Selling land in North Texas: a local guide for landowners

What we mean by North Texas

There's no single official line on the map. The Texas Comptroller's Metroplex region is the most useful definition, because it takes in the Red River counties as well as Dallas-Fort Worth. It's 19 counties: Collin, Cooke, Dallas, Denton, Ellis, Erath, Fannin, Grayson, Hood, Hunt, Johnson, Kaufman, Navarro, Palo Pinto, Parker, Rockwall, Somervell, Tarrant and Wise.

Most of the rural and edge-of-town land that changes hands is in the ring around the cities: Collin, Denton, Grayson, Cooke, Fannin, Hunt, Kaufman, Rockwall, Ellis, Johnson, Parker and Wise counties. DHM Land Group is based here, and we work with landowners all over Texas.

What North Texas land is selling for

The Texas A&M Real Estate Research Center tracks rural land sales by market area. These are its 2025 figures for the three areas that cover North Texas:

The trend is cooling. In its mid-2026 report, Texas A&M put its wider Northeast Texas region at $8,604 an acre, down about 6% from a year earlier, and described prices as moderating after a 2025 peak. Statewide, fewer acres are selling as buyers and sellers disagree on price.

Why land prices here have been rising

People keep arriving

The Dallas-Fort Worth metro added more than 123,000 people between 2024 and 2025, the second-largest gain of any US metro. The growth is fastest on the edges:

Among US cities of 20,000 or more, Celina was the fastest-growing in 2024 to 2025, up 24.6%. Princeton, Melissa, Anna and Forney were also in the national top ten.

Farmland is turning into neighborhoods

Between the 2017 and 2022 USDA farm censuses, land in farms fell by 42% in Rockwall County, 38% in Kaufman, 35% in Parker, 33% in Wise and 30% in Collin and Johnson. Every acre that goes to development makes the remaining rural land near town scarcer.

New roads and jobs

• Dallas North Tollway: an extension north from US 380 to FM 428 in Celina is under construction and expected to open in late 2027.
• US 380 and US 75: TxDOT's Collin County work includes widening US 75 up to the Grayson County line and major work on US 380, with a new US 380 bypass planned around McKinney.
• Sherman: Texas Instruments began production at its new chip plant in December 2025, with plans for up to four plants and as many as 3,000 direct jobs.

What moves the price of a particular tract

• Road frontage and access. Paved frontage is worth far more than land reached by an easement. Land with no legal access is a special case, covered in our landlocked land guide.
• Utilities. Water service and whether the land can take a septic system decide what can be built.
• Floodplain. Part of a tract in a floodplain can limit building and financing.
• City limits and the ETJ. These decide whose development rules apply. More on that below.
• Soil and use. The Blackland Prairie's deep clay soils in the east are prized cropland. The Cross Timbers to the west is mostly pasture and ranch land.
• Minerals. Much of the area sits over the Barnett Shale, so mineral rights on older tracts have often been separated from the surface. Check what you actually own.
• Water. Lakes like Texoma, Lavon, Ray Roberts and the new Bois d'Arc Lake in Fannin County add value to nearby land.

Look up your land

Your county appraisal district's website shows the owner of record, the appraised value and any special valuation, such as agricultural use. Search by owner name, address or property ID.

Two cautions. In Wise County, use wise-cad.com. A similarly named site is a private lookup service, not the appraisal district. And remember the appraised value is a tax figure, not a sale price. Land with an agricultural valuation also shows a much lower productivity value, which has nothing to do with what it would sell for.

Land near growing towns: the ETJ rules

Texas cities can apply some of their rules, such as subdivision standards, to an extraterritorial jurisdiction (ETJ) around their limits. The ETJ grows with the city:

With towns like Celina, Princeton and Anna growing this fast, a lot of rural land now sits in an ETJ. A 2023 law (SB 2038) changed the rules:

• The owners of a majority in value of an area can petition the city to release it from the ETJ, with a map and a legal description.
• The city must release it. If the city doesn't act within the deadline (roughly 45 days), the land is released automatically.
• Once released, the land can't be pulled back into an ETJ or annexed unless the owner asks.
• Some areas are excluded, including land near military bases, and a 2025 law added extra limits in one very large city with land in four or more counties.

Released land still falls under the county's rules. Dividing land outside city limits generally needs a county-approved plat. Some cities have pushed back on the law in court, so if release matters to your sale, check the current position with a local real estate attorney.

Selling land in North Texas

You have the same choices as anywhere in Texas: list with a land agent, sell it yourself, or work with a land company like ours. Whichever you choose, it helps to know what the sale will cost, and our cost guide lays it out.

If you inherited land here, start with our guide to selling inherited land in Texas. If taxes have fallen behind, see selling land with back taxes.