Best Small Towns in North Texas: 8 Worth a First Look

The best small town in North Texas depends on three things: how far you'll drive, what you can spend, and which school district you want. There is no single winner.

Eight towns come up again and again: Celina, Anna, Melissa, and Van Alstyne up the Highway 75 and Preston corridors. Aubrey and Argyle out toward Denton.

Royse City east on I-30. Waxahachie and Midlothian to the south.

Below, we lay out what makes each one different, what to check before you buy, and the trade-offs nobody puts in the listing photos.

What makes a town "small" here?

There is no official cutoff. When people say small town in North Texas, they usually mean three things:

• A real downtown, often a square or a main street.
• One school district that covers most of the town.
• Open land still at the edges.

Head count matters less than those three things. Two towns can have the same population and feel nothing alike.

One warning up front. Some towns on every "small town" list are not small anymore.

The Census Bureau's 2025 population estimates put Celina, Princeton, Melissa, and Anna among the fastest-growing cities in the country. Those figures cover one year of growth, not a decade.

Celina grew 24.6% in that year, to 64,427 people; the fastest of any U.S. city over 20,000. Princeton grew 18.1%.

Anna grew 10.2%, to 35,245. At Celina's size, "small town" is a stretch.

If quiet is what you want, ask when the last big neighborhood opened. Don't go by the town's reputation.

That can be five years out of date.

Pick a weekday. Leave at the hour you would really leave.

One bad rush-hour drive will take a town off your list.

Which small towns are worth a first look?

Here are eight to start with. This is a starting list, not a ranking.

The right one depends on which side of the metro you work on.

North, up Highway 75 and the Preston corridor

• Celina. Old downtown square with new construction wrapped around it. Growing quickly. Good fit if you work in Frisco or north Plano.
• Anna. Right on Highway 75, north of McKinney. You'll find older homes near downtown and newer builds on the edges.

• Melissa. Small footprint, just off 75, sitting between Anna and McKinney.
• Van Alstyne. Farther north on 75. Longer drive south, and lots tend to run bigger the farther out you go. Confirm that against current listings, not against what someone told you.

Northwest, toward Denton

• Aubrey. North of Denton, near Ray Roberts Lake. Works if your job is in Denton, Frisco, or along the Dallas North Tollway.
• Argyle. Bigger lots and horse property, close to I-35W and Highway 377. Prices here run well above the towns north of it: Argyle's May 2026 median sale price was about $734,000, against about $298,000 in Aubrey and about $400,000 in Van Alstyne (Redfin Data Center, single-month city medians).

East on I-30

• Royse City. Past Rockwall, straight shot into Dallas on I-30. Newer neighborhoods on the north and south sides of the highway.

South on I-35E

• Waxahachie. One of the largest historic downtowns in the area, built around the county courthouse. Also look at Midlothian next door if you work toward Mansfield or south Fort Worth.

A note on schools that matters more than anything else on this list. Each of these towns has its own ISD (independent school district, the local public school system).

The district name usually matches the town name. The district lines do not match the city lines.

In towns building this fast, boundaries get redrawn most years.

How do I compare two towns without guessing?

Run both through the same six checks. Write the answers down side by side.

Step 1. Drive time at your real hour.

Not the map estimate.

The actual drive, on a weekday, at the time you leave.

Step 2. The full tax rate.

Add up city, county, school district, and any special district.

Two houses at the same price can have very different monthly payments because of this. Across these eight towns, the FY 2025-26 base rate (city + county + school district, plus a county college district where one applies) runs from about $1.70 to about $2.18 per $100 of assessed value; before any MUD or PID.

Step 3. MUD or PID.

A MUD is a municipal utility district.

It's a special taxing area that pays for water and sewer lines in a new neighborhood. A PID is a public improvement district.

It's an extra charge on your tax bill that pays for roads, parks, or entry features in one specific area. Both are common in new North Texas subdivisions.

Step 4. Days on market.

