Brookshire's New Homes Start in the Low $200s. The 2026 Tax Table Shows Where the Rest of the Cost Went.

Century Communities opened Mirabella in Brookshire on Saturday, September 12, with homes priced "from the low $200s" on a 318-acre site planned for 1,192 homesites. A few miles away, the same builder's Laurel Farms advertises homes from the mid $200s. Recent quick-move-in listings there included a Hampton at $259,900 and a Whitney at $274,900. Both communities have a Brookshire mailing address and the 77423 ZIP code. The schools, the county and the utility district on the two tax bills are different.

That difference drives the post. In Brookshire's newest subdivisions, the base price is the part of the cost a buyer can see and compare. The tax rate is the part that changed in 2026, and most of that change is debt that school districts and counties are taking on to build for growth that is already underway.

A 77423 address can sit in two different tax systems

According to Century's own community pages, Sunterra Lakes and Mirabella are served by Royal ISD. Sunterra Lakes is described as north of I-10 and west of the Grand Parkway in Waller County. Laurel Farms is zoned to Lamar CISD. The operator page for Fort Bend County MUD 258 links a district map titled "Laurel Farms Land Plan," which puts that community in a Fort Bend County utility district.

So a buyer touring both on the same Saturday is looking at two tax stacks:

The Royal ISD and Waller County rates come from the Waller County tax office's rate summary. The Lamar CISD and MUD 258 rates come from Fort Bend County's tax rate database, which lists MUD 258 at $1.50 for both 2025 and 2026. For comparison, Katy ISD's 2026-27 rate is $1.1171.

The Waller County tax office says the appraisal district decides which jurisdictions apply to a given property. A subdivision name and a ZIP code do not answer that question. The parcel does.

On the Waller County side, the 2026 increase is almost all debt

Texas tax rates have two parts. M&O pays for maintenance and operations. I&S, short for interest and sinking, repays voter-approved bonds. Comparing the Waller County entities that apply around Sunterra Lakes and Mirabella shows where the 2026 movement happened.

Royal ISD lowered its operating rate and raised its debt rate by about 14 cents, so its total went from $1.069917 to $1.2011 per $100. Waller County did the same thing on a smaller scale. Its total barely moved, but more of each dollar now goes to bonds. The drainage district's rate also went up. These increases share one cause.

Royal ISD is building for enrollment that is already here

Royal ISD's bond page lists these enrollment counts for the 2025-26 school year:

1. August 2025, first day of school: 2,710 students
2. December 2025: 3,132 students
3. April 2026: 3,219 students

The district credits the growth to residential development across its boundaries and cites a demographic study projecting more than 8,700 students within ten years. Between August and April, the district added about 500 students, which is roughly 19% in one school year.

The board called a November 2025 bond election with three propositions: $350,632,995 for school buildings, with a new high school as the priority, $9,540,000 for stadium work and $6,000,000 for future facility land. In March 2026, the district announced that voters had approved the program. It placed the new comprehensive high school at FM 362 and McGregor Lane, designed for about 3,000 students, with opening expected in the 2028-2029 school year. That is the "new planned high school within Royal ISD" mentioned in Century's Mirabella launch materials.

In a separate election on May 2, 2026, voters approved Proposition A, a districtwide multi-use stadium near the new high school. Before the vote, the district estimated a tax-rate impact of about $0.0165 per $100, or about $1.44 a month on a home valued at $250,000 after exemptions.

A buyer moving into Sunterra Lakes or Mirabella today will help repay the buildings now being designed for the families arriving alongside them.

Waller County is borrowing for the same growth

The county's own numbers show the scale. At the October 1 "State of the Counties" luncheon, Waller County Precinct 4 Commissioner Justin Beckendorff said the county had approved eight development agreements since September 2025, representing 5,400 lots. That brings the total under development to more than 80,000 homes, in a county of about 80,000 people, according to Katy Times.

