits on Blackland Prairie clay, which swells when saturated and shrinks hard in drought, stressing slab foundations and under-slab plumbing. It is the most common expensive surprise in this part of Texas.
Watch for stair-step cracks in exterior brick, interior sheetrock cracks, sticking doors and windows, and sloping floors. Get an independent foundation inspection during the option period rather than relying on a general home inspector's glance.
And know that standard Texas homeowners policies generally exclude foundation movement from expansive clay, treating it as gradual earth movement. Consistent watering through summer drought is the cheapest prevention there is.
Yes to all three, and to more than you might expect. Ovilla requires permits for houses, fences, accessory buildings including barns and shops, swimming pools, sprinkler systems and flatwork, and even garage sales.
Call the permit clerk at 972-617-7262. Approval typically takes three to four days, though the code allows up to two weeks. Remember the 150-foot setback on any barn or stable, and confirm your zoning district first, because what you are allowed to build depends entirely on whether the parcel is R-C, R-E, R-22 or R-15.
Change it, though nobody can say exactly how much. Loop 9 Segment B is under construction now, including the reconstruction of the I-35E interchange at Ovilla Road and replacement of the Ovilla Road bridge, with detours in place through late 2026 and full completion expected in 2028.
Segment A runs from US 67 to I-35E straight through Ovilla, about 9.4 miles, and remains in design with construction expected around 2027 subject to funding.
When it is done Ovilla gets direct I-35E to I-45 connectivity, which historically is exactly what precedes growth pressure on a rural town. Meanwhile the city is midway through a Comprehensive Plan update and recently reviewed a preliminary plat for the 149-lot Hidden Valley Estates. Whether Ovilla stays a large-lot town is being decided right now.
A great deal, and that is more or less the point of living here. No grocery store, no hospital, no library, no transit, no feed store, no large animal vet, and essentially no retail, chain dining or entertainment. The city has four independent businesses inside its limits.
What it has instead is location. Red Oak and Midlothian are about ten minutes, Cedar Hill and its Uptown Village retail corridor about the same, and Waxahachie fifteen to twenty. Every daily errand happens in a neighbouring town.
If you want a walkable downtown with a restaurant scene, Waxahachie is the answer. If you want an acre, a barn and a two-block Main Street, that is what Ovilla is selling, and it has been selling it since 1844.
Roughly flat to modestly down, but the real answer is that Ovilla is too small for monthly numbers to mean much.
The Zillow Home Value Index is $506,671 as of June 2026, down 0.2 percent year over year. Redfin's median sale price is $534,709, down 4.4 percent. The Census puts median owner-occupied value at $446,700, and Movoto's median list price near $694,000. Those are not contradictions, they measure different things.
Here is what matters. Ovilla closes about five to seven homes in a typical month, maybe sixty to eighty-five a year. First Texas Homes is selling Broadmoor Estates from about $630,000 to $910,000, well above the resale median. Two builder closings in one month and the median jumps; none the next month and it collapses. Trust six and twelve month trends here, never a single month. And remember Texas is a non-disclosure state, so portal figures are models rather than records of what changed hands.
Question not answered here? Ask it directly. Send me an address and I will tell you the county, the district, the water provider and the zoning before you are anywhere near ready to write.
Call 214-228-0003Answers observed September 2026. Tax rates are 2025 adopted rates and change each autumn; combined figures are before exemptions, and the November 2025 constitutional amendments raised the state school homestead exemption. Several items could not be verified and are flagged rather than guessed: exact City of Ovilla water and sewer rate amounts, the fire department's ISO rating and published response times, the current status of the Hidden Valley Estates plat, the Red Oak Public Library nonresident card fee, and typical well drilling and septic repair costs, which are given as general North Texas ranges rather than Ovilla quotes. Sardis-Lone Elm membership counts differ across sources; the corporation's own figure is used. Crime statistics in a town this small swing widely year to year and should be read as absolute counts rather than percentage changes. Water provider, septic status, zoning district, school district and floodplain all vary parcel by parcel and must be verified by address. Foundation repair costs are DFW regional averages. School information is provided for general reference and is not a recommendation regarding any school, district or neighbourhood. Nothing here is legal, tax, insurance or investment advice. Bobby Franklin, REALTOR®, TREC #0805459, Legacy Realty Group – Leslie Majors Team.
Every official link a new resident needs, verified and searchable. Ovilla spans two counties and four water utilities, so several of these are listed more than once. Check which applies to your address first.
City services, departments and council. City Hall is at 105 S Cockrell Hill Road, and this one number reaches nearly everything: utilities, permits, code and animal control.
Start here to find out who serves your address. The city can tell you which of the four providers covers a specific parcel, then you confirm directly with them.
Ovilla permits more than most cities: houses, fences, barns and accessory buildings, pools, sprinklers, flatwork and even garage sales. Approval usually runs three to four days.
The full code, including what your zoning district actually allows. Stables by right in R-C and R-E, special use permit in R-22, prohibited in R-15, two horses per acre, 150-foot barn setback.