DOM means days on market, or how long a house sits listed before it sells.

Short DOM means you'll need to move fast and may face competing offers. Long DOM means you have room to negotiate.

In May 2026 the median ranged from 50 days in Argyle to 158 days in Van Alstyne (Redfin Data Center).

Step 5. Water, sewer, and internet.

Some homes outside city limits are on a well and septic system instead of city water and sewer.

That's normal out here. It also means inspections, maintenance, and a different loan conversation.

Check internet service by street address, not by town.

Step 6. What's approved to be built next door.

Call the city's planning department and ask what's been approved near the address.

A field today can be 300 homes in two years. This is free to ask and nobody volunteers it.

What are the real trade-offs?

Small towns out here trade convenience for space and price. That's the deal.

Here's what that looks like day to day.

The drive is the main cost. Not just to work. To the airport, to a specialty doctor, to your parents.

Add it up over a week, not a day.

Fewer services close by.

Groceries, urgent care, and a hardware store may be a 15 to 25 minute drive instead of five minutes. That's fine for some people and a dealbreaker for others.

New construction versus resale.

A lot of what's for sale in these towns is new. New means fewer surprises and a builder warranty.

It also usually means a smaller lot, a young tree, and a PID or MUD. Older homes near the downtown squares often have bigger lots and more character, and they need more work.

Growth changes the thing you moved for.

The towns with the best prices right now are the ones building the fastest. In five years the drive gets busier and the field behind you may be a subdivision.

Prices often rise along with that. Both things are true at once, and you should decide which one you care about more.

What should I check before I make an offer?

Do these six things. They take a few hours total and they catch most of the expensive surprises.

Step 1. Confirm the school assignment by address with the district office, not with the listing.

Verify current boundaries with the district. Get it in writing if you can.

Step 2. Pull a sample tax bill for that specific address from the county appraisal district.

Look at the total rate, not the school portion alone.

Step 3. Ask for the HOA and PID documents and read the dues and the term.

Ask what the dues have done over the last three years.

Step 4. Ask the builder or seller about the build-out timeline for the neighborhood and the land next to it.

Step 5. Check the floodplain for the address on the FEMA flood map, and ask about drainage during heavy rain.

Much of North Texas is clay soil, which moves.

Step 6. Look up road plans.

If you want a school's state report card, look it up by campus on the Texas Education Agency site rather than trusting a rating on a listing site. Ratings get stale and they get reprinted wrong.

The newest ratings cover the 2024-25 school year and came out in August 2025. The 2025-26 ratings are due around mid-August 2026.

The numbers

Small town comparison, North Texas

What each column shows:

• *Median sale price and days on market*; Redfin Data Center city file, all home types, single-month medians for May 2026 (the latest city-level release as of August 2026), with year-over-year change from the same file. Monthly sales in these towns run from about 13 (Van Alstyne) to about 89 (Celina), so one month can swing on which homes happened to close. Treat these as a starting point, not a quote.
• *Total property tax rate*; FY 2025-26 adopted rates, added up per $100 of assessed value: city + county + school district, plus the college district where it covers the whole county (Collin College for Celina, Anna, and Melissa; Grayson College for Van Alstyne). Sources: the county tax offices' and appraisal districts' published rate tables. This sum leaves out MUD and PID charges, which depend on the address; in a new subdivision they can add roughly $0.50 to $1.20 more per $100.
• *School district column*; district names shown are the main district serving each town. District lines do not follow city lines. Verify current boundaries with the district for any specific address.

Keep reading

• Celina ISD vs Prosper ISD: Compare Size, Ratings, Zones
• Plano vs Frisco: How to Choose (Schools, Taxes, Drive)
• Fort Worth Area Neighborhoods Near Top-Rated Schools

Pick two towns off that list and we'll run the numbers on both. We can pull current prices, days on market, and the full tax rate for specific addresses, and tell you what the drive actually looks like at your hour. Talk to the GoalLine Real Estate team and tell us where you work.

We'll start there.