The same report describes the county's first mobility bond, $280 million approved by voters in November 2025. It sets aside $40 million for partnership projects, including widening FM 359 from I-10 to FM 1093 with Fort Bend County, and work on Pitts, Clay, Morton, Schlipf and Bartlett roads with Harris County Precinct 4 to give drivers routes to I-10 that avoid downtown Katy. That bond is the most likely reason the county's I&S line rose from 0.093133 to 0.106445 this year.

Some growth costs never show up on a tax bill. Katy Times also reported that two new traffic signals are going up in Sunterra near Cross and Royal Prairie elementary schools. The development's traffic-impact analysis required them for this phase.

What the stack looks like on a $250,000 taxable value

Royal ISD used $250,000 after exemptions in its own example, so the same figure works here. These are rate calculations, not estimates of any specific home's bill. Your actual bill depends on the appraised value, the exemptions you qualify for and the entities on your parcel.

• Waller County side, before any utility district: Royal ISD, Waller County, Waller County FM at 0.023116, the drainage district and ESD 200 add up to $1.921357 per $100. On $250,000, that comes to about $4,803 a year.
• The 2026 change from Royal ISD alone: a rate increase of 0.131183 per $100 adds about $328 a year at that value.
• The utility district line: this is the largest unknown. Waller County MUD 60A published a proposed 2026 rate of $1.50 per $100, the same as its prior adopted rate, in a September 10 public notice. Fort Bend County MUD 258 adopted $1.50 for Laurel Farms. If a parcel's district charges $1.50, that line alone adds $3,750 a year at $250,000.

The arithmetic shows that two homes listed $15,000 apart can easily end up with yearly carrying costs that differ by more than the price gap, depending on which entities sit on the parcel. The base price is fixed at contract. The tax rates are set again every year by boards that are still building for thousands of incoming homes.

Industrial growth along I-10 is the county's offset

Officials are working on the other side of the ledger. National Property Holdings has broken ground on Katy Prairie Business Park at 500 and 700 Igloo Road in Brookshire. The project covers 87 acres and two phases totaling 1,083,420 square feet of manufacturing, warehouse and distribution space, Covering Katy reported in July. Community Impact reported in August that county officials see 1,500 to 2,000 acres still available along the I-10 industrial corridor. Their "Waller County Forward" strategy targets aviation, food processing, logistics and energy, and an updated strategic plan is expected in 2027.

Commercial property spreads the cost of roads and schools across more taxable value than rooftops alone. How fast that happens compared with the pace of new subdivisions will shape the Waller County I&S lines over the next few years. A buyer signing a contract this fall is buying into the year when the bonds have been approved and the commercial base is still under construction.

For a market comparison, the Houston Association of Realtors' September 2026 update, released October 14, put the Greater Houston single-family median at $325,000, with an average of 58 days on market and 5.5 months of inventory. That is a metro-wide figure, but it shows why a low-$200s base price stands out, and why the rest of the monthly payment needs as much attention as the price.

Quick answers

Does a Brookshire address mean the home is in Waller County? No. Laurel Farms has a Brookshire 77423 address, but Century places it in Lamar CISD, and its utility district is a Fort Bend County MUD. Check the appraisal district record for the specific parcel.

Why did Royal ISD's rate go up when its operating rate went down? The increase is all in the debt-service portion, which went from 0.358817 to 0.50 in 2026 after the November 2025 bond program for the new high school.

Is the May 2026 stadium vote already in that rate? Royal ISD's pre-election estimate for the stadium was about $0.0165 per $100. District materials treat that measure separately from the November 2025 bonds.

Everything here is general information about published tax rates. It is not tax, legal or financial advice, so confirm your own taxable value, exemptions and taxing entities with the appraisal district and your tax or lending professional.

If you're comparing Brookshire new builds, Nicole Freer Group can put each homesite's taxing entities next to the builder's price sheet. That way you know your full yearly cost before you negotiate the price.