Council meets 6pm the second Monday of each month. Worth watching right now, with the Comprehensive Plan update under way and Hidden Valley Estates in the plat process.
Eleven full-time officers under Chief Joey Bennett. Daytime non-emergency runs through City Hall; after hours dispatch is handled by Midlothian at 972-775-3333.
A combination department of about 36 personnel including volunteers, under Chief Cory McLaurin. Ovilla crews first respond; Midlothian provides ambulance transport. They are always recruiting volunteers.
Serves the west side including Bryson Manor, Highland Meadows and Ovilla Parc. A member-owned nonprofit since 1964 with over 4,800 members and a TCEQ Superior System rating. New service means a membership cost.
Serves surrounding areas and parts of the extraterritorial jurisdiction. 126 Alton Adams Drive, Waxahachie. Note that non-standard service applications are only accepted on the first business day of the month.
The fourth provider, and the one nobody expects. Glenn Heights supplies both water and wastewater to Ovilla Creek Estates.
The rules governing septic systems. A conventional leach line needs a full acre and an aerobic system 0.60 acre, which is why Ovilla's lots are the size they are. Inspect during your option period.
If your parcel is in Ellis County, this is where your value, exemptions, agricultural valuation and protests live. Also where you get a rollback estimate before changing land use.
Form 50-129, filed with Ellis CAD, generally before April 30. Ag valuation does not transfer when you buy; you must reapply. Land must have been in qualifying use five of the prior seven years.
Pay taxes and register a vehicle. The Red Oak branch at 101 Live Oak Street is far closer than Waxahachie for most Ovilla addresses.
County clerk for deeds and records, elections administration, and county services. County seat is Waxahachie.
300 S Jackson Street, Waxahachie. Non-emergency dispatch for the county.
If your parcel is in the Dallas County sliver, your value and exemptions live here. Dallas offers a 20 percent homestead exemption plus $100,000 over-65 and disabled exemptions that Ellis County does not.
Pay taxes and register a vehicle for the Dallas County sliver. A different office from the appraisal district, which trips up more new owners than anything else.
Voter registration and property records for the Dallas County side. Ovilla voters register through whichever county their address falls in.
Check the flood zone before you write, especially near Red Oak Creek. On acreage, also review the plat and survey for drainage easements that make part of a tract unusable.
Free to file and the single biggest thing new owners forget. File with the appraisal district for your county, Ellis or Dallas. The state school exemption rose to $140,000 in November 2025.
Deregulated territory, so you pick your own retail electricity provider. This is the official state site run by the Public Utility Commission, not a lookalike.
Delivers the power and handles outages. Not who you buy from. Text OUT to 66267 to report an outage.
Natural gas, though not every part of Ovilla has a main and propane is common on outlying acreage. If you smell gas, leave first and call 911, then the emergency line at 866-322-8667.
Your day depends on your side of town. Thursday west of Cockrell Hill Road, Friday east of it. Recycling every other week, bulky and brush weekly on the recycle day, out by 7am.
Start here. Serves most of Ovilla, and Dr. Joy Shaw Middle School at 340 S Westmoreland Road sits inside the city. If the locator returns no campus, you are in another district.
Serves the west side, with McClatchey Elementary at 6631 Shiloh Road inside Ovilla. Midlothian assigns by individual lot, so two houses on one street can differ. It also grants a 10 percent local homestead exemption.
The Dallas County sliver splits between these two. Cedar Hill serving part of Ovilla surprises almost everyone, and the specific campuses require running the address through each district's finder.
State accountability ratings straight from the Texas Education Agency, for all four districts serving Ovilla.
The only private school inside Ovilla, at 3251 Ovilla Road on a 54-acre campus shared with Ovilla Road Baptist Church. Pre-K through twelfth, ACSI accredited, TAPPS athletics.
There is no large animal vet in Ovilla. This mobile equine practice has covered Ellis County since 1999 from Waxahachie, with farm calls and after-hours emergency service. Call before you move the horses, not during an emergency.
The nearest emergency care, a freestanding ER at 317 E Ovilla Road, minutes away. For a full hospital, Methodist Midlothian is ten to fifteen minutes and Baylor Waxahachie fifteen to twenty.
Ovilla has no library of its own. This one at 200 Lakeview Parkway is about ten minutes out. Ask about the nonresident card policy, since terms vary.
Cindy Jones & Founders Park behind City Hall hosts Heritage Day and holds the ball fields and pickleball courts. Heritage Park at 625 W Main sits on the old cotton gin site with the Veterans Memorial and the original gin scales.
Serves Ovilla businesses alongside Red Oak, and promotes Ovilla Heritage Day each September.
Focus Daily News and the Ellis County Press both cover Ovilla council meetings, Heritage Day and county road projects, which no larger outlet does.
Ovilla is not a DART member city. This is the nearest facility, at 1200 E Bear Creek Road about four to five miles east, and riders from non-member cities may owe parking fees.
Covers Ellis County for demand-response and medical trips, generally requiring advance booking. It runs no fixed route in Ovilla, so this is a scheduled service rather than a commute option.
Segment B is under construction including the I-35E interchange at Ovilla Road, with detours through late 2026. Segment A runs straight through Ovilla and is still in design.
Register and title a vehicle within 30 days of moving here, filed through the tax office for your county. Relevant here, since households average about three vehicles.
Transfer an out-of-state license within 90 days. Ellis County residents use the Waxahachie office; Dallas County residents use a Dallas-area office.
Register to vote. Ovilla residents register through either Ellis County or Dallas County depending on the address. Registration closes 30 days before an election.
Nothing matched that. Try a shorter word, or clear the filter.
Which county? It sets your appraisal district, your tax stack and your school district, and the gap between the cheapest and most expensive combination runs about two thousand dollars a year on a $500,000 home. Who delivers the water? Four utilities serve this town plus private wells, and two of them are member-owned with a membership cost. Is it on septic? Inspect it separately during the option period and get the maintenance contract if it is aerobic. Does it carry ag valuation? It does not transfer on sale, you must reapply by April 30, and taking land out of use triggers three years of recaptured tax plus five percent interest.
Links verified September 2026. Phone numbers are listed only where they are genuinely more useful than the website. City Hall at 972-617-7262 handles utilities, permits, code compliance and animal control; after-hours police dispatch runs through Midlothian at 972-775-3333. Several items could not be verified and should be confirmed directly: exact City of Ovilla water and sewer rate amounts, the fire department's ISO rating and published response times, the Red Oak Public Library nonresident card fee, and the current status of the Hidden Valley Estates plat. Sardis-Lone Elm membership counts differ across sources; the corporation's own figure is used here. Government sites reorganise page paths periodically, so confirm any link that does not resolve. Homestead, over-65, disabled and agricultural valuation amounts vary by taxing unit and should be confirmed with the appraisal district for your county. This directory is provided for general reference and is not an endorsement of any organisation or service. Bobby Franklin, REALTOR®, TREC #0805459, Legacy Realty Group – Leslie Majors Team.
Everything on this page was researched, verified and written here, not licensed from a national content service. The zoning came from the ordinance. The water map came from the city. The businesses were checked one at a time against actual city limits.
Which county, because the tax stack differs by about two thousand dollars a year on a $500,000 home. Who delivers the water, because four utilities serve this town and two are member-owned with a membership cost. Whether it is on septic, and if aerobic, whether the maintenance contract is current. And whether it carries ag valuation, because that does not transfer and taking land out of use triggers three years of recaptured tax plus interest. I ask all four before I ever show a house here.
Texas is a non-disclosure state, so sale prices are not public record and the national sites are modelling what they cannot see. Ovilla makes that worse than anywhere: about five to seven closings in a typical month, with First Texas Homes selling Broadmoor from $630,000 to $910,000. Two builder closings and the median jumps; none and it collapses. I pull closed prices from the MLS, and I can tell you which of those were builder inventory and which were acreage resale.
If horses are the reason you are buying here, the zoning district decides whether that is possible. Stables are permitted by right in R-C and R-E, need a special use permit in R-22, and are prohibited outright in R-15, which rules out three of the newer communities. Two horses per acre, and any barn sits 150 feet off the property line. The listing will not tell you this. Neither will the neighbourhood name.
There is no grocery here, no hospital, no library, no transit, no feed store and no large animal vet. If the answer is that Waxahachie suits you better, or that this particular tract has a drainage problem the listing does not mention, or that the septic is at the end of its life, you will hear it from me before you hear it at the inspection. That is worth more to me than one closing.
John Houston Homes and First Texas Homes are the two builders actively selling in Ovilla, with First Texas at Broadmoor Estates on half-acre lots. Most of the production builders people expect are next door in Red Oak, Glenn Heights or Midlothian rather than here. One thing worth repeating: bring representation before your first model home visit. The agent at the sales office works for the builder, and registering without your own agent can cost you the right to bring one later.
Worth asking them early in Ovilla: the 2026 conforming loan limit is $832,750 in both Ellis and Dallas counties, and acreage with an existing well or septic can change what a lender requires. 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 the county, the school district, who delivers the water, whether it is on septic and whether the zoning would let you keep a horse.
Bobby Franklin, REALTOR® · Legacy Realty Group – Leslie Majors Team · 214-228-0003 · northtexasmarketinsider.com
Information on this page is provided for general reference and is not legal, tax, insurance or investment advice. Market data, tax rates, zoning, school boundaries, water service, builder inventory and event dates change; confirm anything specific to an address or a date before acting on it. School information is not a recommendation regarding any school, district, neighbourhood or property. All real estate services are provided through Legacy Realty Group. Equal Housing Opportunity.
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Serving DFW | Ellis County
16 Northgate Dr. Ste 100
Waxahachie, TX 75165
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